March 2025 Grocery Challenge

Blackcats

We did a Lidl shop this week but we must have used more milk than usual so had to succumb to a "just pop to the local shop" trip and managed to spend nearly £10!  

We bought some treat bits in the Lidl Italian section including a jar of sour cherries in syrup.  They are ultra sweet but delicious with ice cream and you only need 3 or 4 plus some of the syrup to make a very nice treat for pudding.  They remind me of the cherries that my parents had in a jar to adorn the Snowball drink.  

£175 spent.  £225 remaining

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines said:

Wraithlady said:

thriftwizard said:

PS - just discovered air-fried bread! Who knew?! 2nd rise in the fridge overnight, then into the Ninja first thing while I sort the cats, chickens & cockatiel out, & there's fresh delicious bread for breakfast, without tablespoons of sugar like the recent bread-makers are demanding for some reason.

To be honest, my breadmaker recipe demanded 3 tablespoons of sugar (!!!) - I cut it down to 1 tbsp initially but have happily and successfully reduced it further to 1 teaspoon per large loaf, might try and reduce it even further.

I know that the recipe is written for the American market, but that's practically cake...

I noticed similar with a cornmeal recipe. Nice, but was very cake like .

I meant "cornbread"

thriftwizard

£119.22 spent, between the butchers (over £60! But some of it frozen towards another week) the supermarket, the market, the fishmongers and the greengrocers today on my way back from the Repair Café. That's a LOT and we're halfway through the budget, at halfway through the month, but without having yet stocked up on non-perishables like coffee. But there's plenty in the freezer, including 4 x 500g packs of "pie fish" (brilliant value at £5 each & there's so much you can do with them!) three lots of salmon steaks, and half of a big joint of unsmoked gammon to go forward. Anyway - proceed with caution and all should be well - I may have said that before & come unstuck...

K9sandFelines

£47.24 spend today.
Had a Tesc@ shop delivered tonight (and used about £12 in vouchers), so would have come to more. Then just now, I've been to the C@-@p just to get lettuce and bread. So I can make chicken or egg mayo wraps or sausage and egg sandwiches, for DD1 and GD before they set off home. I've been having apple and peanut butter sandwiches, as don't have much sandwich type stuff in for myself.

GSDMum

Seeing that we're now half way through the month, it's time to assess.

Amazon: £8.75 x 1 kg Werthers, £6.99 for bakers parchment sheets

Tesco Delivery: £97.37 including 1.5 kg chicken breast that were made into 7 x 2 portion containers of Chicken and mushroom Fricassee, 6 are sitting in the freezer.

Also bought extra liver resulting in 5 meals for 2 of liver, onion, and bacon meals, 4 are sitting in the freezer. 

Visit to Aldi: £54.37. I wanted to buy a ham joint to bake and use as ham slices. Silly me in my rush I picked up a joint that said £5.49 thinking that was a good price, it wasn't till I got home and realised I'd picked up a Pork loin joint with the price being just under £10, the £5.49 was the price per kg. Oh well, I'll be slicing a couple of steaks off it, and then half the remaining joint to make 2 roasts. 

So far I've spent £167.49 of my £217 (£7 per day), leaving £49.50 till the end of the month. Freezer is full and the fridge has a good stock of fruit and veg, so my target is doable I think. 

carboot_karaoke

Evening all,  
Another small spend to declare of £5.23 at Aldi, l brought frozen summer berries for my porridge,  Yorkshire puddings, a couple of seasonings and tomatoe puree at a much more reasonable 59p 😄. 

New totals £324.24 /£500. £175.76 remaining 

LotsOfTea

I bought some milk from the garage yesterday as DS has suddenly decided to start eating cereal for breakfast after about a year of only wanting toast and DH who normally doesn't bother with breakfast has simultaneously started having cereal a couple of times a week. I've upped the order from the milkman but that doesn't come until Tuesday so I got an emergency top-up. I ended up with 4 pints as it was only 20p more than 2 pints which seems crazy and designed to create waste (not that I will waste it). 

Anyway, £1.45 spent and now at £31.49/£200

Suffolk_lass

I managed to ignore the £12 off £80 "offer" from Morries and then PING! £12 off £60 popped into my inbox.  We could go to the end of the week with what we have in but the offer ends on Tuesday so I have banged in an order to C&C. It includes four 10 kilo bags of cat litter for our elderly, indoor, stealth cat, to make sure we hit the £60 and a bit more (as there are always things missing when I put the order in that they remove from your basket, even though they are likely to have restocked when you collect.

I am led to believe that Tuesday is when the biggest delivery occurs to our local store, so I am collecting at 2pm on that day! Lots of salad (and crouton-suited veg)

Mercifully DH and I are no longer on opposing diets, so more of our food can be the same, which will make things better for my purse!

I made a lower-fat version of my fish pie last night with mash made with stock (no butter, milk or cream, just the stock I cooked the potatoes in) and although I poached the fish in a mix of milk and a dob of butter, I used this liquid, thickened with cornflour, to make the sauce, and stirred through some peas and frozen sweetcorn. We had simple steamed carrots and peas with it - honestly, no difference to my brain or taste buds, and one fewer potatoes used too.

DH had the rest as his midnight snack (and therein is the source of his problems - the cheese and crackers, slathered in butter have been consigned to a fond memory, but the late night snacking is ingrained). He is getting thinner, but not really losing weight. I may have to take control...

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All.  I’m miles behind, so apologies if I’ve missed anything momentous.

@otb666, re Easter Eggs:  I gave up buying them, years ago.  Far too sweet and a waste of money.  Instead I make coconut rough with a mix of 70% dark and milk chocolate, and give tubs of that to everyone.  

I have multiple shops to declare from this week.  It’s been quite expensive.  On Tuesday, I spent £6.49 in L!dl while collecting my “free” 600g box of mushrooms (plus Camembert on offer 2x£2.20, wraps 99p, peppercorn sauce 2x55p), followed by £2.30 in Sainsbugs (on a fancy Chipotle Chilli Bloomer to accompany the baked Camembert I cooked for dinner that night).  

On Thursday, I made our once-every-couple-of-months visit to our local Large MrT’s, to buy things that only they stock.  That shop has gone seriously downhill.  Pre-pandemic, it was our primary supermarket - not now.  On Thursday, I struggled to find most of the things on my shopping list.  They didn’t have any pasta bakes, almost no yoghurts - not even own brand - and, when comparing prices, I found quite a few things were more expensive than Sainsbugs(!) e.g. dried, whole brown lentils at £2.50/kg. (£2/kg in Sainsbugs).  

£33.38 spent, which included a couple of YS meat items, 4 bottles of quad-strength squash, frozen spinach and two packets of their frozen potato croquettes. It didn’t feel like much when I got it home.   I did manage to get four 500g bags of bulgar wheat for £1.30 each instead of their usual £2.  Two were damaged and marked down, but the cashier just rang all four of them up at the same price (which was kind of her).  I weighed the damaged bags when I got home.  No more than 10g lost from each of them.

Friday, I went to L!dl, spending £22.68, and left there kicking myself that I’d bought risotto rice in MrT’s the night before at £3.30/kg, instead of buying it from L!dl for 50+ pence cheaper.  (I don’t remember the exact price.)

Today, I spent £18.50 in Sainsbugs on loose broccoli, peppers, loose bananas, 6 Nectar priced 450ml tubs of Yeo Valley Yoghurt (saving 73p/tub), and 3x1kg bags of brown lentils at £1.80/bag (Nectar price, down from £2).

The above brings our total spend to £142.70/£165, leaving £22.30 for the rest of the month.

This should be do-able.  The only things we may need, later in the month, are eggs, more fresh veg, and (possibly) milk.

Meal plans for the week:

All breakfasts are cereal and all lunches are leftovers.  

Sunday: Slow cooked beef stew with dumplings
Monday: baked Feta and cherry tomato pasta with anchovies
Tuesday:  Chickpea & Chorizo stew,
Wednesday: Chicken Tray Bake
Thursday:  Cheese fondue with HM bread
Friday: White fish curry

- Pip

Doom_and_Gloom

Doom_and_Gloom said:

£157.35/£248.
£90.65 left.

£78.23 spent since my last post.

£6 on TGTG on 2 bags at the local coffee place.
£34.26 on 3 Waitr*se shops.
£37.97 on the Mr S delivery (a couple of things were bought that are not counted in the grocery budget so we could get a £1 slot). 

£235.58/£248.
£12.42 left.

OH will need at least two lots of both milk and bread. Other than that possibly top up on fruit and veg. Coming in budget could still happen.

@Suffolk_lass - Kilner jars can be to heavy for me so the ones we do have the OH uses. I use lock and lock containers as they are lighter but still air tight. I think the insects, probably weevils as you said, were likely already in with the quinoa. It sucks that I had to chuck the quinoa but I wasn't going to be able to get them out.