April 2025 Grocery Challenge

TravelCrystal

Welcome @ET22, £25 will be a challenge.
l love a challenge and as @GSDMum said buying a large piece of meat and being inventive will make the pennies stretch. Bulking meals out with oats and lots of veg will stretch it even further. If you have a freezer that would be great to package up your food in to portion’s. I always do this before we eat the meal fresh, in my case so DH doesn’t think he can have a second helping.
I’m so mean 🤣
T.C

remmie

This is going to be very tight. I'm currently at £159.53, just over half my budget only a third of the way through the month. I'm hoping to take advantage of the meat offers next week, so nay go sailing over budget, but I'm thinking that with plenty of meat and vegetables in I will be able to reduce May's budget to compensate. Fingers crossed.

£159.53/£300

LotsOfTea

Another £15.02 down today but it included some pizzas and sweet treats as it's school holidays. The first part of this month is proving very spendy but I will rein it in from now on.

£272.73/£400

PipneyJane

LiveSimply said:

I am determined to get the best out of this website (this time). 

So, is Sainsbury’s a good place to shop? I shop there mainly because the two nearest supermarkets are Sainsbury’s, they are on main roads, both got petrol, I collect points, and I’m familiar with the layout and labels, so it’s quicker for me to find stuff there than a Tesco (for example). I collect points but never use them for anything, I just swap them for money off the bill. Does that sound okay? Am I missing a trick, or not?

@LiveSimply L!dl and A1di are generally cheaper than Sainsbugs or MrT’s. In my experience, L!dl’s meat is better quality and VFM too.  However, they both mainly do own-brand stuff, so if you are brand-fussy, you may not find what you want.

HTH

- Pip

SausageDogSandwich

Morning all, well my only needing milk turned into a bigger spend but never mind. Got some more fruit and pizzas with £10off and half price on just eat and then went shopping yesterday on the hunt for a nice cake which I didn’t find but lots of other bargains that we didn’t need 
 £130.12 spent

GSDMum

Had a Tesco delivery this morning. Total should have  been £161.75 but after £28.32 club card discount/special offers, plus £9 in vouchers, total was reduced to a £122.40 shop. Best buy I think was 'Ariel The Big One' priced at £18, but after a half price reduction, and club card discount, the price was £6.69 for 29 washes.

So I've overspent by £42.22 already this month. I'm not really bothered as I've had to stock up on many staples eg coffee, laundry, cleaning stuff, meat for Easter. I shouldn't need much more shopping this month baring milk and fresh fruit and veg and I've still got a lot a HM ready meals in the freezer.

PipneyJane

ET22 said:

Hi, ive just been reading some posts. Do people think 25 pounds per week for one adult is ok or should it be more like 30 or over? Im having to rein my spending back even further due to an unforeseen circumstance for the next 12 months and any little helps x

Welcome @ET22 .

The only answer I can give to your question is:  “It depends…”.  I could do it, but I have a well stocked pantry and freezer; I cook from scratch 99% of the time; and I have decades of experience with living on what others deem to be a tight budget.  It doesn’t feel tight to us - we eat really well - but I have the tools and knowledge to do it.  (If you want to know more about my budget, read the post I wrote in November 2023.  The only thing that has changed is that we’ve put the GC Budget up by £20 to £160 per month.)

Apologies, I’m about to bombard you with questions, but this is just to get you thinking and planning.

What do you currently eat?  Do you cook from scratch or does it all come out of a jar/packet?  Do you have a saucepan or pot large enough to cook a 4 portion meal?  Do you take your lunch to work? At work, can you zap your lunch or is it cold meals only?  What do you have in your pantry at present?  What about your fridge?  Do you have a freezer?  What’s in there?  What cuisines do you like to eat? (Indian? Chinese? Italian? Spanish?).  What are your food weaknesses?  Do you snack a lot?  Do you eat a lot of crisps?  Or biscuits? Or chocolate bars?  What do you drink?  (Tea? Coffee? Squash?  Or is it diet sodas?)

ET22 said:

Thankyou @LotsOfTea and @carboot_karaoke

I think im going to aim for 25 a week at first from this friday onwards and see how i get on for the rest of April  

OK.  Good luck.  I would suggest that you take a look at what you have in stock and plan your meals - and grocery shopping - for the next week.  Don’t forget to look at your toiletries and cleaning products.  When will the coffee jar run out?  What about toilet paper?

HTH

- Pip

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

I have a shop to declare from Wednesday, when I wandered around L!dl desperately trying to get over the £30 threshold, in order to be rewarded with a £5-off voucher for next week.  It’s really hard, when you’ve already done your “Big Shop” for the month!   £33.07 spent, but that did include 8x100g bars of dark chocolate, so that I can make Coconut Rough to give to family and friends for Easter, instead of Easter eggs.  The Christmas Fund reimbursed the GC purse £8.72 for those, so in reality only £24.35 was spent from the Grocery Challenge Budget.

Before I forget, on Monday after I headed of to choir, DH dropped into Sainsbugs, picking up loose potatoes, loose carrots, spring onions and a not-very-nice tub of pickled herring with dill. He spent £6.21.

DH bought the herring, because I promised him that I’d make a French Lentil Salad on Tuesday, since he was moaning about eating hot meals on warm days.  Normally, I’d use marinated anchovies for their acidic bite - the white ones - or smoked mackerel, but they didn’t have either.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pickled herring, but this was horrible!   £3.95 and OMG it was sweet!  The sweetness almost ruined the fish.  (If you want pickled herring, buy it from L!dl.  Cheaper - £2.19 per tub - and much nicer!)

Anyway, the above brings our total GC spend to £106.71/£172, leaving £65.29 for the rest of the month.

Shopping-wise, there’s not a lot that we’ll need over the next few days.  I will have to pick up my free L!dlplus veg - probably mushrooms - but I want to avoid going there until I’ve got the £5-off voucher to spend.  I’ve started a shopping list…

Meal-plan-wise …. I don’t have one yet, beyond making a large tub of potato salad with tinned salmon flaked through it.  We’re eating out twice over the weekend.  I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow, so might pop to the butcher’s for something to go in the slow cooker for Sunday night, but the Meat Fund will pay for that.  Hmm…. I need to see what we have in the freezer… Also, I have a yearning to make a quiche….

- Pip

Soontobeoap

@ET22 . You also need to quantify what you want the grocery challenge to cover. Mine covers all food ( meat included), toilet roll washing powder, dishwasher tablets and toiletries etc. Some people have a separate meat budget, bulk buy budget or baking budget. Remember it isn't a competition it's about what you are comfortable with and whatever you manage this month you could be able to cut slightly next month. Go easy on yourself and don't feel the need to conform to norms
 We have beans on toast as a main meal roughly once a week. In the beginning this felt like failure to me if I didn't cook a "proper meal" DH is just as happy with it as I am. Whatever happens it will make you more accountable and you can be sure that you would Spend more if you didn't record spends.

Stick with it and you will slowly see your mindset change. I have been doing it for 3 years. I still slip up quite often but I have learned a lot. As @PipneyJane says she has raised her budget this year. I am over what I had spent this time last year too. Prices are increasing so we are all adapting with it. We are all still learning new things
 You are not alone and you will become more confident.

K9sandFelines

Got paid early so I'm here already,instead of on Sunday.
£6.52 spent at @ldi and £1.98 spent in HomeB@rgains.
I need to tot up my March spends, as not sure if I've missed a transaction somewhere