March 2023 Grocery Challenge

Chelleybee

Please put me down for £340 for March. 

Should be do-able considering it's 4 weeks and we have loads of food in the house.

Thanks

thriftwizard

Squeaks of anguish are issuing from my lips! Nipped down to L!dls for the monthly non-perishable shop, then over to the wholesalers to replace a couple of items we were running low on (or in one case, out of) and have managed to chop £156.34 out of March's budget already! That's scary, especially as they didn't actually have a couple of the items on my list. The price of coffee's gone through the roof & the wholesalers seem to have migrated to selling it in ready-mixes - i.e. tins of Flat White, Americano, etc. which would cause my OH, and probably DD2 as well, to have a fit.

On the other hand, stocks are high & there's still stuff stashed in the freezer which I can use to keep costs down when DD1 & the BF aren't here - fruit from last year at the 'lottie & in the garden, still a little turkey & ham from our cancelled Christmas, various snippets of fish, certainly enough to make a pie, and a joint of beef taken off a larger one when DS1 & his lady-love had to rush home to Wales and sort out a massive water leak. All that's needed is a bit of forethought & organisation on my part & it should be entirely do-able. If I think of it as £80-odd a week, recognising we're lucky to have that much, it's not so scary after all.

atrixa

£66.86/ £148.50 spent.

Did the monthly online order and a few smaller shops at discounters for things I couldn't get online. Stock is quite inconsistent everywhere where I live. 

KajiKita

Question for the board …..

I see people posting on these threads periodically about having a separate ‘bulk purchases’ budget. Could those that do use this system share some more insights about it? I’m asking as we are nearly at the end of our 5kg sack of basmati rice. I was comparing prices per 100g and the cheapest seems to be Amazon for something that looks good but I have to buy 3 x 5kg which seems way too much for just us two. 

I noticed a 1kg bag in T3sco today at £5! 😳  I can get a 5kg bag online from them for £2.40 per kilo (so helpfully better price) but that means spending £12 all at once, which is a significant lump out of my monthly budget. There are also random things like table salt which I buy once every 3 months or so ….

Questions (but I’m sure I have missed something!):

- do you run the bulk budget as a separate line?

- how did you establish it? Something along the lines of my long lasting consumption, but non perishable items are # & # & # etc. and they typically cost £## per annum, so I hereby allocate £## / 12 to buying them each month?

- where do you store it all?

- where do you find the biggest savings - what should I prioritise to bulk buy first?

- where do you buy these bulk items? Online? From standard supermarkets? Cash and carrys? (If the latter, how do you qualify for a card?)

- AOA …… or ‘any other advice’ would be much appreciated 😊

KK

MissRikkiC

Hi @elsiepac I’m back in this month with a budget of £400 

However a large proportion of that will be spent on stocking up again. For those who like to have full cupboards, look away now. We had a grand total of 3 tins left in, 2 rice pudding and 1 sardines so hardly anything I could make things from 😂 

It came about as we were on the last 2 months of maternity pay and reduced our budget drastically. We spent £150 in Jan and approx £270 in Feb feeding 2 adults and 2 children (1 toddler 1 baby); thus totally depleting our stores. 

I have started refilling the cupboards and freezer but also recently come across allergies my youngest has to dairy and soya plus already known intolerances to dairy for my eldest so having to substitute for a fair few things. They are expensive! Especially if you want the stuff that tastes half decent. I want to be at a middle ground of £300 ish if possible after this month but we shall see. 

JingsMyBucket

Hi @elsiepac please put us down for

£450 for March 1 - 31 (includes bulk ordering)

A lot of the core items we eat have jumped in price or have been discontinued and now I have to source more expensive alternatives. A prime example is Nairn’s apple cinnamon oat bars. Tesco has stopped stocking them entirely and I don’t have a Waitrose near me, seemingly the only other supermarket retailer left. Buying 20 bars directly from Nairn’s web site will cost £21 vs. £13 from Tesco or Waitrose. It’s so frustrating. Buying them on Amazon is even more expensive. 

I’m T2 diabetic and I rely on those bars for a low sugar snack during the day or when traveling. I don’t and won’t eat flapjack because it’s so sugary. Most bars in the UK are so sweet and overly sugary. In the US I have much better options for low sugar and high fiber snack bars. Thankfully Kind Bars are sold in the UK now so we also buy those in bulk on Amazon. 

The oat bars’ absence in supermarkets is making me wonder if Nairn’s is going to cease making them entirely or if there’s just a temporary production issue. I think I may write to them and ask so I can either bulk up or perhaps trying other products as a replacement. 

Anyway, that’s my soap box for the morning. I have some other observations from the past couple months but I’ll share those later. 

ETA: I just went to the Nairn’s site to buy some bars and I can’t buy more than one box now vs. on Tuesday I was able to add 4 boxes to my shopping cart. The other flavours aren’t available to buy either. Amazon still has them so I’m going to get a big order right. Damn it. I also just upped my GC target to £450 from £400 to accommodate this. Well, I’m thankful we’re fortunate enough to absorb this but it still really freaking hurts. 

JingsMyBucket

£47.98 just spent at Amazon for 40 oat bars. At least I got free shipping. Nairn’s was going to charge for it 🙄

We have a Morrison’s coming on Saturday. Let me go have a scour through there to see what I can trim off or if I forgot any staples. That order stemmed from a £12 off £70 coupon they sent me. 

£47.98 spent so far. £402.02 / £450.00 remaining 

Soontobeoap

@JingsMyBucket have you tried Aldis Harvest Moon oat bars. Very nice and much cheaper than brand names.

@MissRikkiC I really sympathise about the soya allergy. It is in everything. Good luck with it all. My daughter has found that her Aldi does quite a few things now. 

nat21luv

I had a NSD yesterday but I'm heading to Lidl later for fresh food and and a teeny top up shop. Im working on depleting the stores and the kitchen freezer is looking bare, its mainly just reduced bread and crumpets! Cant say no when they're reduced to 16p.

OH has a coupon on his Lidl app for £5 off £40 spend so check the app, I don't have it. I did use the £5 off £25 last week so that's probably why. A top up shop will most likely cost £30-£40 nowadays so I'll top up with tins of beans/pulses I use to bulk out recipes.

Curry for dinner tonight to use up all the questionable veg in the fridge, plus a few rogue sweet potatoes. We're veggie so I won't use meat alternatives today (as I don't have any!) so I'll chuck in a can of chickpea's and use up some pitta bread from the freezer instead of naan. 

joedenise

Just a very small spend yesterday of £3.09 for a TGTG bag.  DH checked it yesterday afternoon for some unknown reason and Morrisons must have had a cancellation as there was a bag to collect last night so he managed to Reserve that and we collected it about 5pm.  Good bag with mainly fruit, plus a couple of small cauliflowers and 3 loaves of different breads.  One of which was a French stick which is going to be turned into a French bread pizza for lunch today.  DH has already eaten most of the small cheesy bread - some last night and some first thing this morning before I'd cooked breakfast!