February 2025 Grocery Challenge

Cassingtonbear

At £199.25/£720 budget. Very pleased with that so far this month for our family of four. Still need to add the kids school lunch fees, which I will do later this month.

TravelCrystal

I don’t plan on spending anything for a few days so will declare Ocado spend. I hesitate to say what we ate @Soontobeoap but have had beans on crusts on many occasions. We had the prawn and lobster Thermidor for our lunch on Thursday and The duck, chocolate pudding and fizz last night. Very pleased with the M and S standard. Had to have cream for the pudding
so £27.49 spent including delivery charge.
Total so far £183.71/£200

T.C

Pennypincin

Hi, just realised that I was still doing £40 per week when I'd been paid.
I spent £13.86 yesterday while still doing the old budget in Morrisons.
Bought a couple of treats and a few basics.

AnimalTribe

£9.46 spend yesterday for some basics and a couple of cakes. So far I'm doing well against budget. This year I'm hoping to grow a lot of veg and was pleased to see my first tomato seedling appear. Hopefully, the rest of the seeds I've sown will make an appearance soon.

Soontobeoap

We have been shopping all morning trying to get the best deals. Aldi first where we got all of our fruit, veg, and basics as well as frozen chips, bacon, juice, squash, ham, marmite, eggs,  noodles,sauces etc and cleaning stuff. I was going to buy 2x chickens. ( We have GC and DD for half term) but they were £5.00 each and I thought that I could get better at Sainsbury's. ( They have been on offer nearly every time I have been lately) . So a nearly full shop for 6 of us done for £63.83. 

Next we

 went to Sainsbury's. Firstly I got the points DH missed at the beginning of the week put onto nectar card. 29 points. DH thinks it wasn't worth the bother but we were there anyway and every little helps. Or look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves as my Mum used to say.  Here we bought oatly Milk for the dairy free boys,a large Nescafé which DH deemed a bargain! ( Unfortunately I didn't check) 2 x flora proactive ( it was on nectar my offer at £3.75 a tub) ,2 packs gluten free bread a pack of plant based cathedral city cheese which has gone up 70p a pack since I last bought it a couple of months ago. Only paid that price because GC love it! And 2 pks paracetamol ( never know when we might need them! 😊 . So from there we walked out with one bag for life that was half empty for £30.67!!!! Oh yes! and I still need to go back up the road to Aldi to buy 2 chickens as the cheapest large chicken that I could find was £6.20 and it was smaller than the Aldi ones!

I thought prices had stabilised but things are still on the rise. Hopefully they will bring the roasting joints offers back into the supermarkets for Easter and I can stock up again.

K9sandFelines

Soontobeoap said:

We have been shopping all morning trying to get the best deals. Aldi first where we got all of our fruit, veg, and basics as well as frozen chips, bacon, juice, squash, ham, marmite, eggs,  noodles,sauces etc and cleaning stuff. I was going to buy 2x chickens. ( We have GC and DD for half term) but they were £5.00 each and I thought that I could get better at Sainsbury's. ( They have been on offer nearly every time I have been lately) . So a nearly full shop for 6 of us done for £63.83. 

Next we

 went to Sainsbury's. Firstly I got the points DH missed at the beginning of the week put onto nectar card. 29 points. DH thinks it wasn't worth the bother but we were there anyway and every little helps. Or look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves as my Mum used to say.  Here we bought oatly Milk for the dairy free boys,a large Nescafé which DH deemed a bargain! ( Unfortunately I didn't check) 2 x flora proactive ( it was on nectar my offer at £3.75 a tub) ,2 packs gluten free bread a pack of plant based cathedral city cheese which has gone up 70p a pack since I last bought it a couple of months ago. Only paid that price because GC love it! And 2 pks paracetamol ( never know when we might need them! 😊 . So from there we walked out with one bag for life that was half empty for £30.67!!!! Oh yes! and I still need to go back up the road to Aldi to buy 2 chickens as the cheapest large chicken that I could find was £6.20 and it was smaller than the Aldi ones!

I thought prices had stabilised but things are still on the rise. Hopefully they will bring the roasting joints offers back into the supermarkets for Easter and I can stock up again.

Will the children not eat the Dairy Free mature cheddar in Aldi, it's £1.75 a bag ( I think) or £1.99.
I can't taste the difference between that and Cathedral city if I'm honest 

Pennypincin

£4.04 spent in Lidl on a few bits 

Soontobeoap

Thanks @K9sandFelines our Aldi is quite small and doesn't stock the gluten free bread or DF stuff. Not even oat milk which would be very helpful. I eat lactose free and cathedral city lactose free is the best I have tasted. The boys can't eat dairy and I don't like plant based. I don't know why I bought cathedral city. You are right I will look for cheaper next time. I have spent £600 already this year! I was under £350 last year and it's not all down to having visitors in Jan and Feb I am sure. I am going to do as much shopping in  March as I can on  clubcard, nectar, M and S vouchers. We are also staying with DS and GDs to help with babysitting for 4 days whilst their Mum is on skiing trip with friends. 

EcoIntent

Ending our four week month yesterday at £112.30/£130 or £452.10/£520. That is officially the lowest spend and I think lowest four weeks I can remember us having PLUS we have stores of everyday essentials.

Have to say THANK YOU re the inspiration as it feels really good!

remmie

Another £30 spent in Lids. I only went in for some fresh veg. I really must stop this random shopping, the cupboards and freezer are heaving, and theres only the two of us.

Still within budget with only 2 weeks to go, but really need to get the stocks down before buying more.

£173.52/£300