March 2023 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Well done @zafiro1984 I tend to shop like that too but am nowhere near £387.00 savings on last year. That is incredible particularly with the cost of living crisis. Well done you. Can I ask how many in your household? It is something to aim for. 😊


I have been doing this since January 2022 and think that I am about breaking even on last year. I am quite pleased with that as, we had a week with 4 visitors this year that we didnt have last year. 

I am hanging on by the skin of my teeth this month with about £25.00 left for 2 weeks!! 🤯. This is because I have been topping up on offers and have bought £50.00 worth of grocery offers and dietry requirement foods for guests next month and bought £13.00 worth of tea bags on offer. Out of £150 budget for this month I am feeling quite smug

Watch this space!! It could all go to pot yet!!!! 😅😂🤣

Suffolk_lass

I am at £120.91 so far for March (averaged over the month of my annual budget of £3000 this would be out of £250 but I overspent in January) as a percentage I am at 21.85% of the year to date and I am still hoping to be under 25% by the end of the month. I have milk bills that are weekly and we will need carrots, and oranges. I keep thinking I will go to Morries, then put it off for another day. I have got pork ribs (a small rack that might do one big portion, but I have topped it up with pigs in blankets still in the freezer from Christmas, so one between two). I have salad we can have to go with it before the lettuce goes slimy!

leftatthetrafficlights

£25 spent on fruit, veg and shower gel 

Running total £279.31/£3000

Nelliegrace

Shopping can wait, the roads are icy. 
I wonder if shopping a day later would decrease the spending? This lot has to last eight days instead of seven. 
No eggs yesterday.
That doesn’t happen very often.
They laid three the day before, and I have two dozen in little pots in the freezer as back-up. 
I tell them, “more eggs or fewer hens.”

zafiro1984

Soontobeoap said:

Well done @zafiro1984 I tend to shop like that too but am nowhere near £387.00 savings on last year. That is incredible particularly with the cost of living crisis. Well done you. Can I ask how many in your household? It is something to aim for. 😊

Thanks  Soontobeoap there's just the two of us. It's not just food I shop for in this way but everything I would buy from a supermarket - like cleaning stuff and toiletries. 
One big tip if you are thinking of going this way is to start with non-food items. There is no temptation to use more than you would do normally, whereas with food there is always a temptation to use more especially treats.
 

mumtoomany

Big shop yesterday, but it included 6 litres of double cream at £2 a litre, reduced cheese, reduced crisps, discount at Iceland and lots of bargains at the vegetable shop. Total spent was, £115.62. I also need to add in £1.80 for milk OH picked up locally the other day. So total to date is £560.95/£2640 for the year. Only milk I think now until April, maybe fruit.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

I saw someone buying pesto and wanted to share my "hack" which is probably somewhat obvious - but I love pesto! I'm vegan and the vegan sacla one is definitely the best in my opinion, but it's so expensive - around £3 a 190g jar on average.  I found the giant catering bottles of it on Amazon, at around £11 which is already a saving, but with my subscribe and save at 15% I'm paying £9 for the 950g bottle!  I freeze some of it in ice cube trays when I open one and then decant into bags for future use.  I get the green one and the tomato one too - the tomato one is amazing adding a tbsp or two (or ice cube or two!) into what could otherwise be a very basic tomato sauce or soup or bolognese.  Thoroughly receommend

I also wanted to share my new favourite snack:

Easy baked oat bites:

100g oats
2 tbsps peanut butter (could sub with whatever you prefer, eg almond or sunflower if nuts are an issue)
2 small over-ripe bananas or one medium-large

Optional:
Vanilla essence
Add-ins such as nuts or dried fruit, chocoate chips, coconut etc

Very simply mash the bananas, then add the rest and mix the ingredients together - if the mix is a little wet add more oats until a very slightly wet but quite firm mixture is achieved.

Form into loose bites - 1-2 tbsps in size dolloped onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof/baking paper.

Bake for 15 minutes at 180.  These are amazing fresh, but keep well for a few days in a container.  They could easily be refreshed in the oven or air fryer, or indeed frozen.

I like to add in about 1/4-1/3 bag of tesco dark chocolate chips to mine, plus a splish of vanilla if I'm feeling fancy.

Saver-upper

I did a big shop this afternoon. I have gone well over my allocated £300 budget for March! However, a lot of it has been those spends that you only do every so often: cooking oil, large tubs of Flora Light, cheese etc. 

This afternoon spent £150.96, which included toilet paper £9.90, cooking oil £6.10 (just realised the label on shelf said £5.20-I will chase this up!),frozen crumbed fish fillets , 2 pkts of 4 for £5.60 each  )

Total spend so far for March  £319.34/£300

Edited 31st March: forgot to declare a spend at Iceland on 14th, for milk and bread=£4.09. March total actually £323.43

Nelliegrace

An unexpected To Good To Go from M&S at the motorway services. Nothing will be wasted. DH was going to make a loaf in the morning. 
£5 spent so far this week for £20.30 of groceries at full price.

Blackcats

I've just totted up this month's spend and given myself a nasty surprise.  Of course that would have been avoided if I'd kept track of spending as I was going along rather than suspecting/knowing I was buying too much and choosing to ignore it.

anyway I've got some money left and if I try very hard and am very ingenious I might make it 

£95.00 remaining from monthly budget of £300