April 2022 Grocery Challenge

Tmjthomas

Hi all 
Payday was yesterday..did a weekly shop at Aldi..£12.63..I'm trying to eat from what's in my cupboards fridge and freezer just now..No alcohol purchased 🤣 I did buy minstrels but my son took them home with him
Tina x

MissRikkiC

@Suffolk_lass I meant to say the other day, I looked at the links your posted for feeing a family and how you planned to ‘run’ this month and whilst I liked some of the premise of the meal plans on the cheap meals link, I was concerned id be hungry after the suggestions for lunch. I think maybe my view is skewed as I’m pregnant and eating more but I’d want soup with every lunch I think. It’s certainly food for thought 

Money_Choices

Hi Elsiepac
I would like to rejoin this challenge, my grocery spending will be £100 per month. This includes all groceries, toiletries and any money spent on meals or sandwiches at work.

Money Choices

Greying_Pilgrim

MissRikkiC said:

@Suffolk_lass I meant to say the other day, I looked at the links your posted for feeing a family and how you planned to ‘run’ this month and whilst I liked some of the premise of the meal plans on the cheap meals link, I was concerned id be hungry after the suggestions for lunch. I think maybe my view is skewed as I’m pregnant and eating more but I’d want soup with every lunch I think. It’s certainly food for thought 

MissRikkiC - I totally get what you're saying - and I'm just adding this in for info, not endorsement that the plan is for all, but I'm reasonably sure that the team were scrupulous about calorific values, as well as variety/balance of foodstuffs.  But I have to agree, I would have hummus on a piece of bread, or a little soup with bread for lunch, myself.  And purely for interest - because my memory may be failing me, but I'm sure Weezl was pregnant with her second child around the time all this was being developed.  Which doesn't endorse the plan for pregnant people - I just add it in for info.  The team really was made up of enthusiastic amateurs, trying their best to help, and give options/ideas, that were scrupulously tested and researched at the time.

Greying X

Bluegreen143

I think that site is a brilliant resource for an emergency budget which is actually nutritious, but if you aren’t on such a low budget you could certainly add to it it, it’s not perfect. Eg you could follow the same structure but adding an extra £5 a week for fruit, or upgrading to use butter instead of cheap oil etc, make some cheap veggie soup each week for extra fillingness etc. I’ve tried some of the recipes from there and some are nice and honestly some aren’t my taste, but they did really well for the budget.

My top tip - I think when you are cooking on a really tight budget it becomes very important to take real care - scrupulously season your food well, serve it at the right temperature, maybe thinking how you can add something fresh or crunchy to the plate, varying the textures and tastes. One thing which can get dreary is to have day after day of “samey” mushy meals based on stewing whatever you have in the fridge. Seasoning well and adding freshness really helps and I totally believe if you make the food tastier it prevents getting fed up and phoning for a takeaway in desperation 🤣 

MissRikkiC

@Greying_Pilgrim I’m sure so much thought went into these plans and they’re really useful, they generate ideas etc. I could manage with the hummus on toast aaaaand soup and let’s face it, carrots and coriander soup doesn’t dent the bank balance too much so I’d certainly not be too far out from their suggestions anyway. 

Auntycaz

@Miss RikkiC not menu planning but have you signed up for things like emmas diary, pampers club etc for the baby freebies. It can save you a little bit and every bit helps.

Jillshe

Newbie here. 
I've a freezer full of veg and stuff in my cupboards (tins and dried pasta noodles etc) that I intend to plough through so just

£50 for me including alcohol.

Inspiring reading all your posts!

Cheery_Daff

Evening all 😊

Small spend to report here - I popped into the village shop and spent £1.65 on 4 pints of milk. Yes, I could have got it cheaper in the supermarket, but there was NO chance I would have come out with only milk 🙄 I am notorious for popping in for milk and spending £20 🙈

I've done some more batch cooking this evening.

* roasted parsnips (which I actually ended up just eating for my tea so not exactly a batch cooking success... they were tasty though!)
* roasted sweet potato to go into cous cous for work lunches - I'll finish making that up tomorrow
* mincemeat flapjacks - will put in the freezer and take for work snacks - used up a quarter jar of mincemeat and a handful of glacé cherries that have been sat around since Christmas

I also made an experimental tinned spaghetti bake 😁 Just a tin of spaghetti, tin of canellini beans, fried onions and garlic, and half a bag of frozen mixed peppers, topped with a bit of cheese. Oh, and I stirred an egg in too. 

No idea what it tastes like yet (I was too busy munching on the parsnips to try it 😂) but it looks and smells cheerful enough! Will try a bit for lunch tomorrow, and then there will be another 3 portions for the freezer if it's OK.

There's quite a bit of crumbly edges of flapjack (I improvised the recipe...) so that might be tomorrow's breakfast with the last bit of yogurt 😊

I WILL write a meal plan tomorrow, I promise 🙄

Suffolk_lass

Greying_Pilgrim said:

mumtoomany said:

Hi @Greying_Pilgrim, can I come and shop near you please. Just looked at Aldi website, scamp is £1.99 for 250 gms! 

Ah, I have to confess mumtoomany - the scampi I am referring to is not......wholetail scampi? is that the premium one?  Wh1tby seefoods do several versions, and HB sell one version for 99p.  

The scampi bits are £1.25 in Icyland and come down to £1 if you buy 10 (!) - you would have to know you liked them really!