March 2020 Grocery Challenge

Narola1976

Hi can I join please. Hoping to spend £220 this month. Already spent £133.30 but hoping that will last 2 to 3 weeks, fingers crossed. 

DireEmblem

ForestBluebells said:

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. 

I'm single as well, think my food comes to around the same!  Currently making a Coconut Beer Rendang with coconut rice.  Works out around £2.80 a portion, and I'm making enough for 8(half the cost is the meat).  Also making a vegetable chilli with portion costs well less than half that and makes 4 servings.  That and Kimchi fried rice are probably my two favourite cheaper meals.  I guess for £125 a month - assuming 31 days we are talking around £4 a day.  I don't think that is that bad?

ForestBluebells

DireEmblem said:

ForestBluebells said:

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. 

I'm single as well, think my food comes to around the same!  Currently making a Coconut Beer Rendang with coconut rice.  Works out around £2.80 a portion, and I'm making enough for 8(half the cost is the meat).  Also making a vegetable chilli with portion costs well less than half that and makes 4 servings.  That and Kimchi fried rice are probably my two favourite cheaper meals.  I guess for £125 a month - assuming 31 days we are talking around £4 a day.  I don't think that is that bad?

That makes me feel a lot better about my budget thanks, I hadn’t thought about it in terms of daily spend and that’s 3 meals a day too so definitely not bad. I’m currently cooking a mushroom cottage pie which is for the end of next week so I’ll freeze portions of it (was supposed to be a haggis cottage pie but I couldn’t find any haggis) .  This should make at least 4 portions maybe more as I’m hashing together several recipes. I’m also cooking a roast chicken later and that will be used for chicken pesto tarts and bubble and squeak with leftover veg, later in the week I’ll have brushetta with mozzarella. That’s my meal plan to take me to Sunday next week. I spent more than I anticipated as I had to buy a lot of chicken for my dogs treats and one isn’t well so they will eat that at least for today too. 

Jacs205

Another spend for me in sains for some stuff I can only get from there, but that's all the 'once a month' stuff done.  £18.70 so £362.46 left

purpleybat

hello, 
i still have to add a couple of receipts to my feb total but know i'm over again
can i have a target of £170 this month please, am feeding 3 adults all month and while i still have some frozen goodies i will have to buy some meat at some point

Doom_and_Gloom

Thank you elsiepac for the thread, it keeps budgeting easier.

Our March goes 1st to 31st. I'm setting the budget at £240-£15.18 February overspend= £224.82 for the month.
2 adults and a chinchilla for all food, chinchilla items (food, hay, treats, sand etc) cleaning, toiletries and non alcoholic drinks.

£4.23/£224.82.
£220.59 left.

We have an A&C delivery scheduled for tomorrow totalling £58.13. That includes a large fruit and vegetable box (£27.50) as well as £15.45 worth of top up fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices which should cover most (if not all) of the vegetable needs for the week (some of it will go into the week after). Less need to go in the shop for top ups means less likely to spend on non needed items! Bonus that it's organic and less plastic this way also.

That will take us to:
£62.36/£224.82
£162.46 left.
May go to Mr S tomorrow for a few bits but may wait till Tuesday (OH will need a couple of items from there), we shall see.

GreenFairy

Went to local, overpriced supermarket today as wanted to leave the car at home.
Block of Seitan, cheeses, cream, yoghurt, snacks for kiddo, bottle of coke, and 6 packets of biscuits for the builders came to €27 😩 I even forgot the sodding pastry to make dinner. Not going back, so I’ll be making rough puff for the first time tomorrow - wish me luck!

Herbyme

At last, 1st March and I can do the big stock-up shop I've been itching to do! Almost £100 in Ald1 but a huge trolley full and should only need fresh F&V, milk/bread/eggs for at least the next  2 weeks. That should mean fewer shopping trips and less spontaneous spending. I have to get OH to come to Ald1 too or it's too stressful - that amount takes up the entire conveyor belt and a bit more! So that's £100/550. Next week's meal plan done and included except for bean sprouts for a stir fry and  kale for rabbits .

ms_iiwii

Last few days worth of spends to declare, Mr A order came to 39.10 after returned items but most of that hasn’t been touched yet as I’m at OHs for a few days and it was mainly freezer and store cupboard items.
then 2 mr T shops at £14 (rounded up) and £4 exactly and a mr S shop for £8.25 since I’ve been here for bits and bobs I’ve fancied. This is a big downfall and I really impulse spend when I’m not at home which I need to work on but I least I am all stocked up for my return! 

Total spends come to £65.35 which means £171.40 for the rest of the month, still doable with all that’s in the house. 

MrsSnowy

ForestBluebell and DireEmblem thanks for your posts. As a fellow singleton a budget of £4 daily seems logical and doable.
I will allow up to £4 daily when I have visitors to stay,but think I can shop from my storecupboards and freezer for about 3 months !!
elsie@pac  £125  for the month for me please