April 2023 Grocery Challenge

Doom_and_Gloom

Doom_and_Gloom said:

£107.43/£240.

£132.57 left.

We have an O~box coming next week that is going to be £15.98. Will add it after it arrives.

£55.01 spent since last post between the O~box and Mr S.

£162.44/£240.
£77.56 left.

We have a £5 off £30 coupon for L!do so we will go there on Tuesday to do our shop. As we have the coupon we have skipped the O~box and the A&C deliveries for next week.

Nelliegrace

£150 budget, £81.97 spent, £68.03 left.

The weekly shop at Aldi cost £13.36 for fruit, milk, cream, evap, Norpak spread, and crumpets 45p, and wholewheat pasta 79p for 500g.

I had fun embarrassing some young students just behind us at the checkout, who were counting their pennies for oranges and a packet of biscuits. I asked who chose the healthy stuff, and I added the oranges to our bill. 

Soontobeoap

So tonight we had hot dogs with fried onions. We had bought them for when GSs were coming. Made a lovely change and conjured up memories of football matches and fair grounds. Funny how food can do that sometimes. Anyway dilemna now is what to do with other 10 frankfurters in the jar (really long ones) DH says that he is happy to eat them for the next 5 days!!! Off to check out whether I can freeze them. 

Suffolk_lass

Nelliegrace said:

£150 budget, £81.97 spent, £68.03 left.

The weekly shop at Aldi cost £13.36 for fruit, milk, cream, evap, Norpak spread, and crumpets 45p, and wholewheat pasta 79p for 500g.

I had fun embarrassing some young students just behind us at the checkout, who were counting their pennies for oranges and a packet of biscuits. I asked who chose the healthy stuff, and I added the oranges to our bill. 

I love that, well done!

Adorian

£60 budget, £2.87 remaining

Spent £1.98 at Aldi yesterday.  When I got home I checked against last year's prices, just for the heck of it. Paid £1.69 for a dozen free range eggs last May, just paid £1.29 for a half dozen. I didn't really need them but I'm getting a bit bored of porridge every day and I got some salad from Olio so I'll be having a soft boiled egg on salad with butter & oil in which I've sauteed garlic and some curry powder for the next few days for breakfast (starting tomorrow). Sounds weird but it's actually really tasty and it's one of my go to breakfasts in the summer once my lettuces are going strong.

I also bought some fresh ginger for 69p. I'm not sure why Aldi has ginger in plastic packaging. It's single use plastic, it's wasteful for people who don't use much ginger, you can't pick the decent pieces and the plastic causes the ginger to go soggy - well over half the packs weren't fit to be sold due to this.

Anyway, I made a veg and bean soup using a bag of Tesco soup mix I'd got from Olio and frozen a while ago, a tin of borlotti beans from the cupboard, garlic & onion from the fridge, half a tin of chopped tomatoes left over from making a curry, a few chilli flakes, salt, some smoked paprika and some dried parsley, along with a bay leaf from the allotment and a beef stock cube from the cupboard. It tastes really good and I'll get hefty 4 portions out of it.

This morning I'm having sausages and a sandwich thin for breakfast (both Olio from freezer) with ketchup, then the veg & bean soup for lunch and split pea soup for dinner. If I'm hungry in between meals I have some yoghurts that I need to eat over the next few days.

Although I've only £2.87 left and it's only halfway through April, I'm still fairly sure I can get through to the end of the month without overspending or going into Clubcard or Nectar points. All I really need is some onions and maybe another bulb of garlic.

Next month I'm going to NOT spend on silly things at the start of the month, and I'll bulk buy some diet coke instead of popping over the road and paying 75p for a can. Then I can stock back up on pulses and nuts. I'm aiming to eat more veggie and only have meat if I get it from Olio or yellow sticker.

Adorian

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. 

I use paper and have it up on the fridge so it's easy to access. I'm a huge fan of spreadsheets but I just find having a paper list in the kitchen in front of me easier to manage (and I can cross things out so I know I've used them and what I've used). Plus I can look at it whilst looking up recipes online without having to switch screens back and forth.

Suffolk_lass

Last spend for me this month as off on hols on Monday and everything from then on (including shopping for food) is covered by that budget. So 4 pints of milk and a malt loaf in Coop and 2 treat croissants and a brown multi-seed loaf from the bakery £9.50 and I am including the croissants as they are a treat for DH but my breakfast!

Pennypincin

Hello everyone.
Spent 7.75 in Aldi and Lidl.
I bought 3 packs of redbush tea, 10 large eggs and some snacks for the cupboard.
I really need to start doing a proper shop, but it's a work in progress.
I still seem to have plenty of tinned tomatoes and various pulses as well as odds and ends in the freezer along with enough cleaning supplies.
I'm tempted to spend frugaly? And get a home delivery for the heavy stuff including cartons of milk.

KajiKita

Soontobeoap said:

So tonight we had hot dogs with fried onions. We had bought them for when GSs were coming. Made a lovely change and conjured up memories of football matches and fair grounds. Funny how food can do that sometimes. Anyway dilemna now is what to do with other 10 frankfurters in the jar (really long ones) DH says that he is happy to eat them for the next 5 days!!! Off to check out whether I can freeze them. 

As Mr KK is omni and I am (mostly) vegan we always have two left of the the big chunky 4-pack hotdogs when we do ‘hotdogs’ together. I put them in the freezer, in the packet and a second plastic freezer bag (which gets reused several times) with a rubber band round the whole lot. 

KK

Blackcats

@number_23 - I have a hand written list stuck to the front of the freezer - in fact it's a few sheets stuck onto the door in roughly the right place when you open the door.  So bottom shelf has a list stuck to the door in approximately the position of bottom shelf etc.  the lists also have some threatening messages on them about the possible consequences of not adding on or crossing off as items are put in or taken out 🙀

we did a Lidl shop this week which came to £46 and included a nice bottle of wine for the weekend.  We've decided to have a Friday or Saturday night treat meal using produce from either our local butcher or fishmonger and this week we spent £11 at the butcher.  It's expensive but cheaper than eating out or a takeaway and it supports these fab local businesses.  I'm cooking tonight and looking forward to dinner already.

we were super lucky with olio this week and got some brilliant wait rose items.  I need to update the inventory on the freezer though or else face the consequences 🤣. We got  new and old potatoes, tender stem broccoli, basil, grapes, super seeded loaf, macaroni cheese x 2, tarka dhal x 2, (which auto corrected to tarmac dhal) peppercorn sauce x 3, 4 packs of Higgidy cheese rolls and sausage rolls and 3 packs of fancy hot cross buns.  We weren't greedy but arrived to collect what we had actually requested just as some of the items were required to be disposed of.  

I'm so impressed by everyone's efforts and it motivates me to know that I can absolutely manage to stay in budget.  I need to stock up on some baking supplies which haven't been in stock in Lidl but should still be ok budget wise.  Any surplus from this month's budget can be used for our May holiday.  

£130 balance