March 2023 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Such a busy day today. Daughter crossed the solent with her 3 boys to see me for Mothers day. Unbeknown to me DH had said it would all be fine as we had plenty of food. He picked them at the boat with daughter protesting that she  needed to shop to get some lunch as a surprise all to no avail! 🤣. If I had known they were coming I would have put together some snacks for their return trip. Anyway managed to throw together a reasonably decent lunch of Pizza, sweetcorn and chips and they all went home happy. We had a lovely day. ❤️. DH still thinks he is head of the family and therefor can provide for us all. I guess its sweet really. 

Nelliegrace

The oven has been on this evening. I cooked the small, rindless pork as a pot roast over onion, celery, carrots, parsnip, potato, and a bayleaf. Those veg will be our stew for a few days. 
I served some sliced pork with gravy, and a medley of steamed carrots, parsnip, broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, courgette, and sprouts, cooked over some potatoes. 
I made a fruit cake, and some not too sweet flapjacks for the week. 
We had some of the M&S TGTG tomato soup and the last brioche roll sliced for a starter. 
Pudding was the small slices of water melon from the TGTG, a small pear, a dried fig, and a few grapes as a small fruit salad with cream. 

Suffolk_lass

Last night was roast pork shoulder and I stewed one of the three Bramley apples to make apple sauce to accompany it (with carrots, savoy cabbage and roast potatoes), then baked the other two apples, filled with sultanas and cut round their waists to stop them boiling out. I made (Birds) custard to go with this. What a lovely traditional dinner. There is leftover pork I will use this week too

SausageDogSandwich

It’s been a spendy week here. On Thursday i spent 11.95 on fresh ingredients to make chicken fajitas and some micro rice. Friday was the usual shop at Tesco where we spent £51.13, this did include a bottle of wine, fresh fruit and veg, milk, butter, cheese, chicken, mince, bacon, sausages, can’t remember what else. Then we went to farmfoods and spent £24.09, should of been a lot less but they has boxes of the the peace pops for 99p that the kids love so grabbed 4 of those, magn7ms and Ben & jerrys aswell. 

I don’t think we are going to be able to stay in budget as there’s still a third of the month to go and not much budget left! 

£197.41/250 spent.

otb666

619/600 i am calling it for March as gone over but should not have anything else to buy and i go from 24th -24th  If iceland dont deliver all items i may come under

Nelliegrace

We have used the “emergency” long life milk to avoid paying the higher price for milk at the local Co-op. It is a shock how quickly the use by dates come round. 
I have my list for Asda, to use the blue light card before their offer ends. 

DH has indoor bowls including a fish and chip supper for £5 this evening, bowls alone is £2 a session, so £3 off the budget. There is no bar at the village hall now so they can take their own drinks. 

Soontobeoap

Going into the last week of March and my "store cupboard/freezer challenge" I have spent £190.00 over 4 weeks. I am hoping to have a really cheap week next week as I try to keep using up bits from the freezer but I dont know how a family of 4 can possibly manage on £100 a month as some articles claim., even if they buy all store brand. Fruit and veg has gone up sooo much. There are only 2 of us in this house! 

What I have learned this month. 

1)I cannot get out of the habit of thinking ahead and buying stuff on offer for future. (not sure I want to either) 3 of DHs pizzas bought today for £2.75 each. Half price! Huge bags of tea bags on offer this month £12.20 for the 2.

2) have thought about bulk budget but as it all comes out of my pension I have decided there is no point. 

3) we like some brand items better than shop brand so continue to buy a mix.

4) although I am sometimes over budget for the month having a budget keeps me accountable and makes me think twice about what I buy.

5) I thought it was a good idea to do a "store cupboard challenge" in a month when we had no guests. I also need to check that no one is coming in the next month as I will inevitably be preparing ahead!

On that basis I am planning another one in September when I am challenging myself to spend less than this month.

Sweet and sour chicken with rice last night so I kept a little chicken back off of a large chicken breast to make 4 chicken and ham pies this afternoon. (We had gammon on Monday) Also made up 4 fish cakes from a tin of tuna. Cheesy ham pasta tonight. The freezer still looks pretty full so will get a full inventry of all the tubs of sauces etc and try to use them up over the next 2 weeks.

Hope this isnt really boring to everyone else but it has helped me to get my head around things.

Up to 22nd March I have spent £7.00 more on grocerys than the same time last year. 

MissRikkiC

I’m certainly not bored @Soontobeoap I really enjoy these posts where it’s just a brain dump and often do them myself 

Nelliegrace

£107.08 spent out of £135.

The main shop for the week at Asda, £23.35 with the 10% discount.
We bought Asda own brand Milk, UHT milk, evap, cream, instant decaf, golden syrup, dried apricots, fresh fruit and vegetables.
We got yellow stickered large trifle 82p, salami 31p, Ewe’s milk cheese 180g 72p, and strawberries 69p.
The 7 carrots, 1 leek, 1 courgette, and 6 bananas were all cheaper per kilo bought loose.
Grapes and clementines were 2 packs for £2.
Pears, oranges, and blueberries were from the Just Essentials range. 
Everything else for the week will come from the freezer, fridge or store cupboard. 

I have used £4 of the week’s £5 meat ration, a 700g rindless pork joint from the freezer, which we had on Sunday, and still have leftovers. I shall “shop” from the freezer for a portion of beef mince, and get a portion of bacon out for the rest of the separate ham or bacon ration, (4oz per week.)
The hens gave us 14  large eggs, we sold 6 for £1 towards their feed costs. 

zafiro1984

 Soontobeoap:-I also enjoy reading people's journey.

Called in at Sainsbury this morning on my trip around my appointments, spent 43.28p, mainly on fruit, veg, and a few essentials to last until the end of the month. Hopefully that is the last spend of the month and I'll come in at an overspend of £7.64 
I can live with that.