March 2025 Grocery Challenge

t14cy_t

not spent anything else, so pleased with that. only another week of no spends to go!!

Pennypincin

£5.30 spent in Tesco on budget eggs, 3 small bananas and 400g of budget cheddar.
Although I'm aware that prices are going up, I'm shocked and annoyed with the prices.
I will need fruit, maybe some potatoes later this week, but will try to use what I have in the freezer.
I will probably amble down to Lidl or Aldi for a change and hope they are cheaper than Tesco.

Nicki_Sue

Pennypincin said:

£5.30 spent in Tesco on budget eggs, 3 small bananas and 400g of budget cheddar.
Although I'm aware that prices are going up, I'm shocked and annoyed with the prices.
I will need fruit, maybe some potatoes later this week, but will try to use what I have in the freezer.
I will probably amble down to Lidl or Aldi for a change and hope they are cheaper than Tesco.

@pennypinc - We've found a good time to shop at our Aldi is usually Wednesday PM or Thursday. Lots of 30% reductions etc on a Wed especially. Thursday is when they changeover to the "new week"deals and products so those days here are good shopping days for bargains.

AnotherNewDay

Pennypincin said:

£5.30 spent in Tesco on budget eggs, 3 small bananas and 400g of budget cheddar.
Although I'm aware that prices are going up, I'm shocked and annoyed with the prices.
I will need fruit, maybe some potatoes later this week, but will try to use what I have in the freezer.
I will probably amble down to Lidl or Aldi for a change and hope they are cheaper than Tesco.

I have found Lidl to be significantly cheaper than both Tesco and Sainsbury with no discernable difference in quality....hope you find the same. And completely agree with price rises.

AnotherNewDay

AnotherNewDay said:

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

As predicted the cats have come in under budget this month. I bought them a final bag of dry food today at £4.99 giving them a grand total of £34.95/£50 and an under spend of £15.05. We also also be starting the new budget month on virtually full wet & dry food so very happy with that. 

For me I have started April slightly early as Lidl had deals on decaf coffee, decaf green tea and toasting waffles which finish on 26/03 and my budget resets on 28/03. I won't need them until April at least, so settled on that option rather than either busting my March spend which is at £49.49/£50 or changing the divide between me and the cats. The early April spend is £6.37 and the saving was £1.14 - only a small amount but since they are items I use regularly I thought worth doing. 

Best of luck with the rest of March and hope to see you over on the April boards.

Edited to add total March spend for me & Cats combined is £84.44....very happy with that, although I'm not sure how long I will be able to manage a £50 monthly budget for my part.

Money_Choices

Hi everyone

Today I spent £37.48 on a Morrisons delivery. I’ve spent £229.48/£300. I have £70.52 left to spend.
Money Choices

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Ah thanks @PipneyJane, I did watch a couple of those. She's the French Biochemist with ten principles. It's not sugar that is the issue here, it is the amount of fat he was eating (late at night, systematic snacking). Unless I am missing the point you are making? 

I understand the need to smooth the energy spikes, having studied nutrition as part of my degree, way back when. Her ten hacks were all old medicine principles. Just updated and marketed for today's audience.

Understood, @S@Suffolk_lass. I was thinking about the triggers behind your DH’s late night snacking and whether it could be due to blood sugar spikes/drops and the insulin cascade.  (In my DH’s case, his snacking is definitely due to a massive sweet tooth.). 

You might like my hummus recipe:

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas, drained but save the liquid
1 generously heaped teaspoon tahini paste
1-3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Combine the chickpeas, oil, garlic, tahini and a pinch of salt in the food processor.  Blend, adding liquid from the chickpea can as necessary, until a smooth paste is formed.  (If there isn’t sufficient liquid from the can, add water.). 
2. Stir in extra salt, to taste, if you need it.
3. Turn out into a ramekin dish - or two - and store, covered, in the fridge.
4. To make fancy when serving, sprinkle over a little paprika.

HTH

- Pip

@elsiepac - another for the recipe index.

Thanks you so much @PipneyJane - I did make some hummus at the weekend using the BBC Good Food low fat recipe that @joedenise recommended - it uses less olive oil, no tahini but some aquafaba from the chickpeas. I normally cook mine from dried in my pressure cooker, so I have bought two tins to use until I cook again (and keep some of the liquid back). Next time I will add a bit more lemon juice, garlic and a little salt, and chilli to bring the flavour forward. I was thinking of trying to make it oil free and just using a little EV olive oil to dress it. I had not considered paprika, but will do so now!

As to the reason why he snacks at night - he always has. He is usually actually hungry. At 6 foot 4 he is a tall man, and still well muscled like the rugby player he once was. He certainly burns it (normally, when his blood has not been diluted to half-strength) but not at the moment as my man is sleep recovering - it being the best healer as Granny used to say! He sleeps eight hours, then has an hour asleep in the afternoon. Yesterday he was shattered after we cleaned out a few pots that had veg in, and he filled the rabbit burrow entrances with bricks and the spent compost. After a sleep he took the dog for an hour’s walk and that was him. Not normal for him at all.

So retraining his snack habit is lots more veg - cucumber and celery sticks, lots of carrots, some peppers and spring onions. I am going to grow most of these but at the moment they are stinging the budget a bit. He’s also working his way through a portion controlled little pot a night of peanuts (salted and unsalted) that I bought but did not use at Christmas - they need eating before they taste dated - the forerunner to rancid. Trust me, we have tried! Plus hummus, guacamole and leftover dinner portions - he won’t starve. And then he wakes up hungry too, alternating porridge made with water now, and eggs on toast (homemade bread, no spread or the merest smear of Flora stuff that is only 28% fat). His weight is coming down very slowly, because of the lack of energy, I think. 

Onwards and upwards!

Suffolk_lass

Working_Mum said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Ah thanks @PipneyJane, I did watch a couple of those. She's the French Biochemist with ten principles. It's not sugar that is the issue here, it is the amount of fat he was eating (late at night, systematic snacking). Unless I am missing the point you are making? 

I understand the need to smooth the energy spikes, having studied nutrition as part of my degree, way back when. Her ten hacks were all old medicine principles. Just updated and marketed for today's audience.

I had my gallbladder removed and can only cope with small amounts of fat in my diet now.

I shared the recipe for my fat free yoghurt dips previously but I have found cornichons are great as a "dipping" snack - they crunch and taste salty so hit the spot for me. I buy them in jars from Lidl and they're good value for money.

I also use fat free yoghurt as a mayo and add ketchup and paprika to make a Marie Rose sauce - I have prawns with lettuce leaves, cucumber and a couple of cherry tomatoes - sprinkle on top with lemon juice and I have a deconstructed prawn cocktail 

I hope your husband is adjusting to his new way of eating! I am permanently hungry and have to work really hard not to just grab a carb (toast, crumpet etc) and make sure I have healthy stuff easily available for me.

Good luck,

((WM))

Thank you @Working_Mum, I understand about 1% of people who have their gall bladder removed cannot resume eating much fat. I have been using 0% Fage yogurt for him (my GS supermarket stuff is 7% so still not too bad, while full fat strained Greek is 12% in the SM OB I buy).

The hunger is the worst thing for him. Apparently he had cereal last night. I suspect Bran flakes with granola, my mix of nuts and seeds with semi-skimmed milk. I am sure he can get away with this because other fats are so low compared to pre-acute pancreatitis. You only really find out how much butter and cheese a person is eating when they stop! I meant to say - Sainsbugs sell Matzos crackers - just wheatflour and water. A really simple hunger-suppressing snack. Not cheap, but better than toast or crumpets, I think

Soontobeoap

£4.00 spent on a bottle of shampoo and 3 bottles of conditioner from the £1 shop today. Off to the mainland tomorrow for GSs school show
 He is a lumber Jack and has 4 lines to say. The performance is called porridge and sounds like it is loosely based on Goldilocks and the 3  bears

I really hope that is the end of my grocery shopping for this month but not declaring yet just in case.

JingsMyBucket

@Suffolk_lass see if you can him some real Scandi rye crisp bread like Leksands https://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/product/leksands-trekant-normalgraddat-200g/

It has good fiber content and essentially no fat with better texture than the weird Ryvita thins usually sold. Actually, the round Finn Crisp that are real crisp breads will work too and they’re likely to be sold in a regular supermarket. https://www.finncrisp.com/products/crispbreads/original-rye-round-crispbread/

You/he could easily use those as a base for dip with vegetables on top. They’re much more nutritious than rice cakes.