March 2023 Grocery Challenge

happydenial

£8.65 in M&S today - loaf of bread, radishes, broccoli, cat treats, own brand weetabix. I also got 2 large tubs of spreadable butter reduced to £1.50 from 4.50 each which have both gone in the freezer. Annoyingly I forgot to buy milk (DH and DS1 are recently dairy free so I am out of the habit of picking some up).

£403.60/500 left.

Nelliegrace

A good start to week 2. The small Sainsbury’s store had 400p blocks of strong cheddar, and grated mild cheddar at half price. We bought two blocks, leaving plenty for other customers. It is in the freezer in 100g portions, one per week. £3 well spent. 

nat21luv

£102.36 / £250

Popped into Asda early yesterday morning for some bananas and cat food, came out with 12 boxes of Asda own brand 30 dishwasher tablets for 70p each! There must have been 100 boxes on the shelf so I got as many as would fit in my basket. Went back in at 7pm and they still had 30 odd boxes on the shelf, so I bought 10 more boxes. That 660 tablets, roughly 1.5-2yrs worth (I use them to clean the washing machine and oven racks from time to time) for 2.3p each, £15.40 total. Bargain!

I've spent £102 in cash but I did get money back on the rewards app, roughly £10 so far this month, and I only buy items that are worth it. I rarely buy branded item but the cats love Sheba (£4 back in rewards making 40 pouches £12) and 83 wash Fairy Fab Con £4.75 (£1.50 rewards) and that should last 2 months making it cheaper than Lidls own brand.

Daughter and I meal planned for the next 2 weeks with items initially visible in the freezers/cupboards and I'll do a few more in a week. I have lots of tinned green lentils to use so ideas are welcomed! We usually use it in place of mince, we're veggie so accustomed to it.

Suffolk_lass

KajiKita said:

Interesting…. There isn’t a c0stco for 30 miles but there is a b00kers fairly close by …. You have to be a business or a charity to sign up for the latter. Mr KK is self employed - would that count as a business?

KK

It would count but be careful - Bookers are owned by Tesco and are not cheaper for lots of things.

I like Costco but it is 50 miles from me. I can't justify it for two of us. One of my friends (also 50 miles from me, but only 30 from Costco) is a member and goes monthly. If I want to do a party or similar I ask to go with her but I always buy too much. I still have one giant bottle of Worcester Sauce that will be opened imminently, from my last trip with her in Feb '20 - just before lockdown! Their own brand (Kirkland) is superb quality. Especially wine. Also their prepared platters and meat are excellent

Saver-upper

I have not done a proper shop this month- been so busy at work, I haven't had the time. 

Only spends to report so far:
Lidl £21.54 last Thursday: bread, milk, a jar of Nutella (most of which I have already eaten from the jar, with a spoon  ), and a few snackie bits for the kids to eat while I went to work, and their school was on strike)
Sat 4th Sainsbury small store for snacks for daughter on her way out for the day (paid £4.85 cash).
Sun 5th Sainsbury small store for snacks for a coffee morning I was going to. Gave my daughter £10 cash to buy stuff, didn't get any change back, so I guess that was £10 
Yesterday was another long working day, but I really wanted to do a proper family meal, so dropped into a big  ASDA  and bought a few bits, inc ingredients I needed for hunters chicken. Everything is sooooooooooooooooooo expensive, isn't it? 
Until someone on this site (probably this thread) mentioned it a few days ago, I hadn't realised the 500g Flora tubs of margarine had shrunk to 450g!! I ended up buying 2 x 1kg tubs instead. £9.20 gone right there    And gravy granules £4.50- what's going on there??!!
Total for last night's shop: £53.60

March spend: £89.99/£300

Nelliegrace

Out of habit I stopped at Aldi on the way home after a hospital appointment, instead taking the other road exit to Asda where I have 10% discount with the blue light card. It was a mistake which meant the main weekly shop of £15.43 cost me an extra 97p, though Aldi prices were 57p cheaper. I was pleased with the quality of the fresh produce at Aldi.
Meat and fish are from the freezer, eggs from our hens, and most other things are from our store cupboard. We have made bread, cakes, and kefir.

I stocked up on 2 packs of Norpack spread, 500g at £2.19, out of habit. I won’t need the second pack during the March grocery challenge. It made me think that, because I have the money to buy extra when I think the price will go up, I can defer paying extra. Someone just managing buys just enough and has to pay the higher price next time. Food bills go up sooner for those with less money. It was snowing while I sat and pondered in the car park.

joedenise

Popped into Tesco on the way home from the dentist and picked up some onions and yoghurt which were the only things on my list that I couldn't get at Morrisons although still need to go to Lidl for a few things I buy there but they come from bulk fund not GC.  Have now spent £51.01/£200 so on track for the month I think; have £148.99 left for rest of the month.

Still eating mainly from the freezer and cupboards.  My chest freezer is definitely getting emptier so hopefully I'll be able to empty it and defrost it end of month/beginning of next and switch it off before my holiday which is the plan.

PipneyJane

KajiKita said:

@PipneyJane - love your devilish signature sign off - brilliant! 😂😊🤩

Thanks for all the comments. The £40 per month is a useful start point for me in terms of budgeting and the lock n lock boxes are a good tip. 

How do you qualify for C0stco? Just rock up and pay the membership fee you mentioned? 

I’ve heard of WingY1p but don’t know what it is - another wholesaler?

KK

I don’t really know how “regular people” qualify for C0stc0, @KajiKita.  Sorry.  They turned up at my ex-employer’s, on a membership drive, so I signed up then.  (Ex-employer is an engineering consultancy.). I didn’t have to provide any proof of income, etc, just show my employee badge.

Something I didn’t explain in my original post is that while I only buy Atta flour, I use it for everything.  I add a teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour, to make it into self-raising.  It’s fine for cakes and works well in my bread maker.  Historically, we’ve paid between 30p and 40p per kilo, buying it in the 10kg sack, usually MrT’s own brand, but sometime Elephant brand.

Four shops to declare from the weekend:  £4.74 in Sainsbugs on Friday (spent on yoghurts); £5.26 in L!dl on Saturday on Chicken “Casserole”, Potato Dauphinois, and YS herring salad (I was having a lazy day); £3.87 in Sainsbugs on Sunday (we walked down to buy the paper and hit the “condemned shelf”), and £3.85 in L!dl on cream cheese and a YS quiche (also on the walking route). 

Small disappointment tonight.  The YS quiche that I’d planned to cook for dinner is growing fur.  Use-by date was yesterday, so no redress.  Fortunately, we also picked up a YS pie in Sainsbugs on Sunday which is fine, so we’re having that instead.

The above brings our March spend to £17.72/£156.50, leaving £138.78 for the rest of the month.

- Pip
 

diminua

I went for a walk and pub lunch with friends in Langley at the weekend, and bought some nice but expensive blue cheese, sourdough bread, and a half bottle of wine on Friday night, so with that and the usual groceries, I'm up to £81.99 spent. 

joedenise

KajiKita - I was a member of Costco a while back but only used it for a year as we live too far away to make it worthwhile.  I was able to sign up as an ex Civil Servant.

Just checked and there are lots of people who are eligible:

https://www.costco.co.uk/membership-individual-questions

Check out this link - it shows who is eligible for membership.