June 2024 Grocery Challenge

Daywon

Setting my budget at £100 for the month. 
£14.88 already spent on 1st. 

SP2024

Ended up going to Tesco tonight as I had forgotten to buy milk yesterday. Ended up spending £13.01! I got a big pack of Pepsi that was on offer, dome limescale remover that I did actually need and a load of yellow sticker paninis and bread rolls to put in the freezer. I need to stay out of any shop for the rest of the week. 

Ainsty

PipneyJane said:

Ainsty said:

Hi, thank you I do use my phone for a range of internet actions using a cheap sim. Unfortunately, I find it both uncomfortable and difficult to read/write on the small screen. It's just not my thing.

Apologies, if I wasn’t clear @Ainsty. I wasn’t expecting you to use your phone to read/post on MSE.  Do you have a tablet or computer at home that you could link to your phone with WiFi?  Then your phone will provide your internet access via the “personal hotspot” feature and you’ll use the data purchased in your phone contract.  Does that make sense?

HTH

- Pip

Hi, yes it does. I didn't realise that was a thing, I'll give it a go. In the meantime, my next door neighbour has given me the password to her internet. She is happy for me to use it in return for feeding her cat when she is away, take parcels in etc. So I should be able to use that, of course, I won't abuse it and will probably only go online when she is out. 

goldfinches

I'm claiming a NSD for today and for tomorrow's bake will be giving this recipe for vegan millionaires shortbread a try as I have almost all the ingredients sitting in the larder so that should keep costs down.

I meant to say that I'd made some elderflower cordial yesterday evening and this is what it looked like before I sliced the limes and the lemon and added them to the pot.



I've just strained and bottled it so my kitchen is all over sticky at the moment but I got just over 2 litres of lovely pale yellow cordial for not very much effort, which is worth it I think, because it costs a fortune if you buy it ready made.

Ainsty

Here's a list of the items I bought this week:

- Milk: 4 pints £1.45

- Cucumber: 89p

- Baby plum tomatoes (250g): 75p

- Chicken drumsticks (1kg): £1.99

- Beef mince 3% (600g): £3.79

- Wonky carrots (1.5kg): 75p

- Mushrooms (400g): 79p

- Cauliflower: 75p

- 5 Bananas: 78p

- 5 Oranges: £1.29

- Medium sliced wholemeal bread: 45p

- Frozen mixed veg (1 kg): 99p

- Custard Creams (300g): 45p

Total £15.12

I exchanged 6 eggs for a bunch of homegrown rhubarb. This was a good deal because the rhubarb has thrived this year, and I have lots. The 3% mince is a treat; I usually buy 10% or 12%. I will get 8 main meals from it using 75g per meal, costing 47p each. If I bought 500g of the 10%, I would have just over 70g per meal at 44p each.

It's still too early in the year for much homegrown produce. As well as rhubarb, I'm harvesting asparagus which is almost over, spinach and lettuce. In the freezer, there are:
- The very last of the summer fruit
- Chopped leeks that were lifted, cleaned and sliced
- A few beans 
- Mash made from last year's main crop potatoes
- Stewed rhubarb 

There are a couple of jars of blackcurrant jam in the cupboard. 

thriftwizard

A mildly horrifying £96.28 spent at L!dls this morning, on filter coffee, loo roll, butter, halloumi, cleaning stuff, one of their £1.50 veg boxes (pears, cherries, avocados, spuds, lettuce, celery, peppers, and a couple of oranges) tinned toms, tinned beans, flour, sugar, raisins, Marmite, mustard & horseradish, etc. etc. and of course sliced bread for OH. (He actually did eat some sourdough at DD1's at the weekend and went back for more, without mentioning his teeth once. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel...) Anyway, done. So 264.57 left, allowing £88 per week, barring the unanticipated...

Mamaofmanybudgets

After being out of it for a couple months (as if I was ever really in it 🤣) 

I'm back this month with £450 please 

so far £238.21/£400. 
1 adult and a 16, 11, 10, 8 year old. 

This includes a big farm shop which I was absolutely rinsed with delivery (£24!!!!!😒😒)... I'll include the delivery in the budget but will probably unlikely order with them again... 
Other few little bits from the corner shop and a tesco whoosh this morning to get stuff for dinner. 
£210.79 left. 

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

I have 4 shops to declare:  two from Sunday and two from this morning.  

On Sunday, we spent £6.88 in MrT’s for items for lunch at the RPG club we attend. Now that I’ve finished chemo, it’s the first time I’ve been able to attend in months and, while I remembered to make cold drinks to take with us and to pack the wraps we already owned, I forgot to defrost the sliced meat that was in the freezer.  We took advantage of a 2 for £3.50 offer on sliced meats and purchased Pastrami (£2.06),Turkey slices (£1.44, now in the freezer), cookies (£1.25), humous (£1.20) and mixed Salad (90p).

After the Club, we dropped in on one of my best friends, so that I could give her a present that I’d knitted for her.  Naturally, that took much longer than anticipated - we can talk for hours - so on the way home DH and I stopped at the C0-0p, buying a quiche (£3), YS stuffed mushrooms (£1.50) and a tub of olives (£2.90) to have for dinner instead of what I’d originally planned.  £7.30 spent, after offers were taken into account.

Today, we went to L!dl and Sainsbugs.  £14.39 was spent in L!dl on YS 12 slices prosciutto (£2.44), Gold instant coffee 200g (£2.29), 1kg porridge oats (90p), 1kg soft dark sugar (£2.15), 4-pack garlic (95p), 12 FR large eggs (£2.69), and 3x1L lactose-free skimmed milk (99p each).  We also collected free ice creams, free sweet peppers and a free avocado from various vouchers.

In Sainsbugs, we spent £11.36 on 0.7kg bananas (63p), 0.5kg broccoli (35p), 3-pack sweet peppers (£1.79), mushrooms (95p) and 4x450g Yeo Valley Greek Yoghurt with Honey (£1.62 each with offer).

Once I take into account a £2 coin and 7p of coppers, which have gone into the money boxes, this brings our June GC spend to £42/£160 leaving £118 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

goldfinches

I made a quick trip to Mr T's to buy deglet nour dates for vegan millionaire's shortbread and managed to find a packet that was just over the weight I needed rather than buying 500g of medjools so that was all to the good. I also bought some strawberries from Kent for lunch which were very nice but like everyone could do with a bit more sun.

I spent £2.90 on the dates and £2.20 on the strawbs which makes my new GC total £26.13/£150 and my average daily spend is now £6.53.
The Baking Budget new figure is £2.90/£20. 
Here is the shortbread after I'd added the date layer which I ended up heating so that it would spread more easily. I've just finished adding the chocolate topping and it's now chilling in the fridge so I'll report back on the verdict tomorrow evening.

PipneyJane

That looks yummy @goldfinches.  

I have a small shop to declare from last night.  For the first time since i got my diagnosis* in January, we joined our pub quiz team for our regular, Tuesday evening quiz.  The drive home took us past MrT’s.  To take advantage of one of their Clubcard-extra-points bribes, DH popped in and purchased 4 of our regular quad-strength 1.5L bottles of squash.  £8 paid and 50 extra points received.  We’ve probably restocked a month before we’d need to, but that’s an extra 50p we can spend later, when the vouchers come in.

Naturally, DH received a £2 coin in his change, so that’s gone to the Running Away Fund Moneybox.

The above brings our total spend to £52/£162.30 leaving £110.30 for the rest of the month.

- Pip


* Chemo finished on May 13th.  I guess I’m now in remission from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma