February 2025 Grocery Challenge

patentgirl

doing well spent nothing since February 1st got to go shopping later as got grandchildren 12 and 15 stopping for a week will try not to  go mad but need few more bits for them report back later.

t14cy_t

still not spent anything this month. olio hasnt produced anything these last two days, hoping next two might throw something into the ring!!

Mrs_Cheshire

Small top up shop from Mr T today, spent £27.37. Total for February stands at £231.78/£500

EcoIntent

Reporting end of my week 3 (ended on Friday) on 102.31/£130 and so far today on £19.24/£130 which is in total £359.04/£520 for the four week month.

Feeling good

carboot_karaoke

Evening all,
Another few spends to declare, £4.90 at Asda, on milk, squash, cereal, and a fresh tiger loaf. Lidi was £3.88 on 2 x porridge, free large pack of mushrooms and a curry sauce jar. I did a bigger shop at Tesco totalling £72.97 this did include toilet roll @ £7.50.

New totals £177.41 / £500

Black_Saturn

Rounding up to £60 spent at the farmers market yesterday (a few pence short of that), which brings my total for the month to £201.39/£600.

PipneyJane

Good morning All. Hope everyone is sticking to their budget plans.

Nelliegrace said:

February Budget £140.

That is £5 a day for 2 pensioners.
The shared meat ration is £6 a week.

WW2 Britain. One week's average rations for an adult:- 1/2d. worth of meat; 4ozs bacon or ham; 2ozs cheese; 4ozs margarine; 2ozs butter; 2ozs lard; 8ozs sugar; 2ozs jam; 2ozs tea, and 5 points worth of rationed foods, consisting of a tin of baked beans, 1 lb. of lentils, or a 3 ozs tin of spiced ham.

DH has fetched milk, £2.90.
We have shopped at Aldi for fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and a packet of mixed fruit and nuts. £11.11.

The hens have laid 10 eggs so far, we sold 6 for £1 towards their feed. Smallholders layers pellets are now £14.60 for 20kg.
We have had a portion of beef mince, 2 chicken thighs, cooking bacon, and cheese out of the freezer

£14.01 spent £125.99 left. 

@Nelliegrace, I really admire you for sticking to the WW2 food rations.  Please elaborate on why you are doing this.

cheerfulness4 said:

…

Really trying hard to scratch cook everything including snacks and treats this month as we did last month.  Wanting to try some more recipes from the Recipe Collection at the beginning of the thread.

 Does anyone have a tried and tested coconut cake recipe? 

Sadly, I don’t @cheerfulness4. I’ve never made one. I’d suggest trying the BBC Good Food website.  If you do find a good Coconut Cake recipe, please share it.

I have some spends to declare from Friday:  £28.53 spent in L!dl and £4.54 spent in Sainsbugs.  The latter was on loose fresh veg.  The L!dl shop included a tray of 12 tins of chopped tomatoes (12x39p), two French Camembert (2x£2.59), two packets of toothbrushes (89p each and each pack holds 2), and a dozen large free-range eggs (£2.79).  I also bought 2 bottles of live Kefir from them to try (£1.29).

Also one spend from yesterday, when DH popped to Icel@nd to buy a bag of salad: £1 spent.

The above brings our total spend to £48.37/£165.30 leaving £116.93 for the rest of the month.

Meal Plans

All Meals are planned until Saturday.  Unless otherwise stated, breakfasts are cereal and lunches are leftovers.  We had gammon for dinner last night, so using the leftovers is a priority.  Also, meals may be swapped between evenings. 

Sunday:  Breakfast:  toasted muffins with cream cheese & prosciutto.  Lunch - HM quiche (uses some of the gammon), Dinner - Dinner baked Camembert accompanied by baguette
Monday:  Hot & sour soup 
Tuesday: Pasta bake with cooking bacon
Wednesday:  Broccoli & Chorizo Pasta
Thursday:  Bread & Cheese Pudding incorporating the last of the gammon & sweet corn.
Friday: Liver in Orange Sauce, with butter beans. 
Saturday:  Lunch - bagels.  Dinner - Nadia’s Ham & Cheese Crown.

-Pip

sams247

Popped into T**co last night for milk and tin foil.  Managed to get a few bargains..... but spent £18.05.  Sigh.  

TravelCrystal

Good morning all
I have some pork chops with apples, leeks and cider in the oven on low for Sunday lunch, so just time to report a few spends.
Bought one leek, apples and mushrooms in A so I had ingredients for the above meal £2.21

Lidl’s then decided to offer me £5 off if I spent £75
I didn’t want to spend that for February so went anyway yesterday and have split between what I needed for the rest of this month and made a note for next.
I had free potatoes and one cake as hadn’t been yet this month.
4 Greek yoghurts so I had £1 discount.
Put cheese in the freezer for next month.
Fruit, veg, dairy, bacon, washing up liquid, cheats pastry and ketchup.
Bought cat food to make up the difference, but that’s on a different budget.
£39.44
I have however been a bit naughty 👿 and spent some money with Ocado so we can have a dine in for 2, M and S food.
Thought we would have a treat for Valentine’s 
not something we generally celebrate.
Will report on that next week.
Total spend this week £41.65
£156.22/£200

Have a good week all

T.C

Nelliegrace

@PipneyJane It started as a history project, reading Mass Observation compilations, and wartime diaries, such as Nella Last’s, and watching programmes such as the Wartime Kitchen Garden, and the Wartime Farm. Then there were books about the Dig for Victory campaign, and reprints of Ministry of Food information. Food was so important, a weapon of war, and housewives were the Homefront. It seemed incredible that people’s health improved on wartime rations, and children thrived as never before. The ration quantities were proven over fourteen years, on the whole UK population, to be sufficient for good health. The food was familiar, we grew up with it in the 50s, unadulterated, basic ingredients, seasonal vegetables, and most importantly, it was cheap. I don’t follow it rigidly but it is my standard, and I feel well on it, with my weight back to normal.

I found this in the Times from 6th February 1941, when there had been difficulties with the meat supply. Who cares now that every child gets the full daily ration of the protein they need to grow!