March 2024 Grocery Challenge

LadyWithAPlan

£150 per month Plus £40 bulk please

@elsiepac for running this - still on last days of Feb
I normally have £50 pm bulk but not used much of it (only half last month so I will cut bulk funds down this month - waiting to hear if my flat offer is accepted so in that case I will be eating down the cupboards and freezer

AnotherNewDay

£90 for me and two hungry cats please - all groceries, toiletries and household

LotsOfTea

I'll go with £250 for the month again please.

Crazycatlady2

Going for £600 again as worked for Feb but need to more strict about writing down the bits and bobs we pick up as and when to be more accurate 

Finstickle

Hi,

I am planning a musclefood shop this month to get some more meat in, still a good stock of other items so going to resist CostCo and focus on keeping the overall number down.

I am going to go for £500 this month please @elsiepac

Frugalistamama

Hi I've dropped off for a couple of months. Lots of life changes. My budgets taken a massive hit so having to reassess things. I'm reducing my budget from £80 per week to £70 per week and decided to track only food/drink in this budget.  Consumables will be separate.

So £350 this month for two adults and two teenagers. I've got a good freezer and pantry stock so I think it's doable. Thank you for the need thread! 

Suffolk_lass

I'm ending February with 16.02% of my annual budget spent. Slightly more than ideal but inside the 16.67% if I had spend one sixth. In real terms that is £480.73 for the first two months of 2024, versus £500 if it were a sixth. I need this to stay under or there will be little or nothing at Christmas!

leftatthetrafficlights

I did a quick reccie of the freezer yesterday and have 7 UPF'S to use up - 2 bags vegan quorn, 1 pack of 2 vegan burgers, 1 vegan pizza, 1 pack of 2 vegan 'salmon' fillets, 1/2 bag vegan 'meatballs', 1 box falafel - so thats 7 dinners out of 31 already sorted as I want to get rid of them in March. I'll need to add veg, grains etc but most of that can come from the garden and storecupboard. I'm thinking that I may be able to knock another £5 per week off this months food budget as a result! 

Soontobeoap

£45.35 spent at Aldi today. I went whilst DH was at the dentist! 🤣. Lots of meat and veg bought. Branded items coming  from Tescos on Saturday. Just lunches and basics to get after that for the rest of the month. 

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

Firstly, apologies @elsiepac, please change my budget to £145.80 for March.  We had £5.80 to roll over from February.

Secondly, I have two shops to declare from today.  £5.58 spent in L!dl on breakfast cereals, lactose free milk (99p), Black Bread (£1.19), and Cotton Buds (65p).  All stuff that was needed but the aim was to push us over the £100 threshold, in order to get a free jar of Lazy Ginger.  (Might as well and we’ll need it soon enough.)

The second shop was in Sainsbugs, again to take advantage of some offers.  £20.46 spent, mainly on 8 bottles of Fevertree ginger beer (£1.44, down from £2), 3 Yeo Valley honey yoghurts (£1.55 down from £2.15), and various fresh veg.

The above brings our March spend to £26.04/£145.80, leaving £119.76 for the rest of the month.

Meal plans for the next few days are:

Today - chicken stir fry made with left-over combi-rice-bulgar-wheat and veg from a chicken tray bake earlier in the week
Friday - Savoury Bread & Butter Pudding (4 slices bread, 1 can tuna, 1 can sweetcorn, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 100g cheddar)
Saturday - Broccoli & Crème Fraiche Pasta, made with chorizo and 
Sunday - roast chicken, which I’ll probably do in the slow cooker and then cook roast potatoes and roast sweet potatoes in our combi-oven
Monday - Chicken risotto made with leftovers from Sunday’s roast.  (I have chemo on Monday so DH will probably have to cook it.)

Breakfasts are cereal.  Lunches are leftovers. (Virtually all my dinner recipes feed at least four people.)

- Pip