April 2022 Grocery Challenge

mumtoomany

Hi all, have been shopping, will update later. This morning I'm playing play doh with three of grandchildren! 
Home bargains. They sell huge bags of dried dog food, weebox working dog food, for £7something. They are often cheapest for jars of hot dog sausage. Chocolate biscuit bars are reasonable there, I never pay more than 10p per bar. Hayfever tablets are also cheap. They are also useful for craft bits for the kids for birthdays sync, and things like matches, clothes pegs, etc. Don't know how much of this is useful to you. 
Back to the "day job" now. Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane said:

ragz_2 said:

£12.27 spent today at the Asian Supermarket. Wanted to get the teens out the house and they always like a trip there. It isn't cheap though, I was shocked at how expensive a lot of their stuff is, so we didn't buy much. I did get the lentils and black beans I wanted (for recipes in my new Instant Pot!) but they were more expensive than I'd expected. Plus their super spicy noodles. 

I need to find an online supplier for spices and pulses I think. DH gets out peppercorns on Ebay! Also spent £7.20 on hot Asian buns for everyone as their treat, they wanted to buy frozen ones but they were £6 for 4 frozen, so I've said we'll make some at some point.

Also £6 on toothpaste in £land. Should last a while though. 

How much spice do you get through @ragz_2?  Are you buying those small jars?  Also, are you anywhere near a branch of WingYip?  I usually buy my spices from there, in 500g bags, and each bag last years.  I am a curry cook, always from scratch.  Even my most used spices take 2-3 years between refills.  I store my spices in reused large Douwe Egbert coffee jars, in a drawer in the pantry that was specifically heighted to take those jars.  In a well-sealed jar, stored in a dark place, it takes years for a spice to lose its potency, for example my jar of 5-spice dates from before 2010 and is still going strong. 500g bags of spice cost between £3 and £5.  (Sorry, I can’t be more specific; their website is down for maintenance today.)

I can’t speak more highly of WingYip for bargains. One part of the site is set out as a supermarket; the rest is a wholesale warehouse, and you can happily wander between the two. They’re a well-kept secret amongst the Chinese and Asian communities and we are frequently the only Europeans in the shop, but they are very welcoming.  When things were really tight a few years back - DH unemployed and more than half my salary going on our mortgage - we stooped to a 10kg sack of broken basmati rice for about £4, when the cheapest regular was £12.  A couple of staff members politely questioned our choice, to make sure that we knew what we were buying, while another nodded sympathetically and said it made really good sticky rice dishes.

As well as spices, I usually buy rice, washing up liquid, rubber gloves, some pulses, noodles, frozen squid, tubs of concentrated Chinese Curry Sauce - the greenish curry you find in every Chinese restaurant - and large bottles of sauces from there.

- Pip

Just to add to Pip's suggestion - if you buy whole spices and grind as you use (an old coffee bean grinder works well) the whole spices last even longer - so if no Wing Yip or similar, and you don't want to buy from an unknown online place, the whole spices are better than the ready ground powders.

Cheery_Daff

Morning all (just!)

Well, more spends to report here, and after feeling like we were doing quite well, I now feel like we're not. Today's spends came about because poor old Mr Cheery has lost a large filling last night, and of course can't get to the dentist until Monday at the earliest, so is on soft food for the weekend.  Yes, we could have made soup, but he's extremely miserable about it and only wanted tinned tomato and mushroom soups (budget brand so not exactly an extravagance).

We went to the supermarket we have vouchers for, so didn't spend any actual cash, but we did end up spending £28.08 worth of vouchers Isn't it shocking how that happens?! 

£6 beer (I'm tracking separately but adding it into the groceries budget for now)
£9.50 on toiletries/medical - wildly expensive enamel repair toothpaste, little brushes, cold & flu tablets as I have been suffering valiantly but do actually need to get on with some stuff

Which I suppose leaves just £12.58 on food: 
£3.98 frozen fruit for smoothies (which will last a couple of weeks)
£3.58 on 7 tins of soup
and the rest on cheese, milk, and about 10 extremely squashy bananas for £1.04  

We have PLENTY of food now, and have now acquired all the things I put on the list the other day that Mr Cheery didn't pick up. 

So now we've spent £68.79 in cash, and £51.09 in vouchers. I was trying to keep cash spends under £150 so technically we're still there, but in total we've now spent £130.17 which feels ridiculous for the 9th of the month. 

I'm really enjoying this challenge - it's making me SO mindful of what we're spending on food. We're definitely not as spendy as many, but are terrible for 'popping in for milk' and coming out having spent £25. I'm going to do some more batch cooking this afternoon to make sure none of the fresh stuff goes to waste while Mr Cheery is just eating tinned soup... 
 
Thank you all for joining in and posting, I get SO much reading all your tips and tricks

allmannerofthings

I’m not off to a great start, having succumbed to a Tesco ‘whoosh’ delivery this afternoon. I’m not feeling well and my husband is fed up so the lure of a couple of treats being here inside the hour was too much. We needed bread and butter and a few other things but I did spend a fiver or so on non essential snacks to cheer us up. £29.75/£160 spent, including delivery charge 😬 

Pinwheel

Hello

I have spends of £63.12 to report for this week spread between Wait**se, C**p and L**l.  I strayed from the meal plan last night which is unusual for me but I felt exhausted.  Fishfingers chips and peas was a nice easy alternative 🙂.

Homemade pizza tonight and Jack Monroe's Lentil Pie with roast potatoes and veg tomorrow tomorrow.

Have a nice evening all. 

otb666

@Ginmonster beef pepper, spring greens and mooli  stir fry like the sound of that and a change from soup Thank you. I have had to buy a spiralizer so i can noddle the mooli raddish cost £8  I thought my Breville food processor would have one but it can only peel, shred, dice, and puree.  
Also  I have a packet of punkin seeds to use again this was quite hard work last time we got substituted them instead of sunflower. 

MissRikkiC

Spends to declare here and a few things I have to note down somewhere. 

Went to food of farms today for washing powder and whilst buying 2x130 wash boxes of PNB, Is the cheaper option anywhere I can find, it’s up £1 since I had the leaflet last month and I didn’t think the budget would stretch to bulk buying 2 this month. So I got 1 at £13.99 which was £1 cheaper than iceyland which was the next cheapest anyway. Toilet rolls 18 of, also purchased so that will need to be considered when I look at things overall. I seem to have purchased enough in Feb to not need in March so need to remember that, before being cross about April’s spends should they go over at all. 

Lidlll for a few bits today, spending another £16.14 (just checked my digital receipt and they’ve actually overcharged me!) however also more bulk type items to be noted. Huge box of Y-Tea bags, 3 packs of nappies for the new baby (incorrect price charged) and 2 packs of spaghetti (charged for 3 and at the wrong price). Usual stuff was a large pack of blueberries to (hopefully) last the week, bread and tomatoes. 

Spends throughout the week (fruit and veg box) leave us with £89.54 for the next 2 weeks. I think I need to re-meal-plan as I’m so uninspired by the current plan written a fortnight ago, made clear by how much we’ve deviated from it this week and maybe I can actually do £30 a week for the remainder saving a little of this month …. Let’s see 

DawnW

Icyland delivery today, so I am already up to £144.20 / £200

On the other hand, we have plenty of food, I buy too much really. I wish I could break myself of this habit, which originates I think from our years of living with 3 children on farms far from shops, therefore needing to keep a good stock in case of bad weather, illness etc. I was brought up to keep a good larder, as my mother and grandmother used to say, but definitely need to scale down now we live close to town and there are just the two of us. Is it just me, or do others find themselves doing this? I don't mean that I hoard like on some of the people on the telly - everything fits in the under stairs larder, freezers and fridge, and it is rotated and stored correctly. And I never panic buy. When there are purported shortages I try to keep well clear of the shops. I don't waste things, even things that aren't very nice I can usually do something useful with. For example, the apples bought from Lidl the other day turned out to be green, hard and bruised. Not sure how that combination happened! So 2 went into the sourdough apple cake I made today (which will be frozen tomorrow when properly cold), and I peeled and chopped the other 3, mixed with sugar and cinnamon and topped with some leftover crumble mix I remembered in the freezer. This will do for puddings for this week (don't always have puddings, but will this week).

OH wanted to buy a free range chicken this week. I was reluctant because we have lots of meat in the freezer, but ended up buying one. He cooked it while I was at work, to have cold. So far we have both had chicken with jacket potatoes, coleslaw and salad, chicken sandwiches, chicken, chips and peas and there is enough left for chicken pesto pasta, and possibly something else as well. The bones are currently in the SC with onion, carrot and celery to make a stock for soup, so we are certainly getting the full value from the bird. If I were on my own I wouldn't bother with meat, but OH would object to this - though he is happy with a couple of veggie meals a week, so not one of those people who insist on meat every day.

Greying_Pilgrim

DawnW - I had a childhood living in the country on a farm.  We lived about 10 miles from the nearest market town, and the local village (2 miles) where we went to school had 3 shops and a butchers (and a bank!!!) but they were overpriced (then!), and were a health and safety nightmare!  The butcher and one of the shop owners were both chain smokers - they would just about stub out their fag to come and serve you 😬I've definitely inherited my parent's generation (all of whom lived in the countryside) policy of having stores.  I do think I make better use of my freezer than my mum ever did.  Although we were meat eaters then, I cannot remember meat being stored in the freezer, not even bacon or sausages.  Whilst we ate alot of fresh food, our meals were very repetitive.  

I too, try to keep a reasonable store-cupboard, certainly try not to hoard (more of a one in use-one in store policy), and try to keep some 'meals' in the freezer, rather than just components.  I think your use of the organic chicken was a masterclass in respect for food and value for money!

The pizza was munched last night.  LG did have pasta to accompany; baked potatoes for us (from the MrL box, and very nice they were too). There was some pizza left over, so that has gone into the freezer for another day.  Tea tonight will be fish, chips and mushy peas out of the freezer/stores. NSD achieved yesterday.  

Greying X

QueenJess

Another £13.10 spent for next weeks milk from the milkman.

Total spend £76.64 / £200 (+£100)