April 2023 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Oh dear - £87.85 spent doing half the weekend's shopping, at the supermarket, butchers & bakery... more at the market tomorrow! Life's been rather complicated on the catering front this week; we do have DS3 home until next Monday, plus DD1's BF coming & going somewhat unpredictably thanks to a domestic situation at his home. But OH & I are away for a fair portion of next week; just the DDs here, so that should be a tad cheaper!

Cocobeans

Went to pick up a click and collect at Morries today then made the mistake of going instore with DD and OH! They rarely come to the supermarket with me so go a bit crazy when they do! DD decided to be vegetarian 3 weeks ago so we picked up some veggie things to try! Morries didn't have soya milk again so popped to the local shop to get this. Have spent just over half the monthly budget but stocked up so should be okay. Worked out have approx £7 per day left.

Had a veggie bolognaise today made with soya mince - does anyone use this and then freeze the leftovers? Worried it may go mushy once frozen and defrosted? 

£129.84 / £250 spent 

KajiKita

Cocobeans said:

Went to pick up a click and collect at Morries today then made the mistake of going instore with DD and OH! They rarely come to the supermarket with me so go a bit crazy when they do! DD decided to be vegetarian 3 weeks ago so we picked up some veggie things to try! Morries didn't have soya milk again so popped to the local shop to get this. Have spent just over half the monthly budget but stocked up so should be okay. Worked out have approx £7 per day left.

Had a veggie bolognaise today made with soya mince - does anyone use this and then freeze the leftovers? Worried it may go mushy once frozen and defrosted? 

£129.84 / £250 spent 

I do this all the time and I have never noticed the difference. Some soya mince comes in a frozen format anyway 😊

KK

number_23

Evening, so I have finally got my act together and completed the inventory of what we have in, so I can now plan some meals and use up what we have in. 

Quick question - for those who complete the above tasks, how do you record the inventory to optimise use - on a piece of paper or electronically? I'm not sure what would work best and I want this to work so much that recommendations would be appreciated. 

MissRikkiC

Well done @number_23 I love doing that task but hate getting in the freezer 🤣 
I have previously listed every item and how many portions or grams or whatever unit and then used a box per 1 unit to be able to tick off once used. 

Imagine the Os are little squares 
250g beef mince O O O O O O O 

It would be stuck to the fridge/freezer and everyone would be expected to complete when they remove an item, equally add to the list when they add something new.

Soontobeoap

I write a freezer list and cross things off as I go. I am dreadful at updating though. Add stuff from a shop OK but forget the bits that I make out of leftovers. Eg pies, fish cakes etc. Usually repeat stock take every 2 months but it does mean that I am pretty clear about what we have in.

We are still picking at eating so no meal plan. This is made worse by the fact that we both fancy different things! It is driving me mad as our diet has become limited. Cant plan stuff that needs to thaw because we might  not fancy it when the time comes. Fish and chips again last night! I will be glad when we can get back to normal.

£4.00 spent at local coop on butter, bread and lettuce. 

Suffolk_lass

@number_23 I pulled all the past date tins and packs out and lined them up on the kitchen windowsill so that I initially planned from there. I am still a fail at inventory in freezer as we always omit to mark up what we use. I have resorted to sorting frozen stores so that immediate use-ups and opened veg packs are in the kitchen, hm leftovers are in the toolshed, and veg, fruit, meat and bread are in separate areas so I might not know what is there, but I know where to look to see what we have. I meal plan from stores but very much, Ooh, we'll have that, which satisfies my "ooh, sparkly" rash purchase need

[Deleted User]

number_23 said:

Evening, so I have finally got my act together and completed the inventory of what we have in, so I can now plan some meals and use up what we have in. 

Quick question - for those who complete the above tasks, how do you record the inventory to optimise use - on a piece of paper or electronically? I'm not sure what would work best and I want this to work so much that recommendations would be appreciated. 

Hi, I use the freezer and pantry inventory pages from

https://organizedhome.com/printable/household-notebook

And keep them together in a folder in the kitchen. It would be fairly straightforward to create my own one but these do the job until I get round to that.   It uses the same system that @M@MissRikkiC describes above.

I think electronic would work well too but I am old-fashioned and work better with physical pen and paper:)

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

Yes please let me do this again

last 2 weeks of March went a bit iffy because I wasn’t very well



£250 

£9.91 spent

it was a beautiful day yesterday so went to the park with my daughter and whilst I was in town I got a few things in the Tesco express. I have a big shop coming today but we didn’t have enough bread and milk to see us through for breakfast, lunch, hot drinks. Whilst I was in there I got a pizza for dinner seen as we were getting home later and no time to do a pasta bake that I had planned. I also check out the reduced section. I managed to get 2 chicken breasts for £1.29 a packet so I got 3 packets. I’ve got some chicken meals planned this week and that will do nicely. 

I then went into the Sainsbury’s local and found some crispy sliced potatoes reduced for 39p so got them to compliment dinner. 

£240.09 left 

£146.56 spent 

it was a hugeee Tesco shop this week!

the lamb legs and beef joints are on offer so it was almost £25 just for those but the size of them the beef will do 2 meals and the lamb 3 maybe 4.

As money was tight last week I really exhausted down our supplies so I’ve had to stock up on a lot of things. It being Easter week my daughter is not in nursery so I’ve made sure she’s got a few extra things, more fruit mainly to keep her full. 

The veg was on 19p which is great as I needed potatoes, carrots and onions. Diet Coke was £7.50 for 24 cans and I’m determined to see that over a month as I’m trying to cut back my usage. Normally I have a can every day but I’m trying to cut that back to every other day. One, for my health and 2 the cost of them 

next week won’t need to be a big shop as the meat/fish I’ve got will do is 2 weeks. I’ll need fresh items - milk, bread, fruit, veg.

£93.53 left 

£42.20 spent 

very small shop needed just for fresh items. I also got the salmon on offer as today is the last day. I’ve got tons of meat and fish in my freezer now with some reductions my sister kindly gave me. 

£51.33 left 

£4.74 spent 

went to my sisters yesterday and got into town just before 5pm. I always do a stalk in the Tesco express and M&S for reduced food. The Tesco was rubbish, not enough money took off especially when they are more expensive than the main stores. The M&S I hit jackpot. I got 2 x 2pk of burgers 93p each, proper big posh ones and the posh hot dogs 6pk was £1.42 each so got 2 packets of those. Nothing else took my fancy in there but still very pleased 

£46.59 left

thriftwizard

Phew! Just £31 spent at the market this morning, on fresh stuff - and that included a tray of kohlrabi plants for the allotment. Never grown it, or eaten it, before, so I thought it'd be worth testing before investing in a whole packet of seeds! So I have just under £200 left to feed 5-ish for 2 weeks, which is definitely do-able despite the special dietary needs etc. - probably!