May 2024 Grocery Challenge

Pennypincin

I spent around £10/12in Tesco yesterday.
Mainly on salad, some veg and vegetarian protein.

Soontobeoap

Did an Aldi dash yesterday looking for treats to get DH eating again. He has no wish for food so no ideas. Nothing I bring home seems to tempt him. He is trying a bit harder now but it is hard when he has no appetite and  his smell and taste seem to have gone wonky. Anyway apart from some salad, bin bags and bread, it was all drinks and treats to tempt him. £33.00 spent. I am keeping  these spends within gc as sometimes life takes over for all of us but I do want to try to spend under last years total whatever comes our way. It is all spent on food whatever the reason and it helps me to see where money goes. Thanks again for keeping me accountable @elsiepac. I know it doesnt look like it sometimes but this is the one thing that I have control over at the moment.  

PipneyJane

Soontobeoap said:

Did an Aldi dash yesterday looking for treats to get DH eating again. He has no wish for food so no ideas. Nothing I bring home seems to tempt him. He is trying a bit harder now but it is hard when he has no appetite and  his smell and taste seem to have gone wonky. Anyway apart from some salad, bin bags and bread, it was all drinks and treats to tempt him. £33.00 spent. I am keeping  these spends within gc as sometimes life takes over for all of us but I do want to try to spend under last years total whatever comes our way. It is all spent on food whatever the reason and it helps me to see where money goes. Thanks again for keeping me accountable @elsiepac. I know it doesnt look like it sometimes but this is the one thing that I have control over at the moment.  

@Soontobeoap, I feel your husband’s pain at not being able to taste things.  Even when you start off feeling hungry, there’s nothing worse than having to wade though a meal which is either tasteless or only tastes of one of the herbs/spices, instead of the usual spice blend. It puts you off eating. While I originally blamed the chemo, with me, the cause turned out to be oral thrush.  I’ve kept it at bay for the last couple of cycles by swishing vinegar around with my tongue, regularly gargling with Peroxyl and drinking a daily dose of effervescent vitamin C. (Thrush doesn’t like acidic environments.). I had my final round of chemo on Monday, so Pip vs Thrush is in full fight.

I have a small spend to declare from Friday.  £2.97 spent in L!dl on 2kg of onions (at 99p/kg) and a tube of the aforementioned vitamin C.  DH also picked up our free L!dl+ “bread product”.  This time he chose a large sourdough loaf, normally sold for £1.99.  Since this shop pushed us over the L!dl+ £100 reward barrier, DH went back into the shop and picked up a “free” 1kg sack of their Fruit & Nut Muesli, saving £1.99.  (Crossing the £100 barrier puzzled me, until I remembered that he’d bought beer and chocolate from L!dl earlier in the month, out of his own pocket.)

The above brings our total spend to £137.73/£160 leaving £22.27 for the remainder of the month.

One of my biggest conundrums this week has been what to do with a litre of milk, which was fresh-before-freezing but sour when I defrosted it.  (Yes, it’s the freezer’s fault.  I was planning to replace it when I got sick.). So far, I’ve made scones, some oatmeal muffins and today, for brunch, I’ll do pancakes with cooking bacon and maple syrup.  That will use it up.

Dinner tonight will be Sophie Dahl’s Dhal, made with red split lentils, a large sweet potato that needs to be used, and an ancient tub of perpetual spinach that I found when re-arranging the freezer.   

Dinner tomorrow will be Middle-Eastern Chicken Livers, since that will use the other half of the 500ml tub of plain yoghurt from last night’s fish curry. 

Beyond the above, I’m struggling to meal plan.

- Pip

scandimore

£87.25 to declare for the weekly shop, a whole chicken which should do a few meals, hopefully stretching to chicken with sweet potato wedges salad and aioli, Thai curry with rice and spring rolls, flatbreads with chicken halloumi and salad, the other meals will be veggie (a pasta and spanakopita) also got lunchbox stuff and bagels / rolls for lunches. 

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all I'm over budget already. Lack of meal planning and 2 birthdays this month have definitely had an effect. Other than a small amount of veg, we shouldn't need anything else until we go away on saturday. 

Plan for this week
Sunday - Crispy duck, chinese pancakes, hoisin sauce will served with vegetable rice 
Monday -chicken slices with  sweet potato/butternut squash mash and veg
Tuesday -chicken curry with rice and indian snacks
Wednesday - cooked breakfast - cocktail sausages, bacon, eggs, beans and hash browns
Thursday -minced beef quesadilla with fries/alphabites
Friday - he!!o fresh meal 

Just done a freezer inventory and I can make all of the above using the freezer and stores other than buying some peppers, carrots and some baby corn. 
I've got 2 freezer drawers full of homemade ready meals for lunches at work (I've not been using them due to rushing in the mornings) so I've already got a carrot soup out for tomorrow's lunch. Will work my way through some of them this week so it creates some more space in the freezer. 

SausageDogSandwich

Hello all, I’m upto £229.95. I haven’t ordered shopping for tonight as there’s a lot in the freezer and cupboard, I’ve just got some milk and fruit a few days ago, I’ll get some more grapes tomorrow and a few cucumbers, then I’ll either go shopping to ald1 on Friday or get a tesc0 delivery Saturday. I’ve fell out with sains for now as the fresh stuff has been terrible the last couple of times.

£229.95/385

otb666

600/550  have gone 50 over after 200 iceland shop for 90 items But that should be it for may as i go from 23rd til 23rd and no more spends expected.  Hoping for better in June.

goldfinches

I visited the posh suburb farmer's market this morning and fell for a celeriac and a cauliflower from the fruit and veg stall which came to £3.70 for the two and as I had four pound coins and the stall holder looked half starved I told her to keep the change.

That makes my new total £98.64/£150 and my average daily spend is now £5.19 which isn't as bad as it could be but I'm sure I can do better if I try. Off to research recipes for both vegetables and sort out a meal plan for the next week or so. 

PS Have just been vouching my receipts for the last few days and realised that I hadn't included two top-up spends yesterday morning. First £5.05 at Sains for a pack of bog roll and then £6 at M*rks for milk, onions, radishes and cucumber.
That has made my new total a shameful £109.69/£150 and my daily average a horrendous £5.77. Aargh, must do better!

wishus

Signature updated. Meal plan done for the week. A spend of £56 at the three supermarkets in a row near my house. Going to try a Saturday Kitchen and a Hairy Biker recipe this week. Summer vibes!

Soontobeoap

@pipneyjane I really hope that the chemo has done its job and you feel better soon.

Thank you so much for mentioning oral thrush. I looked in hubbys mouth and he has a yellow scaley tongue. Just had a GP call back and after decsribing inside of his mouth she is going to give him something for it alongside trying to adjust his pain relief. 🎉🎉🎉. I wouldnt have even thought about it without you. You are a star. 

Off to Asda in a minute to try to find tasty treats. I am already over budget but freezer is still choc a block and overflowing so will just shop from stores next month instead. 😉