April 2024 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

scandimore said:

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.

I think we’ve all had weeks like that, @scandimore.  Hope the rest of the month is better.  Out of sheer curiosity, why do you need to make something different for your little one?  I’d have thought risotto would be perfect for all the family.

I have a shop to declare from yesterday.  We went to MrT’s and stocked up on a few items for the store cupboard.  £18.60 spent on Bulgar wheat 500g (4x£1.90), 40 mixed plasters (£1.20), Colegate Peroxyl Mouthwash (£5), Essentials bath foam 750ml (3x75p) and a six pack of ownbrand tonic water (£2.55).  The mouthwash is the only one we can find that has hydrogen peroxide as its active ingredient; perfect for fighting off oral thrush after my chemo sessions.  MrT’s are the only place nearby that stocks it.

We use the bath foam to refill the bottles of hand wash.  Its scent is innocuous and it does the job well.  (This is a tip I picked up from reading the Sneaky Ways threads.) 

The above brings our GC Spend to £63.84/£140 leaving £76.16 for the rest of the month.

The other reason for going to MrT’s was to spend some soon-to-expire Clubcard vouchers on a “date night” meal deal. Two reasonably-sized steaks with garlic butter, Potato Dauphinoise, two portions of triple chocolate cheesecake and a bottle of Malbec for £12 of vouchers.  Non-promotion price £20.50.  Was it worth it?  Yes at the price we paid.  At full price? No.  I wasn’t impressed by the Potato Dauphinoise, but the steaks were lovely and, in this country, £5.30 for a decent bottle of wine isn’t to be sniffed at, even if I can’t drink it for another 3 months due to chemo. (Shelf price £8.)

- Pip

JingsMyBucket

Hello everyone, I’m quite late to this month’s GC but I’d still like to join in. @elsiepac I’m so sorry to hear about your little birdie friend passing away. If you want to share photos or stories of her, please do, if it helps you in any way. 

Whenever you have time, could you please put me down for: 

£300 for April 1 – 22. 

That amount is for 2 adults. I’m away from April 22 – May 4 and I’m not going to bother counting whatever Mr. Jings gets up to while I’m away. For this month, we've already had 2 spends: 

£79.50 on a 30/3 Tesco order I’m counting toward April. Lots of fruit, vegetables, yoghurt, along with some stewing beef I used to make Massaman curry last week. 

£23.81 at M & S yesterday for Greek yoghurt, a big YS pork shoulder, tangerines, bananas, YS mozzarella, coffee, and a big block of cheddar. 

I’m heading to the farmers market tomorrow and will try to keep my hands in my pockets most of the time. I’ll try to limit myself to about £30 there. We’ll likely put in a Tesco order on Wednesday as well. I’ve been building the cart from yesterday and I’ll aim to keep that close to £70 as well. 

£103.31 / £300.00 spent. £196.69 remaining

Soontobeoap

Spent £5.75 at Aldi on bread, fruit, lemonade and biscuits to get DH eating again. 

PipneyJane

Soontobeoap said:

Spent £5.75 at Aldi on bread, fruit, lemonade and biscuits to get DH eating again. 

How’s your husband doing @Soontobeoap?  Hope he’s got over the worst of the shingles.

We walked down to L!dl today, a 3-mile round trip.  Since I’m only 2-weeks post chemo and immune-compromised, DH went in while I lurked outside in the fresh air. (Normally, I’m left in the car, while he does the shopping.)  £13.67 spent.  We got a really good bargain on fish cakes: 2 YS packets for a total of £1.54, after a 15% discount voucher and a 30% off YS.  They’re usually £1.29 each!  L!dl applied the 15% voucher on the full price.  

The above brings our total GC spend to £77.51/£140, leaving £62.49 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

Soontobeoap

He is picking up slowly thanks @pipneyjane. Sounds like you are managing to exercise after your chemo. Its a lovely day to be out in the sunshine.

We have run out of some things  again but are trying to hold out with whats in the freezer for as long as we can. We cant eat a lot of it at the moment as our oven is broken and DH is not hungry. Off to choose a new one when DH is better. 

wishus

A quick spend of £18.73 in T.

I have not done the last 2 meals on my plan. Ended up going to Harvester today to save time as we have been doing a lot of clearing up post DIY and have various other projects on the go. This messes my budget up slightly so will need to make adjustments. But it does mean we have the next two night's meals already planned.

Soontobeoap

DH managed a shop today. £6.00spent on orange and apple juice, bread, cereal and lemonade. Thats our staple diet at the moment! We had beans on toast followed by pineapple and melon. 

SausageDogSandwich

I am upto £116.45/400. 

Had Tesco delivery yesterday which came to 65£ but the only meat that turned up was a small pack of chicken, so the meal plan will have to change as I need to get out of the habit of popping to a shop and spending on things we don’t need. Back to sains for the next shop.

CRANKY40

Good morning (just about), 

I had a busy end to last week so I didn't manage to post. I also waited in case I'd forgotten anything and needed to buy extra. Last week was £70.59/£80.

I went grocery shopping for this week yesterday and the spend was £78.93/£80 so there won't be any top ups happening as there is no budget left. I'm trying to plan the timing of meals better too - my son has uni from 3pm to 5pm today so I made him a snack for elevenses meaning that I can make lunch later and hopefully he won't come home too hungry. I've planned a quick dinner of mac'n'cheese and garlic naan for him anyway so that won't take long. I'm having fruit salad for lunch and I need to look in the freezer to see what's for dinner. There's a few portions of chilli in there so I may go and liberate one of those. 

It's good to see you posting @PipneyJane - I hope the chemo isn't making you feel too poorly. 


Total spend so far £149.52/£400

Take care all of you 😊

keggie

After after a fabulous weekend of fine dining in the south of France, it was back to reality with a bump today.
Small Aldi shop of basics and essentials for meal plan for the week.
Todays shop cost less than a round of drinks in the posh restaurant😂

Now up to £48.53/ £250