April 2022 Grocery Challenge

joedenise

A couple of shops to add.  Have spent a total of £95.02 and have £151.43 left of the grocery budget but think I've missed something somewhere as there should be £154.98 left!  I suspect DH has bought something while he's been out (like a pie fro Morries!) without saying anything!  

Looks like we should be OK this month and even have some left to transfer to the bulk fund going forward.

DawnW

@Soontobeoap if your lasagne is cooked, remember to reheat it until absolutely bubbling hot (ie as if you were going to serve it) before you cool as quickly as possible and freeze in portions. @joedenise is right, you shouldn't refreeze thawed food unless you cook it first.

Shopping today and I spent £37.29 on groceries (also got some other bits, such as beer for OH, and easter eggs for grandkids, but they come from different pots). I was also very lucky and got a good Lidl's £1.50 veg box. Usually in our local store they consist of dead lettuces and green potatoes, but I struck lucky this week and got satsumas, pears, plums, grapes, radishes, onions, a bag of parsnips, a bunch of beetroot and a bag of mint. All I had to throw away was 1 green potato and a few grapes from the bottom of their plastic punnet thing. I do wish they wouldn't pack fruit and veg in plastic! I have stewed the plums, as the oven was on anyway, used a few of the radishes and one onion in the coleslaw I have made for this evening, and cooked the beetroot. I will deal with the rest tomorrow. Our son, his partner and our eldest grand daughter are coming for dinner tonight, and we have done what we usually do on these occasions - roasted a joint of pork, to have in rolls with apple sauce, crackling and stuffing, with jacket potatoes and salads. This is a family favourite that is much less bother than doing a 'proper' roast dinner. Everyone can help themselves and sit where they like. I have a fruit pie from the freezer (which may be apple or rhubarb ) with cream for pudding. There will be plenty of leftovers for OH and I tomorrow and beyond.

So I am up to £151.32 / £200. I certainly don't intend to shop again till after the bank holiday weekend, so I should hopefully do it this month. I have loads of food in. I have 2 other grandchildren staying overnight next Tuesday and Wednesday, and have bought food for them as well. They don't eat meat, but mostly don't like the sort of vegetarian dishes that I cook (veggie, chilli / bolognese / lasagne, veggie risotto / stir fry / spinach pie / jackets with cheese and beans etc, just normal things). They do like pizza, but I will be unlikely to have time to make that, so I have bought the fake sausages and burgers that they like, and some fish, as they do eat that. So they can choose. They can have fruit and easter eggs for pudding.

ragz_2

Another spend today, MrL, popped in in my lunch break to get more Easter eggs as they had a 35% off offer on the deluxe ones with the LPlus app. Managed to snag a veg box, but ours are rubbish compared to most on here. There were 5 to choose from and several had part packs of strawberries in (which I won't buy in season anyway), I assume because they took out moudly ones.
Mine had a bag of potatoes, which I actually needed, a pack of celery, a pack of green beans, 2 large apples and a punnet of plums. So more than £1.50 worth, but not amazing. Also stocked up on Earl Grey tea, as they don't always have it.
Not sure wheth the Easter stuff should really come from the grocery budget so I will be calculating that separately as we go.
Will be back with running total later. Have had to help DH with dinner because the sausage casserole he'd been slow cooking wasn't ready (he seems to expect it to make dinner in 2 hours and the carrots were still rock solid, unsurprisingly!) so we're having hot dogs and chips! 

otb666

I am so proud of my mooli radish noodles and beef stir fry with peppers and spring cabbage, i gave the chopped veg 3 minutes in microwave before mixing together and got 2 good portions out of it.

K9sandFelines

Haven't managed to catch up on the thread. But I am about £3 over budget from 1st to 12th of month as I started the month at the beginning, instead of in the middle. Will double check and update properly, if this is wrong. 

My month now starts today 13th of April to 12th of May. £80 for the month please @elsiepac. This is for food only.i don't buy extra for Easter, as we don't really celebrate it. My girls are also a bit old now for Easter eggs. They've realised it's more savvy to get a 100g bar of chocolate, than a hollow egg. Besides we are all dairy free, so it's hella expensive for a free from (hollow) egg compared to a Vegan bar (in say Aldi), and they can buy those anytime they like. I would buy GD a dvd or book rather than chocolate, as she doesn't really have sweets and chocolate that often. 

Once I can get a grip of this new budget, I will then gauge how much goes on cleaning/toiletries aswell, and see what I have to budget accordingly. 

Good luck everybody else who is halfway through their month, and thank you to all who help run the thread. 

nannygladys

Went into lids last night on the way home from grandma sitting and spent £24.06 and I only went in for milk!!!!!! This is much more than I intended so I won't be getting else until next week now, I really don't need anything else so I will keep out of the shops

Vanlady

A quick nip into mr s yesterday as I was passing so £4.80 spent on a very good brand of decaff coffee on offer and some dried milk, they dont always have that in stock, and its so useful as a standby plus good in porridge instead of fresh.

Total £24.30  /£180
From 11th to 30th April.

Fab bundt tin goldfinches. I was gifted one years ago and love it, very spectacular!! But only when it is well buttered , as SuffolkL  says, as I have had a couple of unspectacular ones

I've been busy processing all my veg and made soup, sides etc but did steam a whole lot together, roughly mashed it and made very nice bubble and squeak,  with enough to freeze a few portions.

Plans:
Veg stir fry.
Sardine fishcakes and veg
chickpea and kale curry 

Have read that you can make jacket potatoes in the slow cooker so going to have a go at that ( to save oven energy), but any tips on how to get a nice crispy coat?

Hope you're feeling ok MissRicci, sorry to hear you have the c 

X

joedenise

@Vanlady - I don't think you can get a crispy skin cooking the potatoes in the SC.  It might be worth spraying in oil and wrapping in foil to see if that would do it but I wouldn't hold my breath!

ariarnia

question please. i want to make a butternut squash and chickpea curry in my slow cooker. i've made it before and it's nice and easy but i'm out of coconut milk. the internet says i can use natural yogurt which i have but i can't find an answer about when i add it. normally i'd just layer the ingredients in the slow cooker and the coconut milk would be some of the liquid used to rehydrate the chick peas but i'm not sure if the yogurt will curdle so should be added at the end?

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning!

Did the MrL shop this morning.  Starting to think that I may have to go back to my old ways and shop at several different shops - travelling by foot or bike.  There weren't any £1.50 boxes today (no surprise).  They had various veg at 19p - carrots, parsnips, shallots and potatoes I think.  I bought 2 x carrots and one of parnsips, but had to dig through to get an acceptable bag of parsnips 🙁I'm fed up of the SEL's bearing no resemblance to the price charged at the till in MrL 🙁I ended up paying 11p more than I had added up - I thought it was mostly because I had expected the eggs to be £1.89, and they were charged at £1.99.  However, tinned tomatoes (sel 35p, till 28p) and olive spread (sel 85p, till 95p), were also different.  Milk had gone up to £1.25 (sel correct), whereas the orange juice had come down 4p from the other day (seen in a different MrL), I didn't buy any, but lentils curls had gone up (SEL) by 10p to 85p...... from yesterday 😬

We then popped to MrA on the way back home.  I thought their chopped tomatoes were cheaper at 28p (didn't check MrL receipt until I got home), and bought a couple of tins.  MrA veg offering (for Easter) included carrots, parsnips and heads of broccoli, but for 20p.  I bought a nice head of broccoli - a change from frozen veg.  

Have just over £16 left in the budget until the end of the month....... 😬

Greying X