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May 2024 Grocery Challenge
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I’ve finished up today with very little to eat tomorrow. I need to go shopping but someone is coming over between 8-1pm to do a repair. I have a 50p voucher for Wtrose milk but it’s a half hour walk each way. I’m not sure I have the energy to go out tonight. I’m having my last cup of milk tea right now. I have dry rice, baked beans, a tin of tuna, tinned tomatoes, 1 pk frozen sausages and prawns but not much else. I’m also struggling to decide what to put on my list as I’ve run the cupboards down so much, there’s so much I would like to buy out of convenience, but the more ready made things I buy, the more the cost increases. I guess breakfast tomorrow will be something like black tea and a carrot6
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@Suffolk_lass, thank you for the "Unplanned Family" heading idea - though I might change the wording a little - I shall do just that! So for the next few months I'll just keep track of what the last-minute visits & get-togethers are costing us, then try to work it in. I might also stash away a few big birds & joints against these mad-but-wonderful weekends, when I spot good bargains.
We are considering sideways-sizing (i.e. downsizing house, upsizing garden!) before too long; possibly not having enough bedrooms for everyone to land on us at once might spread the "load" a little, much though we love them all!Angie - GC Jul 25: £225.85/£500 : 2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 26/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)6 -
Joining again at £250 this month please!
Keep reading books!
July grocery challenge START: £150.
total SPENT £127.53, REMAINING £22.37.3 -
@navelorange1 - when I was growing up we would have cooked rice with milk for breakfast several mornings a week. I liked to add a little sugar with cinnamon.4
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@weenancyinAmerica I’ve been having that last week! My last batch yesterday was ruined by the vanilla lid having disintegrated plastic/metal into the essence and I ended up throwing the whole thing awayDo you think wholegrain basmati rice would also work?I’m trying to adapt a recipe for Rhubarb and Custard Tart. If I make Bird’s custard, let it cool then add two eggs, do you think that would set into a firm custard when baked in the oven for 30 minutes? Or could I just double the amount of custard powder?3
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Thanks @elsiepac for the new thread, please put me down for
£385 for the month of May please.
As normal, this is for two adults and three kids who eat more than me! For all meals, snacks, cleaning, few packs of chicken for the dog and a couple bottles of wine. This is £350 plus the underspend for last month. Will need some salad and bread today and just about to book a delivery for Sunday.
Hope everyone has a good month.
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@SausageDogSandwich you do really well for a family of 5!
We went to Sainsburys this morning mainly to get DH some pyjamas for his upcoming hospital stay. Whilst there i picked up a few bits we were running low on. When did bisto become £3.80 a tub! 🤯. Also bought flora buttery at full price (£4.80) for the first time in ages. Could kick myself that I didnt keep stocks up when offers were on. I can usually get it £1.00 cheaper but just havnt had time to search the websites this week. We came away with very little for £30.40. We have bread milk and juice, DH wont be here from next Wednesday for 5 days although DS is coming to stay on Saturday night. Hoping I can keep costs down for the next 12 days. Aldi is my best friend for the rest of the month 😊craft stash 2023 =161, 2024 = 119 2025 = £17.98 spent, 128 made and 5 mended,
GC 2022 = £3154.96
2023 = £3334. 84
2024 = £.3221.81
2025 = £2043.99/£3300
Jan 413.77 Feb £361.32, March £192. April £438.06 May £261.66 June £204.54 July £172.64/ £250
Decluttering campaign. 2024= 75 and half/52 bin bags full. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🏅💐DH ⭐5 -
Basmati rice should be tasty as a breakfast cereal. I also just make it up and throw in a batch of green or black olives (or both) (without the milk or sugar!).2
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I spent £43.72/£80 yesterday. I got quite a lot of food at the shops, although I started getting anxious somewhere in-between and began deviating from my list. I did make sure to have a good bowl of food before I left (tuna pasta w/cheese) but I guess it wasn’t enough and I ended up picking up more things like chocolate and biscuits than I had planned to. I still think £80 for the month is doable at this point in time, it just means the following weeks will be more carrots, onions and tinned fished orientated
It is helpful seeing it on a spreadsheet though because I can see where I am going wrong. I often feel like I can’t afford any meat and don’t eat it very often, well I’ve been spending my meat money on too much chocolate, ice-cream ect. Going forward next month I’ll be able to budget better
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Good morning All
Two shops to declare from yesterday, £43.24 in L!dl and £17.89 in MrT’s.
We have a £5 voucher that runs out this month at MrT’s. I was quite surprised that DH didn’t use it yesterday, but he insists that he was saving it for later in the month. Items purchased: 1.5L quadruple strength squash 4x£2, 700g potato croquettes 2x£1.45, 450ml Yeo Valley Yoghurts 4x£1.50 (Clubcard price) and 1.105kg bananas at 90p/kg 99p.
In L!dl, we took advantage of some of the offers on the Plus app and stocked up on chorizo and muesli. Full details of what we spent: Chorizo 4x£1.61, Muesli 3x£1.79, bran flakes 3x66p, wholemeal bread flour 2x£1.09, frozen peas 99p, beef stockpots 99p, 800g mature cheddar £4.89, 1kg cooking bacon £1.99, 250g Camembert 2x£2.49, marinated anchovies 2x£2.49, salmon en croute £4.49, and lactose free skimmed milk 4x99p.
The reason for buying the bread flour: as you know, I usually buy 10kg sacks of chapatti flour and use that for everything +/- added baking powder, when “self raising flour” is specified in a recipe. We don’t buy a particular brand, just whatever is cheapest on the day. We have a bread machine and, normally, it makes decent bread. We’re half way through the last sack we purchased (in November 2022*) and, while it makes good cakes, the bread it makes is not good. It’s dense and doesn’t rise much, even when I add dough improver, (purchased from Lakeland), or an extra spoonful of yeast. (I tested my yeast before making the most recent loaf and added the test mixture as well as the recipe specified quantity of yeast - no change.)
My conclusion is that this batch of chapatti flour isn’t “strong” flour. However, I need to test that the problem isn’t the bread machine, so my plan is make a loaf using my regular recipe but just using the flour purchased yesterday. If it comes out well, then I’ll stir the new flour into the old and hopefully make it stronger. If the problem is the bread machine, then we have an unused bread machine in the loft, so I’ll swap to using that. It was purchased when the current machine’s bowl started leaking water, (which promptly stopped happening).
Meal plans for the next few days. All breakfasts are cereals; all lunches are leftovers unless otherwise specified:
Today: Lunch: bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Dinner: broccoli and chorizo pasta.
Friday: Lunch: steak & kidney pies from the local butcher. Dinner: roast pork, accompanied by roast potatoes, roast sweet potato, roasted garlic.
Saturday: Lunch: cheddar cheese toasties. Dinner: “Pork & Beans” served on rice.
Sunday: Lunch: HM soup (to be decided). Dinner: “warm French lentil salad” made with the marinated anchovies.
- Pip
*Thanks to doing most of our shopping in L!dl these days, and getting the “free” loaf when we’ve spent £50 in a month, I don’t make bread as frequently as I once did. We don’t eat a lot of sandwiches."Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.'
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!
2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 25.5 spent.
4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
4 - 1 pair "combinations" (Merino wool thermal top & leggings)
6 - Ukraine Forever Tartan Ruana wrap
8 - 4 x 100g/450m skeins 3-ply dark green Wool Local yarn
1.5 - sports bra
2 - 100g/220m DK Toft yarn4
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