March 2024 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

LadyWithAPlan said:

@wishus the thai pork lettuce cups sounds great - do you have a recipe - I guess its like mooshu pork?

Grocery £7.49/£150 + £0/£40 bulk + £1.50 crisps/junk

Spend £21.09 but crisps £1.50 + groceries £7.49/
Popped into Sains for a few pre going out dinner snacks  for Sat night and a bottle of very nice Rose Cremant £14.50 to £12 - still yet to be drank 
tortilla chips £1.50, dips, satsumas, kale, water, tonic water for vodka ... etc

I will start eating down my freezer as last time i did in October it took months - I am offering on a flat to buy - I know it can take months but I am trying to get some ducks in a row - including vinted -selling some things - yet to start but big TO DO in March

I dont count vitamins in my bulk but maybe I should as I moved some previous months bulk excess  funds to cover the unplanned spend...
My fav chorella brand  (Organ*c Burst) is doing 3 for 2 offer so £42.97 for 3 lots inc postage.. so moved the extra from my bulk money
I take both chorella and spirulina daily and it really helps with my inflammation (allergies) and my hair is thicker it seems and skin glowing... though my led face mask  and daily kale helps that 

@Suffolk_lass loving the honey info  especially on the allergies angle  not sure where I find central london honey but I think Fortnum and Mason have some beehives on their roof..  I have just looked and they only sell it from Essex, Shropshire etc not London produced

If you choose the Beekeeper Association nearest to you, you can email the Secretary and ask who is most local to you, or, if you look on their swarm map you can get the contact number for a local one and ask if they sell their honey. Here is a London link https://www.lbka.org.uk/links.html 

Soontobeoap

£9.00 spent in Aldi again yesterday! When did a gala melen go up to £1.79.🤯. The pineapple was only 95p! We had to call a guy to put the melon through the fast checkout. (no bar code) I was sure he had made a mistake so checked it out on my phone when I got home. Sure enough it was the correct price. 🤦‍♀️. I will be more careful next time. 

Pennypincin

Spent around £16 so far somehow in Tesco, Sainsbury's and Lidl.
Mainly on fruit and salad veg, plus a little on store cupboard staples.

diminua

£38 spent already on coffee out with family at the weekend and groceries. 

keggie

Weekly shop completed at Lidl for a change - will need to drop into the coop for organic milk at some point and other top up items at Aldi but happy ish at £72.66/£300 so far this month.

Suffolk_lass

Sent DH to Sainsbugs yesterday (told him to buy replacement T shirts, as they do his size XXX [he is so long in the back and would be 6'10" if his legs were in proportion!] ). He proudly told me he interrupted a woman picking up the Aldo's price matched cauliflower (£1.09) and showed her the market street ones for 75p. She was furious with Sainsbugs, delighted with this and it made his morning by reinforcing that they were bigger, better quality and fresher too! Did he tell her his wife spotted this online and impressed on him the importance of getting the right one? No. He took the credit and was still feeling a tiny bit smug when he got home. He omitted to tell me about Pork-shoulder-gate though...

So this morning I went through the two food shopping receipts to find multiple Pork Shoulder joints - 7 of them! I was in the process of having kittens as I read down the receipt and then realised that five had been cancelled. I asked. Once again, he was about to pick up one large, Necker points and one smaller (Aldo's price match). He was using smart shop to get the Necker prices and when he wanted to cancel the more expensive Aldo's it added it instead, so he went to Customer Services and they added a third, tried again, 4th, someone else, 5th, got the hang of it and removed the five Aldo's PM and we were left with the two Necker joints. A little bigger than I planned but we can always freeze some! 

And then I wonder why he doesn't volunteer to shop more often!! 

debtfreewannabe321

Hi all, had my weekly shopping delivered, sent some back as substitutions were no good and spinach was totally crushed under milk *face palm* they did let me keep and it still refunded me so that was good. I was also waiting until my crisps arrived (if anyone likes the walkers boxes that seem to be around £5 now in the shops they are £3.61 on my subscription this week from a^^azon). So now that the refunds are in and small subscriptions have been taken I've tallied up what's been spent this week and a running total...So far in March (25th Feb-24th March) I have spent

£264.12 / 500

I am not including pet food, toiletries or cleaning products but I did count in things like bin bags, tin foil etc. This shop I just got should last until the weekend and then two more shops before the end of the month, so I should be able to get this in on budget even though I am slightly over the half way mark.
I have already frozen this month- 4 chilli/spag bol/ shepherd-less pies mixes and 2 dhals, and I have a freezer full of food as well on top of the batch cooking, so I will shop from there first this weekend and then make a meal plan and shopping list.

Suffolk_lass

debtfreewannabe321 I've just added a 12 bag of WC&O to my monthly sub for £2.55 - they are usually £3, so thank you for that!.

I can't see a box but that might be a good thing! 12 bags between 2 of us in the month keeps it just about in the treats category and not creeping into the daily food heading! - I do have treats and entertainment as a non grocery heading but it includes lots of going out, drinks, breakfast and a roast-lunch last weekend for four, as well as naughty things in my infrequent SM trips. Definitely capped at £300 for the month and usually under that

debtfreewannabe321

Suffolk_lass said:

debtfreewannabe321 I've just added a 12 bag of WC&O to my monthly sub for £2.55 - they are usually £3, so thank you for that!.

I can't see a box but that might be a good thing! 12 bags between 2 of us in the month keeps it just about in the treats category and not creeping into the daily food heading! - I do have treats and entertainment as a non grocery heading but it includes lots of going out, drinks, breakfast and a roast-lunch last weekend for four, as well as naughty things in my infrequent SM trips. Definitely capped at £300 for the month and usually under that

You're welcome, I thought others might like that particular brand. The boxes seem to come and go on there and I check the prices every week before I am charged as they go up and down. Our 'pop to the shops for...' was always crisps and bread! SO now I stock up the freezer with bread and buy the crisps on subscription to help that

Mamaofmanybudgets

£66/£400

However I'm calling it £65.75 because I've got an extra 25p from somewhere in my cash wallet 😄

Little lidl and tesco shop today, for suet, flour, bacon, eggs, toilet, roll, fruit.