February 2024 Grocery Challenge

London_1

Good Morning chums well despite not wanting to spend much this month I met DD yesterday in the local Adsa cafe for a quick coffee at lunchtime.She works next door to the shop and doesn't have a very long lunch hour so it was just a quick 45 minute coffee and chat.After she went back to work I was going to go home ,but thought well as I'm here I will have a look around at their prices to compare with Tesco and Aldi. I must say I wasn't greatly impressed.Until I came to the reduced section. it had just been filled and on looking through I found a lot of bargains extremely well reduced , not one to turn my nose up at a bargain or two I spent a total of £10.67 altogether and when I got home and worked it out I have the building blocks for 17 meals ! ! as follows

1 x large lasagne : I divided it into three portions worked out at 84p per portion as reduced to £2.52 it was their 'Bistro range and they are good sized portions which with a salad will easily do me three dinners original price £6

2 x large fishcakes filled whit cheese and leeks again pretty hefty sized ones at 66.5p each reduced to £1.33 for two 
original price £3.60 price 

4x Bistro chicken breast with wild garlic made into chicken Kievs .these really were huge, so definitely 4 good meals there cost £2.08 for a pack of two so I had two packs  costing £4.16 original price £6 per pack so it should have been £12.00

2x deep filled family sized steak pies at £1.33 each = £2.66 should have been £2.02 each £4.04

original price for the lot was £2,80each =£5.20

Getting the whole lot for £10.67 instead of £26.80 seemed well worth the effort .When I got home I portioned it all up the big stake pies easily cut into four quarters and wrapped individually so 8 meals there the fish cake individually as well made it 10the four chicken sieve with wild garlic (they really were very asge ones made another four meals and the big lasagne forno which weigh in at 765 gms was easily divided into three and frozen in glass dishes for cooking later. So although I did splash out just over a tenner, I think for the amount of meals I can make out of my yellow stickered bargains its well worth it so I'm now 2/21 NSDs for February with only one more short shopping trip to do perhaps next week for fresh stuff  so total so far is just under £38.odd by the third week in February But lots of meals and the building blocks for a good few. The steak pie quarters I will add mash and veg to the lasagnes probably salad and maybe a few wedges, the fish cakes will just need some veg or even a little boiled rice for a changed the chicken well I can either have with a jacket spud or just many a cauliflower cheese if I see the Pauli's at a reasonable price.

Asdas is not my normal go-to shop as a rule as its not all that local to me as perhaps Tescos or Aldi's are, but I was glad I was lucky enough to just be there at the right time when they were putting stuff out and I must admit the reductions were really good 

Plenty of meals in the freezer that haven't really broken the bank so I'm a happy bunny this morning  

JackieO xx

C_J

You had some brilliant bargains there @London_1!  At around 58p for the main component for each meal, you've done well. I don't often go to Asda either but on the odd occasion when I have been, I too have timed it just right for the YS bargains and it's such a happy moment when that happens, isn't it?!

SecondStar

Up to £103.13 / £120 spent. £16.87 remaining.

I’m hoping to close out February at least a couple of pounds in the green. I’ve not been as frugal with my meals this month as I was in January - haven’t made any soup batches until tonight, though I’m still doing well with making pancakes for breakfasts.

Room for improvement in March, though will likely keep the budget the same for another
month to be sure.

PipneyJane

Good shopping there @London_1.  Perfect timing, too.

I’ve just dropped in to mention something that I keep forgetting:  if anyone wants a pressure cooker, L!dl will be selling a decent-sized one in the Aisle of Surprise this weekend and the price is reasonable, too, at about £40.  6L if I remember correctly, which is definitely large enough to cook a main course for 4-6, or a steamed pudding, or a kilo of soaked, dried kidney beans.

HTH

- Pip

Soontobeoap

@London_1 what some great bargains!
I never seem to hit the right time for ys bargains. Hopefully soon. 😊

We are still hanging in there although another shop needed soon for juice bread and milk! We seem to get through so much of these 3 basic things.

Had a hygenist appt in town today so popped into poundland and spent £2.00 on Shampoo and conditioner. I have been getting by on DHs head and shoulders for the last 2 washes but without conditioner it leaves my hair like straw. It will be nice to have silky hair again. 🤣

Its feeling like I have nothing in the freezer to carry over to next month so tomorrow I will do a freezer stock take and make up some bulk meals with left over bits to assess where I am before I set next month's budget. 

Blackcats

We seem to be doing ok this month although we have been away for 2 nights which helps make a short grocery challenge month even shorter!  February has gone so quickly compared to January when it seemed to take what felt like at least 40 days to get to the 21st 🤷‍♀️

I'm definitely noticing that not buying a bottle of wine a week (sometimes 2 bottles) is making a big difference to the grocery budget.  It wasn't a deliberate tactic, I just seem to not really want wine at the moment.  I have bought a mini Prosecco as a Saturday treat and that seems to be enough for me.  OH doesn't really drink - a very occasional g and t and the ready mixed tin is fine for him.

I think I will drop the budget a bit next month to take account of the lack of alcohol and hopefully have some £'s to divert elsewhere.

£183 balance remaining (2 more shops to go!)

otb666

575/550 so £25 over this month.   as i go from 23rd til 23rd thats my final figure and now moving onto next month. Hope you are ok Pip and thinking of you

diminua

£145.44 spent so far. I have had some meals out, but those were from the holiday budget. The only thing I really need at the moment is milk, and possibly pasta later this week. 

Soontobeoap

Aldi shop today, I thought for juice milk and bread but DH had other ideas. He fancied ham and tomato sarnis for lunch and suddenly from nowhere decided he would like an individual melon and pineapple pot at £1.79. I persuaded him that buying whole ones and cutting them up was better value at only £1.00 more. So hopefully his sweet tooth will be sorted for a while. He also put 8 choc ice lollies in which I insisted were not on grocery challenge. As you can imagine I was beginning to twitch by now!!! I got home after spending £27.94 to find that he had thrown the last 4 slices of bread in the kitchen bin. I instantly hoiked them out as they were on top and sealed. They will be used for breadcrumbs this afternoon. I thought he was beginning to get it. 🤷‍♀️ Still venting on here has stopped me venting at him!!!!! We were doing so well but are now well over. 😕. Still averaging around £160.00 a month for the 2 of us though so not too shabby overall. This includes cleaning products and toiletries too so I will console myself with that. Onwards and upwards. 😊

PipneyJane

otb666 said:

575/550 so £25 over this month.   as i go from 23rd til 23rd thats my final figure and now moving onto next month. Hope you are ok Pip and thinking of you

I’m good, thanks, @otb666.  Much better than I was, say, a month ago, and responding very well to the chemo, etc.

Since I had to go to the hospital this morning for blood tests, DH and I did an abbreviated round of the supermarkets on the way home, to take advantage of various offers available on their apps.  We missed out MrT’s and A$da, and shopped in Sainsbugs (£16.27 spent) and L!dl (£13.41).

DH had an interesting experience in L!dl.  Since we had a 15% off offer, he’d picked up a Wheat & Rye Bloomer (shelf price £1.99).  When it rang up, not only didn’t it register on the receipt as “original price minus 15% off”, the price shown was £1.79, so 10% off not 15%.  When queried, the shop assistant very kindly voided the original transaction and manually rang it up again at the correct price, saving us another 10p and leaving the voucher unused on our L!dl app.  DH is going to write to L!dl head office, to complain about inconsistencies in their software programming.

Once a £2 coin received in change and various coppers and 5p pieces have been removed  and deposited into their money boxes, the above brings our total Grocery Challenge spend for February to

£124.48/£165 leaving £40.12 for the rest of the month.

- Pip