March 2022 Grocery Challenge

Blackcats

Juggled this week's meal plan as we unexpectedly helped out with some after school care for family and decided to use the big pot of bolognese from the freezer - turns out the children ate more pasta than sauce so we used the remainder for ourselves the next night .
mon - spaghetti bolognese (from freezer)
tues - bolognese converted to chilli with jacket potato and an avocado side salad (got avocado from olio)
wednesday - pork tacos with guacamole using second olio avocado 
Thursday - 8 treasure fried rice - my treasures will be left over pork, a few prawns, carrot, peas, corn, spring onions (olio) red peppers and green peppers
friday - Sussex Smokey (smoked haddock in a cheesy sauce) served with spinach and roasted tomatoes

because of the shops on Monday and Tuesday we've missed a veggie meal but it's moved over to next week. 

Have had some good items from olio and still have leeks and butternut squash to  use.  I will make a leek and potato soup and a vegetable stew I think. 

Spends of £135.34 leaving £204.66 
I really will come in under budget this month!

otb666

otb666 said:

Hi can i pop my spends on here Just trying to keep track 130 iceland+20 deliveroo+50 dominoes.(forgot to get joint outta freezer)
hoping next 3.5 weeks better as normally spend 600pm 3 adults. So 50 over 150pw thanks to missing sunday roast

So far 390/600 had to spend 42 on tortoise bits.And got a 10.00 voucher for 2 test tubes of blood for a cancer trial so bought treats popcorn/pretzels smoothies and cheesecake for family and cress watercress tortoise. I did not go to reduced section as was seriously crowded which i was surprised about at 9am in morning.  I have so enjoyed all the tips and even made a butternut curry after you guys gave me tip on how to cook in microwave first then peel. 

Soontobeoap

spent £8.94 on food today when we visited Tesco to buy the family Easter eggs whilst they are on offer. I was doing so well and now it’s creeping up. However I am still hopeful.

MissRikkiC

Few more spends here too but nothing too splurgey. 

Farm foods yesterday on case deal of chopped tomatoes, 2 packs of fromeezer pastry for ease, 2 bags of 900g diced onion and shower gel. 

Morrison’s tonight, TGTG bag, spring onions, mince, seasame oil, milk, butter and rice. 

Left over is £32.51 with just over a week to go. 

Plenty of food in so should just be milk and possibly some fruit now! 

goldfinches

Sidling in shamefacedly to own up to having spent £7.56 on mung beans, mint, mild ajvar and jarred butter beans at the greengrocers followed by £2.50 at M*rks on 4 x milk and new potatoes. The baking fund spent £1.59 on a huge bag of puffed rice.

That makes my new monthly total £55.05/£124 which is an average daily spend of £3.44 and the baking fund total is £8.28/£25.

On the bright side I managed to bake from stores for today's Wednesday group and made these Best 3-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookie Recipe - Easy Oatmeal Cookies with Few Ingredients (food52.com) which were very popular.



The most difficult part of the recipe is stirring your tahini in its jar - mine was set as hard as concrete at the bottom.

Greying_Pilgrim

Greetings Grocery Challenge Chums!

Well, I have to say, I was getting a bit down in the dumps yesterday.  I planned on going shopping today, and in preparing my list, which really only had 'essentials' on it - ie Milk, Bread, Cheese, Eggs, TBags.......... I had already totted it up to be approximately £18 🙁Just for essentials 🙁 I realise that I have set myself an impossibly tight budget for this month, but even so...........

Anyhoo, fast forward to this morning, and I nearly cried in MrL.  They had some £1.50 boxes available..........  I found one that I could use every scrap of.  And purchased it.  I have; sliced, spring greens, a cauli, 4 potatoes, a punnet of raspberries, about a third of a punnet of black grapes, 3 red onions (were 4, but one was fully rotten), 3 large (british) brown onions, at least 1lb of carrots, 5 satsumas and 4 red apples (one has a large rot spot that will need dealing with), and a small green apple.  

I cannot tell you how relieved I am that I have some fruit in my weekly shop..........   Things seem so tight at the mo - but I know deep-down that my frugality now, will pay off in the next few months, even if we all but limp through them financially.

So in total, my spent this morning was £19.35, which I think off the top of my head will leave me a little over £15 for the the next 14 days..............................  I have no idea if I can manage it.  I think what I was getting blue about was the items on my list would constitute nothing more than a 'top up' shop for many (non MSErs). I was only buying 'building blocks' - or even 'glue' to hold meals together.  Of the items on my list today, other than cheese on toast, or scrambled egg on toast, I would be scratching my head to form 'meals' out of it.  

Anyway, there is some food in the fridge, tins in the cupboard, fruit in the fruitbowl, and I have (notionally) prepared my meal plan for next week.  I may have to tweak a bit, to make best use of my vegetable haul today, but that - to me - is a good position to be in, it'll do me no harm to have to employ my brain cell (singular) to matters culinary 😉

And I have people on here who I can chat to who totally understand 🥰  Life is rich.

Greying X

 

MissRikkiC

I feel this deep in my soul @Greying_Pilgrim - We have a toddler and 2 adults and whilst the adult top ups are light and tend to include very little by way of things other than items to make a meal (an onion, pepper, tinned beans etc) my daughters requirements are what increase our food bill and cause me to feel the way you did, when i go in to the supermarket only needing the essentials. Hers are more like expensive yoghurt (there are cheaper alternatives but the nutritional content isnt the same), whole milk (1.5pints used a day by her), cheese, soft fruits, snack type fruit etc etc. For enough for the week we can honestly manage on very little other than staples if we had to but the guilt in me (and her needs of course) means that her weekly items are probably upwards of £10 easily for the basics. 

I noticed yesterday butter prices are up, to the extent that my veg box man can deliver for less, milk is up and yoghurt is (i feel) very highly priced!

With that in mind, im glad you got a good Mr L veg box, its those type of things (for me anyway) which make me feel like there is hope for my grocery budget; providing youre fortunate or experienced enough to cook the ingredients. 

MissRikkiC

Also. Someone mentioned a price book the other day. I don’t know if anyone keeps a log of the cost of items they buy regularly and the cheapest shop to get it from, however it’s something I think I’m going to do. 

With that in mind, I’ve had a farmfoods leaflet through the mail today and Persi7 NB is £25 for 2 boxes of the 130 wash powder. At £12.50 a box, it’s annoying I purchased 1 of the smaller boxes for £8 at the weekend, despite checking online for the cheapest price first. Is it worth creating a file that can be shared does anyone think? 

pamsdish

£5.83 in M0rr1es as I was passing and needed tonic water.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thank you MissRikkiC - I know that folk on here understand what I'm wittering on about and perhaps feel pressures similarly in their own circumstances - I saddens me that so many are struggling, but I feel better for being able to at least talk openly about it, amongst understanding folk.

Interestingly, in terms of price rises, I was thinking about this as I pootled around the store (MrL), and I knew for example, that I was paying the cheapest price (that I know of), for bicarbonate of soda (baking size tub, not cleaning size pot/bag), as I paid 59p, and MrA is the next cheapest at 65p (I think.......).  The difference today was that MrL actually had some baking aids in stock!  Not something that can always be relied upon!  The only product that I bought today that had gone up - since the last time I bought any, which was possibly....... before Christmas? - was a packet of Brazil Nuts (200g), which are now £1.95, whereas they were £1.89 (i think) for long enough.  I can substitute shops to an extent, as I have a car to use.  But the stores are all pretty spread out, and more than ever, by the time fuel is factored in, the savings are usually pretty negligible.  But if the stores were all closer together, then I definitely would spend much more time researching special offers and lowest prices.  I do some, but not on every item.  But try to make use of.... "I need to be X side of town, what do I need from MrS/FArmF00ds/1celand" etc etc.

Greying X