March 2022 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

Hello all and thankyou for all the interesting and inspiring meal plans. I have one portion of pie and four portions of slow cooker use-it-up soupy casserole in the fridge and once those are gone I'm planning to buy M*rks current offers of sweet potatoes and Savoy cabbage.

I'm severely disappointed with the Too Good To Go bag I bought from Montezuma's as this was what I got for my £6.69.



Everything was at least one day past the BB date and only the snowmen are suitable for vegans, which means I didn't get anything I could use to bake with for my Wednesday group. I think I just don't live in the right place to get the good deals with this app and won't use it again.

weenancyinAmerica

goldfinches - you should let the store know that you were disappointed. They need the feedback to understand why customers are not happy. They might even refund your money.

_Moving_On_Up_

I'd be disappointed with that too @goldfinches. I've only used Too Good to Go a couple of times, most round here are for things I wouldn't really want, there's greggs and morrisons too. The greggs bag I had was OK, have tried the morrisons ones but it's not got that high a rating so
 probably wouldn't bother. There's a greggs outlet near me which I may try at some point, I see what they post on facebook and the prices and feel this would be better value than the 2G2G bag as at least I'm picking things I actually like.

Another spend today at Lidl (it seems as though I'm never away from supermarkets at the minute!) of £13.28 on noodles, reduced sausages, soy sauce, cereal, teabags, a 4 pack of tinned tuna to put in my stores, passata and a bottle of wine for tomorrow night. Me and hubby are having veggie stir fry for tea to use up the rest of the veg leftover from the other night and the boys are having sausage and mash with some veg.

I spotted the reduced veg boxes today, they actually seem quite good and I was tempted but stopped myself as I've enough in for the next few days. Seems like going first thing is when they have them so it's something I'll bare in mind for future.
 

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning!  

Just back from the shops.  List stuck to...... to a point 🤔  I'm now wondering if I was in MrL the same time as Moving_On_Up as there were the £1.50 boxes today, and I thought one was particularly good value, so I stuck it in my trolley.  There will be a bit of trimming of several carrots, but I can confidently say that all this will be utilised.  The tomatoes are only really good for cooking, but they will be fine in a curry or bolognese sauce.  



I spent a grand total of £16.65 (in 5 shops 😬), but several items were more 'storecupboard' rather than instant eats, and eg Bread flour wasn't in stock in MrL, but was plenty in MrAl, so I got 2 bags.  And whilst I went over the budget that my 'pre-written' list suggested, obviously, I hadn't included a veg bargain box, as they aren't always available/worth buying.  I was able to walk between 2 stores, and my route was not extended much to get to the different shops - but I acknowledge that without a vehicle, I could not have got my shopping for the price I did, today.

I'm on a roll, as I even remembered to soak my moong beans last night - Go Me! 🤣 I just need to make the curry now....

The only item we may legitimately need between now and next week's shopping day is milk, but that should be all.

Right, I'm away to make curry and structure next week's meal plan to incorporate my vegetable mountain bounty 😁

Greying X

QueenJess

Somehow I managed to spend £58.35 by stocking up on a bunch of things whilst I needed only a few things.  Also will be £8.55 tomorrow for the milkman.

Banning myself from any food shops now until I desperately need something.  Cupboards and freezer are absolutely rammed.

Spent £99.95 / £390.

Soontobeoap

So this is the month that I am doing one big shop and then top ups of bread, milk etc when needed. It was hard to know how much I would need for a month as this is my first time so I have definitely over bought! Also in the hope of saving a bit in the summer when everyone comes, I have bought ingredients that I wouldn’t necessarily buy to trial making snacks to keep in freezer for gluten, soya, dairy free grandsons. 

Today I spent £155.57 at Tescos. Also bought their offer of 6 tins of Heinz beans for £3.50 as they are £1.00 a tin individually. I put own brand into dishes to pad them out, but DH does prefer Heinz when he has them on toast! 

DH also spent £9.33 this week on bread, milk, jellies and tissues. 

Meal plan for this week.

Fish and chips ( home cooked)
Shepherd pie  ( from freezer, batch cooked last month)
Home made steak and kidney pie, roast potatoes and veg
Ham and mushroom pasta ( using ham and mushroom left overs in freezer)
Savoury mince and rice
sweet and sour chicken and egg fried rice ( made with jar of sauce)
southern fried chicken ( bought in bulk) and oven chips)

so far I have spent £164.90/ £250 predicted.

our Aldi ( walking distance) is shut for refurbishment at the moment so that has stopped me finding bargains! May be a good thing! 

I have so much food in the freezer. I think that maybe I am going about this all wrong trying to keep stocks up really high. I need to learn to shop for bargains and then make my menus around what I can find. I have the theory! It is just putting it all into action that is the problem! 😂. 

Still my bills are definitely lower and that is a good start. I am learning all the time.

thanks for your tips everyone.

Ginmonster

Wow @Greying_Pilgrim, that veg box is amazing for the price! I'm totally jealous even though I have plenty of veg in the fridge to use up and totally don't need any more right now. It's a good job we have no Lidl near me, I wouldn't be able to resist.

I stayed away from the shops today but was given a bag of oats by someone from work who didn't want them. Since I eat porridge pretty much daily they will get used so that's a win.

Greying_Pilgrim

I agree Ginmonster, and that's why it's important to me personally, to only buy a box if I know that I will use all the contents.  Made a start; tea was a mixed veg curry (made-up recipe), which featured half of the butternut squash, all the wee potatoes and the 2 really wonky carrots (needed trimming a bit to use) from today's box.  The spinach and peas were frozen.  I have 2 portions of the 'base' veggie curry in the freezer now, for future use/addition of other veg/pulses etc.  The flatbreads were JO's Piadina recipe, and I added in Nigella seeds to ours, and LG had plain flatbreads with their lentil dhal - but snaffled some pieces of our nigella encrusted ones too.  I have a portion of the mugg curry leftover to go in the freezer too - and should have added that the 'wonkiest' tomato from the box got diced up and put in the mugg - worked really well.  

Greying X

thriftwizard

Echoing the wow - I too bought a £1.50 box at Lidls and didn't get half as much! All stuff we would use, though, and half gone already.

£92.24 spent there today on that, butter and the non-perishable things we'll need for the month, though to be fair there are several bags of compost in that figure, which isn't strictly speaking a grocery...

wannalot

I had to go into my work office for the first time in 2 years today, and it brought home to me how much money I used to spend/waste on travel costs and impulse buys. Almost £20 on travel, and another £5.94 on anchovies and hot smoked salmon from a really nice fishmongers next door to the office.

I don’t regret the food spend really, but the thought of paying a fortune again each week to travel is a bit depressing.

anyway, I have a day off tomorrow, so I’m going to treat myself to the cinema and a wander round the shops I’m going to look in to M&S, as I got some really good YS bargains in the food hall there in December, including loads of organic smoked salmon for only £1 a pack. I’m still eating my way through it.