April 2022 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

joedenise said:

@atrixa - have you tried frozen berries?  You can get quite a big bag of mixed berries for a couple of pounds which will do for quite a few meals, especially with a dollop of yoghurt, cream or ice cream.

Seconding this, I buy a 1kg bag of bargain bag strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants from either Mr T or Sains depending on which is cheaper/in stock and keep it in the bottom drawer of my freezer. I put 100g out on the side in a plastic bowl with a lid and it defrosts overnight in perfect time for me to eat with my breakfast yoghurt and coffee. I slightly prefer the Mr T bag as it seems to have more currants which I love and are hard to find in other mixtures and it's usually about 20 pence or so cheaper than the Sains one.

Thanks for the new thread @elsiepac and welcome to all the newcomers on here. I had a really good month in March mostly by keeping out of the shops but it's my birthday this month so I'm putting aside a separate bucket for those expenses to give myself some boundaries.

Could you put me down for £120 for the month to cover all food, toiletries and household expenses and a Baking Budget of £20 for the month as there are four Weds and a Birthday Budget of £150 to cover food, wine and cakes for friends.

On a lighter note I baked this cake today Meera Sodha's Banana Bread which was a great success with my friends, it's both vegan and gluten free and is made with buckwheat flour which I've never used before but am completely converted to now.



Looks great doesn't it and it tasted delicious, I'll definitely repeat it and might try adding some grated ginger and swapping the vanilla extract for dark rum and the maple syrup for ginger syrup.

Ginmonster

That cake looks fantastic @goldfinches! It's really good to have a solid recipe for people with dietary requirements as well. I shall bookmark that one.

Can I join again with £200 for the month please? 

I only went sightly over in March so I'm going to hit my target in April. Positive thinking!

MissRikkiC

So whilst I was waiting for this thread to open, I’d started to spend then didn’t dare declare (to myself) what I’d already spent as it felt like a lot so early in the month so instead just kept reading along! Head in the sand albeit not too deep! 

Spends to far are £103/300. 

There are a few unnecessary spends in here (not all by me) which we could’ve done without but hey ho. 

Farm for pork box £30 
supermarkets £40.17 which included £7 of flowers for the house and £2.50 on beer 
Market spends on fruit veg and beans £21.53
Butcher spends of £11.30 (very not needed) 

There is a large meal plan in place until almost the end of the month which has been stuck to this week (for the most part). 

Meals have been- 
M Veggie cottage pie
T Chicken fajita pittas
W Prawn and (not potato) curry (with chickpeas and cauliflower instead!)
Th DH will have freezer meal as I’m out for dinner
F jambalaya (although I think I need to change this on account of using the last of the rice last night!)

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning April Challengers!

First shop for April done (yes, I know we're still in March, but everything bought today is for April consumption, so......)

I went to MrL and spent £16.07 - surprise, surprise no £1.50 boxes, and the shelf wasn't even out behind the tills.  The veg and fruit counters were fully stocked with fresh produce.......  I noticed that the bread we buy has gone up 6p a loaf since last week 🙁But that carrots are down 6p a bag 😊What a pity I didn't need 4 bags of carrots to even out the price changes! 😂 There were no tinned chickpeas, and no sunflower oil, but chopped tomatoes were in stock today!   I then went 'next door' to MrAl and picked up oil, chickpeas, celery and easy peelers - total spend in MrAl was £2.98.  So my April spend budget is currently looking like £19.05/£100.

I shall be back later with my menu plan.  I was holding out, just in case I dropped on any YS'd useful items or £1.50 box bargains, but alas, the shopping gods must have been on their coffee break today 🙁

Greying X

Bluegreen143

Today’s planned meals:

B - mango & banana overnight oats (the kids & I)

L - (for me) leftover tikka chicken and naan from last night, with salad and raita, and leftover plum crumble with cream! Already excited about this lunch especially as I didn’t actually have any of the crumble last night 😆

S - sent Monkey to school with chopped fruit & a muffin from the freezer; after school I think I’ll do a mix of tortilla chips, fruit, veg and cheese (my kids don’t eat lots of crisps but I’m finding buying a value sharing bag of tortilla chips for 40p is really good value as they only get a handful at a time each).

D - sweet potato & black bean burritos 

Suffolk_lass

Right, after buying half a lamb at the beginning of March and stocking up on various things, my hopes for April are to buy only milk and eggs for us (both delivered, so no temptation). My biggest problem is picking up stuff that is not on the list.  We will need dog food for pup, and there are a few subscription items coming mid-month (nothing edible) - dog treats, and a couple of toiletry/cleaning things on a 6-month cycle from big river company. I am going to leave these as is.

I am going to try dipping into a meal plan or two from the revived Cheap Family Recipes site that Weezl started (back in the day, over ten years ago) and maybe some of Thrifty Lesley's recipes from her own website pages. Only instead of shopping for the ingredients, I am going to use what I have in.

This has been prompted because I have used 33.19% of my annual budget of £3000 in three months and I need to get a grip. We are away from the week after Easter until the first week of May so this should definitely be doable. I aim to spend less than £100 this month and may do the same in June or July, when home-grown is helping out. That would reset things a bit.

Elisheba

Hi,

I'd like to join this month please - £60 for 1 person for the month.  

Thanks all,

Eli

Soontobeoap

welcome @Elisheba

well I think I have set myself up to fail this month already. Buying in bulk worked for me last month so decided to do the same again this month. £165.00 spent on bulk shop from Tesco. All looking good until I saw an offer for dishwasher tablets. Could save £5.00 if I bought 400! Decided to go for it. Another £47.50 spent! 🤦🏻‍♀️. Still won’t need to buy anymore until next year! 

So far I have spent £212.50 / £250 and DS and family are coming to stay this month for a week. It is going to take a lot of doing!

meal plan for the next 8 days :-
Friday 1st - turkey pasta using left over turkey from freezer and a tin of chicken soup.
Saturday 2nd - Gammon from freezer tinned baby boiled potatoes, sweetcorn and peas.
Sunday 3rd - Gammon jacket potatoes and leftover veg from freezer for bubble and squeak
Monday 4th - Ham egg and chips
Tuesday 5th - omelette.
Wednesday 6th - ham pasta
Thursday 7th - DH out , jacket with frozen leftover savoury mince
Friday 8th - Meatballs and spaghetti
saturday 9th and Sunday 10th away for weekend with relatives. No cost.

Good luck everyone. 😊

Ginmonster

I'm starting the month a day early as it was more convenient to buy the couple of things we needed for the weekend when I was near the supermarket today rather than make a special trip tomorrow. I say needed, the shower gel definitely was but the crumpets were more of a want than a need. Still, £2.46 for 2 packs of crumpets and 2 bottles of shower gel isn't bad.

£2.46/£200

DawnW

I started the month a day early as well, as I had time to shop today and tomorrow I have to work.

£22.66 spent in Lidl, £3.69 in Iceland on things that Lidl didn't have, and £25 on a meat deal pack from the local butcher. So £51.35 / £200 spent, on groceries only.

We had game casserole for dinner, made yesterday. Just right for such a cold day, with mashed potatoes and steamed cabbage to soak up the gravy. There is enough left for another meal for both of us, which is now in the freezer.