March 2022 Grocery Challenge

Greying_Pilgrim

atrixa - that is awesome that you have come in under budget this month.  Something for us to aspire to! Where do you (usually) get your 10kg bags of rice from?  I was entirely happy with the MrL offering, but found a 10kg bag on offer for £10 in MrM this month, so 'jumped provider'.

RandomOne - welcome.  Suffolk_lass has provided you with some good links.  Good luck in achieving your goals.

The curry was good last night - definitely a keeper of a recipe.  I served with dhal and rice - LG asked for a big portion of dhal 😊  we're turning a corner with broadening tastes 👍Having said that, it's veggie sausage hot dogs and chips tonight....... ah well, it is Friday 😂

Greying X

RandomOne

@Suffolk_lass thank you so much so that advice, I'll start looking at them now. 

pamsdish

£36.44 In A1d1, includes whisky, and not much else as going away to my Norfolk friend next Thursday for 10 days.

bargainbetty

Well, my monthly tally has gone south - I can't find receipts and had paid cash a few times to control spending so no use looking at the bank statements.

I think I'm probably somewhere around the £120-130 mark. Angry for losing track, need to be sensible in April. 

thriftwizard

Oh dear me, I've overshot massively. Going through my receipts now to see if I've miscalculated somehow, but I suspect not. £67.63 over... if I subtract DD1's boyfriend's contribution, it's still £17.63 over - not so bad, but still... not happy!

Edited to add: oh phew! £25.40 was my Mothering Sunday present for my Mum! So I'm back under my usual £500 for 6 or so for the month; over the £450 I was trying for, but not as far adrift as I'd thought.

nannygladys

My last £10 is still in the jar, which is all I have left to last until a week on Wednesday, so no shopping for money done for a few days.
Went to the food hub and managed to get a loaf, and a bit of veg to last me the weekend and up to next Wednesday, I'm actually following the meal plan I made to cover myself which is a bonus as usually I change my mind!!
So wondering if I can hold onto that tenner!!!!

Smoosh

I have been rubbish at updating lately. 

It all went a bit out of the window when  OH got ill, followed by me.

Since last posting we have popped to the local shop a couple of times (bad habit), bought cat food and litter and done 1 weekly shop.

Miraculously we came in at £199.34/£200 and our new month starts today. 

goldfinches

Hello all, I've been so busy I haven't had time to read these pages since Tuesday but am now up-to-date. Congratulations to those who have hit their target budgets and commiserations to those who haven't.

I spent £1.95 at Mr T's on bread and tomatoes and then £3.60 at M*rks on yoghurt and 4x milk. Then I decided to join the nearest Community Larder which had sent round a leaflet a few weeks ago and that costs £10 to join the national umbrella organisation, which I'm taking from a different budget, and then £3.50 per week for a single membership which is coming from my GC budget. That makes my new total £89.20/£124 and my average daily spend £3.56.

This afternoon was my first visit to the Community Larder and I wasn't quite sure what to expect and found it very heavy on pasta but the veg were nice and fresh and you could have as much as you wanted of some things so here's what I got. 


I thought I could use the orange flavour syrup for baking. I'd hoped for more store cupboard items like dried fruit, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and flours etc. but there was nothing like that and neither were there any chilled or frozen bits. The volunteers I asked explained that the national organisation distribute from a warehouse in Didcot to all the larders in the county so they all get the same stock and it just depends on what supermarkets decide to donate. I think I'll try it for a month and then decide whether to continue or not.


I baked this recipe on Weds Date Flapjacks Recipe (olivemagazine.com) and forgot to take a photo so here are the pigs my friends and I saw after we'd eaten the flapjacks which were deliciously chewy.

Wicked_Lady

Goldfinches: I am volunteering with a Community Larder that is served by the same Didcot based charity, although ours isn't yet up and running. I've visited our local warehouse and there was a large selection of food and masses of fresh stuff.
We will will only be a Larder as I think there isn't room to run a Community Fridge as well. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

goldfinches

Wicked_Lady said:

Goldfinches: I am volunteering with a Community Larder that is served by the same Didcot based charity, although ours isn't yet up and running. I've visited our local warehouse and there was a large selection of food and masses of fresh stuff.
We will will only be a Larder as I think there isn't room to run a Community Fridge as well. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

@Wicked_Lady - I'd be very interested in hearing about the details of your larder once it's up and running just to get a glimpse of what might be on offer for my larder and what else would be worth suggesting they do e.g. fridge and so on if you wouldn't mind.