April 2024 Grocery Challenge

wishus

Hello, please may I join again with £200?

Already spent £84. 

Meal plan for the week:

Monday, tandoori lamb and rice
Tuesday , sweet and sour chicken and noodles (much yellow stickered stuff)
Wednesday, prawn thai curry and rice
Thursday, pasta puttanesca
Friday, Pinch of Nom creamy salmon and bulgar
Saturday, pork meatballs and pasta 
Sunday, roast chicken and potatoes 

Needed to keep my things a bit easy to make this week as we have so much work going on. Next week will focus more on veggies. 

PipneyJane

Sallyp2 said:

K9sandFelines said:

£150 please @elsiepac

This is for all food items, cleaning products and toiletries

My month starts on the 13th and runs til the 12th.
I still need to to tot up my receipts for March, but I'm not officially done with that month yet.

Wow am in awe if you only spend £150 in 4 weeks!
Ive smashed that and plus in a week

@Sallyp2 It’s all a learning process.  I’m constantly reminded of the lyrics of a song:

It ain’t what you do,
it’s the way that you do it. 
That’s what gets results!

Remember, the only person you are competing against is your pre-GC-self, because all our circumstances are different.  When I first became active on MSE, I set myself the challenge of reading all the posts on the Sneaky Ways to Save the Pennies thread together with its successor  Lots More Sneaky Ways to Save the Pennies.  It took me months - at the time, you could see 30 posts to a “page”, so I’d do a page a day.  I learned a lot, and tried (and failed) multiple tips in the process.  The basic principles are  “know what you have and make the best of it”.

I have two spends to declare from yesterday.  £10.05 in L!!dl and £10.90 in Sainsbugs.  Almost half the L!dl spend was on an 800g block of mature cheddar (£4.89), but we also picked up YS smoked salmon (£2.09) to go with the YS bagels DH picked up last week, together with YS muffins (48p), a jar of black olives (89p) and two tubs of their garlic-and-herb cream cheese (2x85p).  (NB: DH has been worrying that the bagels will go mouldy or stale.  They went straight into the fridge when he brought them home and are fine.)

The Sainsbugs spend was primarily on the 450ml Yeo Valley Yoghurts which they have on a Nectar offer (4x£1.50).  Also purchased were a “family pack” of peppers (£1.54 for 500g), a hand of fair trade bananas (69p) and 6  loose baking potatoes (1.554kg for £1.17).

The above brings our total GC spend to £45.24/£140, leaving £94.76 for the rest of the month.

Meal plans for the next few days:

Note: all breakfasts are cereal and all lunches are leftovers from a previous dinner*, unless otherwise stated.  Also, the order may change.

Today:  Lunch - smoked salmon & cream cheese bagels.  Dinner - Chickpea & Chorizo Stew, served in bowls with HM bread.  (We have some chorizo to use up AND it’ll take at least one tub of something labelled “spinach” out of the freezer.  It also uses a couple of potatoes. The HM bread needs using, too.)
Friday:  beef chilli burritos.  I don’t have a recipe for this yet - so need to make something up - but they’ll be served with the remains of the refried beans from Easter and they’ll be served in the wraps purchased last month.
Saturday:. Brunch - HM Black Pudding McMuffins.  Dinner - Bread & Cheese Pudding (to use the last of the bread)
Sunday:  Brunch - the last Hot Cross Buns.  Dinner - Corn Pone.  (Leftover chilli mixed with a tin of baked beans and baked with a cornbread top.)
Monday: Broccoli pasta (but this time made with cooking bacon instead of chorizo).

- Pip



* Virtually every recipe I have feeds 4-or-more, so I dish up lunchboxes at the same time as dishing up our main meal.  It’s portion control, because DH would happily eat two full portions, if I didn’t.

thriftwizard

I'm up to £268.41 after a spend of £41.49 between the butcher and the supermarket. I'll be aiming for £20-odd at the market tomorrow and then I shouldn't be too far off course. We're back down to 3 FT inhabitants now and DD1 just spending the odd night here - for now!

LotsOfTea

I had a shopping delivery today that came to £68.22 and contained a whole load of fruit and veg as well as cheese, tofu, cereal, burgers and a whole free range chicken which went in the freezer for when we have MIL visiting in a few weeks' time. It was on offer so it seemed a good time to buy it in advance. 

I've got a few meals planned for the next few days which will get slotted in as and when we feel like them:

Veg and chickpea tagine with hm naan bread (DS firmly believes naan bread goes with everything!)

Burgers with hm potato, sweet potato and parsnip chips

Bacon and/or fried egg butties

Veg & halloumi couscous 

Macaroni, Cauliflower & broccoli cheese

That's the plan anyway. I'll probably knock up some bendy veg soup at some point as well as there's always something that's past its best and needs making into soup. 

£68.22/£250

Soontobeoap

I think I have saved all of the food that was left over from my huge grocery shop at end of March. DH did eat a boiled egg today with a slice of toast. He  has shingles. He isnt really hungry but forced himself. I am still eating left over salad and had some left over fish coujons from the chip shop meal DS bought yesterday that I warmed up in microwave. Once DD and GSs  left on Monday DS, DIL and GDs had most of their meals elsewhere to give DH a bit of peace. I will need to reorganise freezer over the weekend and evaluate what I have in for the rest of the month.its a very strange start to the month but then no month is ever straight forward. 

SausageDogSandwich

Have not had chance to read through yet but wanted to add my total so far, chunk of it is air fryer liners but won’t have to buy any more for hopefully the rest of the year now. Have almost run out of toilet roll and toothpaste which we stocked up on in November with discount so will have to buy that again from next week, think will buy a small bulk again. Hope everyone is well.
£32.63/400 spent so far.

thriftwizard

£25 spent on fresh fish, fruit & veg at the market this morning. Could have done worse, and that would leave me withe just over £60 per week for the rest of April... but have just heard that DS1 & DDiL will be down over the weekend of his birthday. Which is lovely! But will involve some extra expense; I'm kind of thinking we might all go out for a meal, though, which would come out of the Entertainments budget.

otb666

250/550 About half way through as go from 23rd to 23rd I dont smoke or drink and have just about given up meat. I eat nuts eggs lentils beans instead.  I am doing the best I can and thanks to this thread can keep track.  

scandimore

Week 1 has been a mixed bag and I'm starting to see where I'm going wrong- boils down to disorganisation (not checking the calendar to see what's going on the week coming up before doing a food shop) and a lack of discipline. I remembered last night that I needed to make some baked goods for an event today, cue a run out to T*sco and another £13 spent at 9pm. A business meeting with ran over in the week and we ended up eating out - £80!! Life has been so busy we're living day to day instead of planning properly, my brain feels like it has no space.
Tonight for dinner is risotto with leftover roast chicken, asparagus leeks and peas. Will have to make something separate for little one. I think I'll need to do another shop in the next few days but I WILL check the fridge and cupboards and calendar first.

BirchMum

Afternoon all.

£77.83 spent this week which leaves £261.29 for the month.

I'm not sure I'm catching all of the spending but I know it's been a lot better than it was.

Meal plans for this week are 
- Jacket potato with tuna mayo & salad
- Bahian curry, rice & naan
- Mexican chicken, flatbread & salad
- flavoured pork loin steaks, potatoes & veg
- Sausage cooked dinner 
- chilli con carne loaded chips
- nachos