March 2022 Grocery Challenge

Ginmonster

@GreenCat80 Don't worry that you've not managed to keep on top of things this month. It's hard when there's lots going on in your life (it's hard when there isn't!). Dust yourself down and get back on on the wagon for next month. You can do it!

I've done some batch baking to make best use of turning the oven on so I've done 2x banana & chocolate loaf and 1 parsnip, lemon and maple syrup cake which is a new recipe to me that I found here : https://thriftylesley.com/parsnip-cake/
Hoping it turns out yummy as it was pretty easy.

@Greying_Pilgrim you seem to have worked out how to do hyperlinks but I couldn't for the life of me see a way of doing it. Can you let me know how to do it? Thanks!

Greying_Pilgrim

Ginmonster - how I do it (not nec. the correct way!), is to write (for example) Lesley's Parsnip Cake.  Then I click on an opened tab for the recipe and copy the URL.  Then I highlight my text 'Lesley's Parsnip Cake, and clink on the chain link symbol (in between the smiley face and the photograph icon ^) and then Ctrl + V into that box.  The word changes colour (slightly), and then I always choose to make the words bold, as in the old days the words changed to bright blue, but they don't seem as differentiated these days.

Lesley's Parsnip Cake 

HTH

Greying X

Suffolk_lass

@Greying_Pilgrim you mentioned this recipe which is not available readily online 

Greying_Pilgrim

Suffolk_lass - thank you.  I don't have the book that the recipe features in, because I know that I borrowed it as a library book.  It does make a delicious cake though - although I can appreciate that even if the bananas are acquired cheaply or for free, it is quite a pricey recipe. Something else that we have to factor into our cooking these days too!

Ginmonster - I forgot to add, that I'm pretty sure Thrifty Lesley worked with Weezl 74 on the cheap family recipes project on MSE.  And I learnt that method of doing links from another MSE legend, Pippilongstocking (known affectionately as 'Pippi' or 'the stripey one' 😊) great memories of good folk 😊

Greying X

bargainbetty

Prudent said:

I am really happy to have stayed within budget this month. I have had covid and seem to be taking weeks to recover. 

It's very random - I've had older friends who bounced back in a week, where I was off my game with exhaustion for 12 weeks (including the time it took to stop coughing whenever I spoke or laughed). It makes it very hard to cook properly or plan when your brain is fogged out. 

Final shop of the month came in under £30, but since I utterly lost track of March (broken fridge freezer that couldn't decide how broken it was until last Thursday cost me a few losses) I don't know if I was good on not. 

Inventory done, meal plans in process... bring on April. 

Suffolk_lass

elsiepac said:

April GC Now Live!

Thanks @elsiepac please can you pin it too?

Ginmonster

@Greying_Pilgrim - that's strange, I don't have the link symbol which does explain why I couldn't work out how to do it. Oh well, it's not as neat but I can just post URLs instead 

Smoosh

Ginmonster said:

@Greying_Pilgrim - that's strange, I don't have the link symbol which does explain why I couldn't work out how to do it. Oh well, it's not as neat but I can just post URLs instead 

Are you on a mobile? I don't have the link symbol on my phone unless I change the settings to view the site as the desktop site. That could be why! 

Ginmonster

Smoosh said:

Ginmonster said:

@Greying_Pilgrim - that's strange, I don't have the link symbol which does explain why I couldn't work out how to do it. Oh well, it's not as neat but I can just post URLs instead 

Are you on a mobile? I don't have the link symbol on my phone unless I change the settings to view the site as the desktop site. That could be why! 

That'll be it. How daft given that so many people use their mobiles for most things these days.

_Moving_On_Up_

Afternoon all!

Finally caught up after being away for a week or so. A few shops and top ups have me now at £412.03/£460 for the month. This literally includes everything, even some non grocery spends I happened to buy from the supermarket (a ream of paper @£2.99, a bag of compost at £2.99 and a few other bits)

Happy I came in under budget, think I need to make a few tweaks here and there and it's been a bit of an eye opener how much I spend on certain things (£64.87 on alcohol... eeek!) see you all on the April challenge!