April 2022 Grocery Challenge

atrixa

Last day of my April budget so I'll declare:

£168.39/£135. Overshoot by £33.39.

Oh well, onwards and upwards to May. 

Pinwheel

Thank you for your reply @otb666 I guess all our circumstances are different and we're all trying our best.  

Vanlady

Goldfinches, yes , your meals sound very tasty .
Pinwheel, spot on, we're all trying our best under differing circumstances, and that's what counts.

£132.30/£180 11th-30th April. Includes all food shopping, toiletries and cleaning products, for 2 adults.

No spends to declare since 21st. But, we have eaten out 2 nights on the trot. 

Home tonight and I'm having cheese and onion omlette with steamed sprouts and carrots,  plus one of the veg rissoles I froze recently. Mr van is having fried eggs, beans and a spicey rice concoction he made from the freezer.
Tomorrow night its fish fingers....always happy with that in the Van.....jacket potatoes I froze last week and frozen veg.
Thursday night I'm cooking lentil and veg curry in the SC but I'll make enough to freeze for another meal. Also rice and HM nans.

I will do last shop of the month either thursday or friday and then declare my total.

Good luck everyone x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening April GC'rs!

I've a 10p spend to own up to!  LG was at their club across the way tonight, so I popped into MrA to while away some time.  Ended up getting 3 (mini) pots of assorted hummus YS'd to 10p.  Not an absolute necessity, but we're getting low on cheese for sangers, so they will come in handy - even if only for my lunches 😊

Tea tonight was a soup from Rose Elliot's 'The Bean Book'.  I can't find a link to the recipe, but it is the Bean and carrot soup from pg 69 and it is supposed to be based on a wartime recipe.  It will not surprise you to know that I didn't follow the recipe methodically.  Rose used Haricot, but I've only got haricots in tomato sauce (otherwise known as 'baked beans'!), so I used the cannellini beans I had in stock instead.  Also, the recipe called on you to make a white sauce with a roux, which I figured was a bit over-complicated, so my sauce was thickened and made 'creamy' through the simple addition of a potato.  I hadn't got a fresh herb bouquet garni, so I used a 3p MrAl stockcube instead!  Rose was right, the colour of the soup was lovely, and it tasted nice too - it was quite ordinary ingredients, but they made a really nice soup.  I would certainly make it again (only sorry I've not made it before now!).  Then I had planned to make potato farls from a recipe I got out of the 'Breakfast Bible' by Seb Emina.  However, I got my wires crossed, and had forgotten that this particular recipe uses an egg - and I haven't any.  Plus I was thinking more in terms of a soda farl that you could dunk in your soup, rather than a tattie farl that you ate with a knife and fork..... but i'd got the mash out of the freezer....... so dear reader, I made a 'mash up', and made a soda farl that had potato in it..... 😊  And it kinda, sorta worked 😊 Just dunna ask me for measurements, and dunna ask me to make them again, as I'm not sure I could 🤣I used half and half plain flour and some of the spelt flour I bought on offer in March.  So tea definitely ticked the frugal boxes, and it definitely ticked the 'use up what you have' boxes too.


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Dear April GC'rs

Have you all run away up the Rec. to play rounders for the pub team and not told me???? Anyone? ..one...one..one

So I made me tea.  Used some of the last MrL box tatties to make a version of the Meat-free Monday potato salad, but I put my remaining radishes into a coleslaw (MrL box cabbage, easter carrots, radishes and mayo), made a beetroot and apple salad from the Happy Pear crew, and some tomato, olive oil/balsamic salad from the last of the cherry toms from last week's MrL box.  All served with a black bean burger from the freezer (HM from a generic bean burger recipe), and a serving of 1/2 mini pot of lemon and coriander hummus.  Cheap, cheerful and used up lots of things.  Tasted nice too, and we were lucky that the sun was shining and it seemed like the weather for salad.



DH bought milk on the way home, so a £1.25 spent today.  53p of the budget left until Saturday 😬Sigh.

Greying X

MissRikkiC

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Dear April GC'rs

Have you all run away up the Rec. to play rounders for the pub team and not told me???? Anyone? ..one...one..one

So I made me tea.  Used some of the last MrL box tatties to make a version of the Meat-free Monday potato salad, but I put my remaining radishes into a coleslaw (MrL box cabbage, easter carrots, radishes and mayo), made a beetroot and apple salad from the Happy Pear crew, and some tomato, olive oil/balsamic salad from the last of the cherry toms from last week's MrL box.  All served with a black bean burger from the freezer (HM from a generic bean burger recipe), and a serving of 1/2 mini pot of lemon and coriander hummus.  Cheap, cheerful and used up lots of things.  Tasted nice too, and we were lucky that the sun was shining and it seemed like the weather for salad.



DH bought milk on the way home, so a £1.25 spent today.  53p of the budget left until Saturday 😬Sigh.

Greying X

That looks delicious!! 

I have some radish (I think but could be baby turnips) so a pickle or coleslaw might work! 

thriftwizard

@Greying_Pilgrim, that looks gorgeous & would grace any expensive eaterie's menu!

I'm thinking I'll declare for April here, at £488-odd, £11-something under my April target, though it isn't actually payday until Friday & money will be spent tomorrow, but it will all be food that will be eaten inside May's budget, as there's plenty left for tomorrow. So I'll account for that on the May thread. Hope that makes sense! 

And after a lean-ish year allotment-wise, I was delighted to bring home a couple of sturdy leeks, which went into tonight's Chicken Chasseur, enough kale florets to feed 5 this evening, and 3Kg of rhubarb today; I worked out that that would cost £11.25 at T3sco prices (£1.50 for 400g) though mine's grown without chemical inputs. So I've started off some rhubarb champagne, stewed half of the rest to eat with yogurt, and gave the remainder to my neighbour, who adores it. (Just as well, it's like Day Of The Triffids down there...) It's nice to feel that it's starting to keep us quids in again. Prior to the last fairly dismal year, I'd brought home at least £5-worth of veg & soft fruit every week for 4 years, and often much more; the rent is just under £1 a week, so I reckon it's money well-spent! And last year wasn't a complete write-off; the spuds, raspberries, runner beans & sweetcorn all did very well. Obviously there are other expenses, like seeds & the odd bit of kit, but we keep those minimal & re-use, source secondhand, invent & bodge for all we're worth. And if in doubt, put it on the Christmas list!

DawnW

That soup and bread in particular look gorgeous @Greying_Pilgrim

Last shop of the month done today, and I am declaring an overspend - £262.06 / £200

I have plenty in, and will try harder next month!

I did manage to get a Lidl £1.50 box. Not as good as the one I got two weeks ago, but it contained a bag of parsnips, a bunch of beetroot, a bag of peppers, a bag of mint, a small cabbage, an aubergine, lettuce, and a small punnet of peaches of the kind that never ripen, but I will make something with them. I will look forward to researching different ways to use it all.

I made cauliflower, potato and egg curry from the BBC Good Food web site for dinner tonight, which was yummy. I would definitely make it again. We shared a naan bread to accompany it, and there will be enough for another meal for OH and I  

goldfinches

I'm staggering in rather limply due to having had a very busy and cultural couple of days; garden visit yesterday afternoon, theatre yesterday evening, long walk this morning, museum trip encompassing five floors and a roof terrace visit this afternoon. I have had to resort to buying a salad and a baguette on the way home as I was so tired that even the thought of boiling an egg felt like too much work.
So here's the damage to the various budgets.
Main budget has spent £10 at Sains on olive oil, gherkins, silken tofu and carrots, £1.88 at Polish deli on saffron and ground cardamom, £2.01 at M*rks on baguette and salad and 85p at Mr T's on yoghurt which makes my new total £108.97/£120 and my average daily spend £4.03.
The baking budget spent 80p on dark choc chips at Sains which makes my new total £23.87/£20.

I'm going to need more milk tomorrow and hope that after that I will be able to declare for this month but will hold off just in case.

wannalot

Hello all, 

I’m just checking in to finish my month. I’m afraid I went way off plan and off budget in April, after finally catching Covid two days after being summoned back to the office for the first time since the pandemic started.

I’m really shocked how hard it has hit me. I’ve now been negative for over a week, but I’m rather breathless and have no energy at all. I’m off work his week, and I have really achieved nothing. I woke up at 8am his morning and have spent all day snoozing on the sofa. I’m hoping this will pass soon. 

Anyway, my budget has exploded this month. I’ve really been eating what I wanted when I feel like it, and I was reliant on deliveries from my local Co-op when I was isolating (nearly 3 weeks). I’m hoping to get back on track in May. 

I hope everything has gone better for the rest of you. I’m going to catch up with the thread now and then head over to May! See you there!