March 2021 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

And.... we’re bust at £146.34/£141.40, with 4 days to go and a desperate need for fresh milk and potatoes.  Oh, and somehow there’s still £4.70 left in the GC Challenge Purse...

In the time between my last post on this thread and this one, we’ve done 3.5 grocery shops. There was also an additional visit to L!dl, where we picked up a Garden Storage Bench, earning a £10-off-your-next-shop voucher (more on that later), but I didn’t buy any groceries on that trip.

Shopping trip no1:  £11.60 spent in L!dl on milk, mushrooms, carrots, noodles, a bottle of vegetable oil, toiletries for DH and 3 packets of biscuits.  (Mr Sweet-tooth went on his own.  He also spent £6 of his own money on chocolate.)

Shopping trip no2:  £4.33 spent in L!dl.  It would have been £15.59, but we had the £10-off voucher to spend, plus another couple of money-off vouchers.  One of those vouchers was on vegetable oil, so we stocked up, buying an additional 4 bottles.  We also purchased a salmon en croute, a couple of YS chicken & bacon pies, peppers, Creme Fraiche, halva and a 99p chamois leather car-care sponge.

Shopping trip no2.5:  walked out of L!dl with our purchases from trip no2 and remembered that we had a 50p-off voucher for coffee.  I left DH with the shopping and went back in.  £1.39 spent on one jar of freeze dried instant.

Shopping trip no3:  £9.72 spent in MrT’s on yoghurts, fresh peppers, bananas and squash.  That was paid with Clubcard vouchers.  We went because we needed batteries... humph!...  Somehow, as well as 3 packets of Duracell 2025 batteries at £8/each, a bottle of whisky found its way into the shopping trolley (was £32.50, Clubcard price £20).  The bill was originally £56.78 but the joint account paid for everything that wasn’t covered by the Clubcard vouchers, so I’m only counting the Clubcard Voucher spend in the GC Challenge.  (At least we got double points on it all.)

Plans for today include another walk down to L!dl, to buy milk and potatoes, so lets see how far over we actually get.

- Pip

Tightpants24

My last click and collect of the month from M0rri3sons.  £54.75 but this includes Easter eggs.  So the grand total for March is £384.75 / £425.  It is my first month doing this challenge and down from approx £500+ 

moneyonmymindsam

Hi
Still £5 over and need milk so will start on next month's budget a day early. 

I'm still working on tweaking my budget as Feb was a £7 overspend and March a £5 one (more like £6.09 when get milk) but freezer was run completely empty and is now stocked with a few good meals. 

Happy weekend all, hope you and yours are well and the sun is out for you. 

Sam x

Finstickle

Have gone from having £80ish left to being £65.84 over 😱😱😱😱
£626.84/£561 and a few days to go until payday.
OH has started a new training plan which has meant stocking up on protein powder, 100s of eggs and various other bits I wouldn't normally buy.  Hopefully what I've bought will last a couple of months as he's currently doing a specific 8 wk programme.  Also going through spinach and pak choy like it's going out of fashion. 

Still under target YTD, so hopefully will balance out with the reduction in snacks, crisps, alcohol etc 🤞🤞

goldfinches

I also succumbed to temptation this afternoon in Waitflower due to a visit to Ald! that was akin to visiting one of the circles of hell. I was so horrified by the Ald! where I couldn't find any of the things I'd gone there to purchase that when I got to Waitflower on the way home I gave in to almost every long wished for ingredient I saw.
I got everything on my list barring rhubarb as that shelf was bare as was the storeroom but didn't buy reduced milk as there is currently no space whatsoever in my freezer.
I bought 26 items at a grand total of £42.92 and am allocating £12.85 to the baking budget, £5 to the household linen budget, £2.90 to the medical supplies budget, £3.48 to the y/s budget and £1.69 to the treats budget which leaves  £17.00 and that brings my total spend this month to £120.99/£124 and £4.32 per day. 
I know it's creative accounting but at this stage in the month I'll take it and just hope to limp across the end of the line feeling as though I had a fairly good try, night all, goldfinches.

Shortie

Morning all, sorry for being so bad with updates, I've not been browsing the 'net when I have finished work the last week or so.
My grocery month ended yesterday (I got paid a day early as day day falls on a weekend.  I managed to go over by about £20    Worse still, even though I thought I was keeping track, my banking budgeting sheet showed me as over the target.  For April, I will keep all my receipts so that I can reconcile back if needed.

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Two more spends to declare.  As planned, we walked down to L!dl yesterday afternoon.  We tried really hard to keep the shop below the £4.70 we had in the GC purse.  £3.63 spent.  Mushrooms £1.40, Eggs £1.18, Broccoli 65p, carrots 40p.  YS milk should have been 30p but they charged us £1.09 and then refunded it when we quizzed the bill.

The other spend was £1.20 for 4kg of potatoes from one of the Asian supermarkets.  We’d spotted their price while walking down to L!dl, and they were cheaper, so stopped on the walk home.  

We shouldn’t need anything else this month, so I am declaring for March at £151.17/£141.40. £9.77 overspent.

  - Pip

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, spent £2.37 in the corner shop last night on milk as we'd completely ran out. Hoping it'll last until Thursday. Other than the affordable grocery collection tomorrow and a small top up of fizzy drink we shouldn't need anything else. 
Total currently stands at £248.79/£350 so will probably end on around £260

ancientmum

Happy Sunday, I'm just under budget at the moment with still three days to go.  Really pleased as I had to spend £4 on batteries for the TV zapper, but that will leave me with spare ones for next time they run out.
I'll wait until 31st to call in the total March spend.

D123456789

My budget has gone so over this month that I can’t even own up to it. DH has done top up shops most weeks and we did a big bulk buy as well. Will need to have a real think about next months budget. Or perhaps an annual one so it all balances out. Well done to everyone who kept on track you’re doing better than I am!