March 2025 Grocery Challenge

TravelCrystal

Morning all
Decided on another Ocado delivery as they have one or two items I needed. Haven’t had chicken for quite a while so bought 1.5kg of chicken breast and 1kg of chicken thighs. Italian sausages was my other meat.
Also milk, lots of fruit and veg both fresh and frozen.
Milk and yoghurt. And a small jar of preserved lemons.
£71.91 spent 

Should last for a while. Don’t intend on spending any more this month, we shall see

Total spend £392.88/£400

T.C

Pennypincin

26.62 spent in Tesco and Morrisons so far on the new budget.
Mainly on salad vegetables, 2 packs of budget pasta, 3 tins of budget tuna, 2 tins of budget baked beans, 1 packet of reduced vegetarian sausages sweet potatos, kippers, reduced cheese, reduced diced onions, budget porridge, various vegetarian protein that was on a clubcard offer, and bananas.
I hopefully won't need to get anything until Thursday when I will likely need bananas for the porridge in the morning.
I've ended up topping up the freezer with bits, despite trying to run it down.
I also will need to do a small restock of the storecupboard for a few bits.
I aim to not go overboard and buy only what I will use.
I lost the plot last month and ended up spending the whole budget with not much to show for it.

Blackcats

I did a shop today at Lidl and spent £56.00.  I bought plenty of vegetables and fruit, milk, some meat, tea bags, tinned stuff, cat treats, fizzy water and chocolate.  We have a nice meal plan for the week ahead including a batch cook of 3 bean chilli in the slow cooker which will give a few freezer meals.  Tonight we had Korean beef bulgogi stir fry which was delicious - the steak accounted for £9 of the budget but it was a lovely Monday night treat.

Suffolk_lass

I have my £12 off £60 C&C to pick up later today. I might have said here (or in my diary) that I topped up with cat litter to make sure I hit the £60 with a bit to spare. It's not until lunch time so plenty of time to do the jobs I keep putting off!

t14cy_t

did a shop in aldi and iceland, so im over budget £222/£200...oops. in my defence ive stocked up well. wont need anything until next month now.

LotsOfTea

I had a big shopping delivery yesterday to replenish an the fresh stuff we'd run out of. I was running out of the door shortly after it arrived for an evening out with a friend so I just shoved all the fresh and frozen stuff haphazardly into the fridge and freezer so today I'll organise it all a bit better and sort the meal plan based on what needs using first.

I know there's a courgette left in the fridge from before the shopping so I think today's lunch will be courgette soup. Pretty much everything is getting made into soup at the moment as the weather is still on the chilly side despite the lovely sunshine. 

I'm up to £134.27/£200 for the month so should be fine.

Soontobeoap

I am just calling in to tell you about a big win yesterday. ( In my mind anyway) DH said he was off to Aldi as we needed sandwich fillings. After a long discussion I pulled some sausages out of the freezer and stopped him going off on his own and coming back with all manner of biscuits and treats into the bargain! 🤣. he is talking about going today as he has no fresh bread. I am going to try and convince him that beans on toast might be a good option to save him going out! Wish me luck.🤣

carboot_karaoke

Soontobeoap said:

I am just calling in to tell you about a big win yesterday. ( In my mind anyway) DH said he was off to Aldi as we needed sandwich fillings. After a long discussion I pulled some sausages out of the freezer and stopped him going off on his own and coming back with all manner of biscuits and treats into the bargain! 🤣. he is talking about going today as he has no fresh bread. I am going to try and convince him that beans on toast might be a good option to save him going out! Wish me luck.🤣

Haha @Soontobeoap did you succeed? 

I'm popping in with another small spend of £6.86. This was for a large block of cheese,  Y/S bread, tortilla crisps for tomorrow's chilli and two small packs of sweets for the kids.  

New totals £331.10 / £500. Remaining budget £168.90

Soontobeoap

@carboot_karaoke I am pleased to say it worked. The bread was apparently ok for another sausage sandwich today! I wonder if I can get away with beans on toast tomorrow. 🤔. Also have got by with using fat from bacon and sausages to fry food as we ran out of cooking oil on Monday. I used half a red onion instead of spring onions in our noodles and have kept away from the shops. Don't think I can stretch much longer without veg and something a bit more healthy! 🤣

AnotherNewDay

AnotherNewDay said:

AnotherNewDay said:

First spend of the month as follows  : Cats = £14.98 and me = £45.16. Hopefully, this spend will cover me for most of the month and the cats for the next 10 days to fortnight. V annoyed that I didn't wait a day until 1 March as the lidl app vouchers start again, which means instead of free sweets I would have go a free bakery & veg item. 

Small top-up shop to report. Cats - wet + dry food = £14.98 bringing total to £29.96/£50. They are on track to come in slightly under budget this month. Me - 20 eggs + chocolate = £4.33 bringing total to £49.49/£50. I'm cutting it close to the wire with 17 days until the budget resets, but if I'm careful and meal prep well I may just make it....

Just 8 days to go and no further spends to report as yet. I will have to buy another bag of dry cat food before the budget resets and possibly more wet food too, but even if I do have to buy both the cats will still come in under budget this month. 
I'm cutting it fine on £49.49/£50 but may just make it - the only thing I may need is unsweetened soya milk, but the L!dl simply version is 50p, so if I stick to that I'll still be just under budget. 
The main challenge will be sticking to stores/freezer and not convenience/impulse buying something instead of cooking from scratch using ingredients already available