May 2024 Grocery Challenge

wishus

 

Finishing the month at £249.63. Oh yes, for once, I made it! Squeaking under budget!

How I did it: as I'm mid-house-refurb, I had already packed most of my recipe books out of the way. I didn't want to trawl through loads of online recipes or think forever about what I was going to cook in the week. Also, I had stuff in the cupboards/freezer I needed to use. Well, I found one thing AI is good for. I fed some prompts into Copilot about what I wanted, how many recipe/meal I needed, level of difficulty/time, ingredients I wanted, ingredients I didn't want and it trawled the internet for me! I now have a few more in my To Do Meal plan notes that I can swing back into my week whenever I want. 

Some tips if you want to try this:

• Do specify the country you are in, and it may even source recipes you can find ingredients for in Aldi, rather than the US-stuff that dominates the internet.
• Do tell them mid-budget rather than budget if you want better ideas than pasta with peas and cheese.
• Do tell them any allergies/intolerences. Sometimes it finds recipes that have those things in, and suggests ingredient replacements or says you can have without. 

Here are some of my favourite recipe discoveries from this month:

Cajun chicken pasta: https://savvybites.co.uk/cajun-chicken-pasta/
Chicken cacciatore: https://cafedelites.com/chicken-cacciatore/
Chicken katsu with extra veg sauce: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chicken-katsu-with-extra-veg-sauce.html
Zesty lamb chops with couscous: https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/zesty-lamb-chops-with-couscous/

Next month may need to have a few more takeaways, so might need a few cheesy peas recipes to compensate. Right, June, then!

leftatthetrafficlights

I've come in at £170 this month - over budget but I wasn't surprised - I had a bit of time where I was unable to cook and dh bought stuff we didn't need. Next month should be an awful lot better! 😁

goldfinches

Round of applause for @wishus, jolly well done and thankyou for the AI tips, I might give that a go at the weekend when I've got some time to play around.

I'm claiming another NSD for today and think I can get through tomorrow without being tempted to go shopping for anything edible.
I've been surprised yesterday and today by how difficult it's been to stay out of the supermarkets and just go home without buying something to add to my next meal. I think I've let myself develop a habit of just popping in to see if there's something I fancy rather than delving into the freezer or the cupboard at home, so now the penny has dropped I hope I'll be able to get a firmer stranglehold on my budget.
I'm going to vary my regular walking route as well so that I don't pass near the doors of temptation and make lists before I step outside my front door.

I think it'd be better to wait to declare until tomorrow night, just in case, so watch this space!

SausageDogSandwich

Hope everyone is doing well. I am up to £360.05/385 so far. Happy with this as it has included all “party food” for son’s birthday which is usually out of birthday budget. Need a couple of bits from the shop today for tonight and over weekend so will declare tomorrow. 

SausageDogSandwich

Declaring on £365.20/385. See you all in June 

goldfinches

Having managed to resist the siren call of the supermarket I'm declaring on £151.95/£150 for GC, £21.80/£25 for the Baking Budget and having spent nothing from the Bulk Buy budget which remains at £100.
See you all over in June.

JingsMyBucket

Morning folks. I’m declaring at £476.28 / £400.00 so definitely over my budget for the month. The good weather on weekends had us buying extra items to eat outside feeling all summery. 🙂 There were also times I was stressed so definitely just picked up easy food instead of cooking from the freezer or pantry. We also filled the freezer with meat after running it down the past couple months. I’ll try to keep my eye on the ball better in June. 

Finstickle

Hi all,

Finished up May under Budget!!!!
This included all festival shopping, but not spend while we were there.  We mostly had cash for that and anything else came out of entertainment budget.

£413.35/£450

Daywon

Hi all,  setting my grocery budget at £100 for June. Went over in May but trying to get more disciplined this month.  

LadyWithAPlan

wishus said:

 

Finishing the month at £249.63. Oh yes, for once, I made it! Squeaking under budget!

How I did it: as I'm mid-house-refurb, I had already packed most of my recipe books out of the way. I didn't want to trawl through loads of online recipes or think forever about what I was going to cook in the week. Also, I had stuff in the cupboards/freezer I needed to use. Well, I found one thing AI is good for. I fed some prompts into Copilot about what I wanted, how many recipe/meal I needed, level of difficulty/time, ingredients I wanted, ingredients I didn't want and it trawled the internet for me! I now have a few more in my To Do Meal plan notes that I can swing back into my week whenever I want. 

Some tips if you want to try this:

• Do specify the country you are in, and it may even source recipes you can find ingredients for in Aldi, rather than the US-stuff that dominates the internet.
• Do tell them mid-budget rather than budget if you want better ideas than pasta with peas and cheese.
• Do tell them any allergies/intolerences. Sometimes it finds recipes that have those things in, and suggests ingredient replacements or says you can have without. 

Here are some of my favourite recipe discoveries from this month:

Cajun chicken pasta: https://savvybites.co.uk/cajun-chicken-pasta/
Chicken cacciatore: https://cafedelites.com/chicken-cacciatore/
Chicken katsu with extra veg sauce: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chicken-katsu-with-extra-veg-sauce.html
Zesty lamb chops with couscous: https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/zesty-lamb-chops-with-couscous/

Next month may need to have a few more takeaways, so might need a few cheesy peas recipes to compensate. Right, June, then!

the ai recipe tips are great