February 2023 Grocery Challenge

ancientmum

I've had to clear more space in the freezer (by eating what I made earlier) for my bulk meat purchases this week, but everything is now stowed snuggly away.  Altogether with fruit and veg from the market, porridge oats and teabags from Sainsbury for the extra Nectar points, milk, eggs, YS bread and mushrooms my total spend for February is £88.73.  I'm pleased with that as I'm planning to do a big storecupboard stock up next month which will take a good chunk of the budget.

Crazycatlady2

£540 to finish. But I’m sure it’s more but I can’t find what I missed 🤷‍♀️

FoxFace

Last big shop of the month done! And it was a big shop, coming in at £94.11p of our £100 budget!

I’m happy with that, as our goal is to stay within budget, rather than spend as little as possible.

That said, the monthly kitty still holds £45.50p, so that will now be emptied and added to January’s leftover budget, meaning we have £77.50p in our Christmas fund. If we can get to £100 saved by the end of March, we are definitely on track to have enough to buy all the food for the festive period!

I’ll scooch over to March’s thread now, as I probably won’t spend until then. Good luck everyone!

Thevalueofless

Week 4 £78.20, total for month so far £228.18/£270
£25  of this on oat milk which should last four weeks or so and £6.00 on beer for watching Newcastle play in the cup. We don't usually buy alcohol as OH makes wine but apparently a cup match requires beer! Still, we are under budget but not calling until Thursday as I know I need a few bits for meals during the week and some soya yoghurt which I will have to go to Alds for as our Mr T only selling branded one now rather than their own brand and I can't bring myself to pay nearly £2 for a pot of yoghurt. Harvested leeks and purple sprouting broccoli from the allotment today, the leeks a bit on the slim side but will make a nice meal. Stores running down which was my aim so I can get a true idea of how much we need each month (rather than shopping the garage shelves) but haven't made much of a dent on the courgettes and beans we froze during the summer so that's my aim for the coming week. 

See you over in March 🙂

TVOL

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

I have one more small spend to declare £1.65 in Sainsbugs for 2L of skimmed milk.  Popped in to buy the Sunday paper, (which we get on subscription so have to pay with a voucher).  3 pints of the milk are now in the freezer, split between two containers.

Also got a £2 coin in my change, which has gone directly into the Running Away Fund.  (We have a rule to never spend a £2.  It goes into the Running Away Fund money box.)

I’m not declaring yet for February.  We still need to spend £2.48 in L!dl by COB Tuesday, in order to qualify for their £2 off voucher.  I’ll ask DH to spend that - he can spend it on chocolate.  (He will buy it anyway.)

Now at £126.75/142 leaving £15.25 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

KajiKita

Failed - £572.46 against a budget of £500. 😕

I have had a tough month in many ways and I haven’t been keeping such a close eye on all my spending, not just groceries (gardening spend was quite high too). 

Time to try again 🤷‍♀️😊

KK

atrixa

Declaring at £185.48/£150

I've upped the grocery budget for future months, as there's nothing in particular I think I'm doing wrong, it's more the price hikes affecting what I'm buying. Even with finding some great bargains last month, it didn't even out all the increases.

joedenise

Still using up foods from the freezer and it's going down nicely ready to defrost hopefully towards the end of next month or early April!

Final shop done today and total spend for GC is £134.19/£200 leaving £65.81.  This will be moved to other categories within YNAB; not sure where yet but will be moved when I do my March budget.  Having said that I think I'll need to move some to the bulk fund as need more frozen veg as getting quite short of some.

SecondStar

Rounding off February with £25.42 left!

£124.58 / £150 spent.

I have been relying on my 6 gluten free prescription loaves each month, which do for my lunch sandwiches when I’m working in the office. My gluten free prescription pasta has made for cheaper dinners, also. Plus I’ve learnt the beauty of 69p mozzarella balls, as opposed to the extortionate bags of pre-grated stuff.

I’ve also been careful to pay for every supermarket shop using a discount scheme through work, which gets me 4% off at Tesc0.

I think I’ll have a go at making a big batch of pancakes for breakfasts this month, as buying pre-made gluten free breakfast foods is £££. 

diminua

Declaring at £181.82. Last spend was £4.33 on bread (cheap and cheerful white bloomer) for home lunches and breakfasts for the next three days, apples, again for lunches, and broccoli and carrots to go with the veggie shepherd's pie I made for two nights dinners. I'll need to get eggs and some store cupboard things, and of course coffee, bread and milk again on Thursday, but that's next month.