May 2023 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

£3.08 spent today at Savers for Dove hand soap refill and some tissues. I can remove the Dove bottles from my Tesco order which would've cost ≈ £5. The refill only cost £1.79 so that's a big savings. I also bought train and plane snacks at M & S but decided I'm counting those toward the travel budget. I'll be damned if I'm paying £2 for a single banana in a train station or in the airport. 😂

£15.08 / £300.00 spent so far. £284.92 remaining. 

chirpychick

So I maintained my £1.08 saving on the past week meaning my spend for last week was £58.92.
I have done a little shop which will probably only last a few days, I got so overwhelmed in the supermarket I gave up and came home! 
I went to t3sco and it is huge! Plus they've rearranged it all. Anyway I brought crumpets, cucumber, carrots, crisps (again), chips, 2 x pizza, houmous, they had some really posh breadsticks and crackers reduced from £2 to 50p so I brought 2 crackers and 1 breadsticks, popcorn, sausages, sweets & chocolate for the kids - my son and his friend and then a little pack of buttons and refresher for each of his friends 2 brothers as we are also spending the day with them sunday and they will be sad they're not coming back to join the sleepover. Corned beef, tortellini, juice for the kids. I spent £22.97 leaving me £37.03.
I forgot to buy the make your own pain au chocolat which i was going to get for the sleepover. 

I actually do think i have enough food for main meals and breakfast for the week, I am fairly certain I just need to get more fruit and pop. I hadn't got anything in special for the coronation food wise but i have got some sausage rolls in the freezer and am thinking that son can make some jam tarts as I have hm jam in and we can just sort of see if we can get creative. 

Thankfully the weather has started to improve, my peas and spinach seem to be doing great in the polytunnel, my peppers are almost ready to plant out, I noticed my beans are sprouting today, lots of flowers on the strawberries, so hopefully it wont be long before we're supplementing from the garden again!

Saver-upper

I did my first shop for May yesterday evening, and I felt so disappointed by the end of it. It had me rattled for the rest of the day 
I have tried so hard cutting our budget over the last 6 months. Have cut the budget for everything: groceries, phone plans, socialising, Amazon etc. I do all the research before shopping, go out with my list, add up prices of what goes in trolley as I'm walking around......at the end of the day/month I can tell you where every single penny has been spent.......

Like chirpychick, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the supermarket anyway. Couldn't get my head into it. While I was shopping, 16yo daughter messaged me, asking for a lift. I explained I was doing the grocery shop, so couldn't help, and (to soften the blow a bit), asked what she fancied for tea. Thinking she would choose a home-cooked meal, since she knew I was in the supermarket buying ingredients. She chose Indian ready- meal    I didn't really fancy this, it would normally be an end of week treat, every few weeks, and when I'm too lazy/busy to cook. But since I had asked, what could I do?

So I was looking at the Indian ready meals. For the 4 of us who would eat Indian (14yo DD won't), was trying to work out cheapest way to buy. Not a lot of options because there was only 1 "combo- box", so had to buy that, plus 2 individual meals (£4 each, and they still didn't come with rice, so had to buy 2x those on top......plus non-curry meal for 14yo. ) £26.00 out of my £300 monthly budget, gone just like that!!

A couple of things made me sad about this: the price, the fact I didn't really fancy it, and the fact that when said 16yo daughter got home, she was in a mood anyway, couldn't speak civilly to anyone, so tea was a quiet, sombre affair.

I am lucky- we have enough money to buy these treats. It is hard to explain how I feel- we have the money for it, but the fact I have set myself a challenge (£300/ month for 2 adults, 3 teens, and a visiting 21yo on many weekends and most holidays), and then suddenly budget is "blown" unexpectedly like that. I just felt really guilty buying it. And then we didn't have a particularly pleasant meal anyway 

I think I am also sad because I have become like this. If the money is in the bank, why do I feel bad when I ask "what do you want for tea?" and the answer is "oooh- an expensive, not very nutritious ready meal for me please, Mum!"  A few months ago I wouldn't have thought twice about buying it.

For some reason the whole episode just made me really sad.

Soontobeoap

@saver upper. Thats just a lesson learned. Dont ask daughter what she wants again. 🤣 I give DH the choice between 2 things that we have in sometimes. When making a meal plan I ask if he has got anything that he wants this week. That keeps him happy. Our favourite go to take out is a chinese meal. We have only had one of those so far since Christmas and that was when we had whole family over. Funny thing is they taste so much nicer when you do have one. I have learned to make sweet and sour chicken, egg fried rice and chicken chow mein. Its different but still very tasty. I also tell DH when we are having a freezer Declutter with odd meals and he is onboard. It has, taken us, 17 months and I think there are still savings to be made. Hang on in there. We all have little slips 

Cocobeans

@Saver-upper I have learnt the hard way not to ask what do you fancy for dinner but to give choices! I do find it hard picking meals all the time tho. Maybe next time a Jar of curry sauce and some chicken + micro rice rather than ready meals? I also like to pop a tin of potatoes into curry to stretch it further! 

Managed to get a refund of £3.33 for Morries sending the wrong cheese so added back into the budget.

Popped to the local c00p today to get milk and spread. Found that they have put the prices of the mini fresh snack pizzas down! They are now 60p but had a coupon on my card for 50p off a fresh pizza so picked up one for 10p. Find they are handy for dd for a lunch on the weekend.

£45.17 / £275 spent 

lianne1984

Had to nip to Ic3land for some bits for the my sons Coronation Picnic at school tomorrow and spent £5.40. Big shop day tomorrow so will see how I get on...

£14.40 / £220

Ginmonster

£19.08 spent today on fruit, veg and smoked tofu. I resisted buying anything I didn't actually need for once but also forgot to buy cream crackers. I should be ok for a week now as there's certainly plenty in the freezer that needs using up.

£19.08/£250

MissRikkiC

I’ve not read other peoples replies yet @Saver-upper but can provide solidarity that I feel this way often too. I haven’t a solution but I do understand why you’d feel sad despite having money available to pay for it, when you’d set yourself a challenge and something/someone comes along and essentially ruins it and your hard work it really gets me. There is a Staffordshire word for this being that you feel sneeped. It’s hard 

Saver-upper

Aww, thank you everyone- this is such a lovely supportive thread  .

And I love the word "sneeped" @MissRikkiC, thank you- that made me smile 

Soontobeoap

It was a pizza night for tea tonight. As I am gluten and lactose free a pizza costs about £4.50 full price. I only buy them when on half price offer! So that is £1.13 a portion. (I eat half) Any way last 2 times I have bought gluten free bread rolls and covered in grated lacto free cheese topped with tomato and enjoyed it more. It still costs £1.00 for one portion though. I am now on the lookout for yellow sticker rolls. It all helps. As my Mum used to say "look after the pennies and rhe pounds will look after themselves"