March 2023 Grocery Challenge

SausageDogSandwich

Only a quick shop for milk yesterday at the big coop as husband had to pick up prescription next door. Also got Starbucks sachets for £2 and £2 tgtg hot morning bag, wasn’t impressed as was 3 sausage and egg muffins that weren’t very nice! Oh well. Came to £5.50. Snow is almost cleared here so probably do the big shop tonight as have to get fruit and veg, only one apple left in the house. 

But for now my total is £56.98/250

thriftwizard

Ooooer - a massive £116.19 added for this weekend's assorted spends at the market, supermarket, butcher & bakery. To be entirely fair, about £30-worth of that is because we have guests all weekend, and some of that will go forward in the fridge or the freezer and cut down expenses another week, but still - just under £70 a week left now, feeding 5 adults with 3 sets of special dietary requirements! (DDs, both pescatarian, DD1's BF currently lactose-free, & myself high-fibre & ferments.) My belt is tightening as I type...

Gettingmyshiztogether

After a false start this morning with the snowy weather conditions, I finally managed to get to the supermarkets after lunch. 

£65.10 in L!dls and £24.41 in s@in0s (using a £3 off a £20 spend, so I stocked up on their cheap flour and easter eggs for the kids, one being DF) reaching a grand total of £89.51 for this week.

This brings us to a grand total of £200.92 for March so far.... 😬 I need to have a play around with the budget. We are well stocked and so if I can keep to £60 next week that leaves us with £140 spends for week 4, minus 10% voucher which I will then use for the top ups needed in week 5, mainly fruits, veg and milk. It could just be do-able 🤞🤞

I just want to add, how grateful I am for this challenge. I started in November after realising that in October we had spent more on food than our mortgage that month. To say I was horrified is an understatement. Then I stumbled upon this thread, funny how things work out, and slowly but surely I ve got a rein on our food budget, and have built up a rather useful pantry.

When it snowed today, I didn't need to panic that we wouldn't be able to eat (or worse have to use the village shop! At £5 for a bag of peas, we would have to starve! 😱🤣) I knew that we had the pantry there so that if needs be we would be OK for at least another week or so. I feel so organised and calm about it all. I am also planting veggies this year. This has all stemmed from an awareness this challenge brings so thank you all for being a part of it, thank you for the hints and tips and thank you @elsiepac for running it. How I shop now compared to six months ago has completely changed, and thank god for that! 

£200.92/£400

weenancyinAmerica

I looked up the Tesco ad on Google - people are really upset by it and posting comments online. Wonder if the store has gotten the message.

otb666

I have had a lot of soups over last few weeks.  Today I had carrot mushroom and potato also chucked in a small bit of garlic and herb cheese. I did the spuds and mushroom in microwave and then put in saucepan and blitzed with hand blender It was very nice.

leftatthetrafficlights

£20 spent on fruit and bin sacks over the past week- dh is running short of milk now though so I'll need to do a shop next week to stock up on that. We're currently eating from the freezers so managing to really keep down the spends 😁

 Running total: £254.31/£3000

Ginmonster

I treated myself to a lovely big seeded sourdough loaf again yesterday which will make me delicious crunchy toast for a few days. It was £4.60 but I've decided it's going to be my regular treat until I can be bothered to try making my own sourdough. Probably never! 😂

I also bought a load of more prosaic groceries, the usual fruit, veg, cheese, yogurt etc for a total of £27.44 so I'm up to £40.66/£250 now. 

Today's job will be to clean the fridge and make stuff out of anything that needs using up. Probably lots of soup given the weather!

Nelliegrace

Trying to persuade DH that we don’t need to go food shopping yet. I think I have got him hooked on checking for yellow sticker bargains. 
I forgot the oranges last week, but we have satsumas. It is not that big an issue.
We could walk to the Co-op for the milk, though it is 20p dearer.

Soontobeoap

@Nelliegrace I avoid my DH going to the supermarket as much as possible! It always ends up with extras going in the trolley! He likes to get 2 of everything and always throws chocolate treats in "just to keep him going!" 😂. I have got him checking prices now though and he has always been good at getting the best value pkt for the money.

Went to Aldi with him today and we spent £18.87!

KajiKita

Looked at big Easter eggs in Mr M today - £10 each! 😳 Mr KK usually insists on having one every year …. Maybe this year, not ….?

KK