March 2022 Grocery Challenge

atrixa

Spent £10.97 in Mr S. In hindsight I didn't really need a chocolate bar AND a reggae bun 

Total is now at £117.86/£123 leaving me with £5.14 until payday on the 25th. I've switched my meal plan for next week to a high yield curry that my bf will also eat (he can be fussy) on our date night. I only need sweet potatoes and chickpeas in addition to my store cupboard stuff for that recipe and I can also fit in bread, non-dairy milk, tonic water and a bottle of sauce to go with my homemade banana ice cream without breaking the budget. Should be doable. I've got loads of soup and pasta sauce in the freezer and I'm making a Bolognese tonight that should yield about 4 servings. Breakfast ingredients are all in, might just need some bread.

I have noticed that the Mr M website no longer seems to have the cheap bags of rice, and a basic 800g loaf of bread is now up to 59p. 

Oh, if anyone's wondering about the banana ice cream, it's a 'nice-cream' recipe I found on vegan youtube yonks ago. Costs pennies and is reasonably good for you.

Banana Nice Cream (vg)

Peel bananas (around 2 per person) and freeze
Take frozen bananas and blend with a bit of non-dairy milk until the consistency of soft-whip ice cream.
Can add sweetener such as maple syrup as required. 

You can also add some other frozen fruit, protein powder, or top it with some sauce depending on what you've got lying around. Some of the Treat brand sauces are suitable for vegans or you can make your own.

Doom_and_Gloom

£38.65 spent since last post between Mr S, P@H and L!do.


£149.95/£170.50.
£20.55 left.

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning!

No shopping for me, either yesterday or today.  Although DH has gone into town to do some banking, and as he has a propensity to bring home a bag of jam doughnuts from M*rks, I pointed out, that the cake tin is full of cake, and there is cake in the freezer..... ergo, "no need to buy anymore cake".  But I did point out (in the same sentence) that Ma*ks do also sell bananas, and that we hadn't got any.............  Cheating?  Moi?  The purchase of doughnuts (on the rare occasion DH pops into town), is a budgetary compromise that has been made in place of even rarer cafe visits (since our favoured greasy spoon has changed hands and 'gentrified' 🙄), so the spends always came from 'pocket' money anyway.  So it's not additional spending per se, but I also don't see it as grocery spend.......😉

Oooh, the ethical dilemmas thrown up by a Grocery Challenge 😁👍[severely sending self up there!!! 😂]

Curry plate for tea tonight - which just means it's a L/O curry out of the freezer.  I've just made my selection and pulled out a container, so tonight, Challenge Chums, we will be having 'Chickpea & Mushroom curry'.  I also have frozen rice (will get out and re-heat at teatime), and I will make some lentil dhal just now.  The lentil bolognese last night (puy lentils used), utilised the last YS'd tomato & mascarpone pasta sauce that I'd picked up from MrA a couple of weeks ago.  Obviously, containing mascarpone, it was far creamier than normal, but LG scoffed it up (it also contained l/o chopped up black olives, red peppers, onion, celery and garlic that had been put into last Saturday's pasta bake), and it was an enjoyable tea.  I made jelly for dessert.  It's amazing how much joy a 55p block of raspberry jelly and a few left over raspberries can yield.  Small pleasures.....



Greying X

Freegan12

Hello All :-) ,

Just wondering how I can join in ?? We get paid and budget at the moment from 15th to 15th. I guess I would do my grocery challenge on here until the 15th of next month and then start on the next one ?? I'm not sure.

I would like to take part though. 

I would like to set a budget of £360.00 for the month for all groceries, cleaning and toiletries. I buy my groceries fortnightly and it is for 3 adults and 1 child (although he is a strapping lad that eats the same as us so its really 4 adults foodwise) and our two cats ... food, snacks and litter.

I tend to spend £180 a fortnight , so I will stick to this and try to trim it as I go forward I guess.

So if you could put me down for £360 please

Freegan12

Today was grocery shopping day for me and I came in under my normal budget :-D (good start) at £158.00 today from A*da. They didn't have the cat food I wanted, so I expect I will need to shop around to find some I was after the 40 pouches of felix for £12.98 ... and I am still after 40 pouches for the same or under.

I am currently growing my own herbs to save a few pennies as I found them to be quite a cost to me as I am cooking quite a lot lately. I also have sown some salad veg in the garden... hopefully this will cut back costs over summer.

So I have quite a stock of food in at the moment and I am going to try and use up whats in before buying more on the next shopping (2nd April). While using up old odds and ends I would like to learn to be a bit more self sufficient - do my own baking (where cheaper) , make my own pickles , jarred sauces , bread crumbs , teas , ect. I have some time on my hands and like to keep busy ..... but only if it is actually cheaper for us and still good quality and healthy :-) 

So when I brought in the huge amount of fruit today (we all eat lots of fruit) I decided to take the 5 apples going wrinkly in the bottom of last fortnights fruit bowl and peel chopped and stew them with a tiny bit of sugar. I have let it cool and am going to pop them in our ice cube tray to freeze them in portions to pull out and jazz up porridge with some cinnamon.

Meals this fortnight are as follows
Chicken wraps tonight with salad (treat night) (x2)
Chops Mash and Broccoli
HM Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie with new potatoes  
HM Tomato soup and Ciabatta Cheese on toasts (x2)
Fish and Chips with Mushy Peas (x2)
Chinese Mayflower Curry (with chicken, mushrooms, onions and peas) with Rice
Baked Potatoes with tuna mayo corn and cheese
HM Toad n Hole with roasties and veg
HM Burgers and chips
HM Indian Curry and Rice
HM Cheese Burger Pasta Bake

Lunches are Packed school lunches (Sandwich , cake , fruit and yogurt) for littlest , oldest see's to his self but I make sure there plenty of sandwich items , noodles , eggs and bacon on hand. My husband is much like our eldest, but if we are all together I will fix us all something (soup and sandwich ect). If its just me it tends to be boiled eggs and toast, beans on toast, scramble on toast, soup or leftovers.

breakfasts are porridge toast or cereal :-) 

Hope this is ok to join in :-)

Freegan12

One last post I promise :-) 

So as I said I would like to be more self-sufficient as far as our food goes, but only where it is actually cheaper to do so, as I know sometimes it is not cheaper to make your own.

I used to buy my husband the biggest tub of humus going and I have started a couple of weeks ago making my own for us ( makes a great drinking snack with some poppadoms) and it keeps very well in the fridge (its not been there long enough to go off yet :-) ) 

What other things have you found making it yourself reduces the cost of it ?

Can't wait for any ideas :-) x

Need2bthrifty

Last shop of my month yesterday = bag of wonky onions £0.50, grapes £1.49 and blue cheese £1.75 = £3.74. That takes my monthly total to £72.04/80.00.

After reading a recent post from Jackie aka London1 in "Love Food Hate Waste" I decided I would start a Squirrel fund and stash away any savings I make. Other sums I will add in is the cost of living award I received in relation to my council tax; my car insurance is also less per month so I will squirrel away the difference. No doubt some of these savings will disappear very quickly when I go to the petrol station, I noticed from a distance it looked like £1.7something..eek what a shock - last time I filled up was 24th Feb when a litre was £1.439.

I haven't quite decided on my menu plan yet, I'll do a bit of a freezer inventory first. Good luck to others for the rest of the month.

mumtoomany

Hi all, spent another £1.79 on milk again! Always milk. Total so far £504.10/£2640 for the year.
Hello @Freegan12, welcome to the thread. A couple of thongs cheaper to make, of the top of my head, popcorn and mayonnaise. Things not cheaper, jam and biscuits, though both taste much better if homemade.
A couple more days of the meal plan.
17th. Stew and dumplings, made with YS steak, pony carrots, onions, swede,(from aldi super six christmas eve) dumplingsHM.
18th. sausageYS, baked beans, tinned tomatoes, savoury rice, (free gifted from DD, out of date)
19th. Children had chicken burgers, asparagus and cauli, both HG, potato wedgesHM. Adults piri-piri chickenYS and rice.
20th I've got a turkey crown out to thawYS so something with that.
Hugs to all, mumtomany.xx

weenancyinAmerica

Greying Pilgrim - I hate it when your favorite place decides to gentrify. We had a wonderful drugstore with counter space and a cafe - and then they did the same thing. They were famous for being one of the last drug store eateries left in California. Used to be featured in magazines and travel books as the place to go. They aren't on recommended visiting lists any more. I went in once to try it out and it was so bad we left after looking at the menu - didn't even stay to eat. 

nannygladys

Updated signature, I went to the community pantry shop on Friday and spent £7 and been to a certain hb shop for a few bits which bought the total up to a new total of £174.80
I've been keeping all my receipts so at the end of the year I can see what I've been spending on.  Whilst I was at the pantry I was asked if I would like some sour cream and onion loaded bites (named variety) and as I had treated myself to some at Xmas and rather enjoyed them I said yes - they were free, the man came out with a big box of them, I thought he meant a packet, so I've taken two large packets out and the rest I'm dividing between two daughters!!! Win win I think!!!! I did query it though but he said they had loads of them! 
Nannyg