March 2020 Grocery Challenge

supersaver1000

Have already had 3 trips to MrS and 2 trips to Mr Aldee and its only just day 2 of the month for me.

£83.55 spent, out of a planned total of £252 for March.

It seems to be the thing to spend a bit more at the start of the month.  Did the same in Feb and it eventually averaged to about £60 a week.  This week's shop included a bag of dishwasher tablets and quite a few extras as there were three of us for dinner last night.  Meal plan done, but we don't stick to it rigidly and somehow always seem to end up with bits to carry over:

Sun: Leftovers
Mon: Fishcakes
Tues: Homemade Soup
Weds: Omlette with baked potatoes
Thurs: Pizza
Fri: HM Curry night

Nellbell21

Hi Elspeth and grocery gang.  I declared at £880 last month so failed by £80.  Anyway, can I try for £800 again this month?  I’m going to do it this time, I’m determined. 💋

Anzac_Biscuit

PipneyJane said:

Anzac_Biscuit said:

Hi all, I'd love to join you for March! We're a family of three - two adults and a 1yo. I have no idea what we've been spending lately so will be aiming for $500AU for the month and keeping all the receipts to see how we go. Hubby is applying for a job with lower pay and we're keen to see how we might manage
We'll start on 1st March and run for the calendar month.

G'day @Anzac_Biscuit!  Welcome to Grocery Challenge. It's nice to know that I'm not the only Aussie here (although I'm practically a POM - it's been 31 years).  

- Pip

Thanks PipneyJane! I spent a few very happy years in London in the mid-2000s. I'm blessed to have a British passport!

Anzac_Biscuit

First spend for the month today, and it was a whopper! I had been slack on restocking basics as I went. Still, lots of savings, and the pantry is restocked  
Also, a major win - all three of us have been struck down by the lurgy but I still managed to keep us all fed all weekend, despite having planned a big shop yesterday (Sat), and doing a late one today right before witching hour (thanks Mr AB for staying home with bub!)
Meat: $17.15
Groceries: $ 56.29
S'market: $94.58
I'm hoping that will do us for the better part of two weeks, but will see how we go. I only recently discovered that Mr AB puts groceries on a different card, so we might end up being waaaaaaaay out! 
After discussion we've decided this budget will be for eating out as well.
Embryonic meal plan:
Mon -chicken soup tomorrow with whole chook in SC
Tues - spaghetti and bought (!) meatballs (late finish for me so needs to be super quick to prep)
Wed - apricot curried chicken
Thurs - veg curry
Fri - leftovers
Sat I'll be away for the weekend so DH will have to fend for himself
Sun - leftovers

ForestBluebells

I thought I was doing well cutting my food spend from around £250 monthly to £125 but maybe that’s still not great for a single female. I have a separate pet food budget so this is just my food and household products/skincare products etc. I’m going to stick to £125 this month again but maybe I could reduce next month. 

Mrs_Cheshire

Morning all, got my 1st shop of the month arriving tonight. Should come to £75.08 unless there are substitutes I don't want. I'm doing a trial of G*usto this month, as I want to find some new recipes that everyone will eat. I got a few bits of meat last week which were reduced so they have been put in the freezer which should help keep the March spends low. 

Toonie

Since I started trying the grocery challenge again I've noticed that we tend to do a large shop around the 26-30th of the month, so as such I'm going to use that shop as the start of the month. I'll go for a £170 budget again and the big shop from Aldi came to £84.69 and was a trolley full of store cupboard supplies, fresh meat, bits for the freezer, toiletries, and cleaning supplies.

Naomim

Mrs_Cheshire said:

Morning all, got my 1st shop of the month arriving tonight. Should come to £75.08 unless there are substitutes I don't want. I'm doing a trial of G*usto this month, as I want to find some new recipes that everyone will eat. I got a few bits of meat last week which were reduced so they have been put in the freezer which should help keep the March spends low. 

I work with a lady who has to have a gluten free diet.  Her & her partner often use G*usto and other meal planned sites. She never pays full price by moving around a few and tells me the recipe cards are excellent for getting you prepared to go it alone too.  I'm not sure for me as a family of 4 whether it would work out cheaper 🤔

Naomim  x 

jam2019

Logging a spend of £9.22 for this weekend - £3.28 in asda on milk, fruit, garlic and ginger. I'm going to try dicing the garlic and ginger and freezing for future use, hopefully should work out more convenient than preparing it every time and cheaper than the jars.
Plus a splurge of £5.94 in waitrose for some strong roots beetroot and kidney bean burgers and some this isn't bacon, which looks interesting and hopefully tastes a bit better than the quorn facon. 

ForestBluebells

My first shop came to more than I wanted even though I mostly stuck to my list although couldn’t find one main ingredient so had to on the fly plan a different meal £44.33/£125.. gulp, better be better for the rest of the month 🤦‍♀️