May 2023 Grocery Challenge

lianne1984

Spent £5 on a few bits today, so down to £50 for the big weekly shop tomorrow. Shopping list done so hopefully I can stay under budget 

JingsMyBucket

Evening all. We just returned yesterday from being away and I'm still feeling a bit slow and foggy. Our fruit and veg box arrived today along with local eggs. Our total for that was £25.40. I went through the box to see if there were any repeats for our Tesco order that's scheduled for tomorrow morning. Coincidentally, yes... a pineapple! I removed that and a few other items from the Tesco cart to bring down the cost some more. It'll be an estimated £90 for Tesco but I'll post it tomorrow. 

£40.48 / £300.00 spent so far. £259.52 remaining. 

After the Tesco order, that'll leave us about £160 for the next 2.5 weeks. There will be a few more items to buy for planned meals including lemons and limes. For the past two weeks, every time I've tried to add them to the order, they've been sold out. I'm sure if I walked over to Tesco any time, there would be some sitting in the store so that's been annoying. I'll get some tomorrow when out collecting prescriptions and buying foil from Poundland. Here are some of the recipes I've planned for the upcoming week: 

• Chicken In A Pot with Lemon and Orzo - Nigella Lawson
• Chicken Hummus Bowls
  
• Salmon Couscous Salad with Feta Dressing
  
• Asian-Inspired Chicken Soup
  
• Leftover Coffee Overnight Oats
  
• 4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (low carb) 
  

Ginmonster

I had a shopping delivery yesterday which came to £64.89 but that leaves me fully stocked for a while as it was plenty of fruit and veg and some staples like cereal, toilet rolls etc. 

I'm working a plan to use up anything that needs eating from the fridge in the next few days so yesterday's tea was spicy sweetcorn and sweet potato soup with some extra smoked tofu chucked in to beef it up a bit and tonight I need to eat up some leftover chickpea and pineapple curry. I'll probably chop up some slightly wilty looking salad leaves into it too as they're a bit past enjoying as salad I think. 

I'm up to £83.97/£250 so far so doing pretty well I think.  

JingsMyBucket

This morning's Tesco delivery came to £89.45. That had some expensive restock items like olive oil (£10.75), toilet paper (£7.49), Yorkshire tea bags (£5.49) and frozen meatballs (£5.50). The rest were staples like yoghurt, milk, cheese, fruit, tomatoes, herbs, onions, peppers, sausages, a whole chicken, chicken drumsticks, bacon, etc. I also bought a couple Dove deodorants that were on special but I don't like the scent so I'll return them. That'll give me about £5 back into the budget later. 

£129.93 / £300.00 spent so far. £170.07 remaining. 

Looking at previous prices, that bottle of olive oil was only £8.50 a couple months ago. They raised the price in mid-March and it shocked us. Our reliable toilet paper has finally risen in 50p in price too. I was tempted to buy double the amount but held off because there's no point in storing our fortune in toilet paper while busting the budget for the month.  

After lunch, I'll head to the high street and to M & S to exchange some money and get a few items like lemons, limes, leeks, cheese sauce and a couple other items that Tesco couldn't deliver. I may pick up some YS bargains but I'll try to keep my hands to myself and in my pockets as much as possible. Tonight I'll make a cauliflower & pasta cheese bake thing to use up all the loose ends of veg and at least half this bloody cauliflower we got in our veg box. 

mumtoomany

More milk, should I get a cow? Spent £3.10, I think, DD1 picked it up. Total to date is now £816.20/£2640. Much more stuff starting to grow now, should mean a little less spent on vegetables.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx

chirpychick

Hey, so much for not spending much on food! 
I took our pooch to the vet, she said she has colitis and wasn't overly concerned which is a huge relief but I still am not convinced. The recommendation was bland diet for 3 days, probiotics (which i keep in the house for the dogs) and no1 priority was hydration because she was borderline needing a drip. 
So it was a £52 consult fee but nothing else from them. 
We went to Asda after rushing LO to football training and I totally lucked out! I got a bunch of chicken for the dogs cooked reduced to 20p and we got scones for 10p (I may have got 6 packs for the freezer) and then there was so much in the ambient aisle. Cereals usually £3 were 60p, crisps whole multipacks just cellotaped up non missing reduced to between 50p-£1, biscuits reduced to 25p, my husband got reduced sausage rolls, reduced sandwiches, there was all sorts to restock the pantry. We ended up spending £56.69 which wasn't the plan at all but well worth doing for us as our cupboards were pretty empty. It was so satisfying leaving with a trolley full. I did also buy full price fruit and veg and some other bits for the dogs.
When I got home I pulled all the chicken off the bones - this is for feeding the poorly dog (but there was more than anticipated so they all got it last night) then i popped all the bones, parsley, carrots, celery, apple cider vinegar and loads of water in the slow cooker and made liquid gold chicken broth for the poorly one - this was left on for 16 hours and ive just strained it all and put into containers and it has already encouraged her to have a really good drink. After researching and learning all the health benefits I think I will start adding a couple tablespoons to their evening meals. I made about 2 litres which i plan to store in the freezer. I shall definitely be doing this again. Also It has saved me money overall because now crossed fingers she doesn't need to be on a drip and i didnt have to buy special bland tins of food or anything like that. Our vet is quite understanding in saving money and keen to tell you alternative options when there are some. Now to sort out insurance ASAP! £3.31 left for this week but i do still have the last 2 weeks leftovers if necessary - hoping not to need it.

@mumtoomany miniature cow! LOL have you seen them? They're so cute!

MissRikkiC

Cocobeans said:

@chirpychick aww I hope your dog is okay. I totally agree that pet insurance is so complicated - I think we pay too much for our insurance but struggle to know who to change to.

I spent £10.35 today on a small top up shop for Soya milk and packed lunch stuff. 

I feel like my thinking is changing thanks to this thread. I have sorted out our main food cupboard in the kitchen this week so I can see exactly what we have. I have had 2 scenarios this week where I would usually have gone to the shops but instead made do with what we had in. DD decided last minute to be packed lunch on extra days. I didn't have her usual packed lunch stuff in so instead of going to the shop I took some pitta bread out of the freezer which she really enjoyed.  OH ate the eggs I was planning to use to make a fritatta for dinner one day for his lunch. Again instead of rushing to the shop I used the veg and bacon in a pasta bake instead. 

£149.46/ £275 spent. 

Will need to get some stuff tomorrow to stop me having to go shopping on the weekend with DD and OH! 

This is huge progress. Amazing!

Nelliegrace

May budget £150, £78.37 spent, £71.63 left.

Main shop at Asda.
Some yellow stickered best beef mince for the freezer, strawberries 26p, nectarines 84p, and baby tomatoes 13p. 
Offers on the grapes and large oranges,
Some stocking up on basic muesli £1.40  and jumbo oats now £1.29 a kilo. 
Broccoli was down to 75p 
Blue light card 10% discount. The last time I can use it at Asda until I can get the Asda Ap to work on my phone. One of the first pages was a request for my bank details. NBL!
It is another thing to sort out at the checkout when concentrating on just doing the basic shop is exhausting. I nearly forgot to pay when the member of staff was explaining the changes. 
It would be good to shop at Aldi for a change. 

£21.03 spent. 

lianne1984

Weekly shop at Asda today, budget was £50 but spent £56.

£131.90 spent so far this month. £88.10 left with 2 weeks left... hmm 

thriftwizard

I've added a scary £128.40 for this week's supermarket/butcher/bakery/market shopping; a fair bit of this was "remedial" spending as I wasn't here last week & came back yesterday to find the house devoid of fresh fruit & vegetables & the freezer half-empty, despite pescatarian DD1 having been here most of the time, and £40 of the emergency £50 cash spent. Sigh! I still need to add what we (that's DD2 & I) spent in Wales but it was around £30; DS1 & DDiL had left us a fair bit despite the short notice (she keeps a good store-cupboard as they're rural) but we tried to replace most of the stuff we used up. (There may also have been the odd cupcake & cuppa & a couple of take-aways but that would come from my almost non-existent holiday budget! And a take-away was had at this end too!) So my total is not yet completely up to date but it's not too far adrift, unless I add in the £40... but that went on stuff I wouldn't normally be caught dead buying, so I think I'll count it as OH's share of the holiday budget!

Edited to add: Oh how deceptive memory can be! In point of fact there were two £30-odd spends in Wales so I've added another £61.97, taking us up to £374.15 with two weeks to go & 5 adults to feed, most of the time, with a number of genuine special dietary needs to cater for. But stocks are reasonable high & allotment produce (rhubarb, leeks, chard & the first broad beans) beginning to come on-stream now, so I should be able to do it...