February 2024 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

£150 for me please. My month starts on the 13th . So for now, I'm still in the January thread.

Thanks @elsiepac

AnotherNewDay

Ainsty said:

AnotherNewDay said:

Ainsty said:

£15 per week for me again for me, please.

@Ainsty this is an inspirational amount for weekly shop! I could just about manage this 18 months ago, but price increases have made it very difficult  since then! What's covered in your £15 and how do you do it?

Hi,

I find it really very difficult and to be honest I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it at this level. It helps that I grow veg and fruit so I include those in my diet. The main problem I find is the monotony. A bit like how I imagine food was in the 1950s. I only have a small freezer which is mostly filled with frozen HG produce, so I can't batch cook large amounts. I don't find YS very helpful. The last time I was in the Coop there was a chiller full of YS ready meals, fish in breadcrumbs and cream cakes. There never seems to be any reduced price mince, chicken drumsticks or oats. Perhaps I'm just not lucky. Occasionally, I will see reduce price bread, but it is often still more expensive than the ALDI bread I usually buy.

I understand @London_1 spends £60 per month without the addition of homegrown veg. That is impressive and must be very hard, especially if you like baking. I'm not as canny as she is and certainly couldn't afford speciality sausages or butter.

About 18 months ago I managed on £10 per week but I couldn't do that now. I used to post my menus for the week plus a shopping list with prices. If anyone would find it interesting I could do that again for February. I haven't been shopping yet this month but will go on Saturday or Sunday so it should represent one month.

@Ainsty @London_1 - thanks for those tips

I also grow some of my own veg as I have an allotment -agree this does help when everything grows as it should 

I'm thinking of separating out the cat costs into their own separate budget - the price of catfood keeps rising and at the moment that and the litter is in with my grocery and household as it all comes from Lid! 

One tip of my own is to use Olio app for free food - last year I set myself the challenge to only get bread and pastries etc from there. I managed it without too much difficulty and saved quite  a bit that way.

StickyTheStickInsect

£40.07 in Savers today but I’ll need to go somewhere else too as they didn’t have any children’s toothpaste or purple listerene again. £4.45 in Iceland for a loaf and a dozen eggs.

£545.84/£7,200
(February £44.62 : Groceries £44.62  School Dinners £0)
(January £501.22 : Groceries £424.10  School Dinners £77.12)

blubella

£8.81 spent today on fresh vegetables and a sourdough loaf. I've got a loose meal plan which will involve using up some freezer and store cupboard items over the next few days. I'm off to Cornwall to visit my parents Weds-Sun, so won't need to spend anything until I start my work training course on 12th. 

Crazycatlady2

Not spent yet but Tesco shop booked for tomorrow will be high as includes bulk bought cat food and shampoo my daughter uses while both on offer 😂

Pennypincin

I've almost completely lost the plot with food budgeting this week. 
I can only put down to the stress of the pip tribunal and having the interview with the panel on Friday. I seem to be not believed and banging my head against a brick wall.
It's been tough, but should hear by the end of next week, although I'm living in constant fear of my back pain flaring up and possibly being chronic and having had issues with physio not wanting to do anything other than offer exercise sheets it's frustrating.
I will start again Monday and keep trying.

LadyWithAPlan

Hope you feel better and you get the result you need from the panel etc @Pennypincin

Grocery shopping - Mr Lid  £28.21  -  (£25.12  + £2 bulk) inc £1.09 crisps - yep I was hungry post swim..
Grocery £42.07/155 + £5.30 bulk/£50     + £3.04 junk
 I needed some greens as I was missing my kale - yes I actually crave it now!
I do have HellFresh arriving tomorrow -  4 meals so  this wasnt a big shop of protein - I bought mainly veg - kale, spinach and tenderstem broccoli plus limes/apples  on offer and other veg and a bit of bulk spices, df milk, dg yogurt  beans  etc - a bit of YS  salmon for the freezer

Very excitingly Lid has some GF el paso  nacho boxes so I did pick  up one for a treat - i will need to buy some DF cheese - I dont normally bother with DF cheese but nachos without cheese... I may also make some more cashew cream and add vinegar and salt etc to try making a DF soured cream alternative as well - I bought 2 packs of cashews at lid..

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

£360

I think that has worked well this month ideally I’d like to be under it but we shall see. This total does include all household and toiletries so I guess it’s not bad. 

Sorry it’s taken so long to report ad this was on Thursday 

£132.22 spent 

Big Tesco shop plus small bits specific bits. CC seems ok so got some bits especially snacks that will last us more like 2-3 weeks so next weeks should be a lot smaller. That being said I think I’ll do another online shop for Thursday and none the following week as it’s half term. I do shopping on days when my husband is at home as I struggle to balance it all with my son. 

Edit

£227.78 left 

debtfreewannabe321

Just checking in, my running total is £309.02 now.

More than I would have liked really as this is almost a 5 week month for us from payday to payday. I still have three weeks until our new month. Not sure if I can reign this one in on budget but I will try.

I have two large drawers in my freezer full of dahl, veg mix to go in a pie, and my vegan bolognaise 'mince' mix which I can turn into cottage pie, lasagna, spag bol or chilli type meals. I am hoping that the last week of the month I will only need fresh stuff and can live off cupboards and freezer and still have a healthy meal every dinner time. 

Giving my two teens £20 'pocket money' is helping the budget as I have told them I will buy treats every shopping day, but once they are gone they need to buy treats out of their own money until the next shopping day. It means I haven't done ANY top up shops!! Which is amazing for me! And well worth the £40 a month as I would have spent that on just one 'top up' shop. It is also helping them to be mindful about what they are eating, and just how much things cost these days. I have told them if they want something they will have to save for it out of that money too so they have the choice to binge bad foods or to save for something they want. 

Instead of buying ready made cakes I have made banana bread as a treat instead and protein balls for the kids (with dates, coconut and cacao). 
This week's meal plan is: 
mock duck in pancakes (our fakeaway night had this last night),
ratatouille (never frozen this so not sure if I can will search that one up)
Dahl (another fakeaway with poppadoms and chutney and salad)
Jacket potatoes
pie'n'mash (HM with ready rolled pastry I am making this today)
Burger and chips (after school club night so kids can make this whilst I work)
Sausage and mash 

So although I have a meal plan I will ask everyone what they fancy on any particular day and just cross off the meals as we eat them. I think everyone feels like they have some choice over food then, even if they don't really

I try to throw a few grown up meals in with kids favourites so they can't complain...this week was more on their side, next week I think will be more curries and stews that they don't particularly favour lol. Although my DS told me yesterday he could happily eat my dahl every day and asked me to show him how to cook it

Mamaofmanybudgets

Sorry I'm late, can I join?

£400 again for this month 

£46.63/£400 so far.