May 2022 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

I'm off into May with a spend today of £90.66, spent at the supermarket (£34.20) the butchers(£33.14) the bakers (£9.70) & the rest at a couple of smaller shops; it's a lot, but it includes a year's worth of Nivea for me (supermarket special offer - ⅓ off - only 6p more per tub than it was last time I bought it!) replacement granules for my eco-egg, new toothbrushes - a number of things that needed replacing now but won't be needed again in a hurry. Will be aiming for less than £50 at the market tomorrow, on fish, fresh fruit & veg & the kind of cheese supermarkets tend not to have. Actually only feeding 4 for most of this week, but 6 tomorrow & possibly Sunday too. There will also be a "non-perishables" run down to L!dls at some point in the coming week; aiming for £70 there.

bupster

I'm rejoining the monthly challenge after a break of ten (!!) years. If my signature still appears below, it shows the targets I set in 2012 - about £100 a month once I'd got going. So it'll be very interesting to see what my spend comes in as now.

My target for May - living alone but working full time - is £150 to start me off, which is for all food, cleaning products etc. I don't have separate bulk/takeaway budgets, but the £150 comes out of an overall £420 a month discretionary spend which includes everything else (birthday presents, garden supplies). Compared to ten years ago it's quite an increase, but I'm out of practice and it's a long month 

My spend had crept up so over the last year or two it's not been unusual for me to blow £60-£80 in the supermarket which is completely mad when I live alone and have barely entertained. Anyway, I've moved towns and jobs and am looking to pay down debt and save for a deposit and not drown under extra bills etc etc so here we go. 

Having said all that I've already spent £52 on a SBs delivery, due to come out of the bank account on Sunday 🙄

adben12

April came in just over the 400.00. (Half term hunger)
400.00 again for me please. From the 1st May until the 31st of May.
Food and cleaning/personal products for four. Two adults, two teenagers. 

I base it on 75 shopping per week and 25.00 for school dinners. (Have tried over and over to do packed lunches but they just don't eat it and it goes to waste all hot and sweaty in a packed lunch box all day.)
Thanks

MissRikkiC

We’re a big shop into May of approx £70 and a further £3.09 on a TGTG bag where I scored big on soft fruits!  I tried to make the bigger shop for items that would add big taste so plenty of cheese, capers, chorizo, pastes that type of thing along with a few of the basics but variations of to try and make things interesting too. 

Steaks purchased by hubs we’re SUCH a treat, I can’t tell you how divine they were 😏

atrixa

I've done the bulk shop for the month- big online order at Mr T, then smaller ones at L!dl, Mr M and Mr S. Spent £93.77/£140 already. Bonkers. 

I need to be very strict about sticking to my meal plan and shopping lists for the rest of the month. I'm hoping to get lots of batch cooking done on the Bank Hol.

Soontobeoap

Travelling up to DS in Watford DH popped into Asda car wash. I took the opportunity to take a look in the shop for non bio washing tablets as Aldi and Tesco seem to have stopped doing them! I bought 4 boxes costing £10. Persil tablets that are very similar are £5.50 a box!!! I don’t want to start paying more than double!!!! I wasn’t expecting this extra purchase but it will definitely save me money in the long run.

we are already over £100 and havnt even started May yet. I am determined to stay in budget this month so I am going to need to be very careful for the rest of the month.

welcome back @bupster.I am spending less than I did for 2 in 2011 so hopefully you will have the same success. I appreciate that it is much harder when you are working though.

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

@bupster welcome back!
@wannalot I had to comment as your post really resounded with me - your cheery way of writing sounded like me when I'm trying not to show how I'm actually struggling inside - please go easy on yourself and also work some of your favourite meals into your meal plan so you have a little bit of something lovely each day

thriftwizard

£45 spent this morning, on fish, fruit & veg; the cheese stall wasn't there, but there's enough in the fridge to see us through to next Friday. So far, so good...

goldfinches

Hello all, slinking in early on account of having overspent my April budget so have decided to count the overspend against May and then try to be better at staying out of the shops in May.

My new total is £30.02/£124 and the baking budget hasn't spent anything yet.

Hettyhound

First shop of the month done and £46.31 spent.  Did include a birthday card (99p), some flowers to takedown the cemetery (£4.18) and an very unusual for me bottle of wine (£4.19).  It’s been a long week which included a 4 hour round trip on Wednesday for my uncles funeral so I wanted to raise a glass in his memory as I couldn’t at the wake.  Sadly missed but at age 90 he had lived a very full and happy life which is comforting.