April 2023 Grocery Challenge

Thevalueofless

Thank you for the April thread @elsiepac

Could I be put in for £270 please.

TVOL

leftatthetrafficlights

First spend for April yesterday - £29.50 spent on fruit, salad, veg and stuff for my grandbaby - his stuff was over half of the cost! 😳😂


Running annual total £308.81/£3000

bunnybrain

Soontobeoap said:

Welcome @bunnybrain. You will learn loads on here. Take a look at the recipes at the beginning of this thread too. £108 will only cover 4 weeks at £27.00 a week so you might want to up it for your first month. Good luck. 

Thanks for advice - have upped budget to £135

Off to start a meal plan now - going to do a weekly one as not sure how this will work for me; as going onto nights next week - all part of learning though - I did this once I am sure I can do it again lol

Soontobeoap

Did first shop today. It is early but I wanted to do an Aldi shop before Tesco delivery on Saturday to get as much as I can as cheaply as I can. (New strategy for me) off I went with 2 lists. One for things that I wanted from Aldi and knew were cheaper and the other was from my Tesco list with prices at the side to compare. It took a while to do the shopping but I made some interesting finds.

Chicken breasts and 5% beef mince were the same price as Tesco so have left them on order to save carrying. Meatballs however were 76p cheaper. Ice lollies a lot cheaper and other things a few pence but it really added up over the complete shop. I downgraded brand for squash, tinned sweetcorn and stock cubes. My total cost came to £35.04 and over 32 items I saved £10.04 more than usual. Thats not counting grocerys that I normally buy at Aldi because I know that they are cheaper. So this was a good start. 

On another note the cost of DHs razors are always a shock! They are on the order to come on 1st April. He has sensitive skin so likes a certain brand. They are on offer from £24.00 down to £17.50.And thats no joke! 🤦‍♀️

JingsMyBucket

@Soontobeoap that's a huge saving and worth the time you put into your trip today! Well done on getting clearer on prices for you. 

elsiepac

@Soontobeoap I'd honestly be so much worse off without the forum! Great savings in Aldi though, I wish I had one near me, but my small town does have a Lidl which usually has decent F&V so that's something. It's always so busy in there though and I really don't like being around people and it's very cramped in there, so it's always a chore but it's worth it for a big bag of fresh goodies for like a tenner!
@Suffolk_lass I definitely relate to the feeling of having to make myself feel poor - the trouble is, no matter how much I squirrel away in different budgets in different pots (I use Monzo) I always know it's all there.  I just need to try and be strict with myself, but I've never really been successful!

I made some seed crackers today - if you have the different seeds in anyway then it's very simple to make and they were actually really yummy so I definitely recommend!  Incidentally as with everything possible I buy my chia seeds in bulk to save money - these are the ones I get - with my subscribe and save 15% they are £8.09 for 1kg which I think is very good indeed.

This is the cracker recipe

This was my not very beautiful attempt, but they taste so good - I'll experiment with adding herbs and/or nutritional yeast in future as well.

Budgets updated to here

Suffolk_lass

Ooh @elsiepac, I'm a sucker for some bulk purchases of nuts and seeds. I used to buy from Big River Company but I looked into a couple of UK based small companies. I have taken to using  Buy Wholefoods Online (slightly more expensive than BRC) and sometimes Real Food Source direct in preference to via the big river people. I just checked and Chia seeds are £7.99 for organic 1kg from Real Food Source. Here's a link. I buy most of my bulk nuts and seeds from these two and they are really good. Unfortunately, I never struggle to reach the level where postage is free.

elsiepac

Thanks for the tip @Suffolk_lass - will check them out!

I'm so pleased, my application for Forum Ambassador has been accepted! I used to be a Board Guide but then the system changed and you have to apply year on year and I missed out, so I'm excited to be doing that again

Made a lovely lentil bolognese for tea last night - honestly one of my favourite dishes, and it's so wholesome and hearty and healthy and delicious - I flavour mine with bay leaves, soy sauce, vegan worcester sauce if I have any in, and red wine stock pots from Mr T.  It's not even 5pm and I'm already looking forward to the leftover portion I have for tea tonight!!

otb666

@elsiepac you have helped me by running the grocery challenge and can certainly count on my vote

Hoosrice

I would like to join the April Grocery Challenge, as my work contract is coming to an end and need to make savings last.
I'm budgeting £150 for April for 2 people as have full cupboards..
Thanks 😊