April 2022 Grocery Challenge

ancientmum

Thank yet hank you for running the thread elsiepac.  Please can you put me down for £80 for 1st -30th April.  I have decided to use some of my increase in pension to add to the grocery budget.

QueenJess

First spend of the month.. totally forgot onions in my usual orders and so had to pick some up at the local shop at a far higher price.

Spent £0.95 / £300.

nannygladys

Greying - my smart meter showed 69p when the new day started at 1am, but by the time I got up later on it had gone down to 60p, so don't forget the meter 'standing' charge, not sure if it's called that and companies charge different amounts, mine is combined g&e, so when I'm up at 1am again I will go and have a look at the breakdown of both, I found when I last looked they charged more for the gas than electric, don't know why though.

tessie_bear

hello hope everyone is doing well and thankyou Elsie for your efforts xx

Right i went to sainsbugs and purchased veg/milk/yogurt and some frozen veg. Came to £8 something but i had £5 vouchers and the lady on the till said thats a cheap shop so im off to a good start. I find the wonky veg in sainsburys really cheap and good quality also the frozen veg around £1 a kg useful 
hope everyone has a great weekend

MissRikkiC

Welcome to all of the newbies! 

@wannalot if you’re not lucky enough to score the lodddl boxes I would also check the TGTG app for local supermarkets. I know of a couple of people here have had success with MrMors and it’s fruit and veg to the value of £10 but for £3.09. 

Slightly more than the boxes but still better value. 

I picked up 2 YS blue 4 pints of milk today so chucked those in the freezer as they were 89p each. I was surprised to see the original cost at MrMors was £1.50 … that seems to have crept up! Are Al and Lid still £1.15 does anyone know? 

Cheery_Daff

Evening all 😊

My first day properly doing the Grocery Challenge, and it's lovely to be tagging along with you all 😊Thank you to Greying Pilgrim for reminding me what a lovely thread this is - I hope you don't mind me butting in over here 😮

We did go out for breakfast (a regular Friday morning treat, different budget), but I made a nice cheap fried rice for dinner just using shredded cabbage, leftover brown rice from the other day, and a couple of eggs from our hens.

We picked up a bag of some kind of casserole/soup veg in the supermarket yesterday, reduced to 38p, and today made it into soup. I have to say the veg was tasteless and smelled a bit funny - I rinsed it before using but it was just weird. Definitely wouldn't have paid full price, and I don't think I'd bother if I saw it reduced again. How do you ruin what is basically just a bag of chopped veg with a few herbs in??

Fortunately Mr Cheery is Soup Rescuer Extraordinaire and added lentils, rinsings from the peanut butter jar, and all kinds of wizardry to make it palatable, but I can't say we enjoyed it 😕

Planning some batch cooking in the oven tomorrow.

* some kind of basic cake for freezer/work lunches
* roasted veg to add to cous cous for work lunches
* parsnips to be added to, well, not sure what they'll be added to yet, but I do love a roast parsnip!

Has anyone ever made anything with tinned spaghetti? I've been rooting in the storecupboard and apparently we have 13 tins of it 😮 I was thinking of maybe just bunging it in the oven with a load of veg and lentils, and maybe a bit of cheese on top??

EDIT: I found this Jack Monroe recipe, will give it a try...

https://www.prima.co.uk/all-recipes/healthy-recipes/a32157073/jack-monroe-pasta-e-ceci-recipe-chickpeans-tin/

I'm going to do a proper meal plan tomorrow too 😊

Spend so far in April = £0/£150

kacie

May I join, food spending seems to be a bit hit and miss for me, not to ad when I remember to meal plan, but once I forget that it's constant popping to shops to get whatever I feel like! 

£70

Just me and the cat, and all I think he needs this month is cat litter.

Done a small shop today spent £17.03

happydenial

Cheery_Daff said:

Evening all 😊

Has anyone ever made anything with tinned spaghetti? I've been rooting in the storecupboard and apparently we have 13 tins of it 😮 I was thinking of maybe just bunging it in the oven with a load of veg and lentils, and maybe a bit of cheese on top??

I'm fairly sure you could use tinned spaghetti in a frittata - I make it with leftover pasta and tomato sauce, just add beaten eggs, herbs, cheese, etc, then fry in a pan like a frittata. Nice hot or cold. 

thriftwizard

Well, I've already spent LOTS! Between the butchers, bakers & supermarket yesterday, the market this morning & L!dls this afternoon for the non-perishables for the month, I'm up to £176.60. I'm not too dismayed; that will leave me about £100 per week for the next 3 Thursday/Friday shops with a little left over for the supermarket spend on 28th, 29th being payday & thus in May's budget. I will actually aim for a bit less, bearing in mind that there are always a few bits that need topping up mid-week, like bread & bananas. But we're pretty well stocked-up for now; I picked up a £1.50 box at L!dls as I'd spotted a good number of nice-looking peppers in there, which I'd forgotten to pick up at the market this morning, plus there were lettuces for the chickens & other bits I knew we could use. None of it will go to waste. Nor will any of the "going-over" cherries I was given this morning "for your chickens" - who have already thoroughly enjoyed all the more dubious ones - which will be going into ice-cream & jam & possibly the freezer tomorrow! The vast majority of them are absolutely fine, but I wouldn't try to keep them for a week.

Meal plans: Tonight was fish, new potatoes & purple-sprouting, plus cauliflower from the L1dls £1.50 box.
Saturday: Baked potatoes (also from box) & kheema mince/spicy mushrooms, possibly HM flatbreads if time allows.
Sunday: Roast lamb, roast spuds & nut-roast, with broccoli, carrots & cauliflower, cherry ice-cream and/or clafoutis
Monday: Cauli-brocco-macaroni cheese - I already had a cauli! - with baked beans or broad beans.
Tuesday: "Tagine" of left-over lamb/sweet potato & halloumi with bulgur wheat & peas
Wednesday: Probably omelette again, if The Girls keep on presenting us with 6 eggs a day. Or stir-fry - there's some of last week's chicken in the freezer to use up.
Thursday: Whatever's left over! Or corned-beef hash - I have a couple of tins very close to their use-by dates.

With the usual selection of eggs, pancakes, HM cinnamon buns, fruit, yogurt & toast for breakfasts, and HM soups & salads for lunch, that should do us for the week!

Smoosh

Cheery_Daff said:

Evening all 😊

My first day properly doing the Grocery Challenge, and it's lovely to be tagging along with you all 😊Thank you to Greying Pilgrim for reminding me what a lovely thread this is - I hope you don't mind me butting in over here 😮

We did go out for breakfast (a regular Friday morning treat, different budget), but I made a nice cheap fried rice for dinner just using shredded cabbage, leftover brown rice from the other day, and a couple of eggs from our hens.

We picked up a bag of some kind of casserole/soup veg in the supermarket yesterday, reduced to 38p, and today made it into soup. I have to say the veg was tasteless and smelled a bit funny - I rinsed it before using but it was just weird. Definitely wouldn't have paid full price, and I don't think I'd bother if I saw it reduced again. How do you ruin what is basically just a bag of chopped veg with a few herbs in??

Fortunately Mr Cheery is Soup Rescuer Extraordinaire and added lentils, rinsings from the peanut butter jar, and all kinds of wizardry to make it palatable, but I can't say we enjoyed it 😕

Planning some batch cooking in the oven tomorrow.

* some kind of basic cake for freezer/work lunches
* roasted veg to add to cous cous for work lunches
* parsnips to be added to, well, not sure what they'll be added to yet, but I do love a roast parsnip!

Has anyone ever made anything with tinned spaghetti? I've been rooting in the storecupboard and apparently we have 13 tins of it 😮 I was thinking of maybe just bunging it in the oven with a load of veg and lentils, and maybe a bit of cheese on top??

EDIT: I found this Jack Monroe recipe, will give it a try...

https://www.prima.co.uk/all-recipes/healthy-recipes/a32157073/jack-monroe-pasta-e-ceci-recipe-chickpeans-tin/

I'm going to do a proper meal plan tomorrow too 😊

Spend so far in April = £0/£150

I like adding tinned spaghetti to casseroles and stews 🙂