Afternoon, everyone. So far have managed two NSDs in a row (I feel really good about myself!) I've managed to find work-arounds for meals with ingredients I didn't have, so I feel pretty good about myself (although I've just caved in and had a big chunk of cheese as a snack - bad me... ) Anyway, hopefully going to have another NSD tomorrow, so fingers crossed!

Piri Piri Prawn stir fry for tea tonight, and meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta tomorrow. DMiL is over, so I wanted to do something special (that I know I won't get wrong!) Have a good evening, everyone.

KB xx

Gosh - 2nd April already and not signed up yet. Very disappointed in huge overspend last month , with no real reason for it. Will be having DS and DGD to stay for the school holidays so no way will it go down this month. So, will aim at last months total -
£390 please!!

Spent 28.70 on some lovely food with lots of yellow stickered stuff. yum yum!

Hi
More money spent yesterday and today. I think I have learned that I need to do an internet shop on payday, things aren't going well already this month. I had to buy chicken, sausages, fish, bread flour, vegetables, cheese, yoghurts and lots more, £45.50 in total. I have got meals planned for the next week but think I am going to try to plan until next payday (26th April) I have updated my signature.
PWx

Mr T just delivered my order early pleased about that had to book 9-11pm slot as that was all that was avaliable but they are so busy they phoned to see if I minded changing That's the plus but I really should not shop when I feel yuk now got a full cupboard but whether the ingredients go together to make meals is another matter

Hi all
Back to join the April Groc Challenge...March was a strange month...all my good intentions went out the window!
Happy to report that I have just got my first NSD...miracle

please include me and I hope to reach 10 nsds this month and £400 for the groceries.
Wishing all on this board the best of luck for the month ahead.

Hi All,
I've done quite well this week, only bought things that I really needed, apart from a few ice-creams that snuck into my trolley. I have been to the butchers today for meat which will last us a fortnight that came to £16. 59, and then went to sainsbugs as i had a £12 off £60 spend, quite pleased that i only went over by a small amount over the £60, so it finally came to £55.66.

I have meal planned for the month, and trying to use up as much stuff as possible. I said last week that I wanted my annual total to be at £850 by the end of April, but as you can see by me signature...that just ain't gonna happen!!

Have a good week everyone x

just popping in to report a NSD also was treated to a lovely lunch out today

went to te$co this morning and got a few bots for mothers day and spent yesterdays dtd on a few more dtd bits, i'm not going to add my spends onto my sig tho as most was for mothersday and the few bits that weren't were more than covered by yesterdays voucher , i'm hoping for another £18 dtd voucher back

will add £16 to my sis tho for the maccy d's we had for lunch it was well worth every penny

So, I've just totally blown it. Restocking the fridge freezer to a level I'm happy with cost me most of my month's challenge money. Howewer, because of the success of last month, and because I also spaved, I'm going to move the cost of what I won't use this month over to next month, so I don't feel so bad. After all, it's not my fault my fridge freezer died, and i'm not going to beat myself up about it, but I did need to restock it, and there were some lovely bargains at @sda today, like mull£r corners, lights and rices for 25p! Bought 15!! Also stocked up on cheese, those fini$h tablets, frozen veg, marg, the butter-with-tin promotion, which was actually cheaper than buying without the tin! and some other bits. Ooh, loo roll too, which always eats into the old budget I find. So, with adjustments of spaving, etc, my total for April out of £150 so far is £122.02!! That's with another £13.94 to take out of the May budget, mainly the fini$h dishwasher tablets. Looking at the price per tablet, it's actually cheaper than the smartprice ones, so I bought 5 packs!

In fairness, I did get some stuff for mothering sunday in there too, like some strawbs and rasps, and some nice chocs, and something nice for breakfast, and... But, being a single mum, I thought s0d it, I'll treat myself! My children want to make all my food for me tom, so needed to get easy stuff as they're only 6 and 4!! So, for breakfast we're having pain au chocolats or choc brioche, lunch is sandwiches with hm cakes for pudding (we're making them tom morning!), and dinner is enchiladas with chocolate pots for pud - will put that in separate post, they look yummy! Then, of course, snacks throughout the day and all round pigginess, followed by a nice bike ride in the nearby park! And if they want an icecream while we're there, tough, but I did find about 5 tubs of the stuff in the outside freezer I didn't know I had, so they can wait til we get home and have some of that!!

Just realised how long the post is. Sorry.
PG x

Ingredients
250ml double cream
1 tablespoon caster sugar
200g plain chocolate

Serves 4

Method
Put cream and sugar in saucepan, heat til just boiling, stirring regularly.
Turn off heat, break choc into chunks and add to pan.
Leave for 2 mins, then stir until smooth.
Leave for 10 mins, stir and put into dishes.
When cold, put into fridge for at least 4 hours (we're leaving them overnight).
Shove some grated choc/fresh raspberries/whatever on the top and serve!

There are only 3 of us, and 2 are small people, so we've done half quantity, for a taster rather than a feel-sick pudding!

hi everyone,

am feeling quite excited about april's gc, just feeling really positive that i'm being better with the money i spend
did a weekly shop in m'sons yesterday and spent £54.98, added £9.98 to this which is for the half price nappies i got in march that will be used this month!!and £4.99 on a box of 6x johns*ns babywipes in savers.

i don't claim to be a great cook but try to make sure we get enough veg and that it's meals the kids will enjoy, should get 9 days of meals out of this spend:

*beef and veg lasagne (with grated carrot to hide it from kids and brocoli)
*chips and fish fingers
*boiled bacon,veg(brocoli,cauli,cabbage,carrot,swede,peas, roasties)and onion sauce,
*leftover bacon with veg(new pots,brocoli,carrot)and cheese sauce,
*hotdog pasta,
*tuna and new potato layer bake served with brocoli(might add sweetcorn)
*pizza and chips,
*homemade veg soup (carrots,cabbage,cauli,sweetcorn,will add brocoli and pots if there are any left) blended untill fairly smooth served with brown bread,
*leftover veg soup used as a sauce with pasta and topped with cheese.

we all eat fruit every day and obv eat a few naughties lol

after i made the lasagne i had a few sheets of whoopsied fresh pasta to use up so my dd who's two tore it all up into little squares and i boiled it with some peas, let it cool then added sweetcorn and mayo for a quick 'pasta salad', not your regular pasta shapes but was yummy and meant i used up pasta that before joining the gc i would have binned

also bought the 3 for £10 meat so have 2 portions of beef mince and 2 portions of diced chicken in the freezerand before the gc i would just have bought smaller packs of mince as i needed them, costing me more over a month!!

anyway sorry for the long postand good luck to everyone in reducing your spends

Spent €8.96 yesterday, bringing my total spend to €36.71, hadn't got a list with me though so only got 4 things I knew I needed, am out of salami and other things, will go either to-morrow or Tuesday.

Marie

Wow! Just had to catch up on thread not been on since last night and am 4 pages behind!!

Popped into sainsbugs lastnight and managed to spend £32.78!!!
Not liking how my budget is looking or bank balance so early in the month!!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Hi first time for me so £160 for April please done well so far checked my food shop from company shop £27 worth for 10.95 will get 3 meals from the half price belly of pork Wait**** 500 grammes for £1.30 so figured could afford the Best Morris*** apple sauce anyone noticed the store second veggies there I got broccoli and red potatoes for 14 p each 750g and 250g so apart from milk and fresh veg I am sorted for week time to bake a loaf.


me 2 cats and a need to cut back on booze no pub this week end thats everything

I spent £3.50 on sweets and fizzy drink. Must do better. Total spend this month £29.55. I've spent £4.55 on junk. I could get the ingredients for a meal out of that.

Yippee! OH paid for the bulk of the food shopping yesterday as he would have taken me out for a takeaway but I said let me cook instead, so I have fruit, veg, icecream etc for the grand sum of £3.50 That, added to the cheapie spends on my wild night out on Friday of £11.20 which I'm taking out of the grocery challenge, as it was drink and under my austerity measures this month, it has to count!!) means I've spent £14.70 out of my £100 already, and it's only 3rd April.....

we have a company shop near us, its fab i go about once every couple of months and stock up on meat , toiletries,yoghurts, sweets and any other offers they have

NSD today , we are going out for a meal but that is from another budget

PennyGrabber, have added your Chocolate Pots to the recipe index

sorry I've not been around much but my dgs was born on Friday 1st so not been able to concentrate on much else

hope you're all having a lie-in and having some nice Mother's Day treats

I had a couple of hours to kill last night in town, so did my meagre shop first in Ald*, then Morris*ns, A*da and finally T**co. They are all quite close together so I didn't have to use any petrol to speak of. It was very very quiet at 7pm but few whoopsies, other than half price smoked salmon which I bought and then split into portions and froze. Spent the grand sum of £11 (plus wine, but that comes out separate budget at present). So £11/50 for April, but I won't be going shopping again until at least 10th.