February 2023 Grocery Challenge

mumtoomany

Hello all, did the big February shop yesterday, I know it was still January but I wanted to take advantage of the Tuesday discount in iceland. Spent £70.83 across five shops, lots of reductions. 
Total for the year to date now, £266.32/£2640,  hugs to all, mumtoomany xxx.

Soontobeoap

So this month will be a challenge as there are going to be lots of variations on our eating and buying

We are still without a car (Insurance claim has nowgone to official complaint so watch this space) This means no drop ins at shops when passing that way and also puts limitations on how much we can carry.
Grandchildren and Daughter are coming to stay for a few days at half term so gluten/dairy/soya free food needs scourcing. DH has flu so I am tempting him with treats and I have had route canal work done on a tooth today so soft and squishy food for me.

Did a big Tesco online shop yesterday. We used £28.50 tesco vouchers on this shop which bought it down to £111.37. Hopefully it contains all of the heavy stuff we need for the month (should be just bread, milk, fruit, veg and maybe some fruit juice to get although we will need snacks and lunches when DGC are here. We also got £45.00 clubcard savings on things that we normally buy so there is a bit of bulk buying in there too. 🤞We keep in budget for second month running.

Heres to February being a successful challenge for all of us. 

EssexHebridean

I'll be back in again - I'll be joining here when my current month finishes on the 10th. 

£225 for the month for me please

Thanks for running the thread again Elsiepac! 

thriftwizard

Today's shop at L!dls & the little oriental grocers - never got to the big one in Southampton, btw; went & played mud pies on my allotment instead - set us back a massive £108.75, which will leave us £83.45 per week for fresh stuff. That's a bit tighter than I'd like, but essentially do-able. Stocks are high, some of it needs eating up, & there's plenty in the freezer.

newroadahead

First shop of the month today coming in at £60.33 so £189.60 left from £250 budget not too bad as included meat (which I will divide for over 4-6 meals) and chicken.

NRA

LadyWithAPlan

February Grocery Challenge  £145 + £30 bulk Please @elsiepac - tx again for running the thread

Hope everyone got through January ok and all the grey and cold.

My Jan GC was a bit chaotic as I went abroad for the last week to the States and I deliberately shopped in Publix as one of the GC'ers here often mentions. Awesome sushi  boxes from $8-17 but a large red apple was over $3!!!

Feb is a short month but I have an emptier fridge/freezer. I sold my spare fridge freezer last month for £50 - so cash and space I was happy with. I will pop out tomorrow  and get some veg, frozen stuff, chicken, make lots of soups and curries whilst its grey outside.


I am taking money out in cash this month as opposed to debit card to see if that makes a difference - I will keep the bulk in a separate envelope.
Having gone from 0 GF breadmakers I now have 2!! So need to sell the one. I managed to find a way to make my parents old one work (after having to throw one batch out as I had used the wrong number) but by then the new small Lakeland  compact one was on the  way,.  I will say the official lakeland recipe for GF bread had half a pot of honey! So I tried it once but it is too sweet  .. and it becomes expensive and too much sugar so I am doing a mix of that (with only one tsp of honey) and its fine.
 The GF bread is great, I am playing with white/brown bread GF flours and adding chia, flaxseed, almond slivers and seeds to make it even healthier. I am slicing and freezing most the same day as it doesnt keep great but it is not a huge loaf.
It does take 3 hours and 30 mins... which is 3 x longer than the Panasonic one (which makes bigger loaves) but I got this one in a bundle so my b maker was over 1/5th cheaper than the Panasonic one.
I have GF bread in there and it smells great


I am still on largely dry January /dry spring - I had 2 evenings of drinks during January but that was not an issue and I am planning to continue to only drink on special occasions and not to excess.

I was reading there is some nectar extra points in Saturday so I will get some more GF bread flour and baking stuff as they dont sell it in Lid plus some more frozen veg etc

sarahj1986

£142 spent 

this includes a big Tesco shop today online and a shop in Lidl on Tuesday, which I’m counting as February as everything will be used in February. I got diced beef for 90p a pack, chicken fillets for 90p and third off chicken goujons and sausages. The above will pretty much do 2 weeks of meals. I shouldn’t need a lot next week at all. I’m going to try and only do 3 big shops this month. Next week I’m gonna try and do a bigger shop to make it stretch 10ish days and take it from there. I’m going to utilise Lidl more for reductions too 

Suffolk_lass

I'm trying to live on what we have in for most of this month. I did top up on butter, yogurt, oranges and carrots, so the SM sweep was £16.51 and along with frozen veg and homegrown squashes we can make do for a lot of the time. I have also paid (£10) online for the eggs that were delivered in Jan.

I needed to get something out for tonight and have gone for 2 chicken thighs. I will casserole them this afternoon with onion, carrot and squash and we can have steamed cabbage and maybe a jacket potato to keep things simple. There is a box of gooey (at room temperature) chocolate brownies in the fridge from the middle of the pan I made, and I think these with a dollop of yogurt may feature as a dessert at least twice. I still have a pot of courgette and butternut soup for lunches, and a loaf of homemade bread.

Looking ahead, at my big river subscriptions, the non-pet stuff will be £30.81 and milkman will be £7.25 a week.  Spend so far is already £64.57 with tomorrow's milk DD. I know the milk and eggs are not the cheapest. The eggs are local, a dozen delivered every week, and we can see the chucks as we walk the dog on the farm in the Village. I love how local and still free-range (under cover) they are.

Having just done a two month electricity meter reading that triggered a bill for over £500, we need to be careful as next month the house insurance will make a big hole. January GC total was £332.65, so over 10% of my annual £3000, but £73.45 of this was subscriptions and milk [eek]

LadyWithAPlan

Grocery Challenge £22.98/£145 + £0/£30 bulk

Just spent in Mr Lid £22.98 - mainly loads of veg (onions, peppers, mushrooms, celery, tomato, kale, frozen broccoli) only fruit was lemons and limes, as had run out of most, tartare sauce, new pepper mill as had dropped last one... some turkey mince was only meat, soya yogurt (much cheaper there) .. also kitchen towels £2.49 - which normally come out of a home pot but I will see if I can keep costs in my Grocery budget or increase by £5 next month
A single large courgette was 98 p!
Org cucumber 95p but only 20p more than normal one.
I am back on super healthy food and am largely keeping off the alcohol for health and fat reasons but it does help with the hangovers and cash too.

Big kerfuffle in the store whilst I was there  as one lady had stuck some expensive burgers down her coat and walked out so the staff were running around. I do feel bad for the store but I also think one would  only steal food because you need to feed yourself and your kids so ... Hard times. I had my phone snatched as a cyclist deliberately drove into me at speed last week   so I think COL is impacting peoples behaviour - I am a lot less sympathetic to the cyclist vs the food thief - maybe I am wrong but ... I have never had to steal food to feed myself

I had bought a side of YS salmon before Xmas so I have just cooked in the halogen so that will keep me going for the couple days,. Ginger, lemon, GF soya sauce, coriander ...garlic,  I may get my new mandolin out and slice some sweet potato chips to go with and some veg.

I have a voucher of tinned tuna and also nuts I will use as well for bulk later in the week

My GF breadmaking was a bit of a disaster yesterday as the GF standard  recipe in the new b/maker  has half a pot of honey in  but my amendments did not work ;(  It was salveagable  but I will try the other breadmaker's GF recipe in the new B/Maker if that makes sense.
Still at least it was edible  and was healthy and cheaper than buying it.
(It was extra crunchy after I also cooked it in the oven to get rid of the moisture and then toasted it) 

barole

Budget for February.... Let’s try £180.00

Living in hope as it is a shorter month.

Spend so far £3.75 on cheese and dog poo bags.

NSD so far 1