March 2022 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

I had a rather infuriating trip to the shops today where pretty much everything on my list was out of stock so I had to dodge around all over the city centre to go to other shops to buy things and ended up not buying frozen petits pois at all. I know this is rather a first world problem in the light of the news and so on but it isn't fun crunching extra miles on dodgy knees in the spitting rain and why did M*rks give me a sparks voucher for an item that wasn't in stock! Grrr, it just isn't my week, this is the third day I've got wet through since Monday. 

Sorry for the grumps, just cheesed off today and rather tired.

Anyway I spent £2.90 at Mr T's on frozen fruit, then £6.40 at B*ots on iron tablets, then £1.85 at M*rks on 4x organic milk and then £1.95 at Mr T's on soap and cous cous bringing my monthly total to £13.10/£124 and my average daily spend is £4.30.

ETA: On top of all the above I then went and added this post to Feb's GC so had to go and move it over to here. As I said it just isn't my week.

Suffolk_lass

£17.84 on loads of fruit, veg, Greek-style yogurt and a kilo of cheese (£5), plus a TGTG £3.09 - too many potatoes and bakery items for us but we will find out if pear and almond tart, chilli HC Buns (who knew?) and cinnamon swirls freeze as they are banned until Easter or then-abouts.

The doughnuts? who knows. They were lemon custard things and went home with DS who puppy-sat while we were out. He came for lemon drizzle cup cakes and left with both. The LD cake was really a loaf that went in to the local hospital with my neighbour who works there.

I will have milk DD £6.84 but that is me for the timebeing. Half a (homegrown) Crown Prince squash to use up this weekend so I think the order of the day may be a veg curry like @Greying_Pilgrim

I may even open the tin of coconut milk and freeze most of it!

Knowing that shopping is my weakness I won't be going.

pamsdish

£11.24 in A1d1, y.s spatchcock chicken, Sunday lunch and Monday leftovers, 2 creme freche, 2 packs beef stockpots, 2 because I had to rummage through lots of chicken and veg. tissues as needed, a bottle of tabasco, not needed I found when putting my Camomile tea away. 

zafiro1984

I think I may have to go back to an annual budget as a monthly budget doesn't seem to work for me. The reason being I tend to bulk buy and then mainly live off the cupboards and freezers. The only things I tend to buy regularly on a weekly/fortnightly basis are dairy, fresh fruit and veg, and bread and milk.   

My annual food/cleaning budget last year was £3317 and I managed to stay within it. I don't want to increase it this year, even though prices are rising, but I also want to include the cost of seeds/compost I use on the veggie patch. 

So far I've spent £894.70p which represents 26.97% of my budget. When bulk buying I like to spend it on items that I won't over indulge on - no chocolate/biscuits/ice-cream etc as they would disappear rather quickly, only to have to be bought again.
I look for fruit and veg on offer, usually in season, that can be frozen. A few weeks ago  leeks were at their cheapest so I bought 20x500gm pks (10kg) chopped them up, froze them and I'll use them in casseroles. This year I'm hoping to grow enough of them for the cost of a packet of seeds.

Bulk buys so far this year:-
Leeks
Instant coffee - half price, 18 jars should be enough for 2022
Dishwasher tablets - £3 off per box - again enough for the year
Washer liquid, - £3 off per 2L - enough for the year.
5L slate floor polish @25%off, don't think it will last the year, should have bought 2 x 5L
Shower gel:- DH likes the 'bulldog range', managed to find it on offer even though it was more expensive than a supermarket own brand, at least DH wont grumble - got 15
A whole pig, plus extra sausages at a very good price but it was at the time when pork was difficult to export. The butcher did a brilliant job in packaging sizes to suit us.
Yesterday, I bought a whole fallow venison carcass, from the local game farm. I did the same last year, lovely lean meat, everything from fillet to mince, liver and kidneys as well. This year it works out at £5.38 per kg affordable at that price.

It's going to be an interesting year, dealing with inflation and price rises.

missmarbuff

I have been AWOL for a little while, but have just have had the total shock of my latest energy tariff so i am back again on the frugal lifestyle.   The Grocery Challenge is my first step as my food expenditure has been out of control for the last year.  I have decided to start with £216.67 monthly or £45.00 per week for two people, but i hope to gradually bring this down.  Planning to move away from A**a online shop, and plan to return to L*** & Al** from this Monday.

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, I was going to give myself a pat on the back, for achieving another NSD, despite going straight into the jaws of temptation with a trip into Greying Town, as my sole purpose was to bank a cheque and return some library books.  However, I hadn't banked on being levied with 'stoopid tax'.  Stoopid me had let 3 of my books go over due - £1.50 fine thank-you-very-much 🥲  And they were blessed cookery books!  How many recipes do I already have?  How many recipes are freely available on t'internet!  My grocery budget is the only flexible money I have at the mo, so it had to come out of that 🙁

Onwards and upwards......  At least I walked there and back, so no expense on fuel/parking.  The sun is shining, the birds were tweeting and I got some free exercise (probably 2 miles, with some hilly bits), as, in common with others, I am guilty of being heavier that I was pre-lockdown(s).  So not all bad news.

Lentil bolognese with pasta for tea.  

Greying X

thriftwizard

£86.94 spent today, between the butchers (£17.82 on a lovely joint of locally-produced topside - will do 2-3 meals, depending on the turn-out for Sunday lunch) and the market, including cheese, fish, minced lamb (equally local, produced by a young farmer friend) and chicken breasts (ditto) and lots of fresh fruit & veg. There will be at least one top-up needed but we have most of what we'll need for the week. Main mails menu-plan as follows:

Tonight: Keema mince with HM flatbreads and/or bulgur wheat.
Saturday: either Kedgeree or the dish known as Cauli-brocco-macaroni cheese, depending on numbers - DD1's boyfriend's movements currently not clear
Sunday: roast beef/veg & trimmings, plus apple crumble from frozen HG apple
Monday: whichever dish we didn't have on Saturday
Tuesday: chicken chasseur
Wednesday: beef stir fry with HM plum sauce
Thursday: baked potatoes with anything left over and/or tuna & sweet corn/cheese & baked beans.

Breakfasts are Greek yogurt & fruit, anything eggy (eggs being functionally free for us as we keep a handful of backyard chickens) or HM cinnamon buns (not highly sweetened) though porridge & pancakes with fruit are also possible. Lunches are HM soup, or salad. 

Ellie79

£20 spent on extra fruit, some toiletries, and bread and milk (not sure where it all went this week), food shop arriving this morning so £181 spent of £350 budget, sadly, it really was one of those weeks. Extra required due to stocks running low.  At least I know my budget won't stretch the month so need to reduce the spending drastically! 

Need to find some freezer space this weekend as I got an offer on a beef roasting joint that will do the 3 of us 2 weeks if I halve it, and use it as planned in 3 meals each piece. I am going to sort out a cupboard for tins that do get used and then see what I need to incorporate from the other stashes. I think I have a few pouches of lentils - they can form the basis of enchiladas later in the week.

Meal planning in order of the days of the week- SC chicken curry; Roast beef dinner and apple crumble; Thai green curry with l/o beef and green beans; creamy mushroom and leek pasta; veggie enchiladas; burgers and wedges; sausage and mash.

Lunches are normally a sandwich, salad, HM soup, or leftovers; breakfast is normally toast/eggs or porridge, sometimes we have bacon and eggs as brunch. Not lots of snacks unless you are the 10yo DD who seems to have hollow legs at the moment.  

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning!

Definitely aiming for a NSD today.  Brekkie has just been scoffed (porridge for those that eat and toast), lunch will be sangers, and tea this evening will be Black Olive/Mushroom Pizza & wedges - as per plan.  I'll get and make the dough just now.

I've heard "Too good to go" mentioned mucho.  It's not something I've done myself, as the shops that seem to be involved (but I'll use MrM as an example, as it gets mentioned quite a bit), are a car drive away from us, and would involve either a special journey or an extension of normal route.  But what I wanted to ask was whether anyone had bothered downloading the recipe book that is on the TGTG website.  I thought it was perhaps a bit rissole heavy...... but should I ever get some excess bananas to use, you can bet I'm going to have a go at the curried banana soup.........(just to sate my curiosity!)

Apologies if you guys already know about this resource, and our wonderful board volunteers have already posted it up on all the relevant threads - I'm late to the party, I know.

Greying X

boxofpaws

First spend on Wednesday 

2nd March - Sainsbo
£69.34 groceries 
£1 toiletries.

Mr P bought beer and pop but it was out if his pocket money so I’m not counting it 

The fridge is bursting, I am going to do some cooking today to use up some stuff, soups for work mainly.