March 2023 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

@Soontobeoap I like the breakdown and the obvious insight you have into what you do and more importantly, why you do it. I can resist shopping for ages, but I know when I go, I am useless at sticking to my list and will overspend on offers, stock ups and indulgence on "Ooh, that looks nice" items. This month I have kept SM shopping under £100 but my subscriptions, including 4 boxes of tea that I could have skipped, are almost as high, and stores are just over £25.

joedenise

A couple of shops in Tesco and Morrisons and a total spend so far of £125.77/£200.  With a week to go to month end I'm hopeful of coming in under budget and able to transfer a bit to the Bulk Fund as have £77.23 left.

I also enjoy reading your breakdowns @Soontobeoap.  Keep it up!

JingsMyBucket

Morning all. A couple spends to declare. £25.10 earlier this week at M & S for cheddar, bananas and strawberries, a couple tubs of soup, bread, a packet of ham, compost bags, a couple of extra nice yoghurts. Holy crap… looking at my receipt now, I just realized the 2 rolls of compost bags were £2.90 each. They used to be £2.00 last year, then £2.25 recently! I think the last time I bought them was in January, a couple months ago. Wow, what an increase. No wonder it came out more than I expected. 

£29.39 with our local farm box provider this morning. We got the usual £20 fruit and veg box but also added on pea shoots, 4 boxes of half dozen eggs (24 eggs total), and a bottle of ginger drink. With the rising price of eggs, getting 24 local eggs from them came out to only 60p more than 2 twelve packs of generic eggs from Tesco. We made the decision to support local suppliers instead and I think I’ll go there from now on for our eggs. M & S also has the some of the cheapest eggs around as well too, as just a heads up. 

£389.95 spent so far. £60.05 / £450.00 remaining 

There’s a Tesco order coming tomorrow morning and I just went online and edited my basket down to come within limit. Our basket is looking like £62.00 including using £9.50 worth of vouchers. This order should do us for the rest of the month and into April though. Some of the items I removed can be bought in April (ex: rinse aid, more tissues, etc). I was still able to get some new things/treats into the basket so I’m happy about that. Trying to keep life peppy via the food shopping 😂

JingsMyBucket

@Soontobeoap  I enjoy reading yours and others' longer posts. That makes it fun for me, reading what's on people's minds and how they're calculating their lives/expenses.  I also write longer / brain dump posts, like @MissRikkiC too, so I like reading them. All of us think in our own ways. I also really like it when people list out what they've bought. It piques my interest to try new items or ideas/recipes or even reminds me to add something to my shopping list as well. We're a good bunch here on this challenge. 

Ginmonster

I have 3 spends to declare from today. First up was the supermarket delivery I'd ordered at £70.63 with all the heavy stuff and things needed to cater for weekend guests. Next came the quick nip to Aldi for a couple of bits I'd forgotten to add to the main order and a few tins for the food bank £7.99 in total. And finally my regular treat of a big loaf of sourdough at £4.60.

I'm up to £226.17/£250 so still have enough left to tide me through next week as long as I am sensible. 

MissRikkiC

@JingsMyBucket I did exactly this today and looked at what other people bought, especially those with lower budgets than mine, so that I can draw inspiration from their shopping ‘trollies’ 

MissRikkiC

@JingsMyBucket I did exactly this today and looked at what other people bought, especially those with lower budgets than mine, so that I can draw inspiration from their shopping ‘trollies’ 

atrixa

I'm up to £142.12/£148.50 and my month ends on Sunday. I shouldn't need anything that would exceed the budget over the weekend. Increasing the budget and cutting out a lot of snacking (more for my waistline, really) has helped keep everything in line this month.

I have gone into supermarkets a few times this month, seen the price of something and just left it there. Having a store cupboard really helps to swerve some of the silly prices if you know you aren't desperate for it, and can shop around.

Suffolk_lass

I have another week to go here before my end of month. I think we will concentrate on using some of the national carrot mountain in the veg drawer of my fridge this week. I might prep half and freeze them to make future soup-making a doddle. I notice I have one and a half cabbages too so I might make some coleslaw with a couple too. I did not realise there were carrots in the TGTG bag last week and bought 2k too!

Despite the temptation, I am not reserving any bags for today as we don't need one and with milk deliveries I will already be closer to £220 this month than to £200. Better left for someone in greater need. 

2Scratters

I nipped into the freezer yesterday looking for the xxl fish in beer batter (haddock fillets from th'aldi) well impressed. Whilst in the process of looking found a quantity of 11 litres of milk . We are well under the spends this month but this is only due to not being organised in making meals and planning as we have eaten out too much. This will however be  moved forward to make a meat purchase from the butchers we use in another town. When I go there it tends to get into 3 figures yet when DH pays its half of that!! As this is now going to come from the shopping budget it should balance itself out as neither of us will have to pay. 
We are both heading towards retirement and making adjustments ahead and making changes in our bad habits. Doing shopping from home does make a big difference in spending effectively.
 It's also reminding ourselves what we don't waste money on can be used to spend on days out or treats. That means reducing the food we throw away is money in our pockets and eco too but that is secondary to good behaviour. 

2 Scratters xx