March 2021 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

For us, this is the 3rd shopping day of a 5 week month, so I'm not dismayed at being rather more than halfway through the budget, as from here on it should just be fresh stuff that needs to be bought. What is slightly dismaying though is that DS3 is still not home; there's considerable uncertainty over when that will actually happen but it may not now be until the end of the month! I've been buying enough for him, but to be fair it's being eaten by DD1's boyfriend, who lives alone & is furloughed, so has "bubbled" himself with us. He's not here all the time, though. So I'm catering for 5, and happily spending it all, but a lot of the time there are only actually 4 of us eating. The freezer's filling up fast with leftovers!

Anyway, £70 spent today between the market (fish, cheese, a little meat, fruit & veg, for 5, possibly 6, as DS3 hadn't at that point said he might not get here until 27th) and the bakery. We shouldn't need anything much until next Thursday... 

Tightpants24

Weekly click and collect for tomorrow is under £50 at last.  £46.97 to be precise.  I will still do a mid week Aldi shop but it should be lower too.  It has been the meal planning based on what is in stock that is making the difference.  Up until now I had been just getting repeat orders and stuff was either sitting unused, or (even worse) getting wasted.  

goldfinches

I've decided to try pretending that I have a milkman in order to avoid top-up shops so yesterday I bought enough milk for 12 days and sufficient yoghurt for 10 and stashed it in the fridge and the freezer. The other thing I'm going to try is having a veg box delivery and I'm hoping that this will mean that I don't set foot in a supermarket at all, so we'll see.
Yesterday I spent £7.62 on the aforesaid milk and yoghurt as well as a pint of white vinegar for the kitchen so that brings me to £47.91/£124 which is £3.99 per day counting up to yesterday so that's heading in the right direction.
Has anybody tried the Natoora Peak Season Box and can tell me what they think please?

[Deleted User]

@Suffolk_lass thanks for the vinegar tip.  I should really do that with my washing machine.  Incidentally, the distilled vinegar as fabric conditioner was amazing.  I used to use it when my kids were little, to avoid chemicals on their skin, but forgot how good it was.

First spends of the month £11.31.  Got auergines, mushrooms, 6 bunches of the largest spring onions I've ever seen, 11 red bell peppers.  some wash liquid, dairy free yoghurt, almond milk, carrots, a large bag of onions and a pack of spicy bean burgers (total laziness).  I've been working through my bean/legume/oats 'stash', making dips/oat milk.  I'm going to roast most of the red peppers in the air fryer, jar some and make a dip with the others.  Maybe red lentil and roasted pepper, dunno. Will need some salady bits, which I will grab tomorrow.  Have a lovely weekend everyone.

pamsdish

£22.75 In M0rries, popped over to get some of the on offer beef, only 2 small joints left, got 1 for me and 1 for my neighbour, got my months supply of tonic waters and £5 saver stamps. This will be the last year I get the stamps, don`t know why I do anyway, my friend found a forgotten card full, expired April 2020, she asked me if I could check with Morrisons what to do, sorry money lost was Morrisons response, so once I have filled my card I will not buy them again.

Pixiehouse55

£14 today for tray of eggs and 25kg potatoes 
£8.66 in Lids Asde had queues so hubby didn't want to go in there. Lidl didn't have everything that was on my list.m

Mrs_Cheshire

Hope everyone's having a relaxing Sunday. Small top up shop in Ald! yesterday - spent £19.43 (including some treats for today and some chocolate bunnies to put away for Easter). 
Total spent £179.88/£350

K9sandFelines

I'm in for March, but might not be constant. 
We (DD2 and I are moving at the end of March). My eldest daughter is still here with granddaughter, so the whole situation is a nightmare (but thats a whole different story).
I will drop my budget accordingly when we are settled. We will now have access to an Aldi, a Tesco, HomeBargains and small Co-op on the doorstep (not sure what shops are further afield).So with those shops combined i should be able to pick things up on my days off, and not have to bulk buy because of the distance of where the shops are currently.
Here's hoping,anyway ....

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

How has your weekend been?  Frugal and happy, I hope.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there.

We went to the butcher yesterday, spending £89.00 on a large chicken (1.7kg), a big leg of lamb (£45), two huge t-bone steaks that weighed over 1.2kg (£21.30), 8 chicken breasts and 4 chicken thighs.  Sadly, he didn’t have any chicken livers and hasn’t for several weeks.  (I have a hankering for home made pate.)    

 What can I say?  The meat fumes got to me. We only went for a roast chicken and the chicken livers.  (We still have at least half the meat from our visit to the butcher at the start of February.  I’m back practicing freezer tetris)   They cut the lamb shank off for us and it’s been frozen, as has the main lamb roast. Ditto the chicken thighs.  I’ve bagged and frozen the chicken breasts individually.   The steaks are in the freezer for next weekend.   We roasted the chicken for dinner last night, ate the legs and will be having the remaining meat in two separate meals later in the week (chicken risotto and fajitas).  If there’s any chicken scraps left on the carcass after that, I’ll make chicken fried rice, before making chicken stock.

We also went to L1dl, spending £19.01 on fresh veg, cashew nuts, sliced dried ham, paper towels, cooking oil and cookies.   While there, the garden fund coughed up £8.99 for a pair of their wellies for me and the Christmas Fund paid £9.88 for Easter Eggs and cooking chocolate.

While most of the above isn’t tracked in the Grocery Challenge, the £19.01 spent in L!dl brings our GC spend for March to £120.29/£141.40, leaving £21.11 for the rest of the month.

• Pip

Florenceem

Finished my 4 weeks at £90.10/£100.