May 2023 Grocery Challenge

Ginmonster

I'm trying to buy more stuff from our local no plastic refill shop so I popped in there yesterday with lots of big containers and got bread flours, cornflakes (they only had gluten-free ones and I'm not going to lie they don't taste as good as the bog-standard supermarket ones), wholegrain couscous, pasta and a big tub of hemp seeds which will make a change on my cereal in the mornings. I always chuck some kind of seeds on for a bit of crunch and protein.

Anyway, I spent £12.74 so I'm now at £102.87/£250 for the month but I've got a big supermarket shop coming tomorrow which will take a big chunk out of the remaining money. 🤞I can manage a less spendy second half of the month!

joedenise

Couple of spends in Morrisons and Tesco bringing total spend to £53.83/£150 leaving £87.15 for 2nd half of the month.  Think it's going to be tight but there's plenty of food in the freezers so hopefully it's doable.

We're away for a few days just before the bank holiday but planning on taking food with us, most of which is in the freezer - will need to make a lasagne to freeze beforehand as want to take that frozen for the 2nd day.

greenrunner

i actually ended £14 over for April-May. 
went to buy milk, bread, dog treats with the last £5 of my budget and my partner messaged to ask me to pick up more snacks and lunch items (he came along on the weekly shop and asked me to not buy as many snacks as usual) annoyed with myself for not debating it but stood in asda with a toddler and didn't want to hang about too long

GreenFairy

Suffolk_lass said:

Blimey, welcome back @Green_Fairy, it's been a while. I'm sure I remember you from over ten years ago as you and @greent were both on here and both really switched on. My budget has been going down over the years and I now average £250 but exclude pets and livestock, and no longer have a hollow son at home. 

Good to see you again

Yeah, it really has been a while! I've had two kids since I last posted, I think!
Good to see you too. Was always delighted to see your posts about the menagerie

I've added €41.41 to my total. Yet more fruit and veg, cheese, yoghurt, sliced ham, a lot of tissues (toddler has a manky cold) and nappies. Got a €5 off €25 voucher with my receipt, so am going to try to avoid doing a top up for a couple of days so I can use it. 

Last pack of chicken thighs from the freezer are being turned into pesto chicken pasta tonight. My own wild garlic pesto experiment too! Let's see if the fam like it, or if I'm eating it on everything on my own for months
I won't be getting more thighs for a while. I like them, but they're suffering from being fashionable, so chicken breast is the same price or cheaper right now. How wild is that?

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

£81.25 spent

big Tesco shop as we were running low on many things

£168.75 left

£117.40

a big big shop from Tesco however there are reasons 

1, fizzy drinks (Diet Coke) is on offer 2 x 18 cans for £12 so ordered 2 but they subbed it for 4 x 10 so I’ve got like 40 cans plus some already in the cupboard! I won’t need any fizzy drinks till June now 

2, the growers harvest orange juice has gone up in price. I worked out buying 4 cartons of Tesco own is cheaper 4 for £3.50 so that will do us a good 2-3 weeks as my daughter drinks it diluted with water 

3, I’m 15 weeks pregnant so I’ve treated myself to smoked salmon on offer to get the good fats in my diet. 

4, stocked up on chocolates, crisps, other store cupboard essentials 

The following week won’t need to be a big one. My sister gifted me some meet so the freezer is quite full 

£51.35 left

£3.78 spent 

it was actually £8.78 but I used my points. I went into Sainsbury’s local yesterday at around 5pm and they had burgers reduced to 99p for 2, chilli and lime chicken reduced to £1.99 and bacon reduced to 99p. I got 2 bacon, 2 burgers and 1 chicken as that’s all that was there, I also got some bbq pork kebabs as they were on offer for £2.83 instead of £4 which I thought was ok.

£47.57 left 

£51.78 spent 

Tesco arrived today. I’ve spent more than I “wanted” because there’s a few offers on that I wanted to take advantage of. I think I’ll end up doing another May shop for the offers but count them as June because it’s will be a stock up” for June. I think between now and the end of the month I’ll only need a small top up of the usual bread milk fruit

gone over :-O

MissRikkiC

GreenFairy said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Blimey, welcome back @Green_Fairy, it's been a while. I'm sure I remember you from over ten years ago as you and @greent were both on here and both really switched on. My budget has been going down over the years and I now average £250 but exclude pets and livestock, and no longer have a hollow son at home. 

Good to see you again

Yeah, it really has been a while! I've had two kids since I last posted, I think!
Good to see you too. Was always delighted to see your posts about the menagerie

I've added €41.41 to my total. Yet more fruit and veg, cheese, yoghurt, sliced ham, a lot of tissues (toddler has a manky cold) and nappies. Got a €5 off €25 voucher with my receipt, so am going to try to avoid doing a top up for a couple of days so I can use it. 

Last pack of chicken thighs from the freezer are being turned into pesto chicken pasta tonight. My own wild garlic pesto experiment too! Let's see if the fam like it, or if I'm eating it on everything on my own for months
I won't be getting more thighs for a while. I like them, but they're suffering from being fashionable, so chicken breast is the same price or cheaper right now. How wild is that?

That is odd?! But good as I don’t really like a chicken thigh. The texture is so slimy for me 

[Deleted User]

I am all over the place this month.  Various rooms being painted so house in chaos.  It's now finished so I need to spend some time tonight seeing where we are with food shop and how much we have left.  I think I will be at least a week out if not more.  Oh well, I can get back on track next month.  

joedenise

Another £3.09 spend on a TGTG bag from Morrisons.  Hoping for plenty of fruit and veg again and not too much bread!  Will collect this evening around 5pm.

mumtoomany

Hello all, DD2 came down with her OH and DGS2. Went and stocked up on non-perishables. Bought oats, flour, fruit squash, pilchards, pasta, rice, toothpaste, etc. Also bought cheese, frozen veg, lard, margarine, bread, and some jeans for OH. Got staff discount on all these. Also called in at the veg shop for fruit and chocolate biscuits, and the cash and carry for reductions. Total spent on these three was £105.70. New total for the year is, £929.62/£2640. Will only need milk, probably, between now and June. Have two extra mouths to feed for the next three weeks, great niece and great nephew coming on Saturday. 

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Pennypincin

Hello everyone.
Sorry for not being around and posting.
I've been within budget, especially with adding on each week what I've not spent the previous week's.
I popped into Aldi and Lidl Tuesday and picked up 6 cartons of long life milk, eggs , salad plus a few odds and sods for a few days and ended up spending just over £30.
I'm still in shock, but am going to have to start making a list and being more careful/sensible.
I keep meaning to take a calculator with me too.