April 2023 Grocery Challenge

Gettingmyshiztogether

Hello all,

Happy Saturday! 

I am declaring for April £320.23 / £400.

I am rolling the extra across for May and so will be working with a budget of £380 plus £80 so £460 total. 

We have enough food in to last us until Monday however my 10% off voucher runs out today so I will shop today for May. I run on the calendar month still.

See everyone over on the May Board x

PipneyJane

I’m declaring at £134.90/£152.70, rolling £17.80 over to May.

That’s what’s left in the purse today. I’ve totally lost track of what I’ve declared AND £20.62 was spent which wasn’t recorded, but at least we came in under budget.

I’m also 50-odd posts behind on this thread.  Apologies if I’ve missed anything momentous.  I will try to catch up.

- Pip

Verulamium_Vixen

@joedenise and @2Scratters thanks for reminding me about the freezer, I put a lot of stuff in but take very little out.
Fess up time...I have 3freezers, one chest freezer and a fridge freezer in a shed and one fridge freezer freezer in the kitchen, all of them pretty full.
There's a background to this but I  can't explain it on a pad.
I'll have a look for the freezer inventory sheet you mentioned @2Scratters there must be quite a lot of food in there as I went to Smithfield Market about 2 weeks ago and spent abut £225 which is approx £400 worth of meat if bought retail. The only meat I didn't get was chicken because they only seem to have Halal.
On a hugely positive note,  I haven't been in a shop since Tuesday although I did send DH out to get some milk and fruit on Thursday.
(I did go to the pub last night though and had some wine and garlic ciabatta while DS had a curry).
I'm off to A*di at some point over the weekend to pick up some stuff, mainly cleaning products and dog food for the fox as she's currently feeding her babies.  We vixens have to look out for each other!
It's a lovely day today the sun is shining and I'm drinking tea with 3 days off work ahead.
I'll check back later.
X

Nelliegrace

£150 budget, £136.12 spent, £13.88 left over.

We went to Asda yesterday for the last grocery shop of the month.
I got yellow stickered smoked salmon for £2.50, unflavoured drinking yoghurt 37p, and 3 best unwaxed lemons for 35p which will make lemon curd as the hens are laying well. 
I stocked up on Asda decaf instant coffee £2.25 for 200g, and basic muesli £1.40 a kilo, which is fine with a bit of fresh fruit. Wholemeal bread flour was £1.05 for 1.5kg which is cheaper than the white! Cooking bacon was 90p for 500g, it will be fine in a quiche, which seems to be in fashion, and I shall freeze some portions. 
£19.95 spent.

The local Holland and Barrett didn’t have any of the pressed dates 3 for 2, so I have ordered them online with free click and collect, 6 x 250g for £3.96. 
Total £23.91

mumtoomany

Hi and welcome, @Verulamium_Vixen. Ah, Smithfield market, used to go around once a month when we lived "up north". Great place for meat, also fruit and vegetables. Can i ask why you didn't buy the halal chicken? The only difference is the way it's slaughtered. It tastes exactly the same. 

You're not the only one with three freezers. I have two huge chest freezers, bo th to the brim! We also have a fridge freezer in the barn, which i have at last managed to empty! It will be used again at Christmas, or maybe before. 

No more spent, but we need milk, again! I've stated a list for Tuesday, we will go into town then. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Pennypincin

£26.18 spent on odds and sods to get me through the weekend from Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury's.
I've £33.60 left, which I will add to the next fortnights £60.
It seems crazy scary the prices, and really need to start shopping better.
Shouldn't need to shop for a day or two, but if I do pop into the shop, it's going to be probably be for salad/fruit.

PipneyJane

Someone on here mentioned that it is more expensive to eat healthily.  (I’m sorry I can’t find the post to quote it.).

I’d like to disagree.  We eat really well on our £140/month grocery challenge budget: lots of veggies, good quality meat, plenty of pulses, etc.  Our diet is low in fat and high in fibre.  It does help that I cook almost everything from scratch, but really it’s about getting the biggest bang for your buck, so I thought I’d share some tips:

• Focus your meal planning on getting your 5-a-day vegetables.  I add carrots and mushrooms to most things as padding.  (At 55p/kg, fresh carrots are cheap.).
• Most of my recipes start “fry onion with mushrooms, add garlic” so when I have time I will cook up a double or triple quantity of this base and freeze the extra portions.  Doing this also means that the mushrooms don’t go slimy in the bottom of the fridge.
• Your freezer is your friend.  Many vegetables are cheaper when bought frozen and they will always have a higher vitamin content than “fresh” vegetables from the supermarket shelves which may have been in cold storage for weeks/months.  Frozen spinach is a classic example: in my local supermarket, a 1kg bag of frozen spinach costs about the same as a 200g bag of fresh leaves.  If I’m not making a salad, why buy fresh?
• When buying fresh veggies, try to buy them loose or in net bags.  Anything in plastic will be sweating in the shop and the sweaty spots are the first places mould will grow.  This is particularly true with plastic-wrapped fresh broccoli, which doesn’t last half as long as the unwrapped stuff, even though I immediately remove the wrapping when we get it home.
• Once you’ve got your 5-a-day in vegetables, focus on foods that fill you up:  fibre and protein.
• Use bulgar wheat instead of rice.  It costs a bit more but has 4 times the fibre and 8 times the protein of brown rice, while only taking 15 minutes to cook.  Use 1 part bulgar wheat to 2 parts boiling water, cover, bring back to the boil, switch off and let it steep for 15 minutes.  1/4 cup of bulgar wheat per person will give a decent sized portion.
• Dried pulses are cheap.  Lentils don’t need soaking for 6-8 hours but beans will.  I soak my beans overnight, then drain and freeze them before cooking.  (It helps break down the cell walls, reducing cooking time.)  Cook triple quantities and freeze the other two for use later.
• Once you own a set of spices, the cheapest, healthiest main meal you can make is tarka dhal, served with rice or bulgar wheat.  Add frozen mixed veg to the tarka for extra nutrition.
• If you eat meat, eat the whole animal.  Don’t just buy chicken breasts or beef steak.  The cheaper cuts of meat may take longer to cook, so need a bit more planning, but you don’t need to end up with a less healthy meal at the end of it.  Don’t sneer at liver; if you eat pâté, you’re eating liver, so might as well make your own for half the price.
• You don’t need as much meat as you think.  One large chicken breast will easily serve 4 in a stir fry or pasta dish.  I make my beef chilli or bolognese with 250g of minced beef, bulked up with grated carrots and grated courgettes (bought when YS, grated then frozen in 250g portions).

HTH

- Pip

Pennypincin

I was offered a small chest freezer a few years ago and kind of regret not taking it.
But it would cost a bit to be kept filled. Unless my mum and I still had our allotment (or had one of my own or turned part of my garden over to growing food) and was pretty productive with freezable items.
I've a small freezer at the moment, ideal i guess for 1 person, but it doesn't take much to fill cost wise. I shouldn't complain complain really.

mumtoomany

Walked to the garage for milk. Took OH, so we ended up with chocolate too! Spent £2.95. Total now spent to date for the year is,£731.35/£2640. Still quite a bit under, as i shan't need anything else in April.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx

Blackcats

I'm finishing the month £8 under my £280 budget.  I have included HRH The Cat's food this month.  However in the spirit of being accountable to myself, there's been 1 day when we cooked for family which comes from a separate budget, 1 birthday meal out and a birthday brunch from a separate budget and 1 birthday meal paid for by my dad.  How many birthday meals can I squeeze out of this month? 🥳. Can you believe we also nearly had a takeaway but were saved from ourselves because the shop was shut.

we also had a good haul from olio which helped.