April 2022 Grocery Challenge

Ginmonster

OMG @Greying_Pilgrim your meals always look delicious! It's really inspired me to start digging out my cookbooks and trying some new recipes. It's so easy to get stuck in a meal rut, especially with a small child in tow who is deeply suspicious of anything new. 

£17.79 spent today on cheese, butter, a few things for pizza toppings and some bits for breakfast to tide us over the weekend with family staying. Hopefully I won't need anything else until the month end now and that's good news as I've come in within budget at £188.44/£200. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening April GC'rs

Aw, Ginmonster - that is kind of you to say.  I like food/recipes/cooking, so as long as I've my mojo (it does periodically go missing! 🙁), I like to try to make varied dishes, and try very hard to try new things (as long as it doesn't break the bank if it goes wrong - I can't afford to experiment to that extent).  But I too don't have carte blanche, as LG won't yet eat 'all the things'.  Having said that, I made curry, dhal and rice tonight, and LG had dhal and rice, and whilst they didn't have the curry - they did enjoy munching several slices of peach before the tin contents were chopped up to be popped in the PC to make the curry.  So we're inching towards more of each meal going into all of us - in some form or other! 😊

Jack's curry is delicious and relatively inexpensive to make, and is always a winner in this house.  Sorry that the pic doesn't include the portion of dhal that was dolloped on the plate, but I wanted to focus on the curry.  



I'm taking inspiration from all you - seeing folks manage to remain within their budgetary targets, or 'manage the damage' if bumps in the road of life have thrown things awry in April, makes me want to hang on to my final 53p too!

Greying X

Ginmonster

We're big fans of Jack's peach and chickpea curry in my house too (I use a few more spices than the recipe suggests and frozen coriander as I can't keep the plants alive with the fresh stuff!). My little one is the opposite of yours though @Greying_Pilgrim as he loves it but wouldn't touch daal. I keep trying adding another curry to the meal and so far he's rejected all others. 

One we've tried that's totally delicious is an Annabel Karmel chicken korma (we made it veggie quite easily with a few small changes) and both me and the OH think it's lovely but the boy is not having any of it. So far. I've only tried about 5 times. 😂 The recipe is here https://www.madeformums.com/school-and-family/annabel-karmels-fruity-chicken-curry/

pamsdish

£12.39 in A1d1, forgot my list and as a few different recipes planned, I will have to amend my meal plan as several essential ingredients forgotten.

Greying_Pilgrim

Ginmonster - thank you, you have given me an ideal for a curry recipe for May.  I have quorn filets in (that can be cut up into 'chunks') and a sachet of Korma sauce.  I can make a version of the Annabel Karmel recipe (which me & DH will eat), and put a small portion on LG's plate, to try, as they will eat Quorn.  

No shopping for me today.  Payday figures are in, and I will have to contemplate a meal-plan for Sunday, and then the first week of May.  Sunday will hopefully be "something from stores/freezer" even thought it is the first day of the new month. The pay day figures are marginally better than anticipated, but are far from 'comfortable' going forward.  Therefore, I shall be sticking with my £100 budget for May (and seeing how far I can get with it), but I am going to allocate an additional  £50 to 'stocks'.  I'm going to give a great deal of consideration as to what to spend this money on - for example, should it be '400' (just joshing) tins of chopped tomatoes, or should I invest in a jar of tahini/miso and ingredients such as that, to make best use of salad recipes (for example) for the next 4 months or so........ decisions, decisions!  

So if you don't hear from me for a while, I shall be in a corner, poring over recipes, lists, and more lists!....🤣

Greying X

Hettyhound

We had peach and chickpea curry last night but with butter beans instead as chickpeas seem to be in short supply and I’ve run out of dried.  I made a rhubarb crumble with rhubarb from the allotment which also used up the last of the yoghurt to go with it.  Final figure for April is £171.10/£160 budget.  Did include two weeks of school holidays whereas May only includes one week 🤦‍♀️.  I’m planning on JMs not meatballs with spaghetti tonight followed by a “big” shop at Aldee while my boy is entertained at Cubs.  Best get my meal plan together and check the stores ✅

K9sandFelines

I've still got til the 13th of May left for this budget, and boy am I struggling. It's starting to consume my every moment, if I am honest; and I don't want to go down a slippery slope. If I am not meal planning, then I am watching vlogs about budgeting and prepping 👀. I've got ten pounds and a tiny bit left of £80. I didn't account for daughter being here for two weeks of uni holidays; even with her small contribution, it's been a struggle. I'm also peed off that a bag of unopened bagels I'd defrosted from the freezer, went instantly mouldy in the bread bin; so had to be disposed of. I might try having a bash at making some rolls of some sort to save keep buying them.
I so wish we had a community pantry or something here 🙄

Slinky

thriftwizard said:

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.

@thriftwizard sounds lovely, do you have recipe and instructions for rhubarb champagne please?

MissRikkiC

K9sandFelines said:

I've still got til the 13th of May left for this budget, and boy am I struggling. It's starting to consume my every moment, if I am honest; and I don't want to go down a slippery slope. If I am not meal planning, then I am watching vlogs about budgeting and prepping 👀. I've got ten pounds and a tiny bit left of £80. I didn't account for daughter being here for two weeks of uni holidays; even with her small contribution, it's been a struggle. I'm also peed off that a bag of unopened bagels I'd defrosted from the freezer, went instantly mouldy in the bread bin; so had to be disposed of. I might try having a bash at making some rolls of some sort to save keep buying them.
I so wish we had a community pantry or something here 🙄

Please try not to give up. I can understand the feelings you’re experiencing, im
totally all or nothing. I am so often searching for ways of doing things better, more frugal that it’s all consuming. But. And it’s a big but. If your minds health can cope with it, it really is worth it. It becomes your normal after a little while and maybe it’s a necessity to do this for this month, it may not always be. You’re doing great 👍 

goldfinches

@K9sandFelines - sorry to hear that things are so hard at the moment and hope they become easier soon.

I can recommend this recipe for soda buns from Nigella as being quick and easy and think that any dried fruit could be subbed in for the cranberries and if you haven't got fennel seeds just chuck in something else you like the taste of instead.

These people are the driving force behind the community larders and here is their page offering more info if you'd like to start one yourself just in case you have the time and energy to spare. What is a community larder? - SOFEA

I really logged in to confess to having fallen off my particular wagon both yesterday and today so I spent £1.78 on pul biber and mild pul biber flakes, £1.55 on frozen artichoke hearts and £11.67 at M*rks on 4x milk, y/s 4x skimmed milk, f/f greek style yoghurt, ready made salad, y/s fruit salad, y/s garlic bread and a poppy seed roll and £26.05 at M*rks on 2x y/s grapes, 2x y/s feta pastries, 2x y/s peanut salad, y/s bean salad, 2x y/s falafel, 2x y/s salad onions, 2x baguettes, y/s spring onions, y/s thyme, y/s rosemary, 2x cherry toms and 3x y/s easy peelers.

What I'm going to do is to say that I've spent my full budget for this month and then count the overspent amount as being in May so that means that I'm declaring now at £120/£120 and the baking budget at £23.87/£20 and the birthday budget at £67/£150.

See you all over on the May thread.