April 2022 Grocery Challenge

joedenise

Came back from holiday this afternoon so popped to Mr Ts to get a few bits just to tide us over for the weekend.

Bought bacon and mushrooms for breakfasts; bag of carrots; a gammon joint and a couple of other bits.  Spent just over £13/£250.

Menu plans for weekend:

F - pasta with prawns (from freezer); LO smoked salmon (brought home from holiday) with cheese sauce made with Primula and cheese triangles
S - Jacket potato; beans & cheese
S - boiled gammon joint with onions, carrots & potatoes
M - cold gammon, chips, beans

Will menu plan properly over the weekend and go and do a proper shop on Tuesday!

otb666

@Cheery_Daff I remember growing up we used to have a tin of spaghetti turned into bolonaise  by adding an egg an oxo cube.  Or just egg is how i prefer it.

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning Challenger chums!

nannygladys - that is the thing.  Our smartmeter display bursts into life at 6am each morning.  It does display the standing charge immediately - but it was already showing 'charge' of £1.04 (I think it was), just about now yesterday morning.  All DH had done was prep brekkie - we hadn't showered, or had the washing machine on etc.  I just found it utterly depressing.  We too have g+e, so two standing charges - which now comes out at 75.3p, before any charges for fuel.  We've switched the heating off all together (GCH), and didn't have it on much through the winter anyway. 

As the day wore on, the meter seemed to have gone up by a penny each time I looked at it.  But we ended the day under £2 (I think - I went to bed before 10pm which is when the meter display goes off), which was after 'life' useage, plus one cool clothes wash (full load) and having the oven on to cook tea for 30 minutes.  

*waves" to Cheery 😊

The 'fish nuggets' for tea were alright.  I expected them to be a bit different, but in effect they were very much like the scampi that the company do, but perhaps these fishies had been to the gym, as they were slightly bigger.  I do have another bag of them in the freezer, but probably wouldn't buy them in future.  We had 'fish', chips and mushy peas (LG had some fish fingers, but did eat several of the nuggets too), and price per head was approx £1.10 (allowing for approximate fuel useage).  Not brilliant, but cheaper than a chippy tea.  

Curry plate for tea tonight, after a freezer dig.

Greying X

Bluegreen143

Couple of spends to report. Mr T Friday delivery included wine, crisps and salsa for friends coming tomorrow for drinks, which is a separate budget. So on budget spend was:

Food £29.95
- grapes
- strawberries
- salted butter
- cheddar
- soured cream
- rocket
- beef mince 750g
- 3x frozen pizzas
- chocolate chips x3
- peppers
- cocoa powder
- potatoes
- courgette
- jalapenos
- tinned tomatoes
- lasagne
- brioche buns

Treats £4
- cola x3
- ice creams 

Last night Monkey (6) had a little school friend here for a playdate so we gave all the kids pizza and fruit (usually we always eat with the kids but he was very excited to have a friend for dinner bless!).

Red and I ended up having chips (proper yummy HM deep fried ones) with cheese and HM coleslaw once they were in bed, plus Red ate the kids’ leftover pizza slices.

Mealplan:
Sa- spaghetti meatballs
Su- roast chicken

Only planned up to Sunday as we get a Monday delivery too.

ancientmum

GP, when I was a young mum I used to make "fish nuggets" by cutting up frozen white fish you used to get in bags, coating in batter and frying in the pan.  It made the fish go further.

The first shop of April came to £11.63 at Aldi, for tea, coffee, wash-up liquid, eggs, butter, yogurt, bread, cheese and biscuits.

Greying_Pilgrim

ancientmum said:

GP, when I was a young mum I used to make "fish nuggets" by cutting up frozen white fish you used to get in bags, coating in batter and frying in the pan.  It made the fish go further.

Hey sweetie - if we ate fish regularly, I certainly would try to emulate your HM fish nugget making 😊 Truth is, we don't eat that much fish.  We only have it at home to keep LG's taste buds used to it, so that they can be happy eating fish fingers/cakes at school.  It's noticeable that now fish fingers appear weekly on the school menu, we could probably dispense with fish meals at home.  But it is an 'easy' standby for a meal in a hurry, or as an alternative to chippy tea, which we know would be expensive, and disappointing (chippies around here are really bad 🙁). I wasn't expecting anything marvellous for £1.25 a bag, but they were very, very similar to scampi, and the scampi retails at 99p...... (or did).

Greying X

kacie

Popped into the petshop on my way to work and spent another £14.14, but that's the cat done for the month

Total: £31.17/70

PipneyJane

Hi @elsiepac.   Thank you for the April thread.  Please put me down for

£162.10

which is our usual £160 GC budget, plus the £2.10 that I found (surprisingly) lurking in the bottom of the GC purse.  This is for two adults.  Our month runs from the 1st to the 30th and the GC budget covers all groceries plus all meat bought at the supermarket.  (We have a separate budget for butcher shop meat.)

- Pip

mumtoomany

Hi @Greying_Pilgrim, can I come and shop near you please. Just looked at Aldi website, scamp is £1.99 for 250 gms! 
Just made leek and potato soup for lunch. DD1 and DS-i-L1 been working away for a few days. Cooked enough tea for them yesterday, as they were due back around 4:30. They were later, so didn't eat it. Their sausage are now in the fridge, (they will be sliced to use in sausage pasta bake,) the mash is in the soup along with the water i cooked the veg in and some garden leeks, the veg will reappear at some point in the next day or two in another meal.
Since the first spends are, £8.73. Some sweets for DH, milk and 30 packs of McVitties biscuits. Reduced at farmfoods, won't need biscuits for a while now.
Total for the year to date is, £608.07/£2640. 
Hugs, mumtoomany.xx

ariarnia

hello again all. last month didnt go t plan but it was also a 'finding my feet' month easing back into this mindful way of doing things. i'm not going to pretend that i'm back in the headspace for old style but i'm also not giving up and i'm starting to remember where my weak points are (how to recognise i'm about to reach for the takeaway menu!) so hopefully can be a bit stronger this month and get closer to my budget if not under it. 

last month spent £306 out of a £200 budget. going to try to aim again for £200 but will make sure there's quick food in (might do some baking for the freezer tomorrow to have some cook from frozen pies and puddings) and i;m going to allow myself a separate £50 pot for takeaway and eating out of the house and if i don't spend it this month i'll put it on one side for a day out in the summer. see if that works as a carrot for my brain!

April - £200