May 2023 Grocery Challenge

Gettingmyshiztogether

Hello all,

Weekly shops done in L!dl £64.28 and S@inos £14.65 totaling £78.93 for the week. I know we've all noticed the increases in prices recently but I was genuinely horrified this week in L!dls. Tommy k that was 59p back in February, it's now 99p, mayo was 59p now 99p, ginger nuts were 25p now 49p... the list is quite extensive. I really feel for families right now 😢 I understand that prices are increasing but it does make you wonder how much is necessary and how much is greed and how families will keep being able to cut their cloth accordingly if this doesn't stop soon! Anyway in rebellion I am going to try Aldi next week! 

£221.83 / £460 for May spent.

Ooh in other news, some of you may remember back in March I did a mother day afternoon tea and bought it all in. Yesterday I actually baked my own scones, cheese and plain and a Victoria sponge cake! And they were lovely even if I do say so myself... and sooo much cheaper than buying in... win! My husband even said they were nicer than the tea shop near to us, praise indeed! Today I will be baking our own rolls for burgers for tea.

PipneyJane

@MissRikkiC thanks again for the recommendation.  If we decide to go down the “delivered veg” route, I’ll contact you for a referral.

@chirpchirp so sorry for your little one.  Hope he is feeling better today.  Also, sorry to hear about the car.  Sometimes it feels like Fate is kicking you when you’re down.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to help you squeeze a few pounds out the Budget each month to pay off the credit card faster, and to help create an Emergency Fund for next time the car needs repairs.

I have a few shops to declare this week, starting with £2.90 from last weekend, when we bought rolls and crème fraiche.  Thursday, I was feeling really rough - I had dizzy spells at work - so DH popped to L!dl on his way home from work, to buy “something for dinner”.  He ended up going to two branches, because they didn’t have anything YS at the first.    What he did buy in the first was 6 packets of dental floss and a tub of custard, spending £10.19.  (There was an 15%-off offer in the L!dl Plus app and, coincidentally, we’d bought and tested out our first L!dl dental floss last month.  At 80m a pack it’s longer than all the others we’ve tried, and at £1.59 shelf price, it’s good value for money; smooth but not too slippy on the fingers, so we can use just a foot at a time.). In the second L!dl, he spent £4.49 on some YS pies, a family pack of peppers and a YS Burrito ready meal (£1.19 down from £2.99).  We had the latter for dinner - it was nice but not worth paying full price.

Saturday, we went to L!dl and did a big shop: £60.29 spent; followed by a trip to Sainsbugs to get fresh broccoli (now at £2.09/kg), £17.11 spent.  Sainsbugs had DH’s razor blades on offer at £17 for a 10-pack, so we stocked up on those too, and we had a £2/off voucher.  After some discussions, it was decided that the Bulk Fund would buy those and the nuts we stocked up on in L!dl (£11.72 for 7 packs on offer).    £26.72, will be refunded in due course.

Our May spend is now £68.23/£157.80, leaving £89.57 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

Cocobeans

Hope everyone has enjoyed our extra bank holiday! I seemed to have visited the shops everyday over the weekend with OH and DD so has been very expensive! I definitely need to learn and make sure I have stuff in for the weekend so I don't need to take them with me! 

Have spent £139.11 / £275 budget so over half in a quarter of the month but have meals in for this week and are now stocked up on dog food, cleaning products and toiletries so will only need milk and packed lunch stuff towards the end of the week.  

Thevalueofless

Week 1 £47.10/£270

Happier with this than have been with previous week's. We did have homemade vegan quiche for dinner using silken tofu for egg replacement three days running just changed what we had it with each time. Normally I just quarter it for two meals for the two of us but they are huge portions and it was just being greedy so cut it into six this time. Also used up quite a bit of cupboard and freezer items to keep spending down. 

Am back to feeling positive about being able to keep to our budget. 🙂

MissRikkiC

So we have approx £87 left to the 24th of the month. I have mixed feelings about it but this week is covered which is helpful. 

Last week I paused this coming weeks veg box thinking there was no way I would get through it all nor have the time to concentrate on planning and prepping meals to prevent stuff going to waste. Despite a very busy week I’ve made use of everything we had delivered except potatoes and continued with this weeks order. This means there is 6 portions of meals frozen for a week when we’re time or money tight. 

We ate entirely vegetarian last week, not for financial reasons but because I hadn’t planned well to get meat out and the veg box ingredients meant I wanted to use things up. It was nice too despite a couple of slip ups …. Think bubble and squeak that was just too wet and wouldn’t fry! Ended up as colcannon instead. 

Veg box is being delivered tomorrow and is the smaller version this week. Meal plan not done as of yet but will feature more meat to keep OH from fretting. 

diminua

A few treats this bank holiday weekend - ice cream on the way to the Natural History Museum for one of their lates on Friday. Flowers with my grocery shop. A bottle of wine to take to my cousin's yesterday, and a coffee shop visit for lunch today as I was doing a bit of the Green Chain Walk (Beckenham Place to Crystal Palace). So I'm up to £72.39 spent already this month. 

Suffolk_lass

I have spent 75% of my intended spend so far this month, with £152.95 so far. I have cancelled all my subscription items from the big river people, and I am gradually reducing the amount of stores. We are getting closer to the point when the odd meal comes from what I've grown again, but the asparagus is slow this year and my squashes will be late. Plenty of pac choi, lettuces and radishes at the moment, but DH isn't feeling it for salad. I might get two of the frozen burgers I bought out to have with small amount of salad and baked potatoes for this evening. No need for me to shop this week at all, with milk and eggs being delivered.

thriftwizard

Just slipping in to say that I have less than no idea where I stand this month, now! We (DD2 & I) did get called up to Wales at less than 24 hours notice; the newly-weds managed to get a good last-minute deal on a week in a spa hotel in Madeira. We only heard the evening before we needed to set off at lunchtime the next day, in order to arrive in time to get our "orders" before they set off! They've left us plenty of food in the fridge & cupboards to work our way through, though we have had to stock up on a few favourites. Having an inkling that this might happen, I'd left plenty of stuff for OH & DD1, but probably not altogether OH'S favourite things (sausage rolls, pasties, sliced bread, chips & baked beans) and I can see from the bank account that he's raided W8rose! But then - we've treated ourselves (and the dog) to a few ice-creams & cups of tea as we've pottered around exploring & re-visiting old haunts. I'll try to work it all out when we get back, but in the meantime, the sun is shining so I'm off to enjoy their glorious garden!

Edited to add - slight danger, though - I've been playing with dD-I-L's Ninja... I'm actually quite impressed & think I could make one work for us after all...

GreenFairy

Hello lovelies. 
It's been an absolute age since I've done this - I was working off about €450 a month before, which was absolutely doable. Not a hope these days! I'd say if I hit €700 as a gentle start, I'll be doing well (two adults, a five and almost 2 year old, for food, cleaning, nappies, and basic toiletries). 

I'm good to meal plan, but haven't been keeping proper track of my grocery budget for a long while and really want to restart. The last two months have been quite spendy as I'd a week in hospital in March (and had to do an almost entirely convenience food shop to keep everyone fed while I was gone) and then start of April I did a cash and carry trip (which, in fairness, we're still working through). 

otb666

260/600 half way through my month so should be coming in on budget as dont wanna go over for third month in row.  I am using lots of vegetables and eating lots of fruit.  I am doing a lot of frying pan stir fry vegetables with the odd fries egg. Only had one soup this week as was getting a bit fed up with soup. Pilchards have been used instead of egg occasionally and lots of salad and jacket spuds.