April 2025 Grocery Challenge

t14cy_t

still at £46/£100. collected a nice lot of goodies from olio lady yesterday mso has restocked the freezer nicely!

carboot_karaoke

Evening all,  

Just catching up after a busy weekend.  

An expensive one as well. Tbh l knew it would be £46.71 of the total was in non food items including, washing powder,  fabric conditioner, tissues, shower gel,  mouthwash,  l  couldn't believe how much toothpaste has increased in price 😱 (l bulk brought lots @59p months ago). 

Food was another £72.52 which included lots of fruit and veg, plus snacks for day trips out and extra lunch things while the kids are off school.

New totals £307.89  / £ 470.00. 

I am still hoping to get a meat joint or two while the half price offers are on. Plus 
I've realised that we need foil, cornflour and sugar.

goldfinches

I'm a bit cheesed off with my local branch of M*rks because their yoghurt shelf was bare both yesterday and today so I'm making do with a type I don't like very much and to make matters worse it is more expensive!

Anyway I bought yoghurt, milk, washing-up gloves, tenderstem and two boxes of reduced eggs which set me back £18.20 altogether. I've decided to charge the gloves to the bulk buy fund and the eggs to the baking fund which is a bit of a dodge but it all helps.

That makes my new total for the main GC £96.54/£150.
The baking fund now stands at £34.80/£25.  This should even out next month, fingers crossed.
The bulk buy fund new total is £33.98/£120

PS there was a very interesting recipe for a gluten free cake in today's Guardian
Rachel Roddy's Almond and Potato Cake.

TravelCrystal

Thank you for the recipe @goldfinches, I’ve passed it on to one of my dear friends who is gluten intolerant. Always looking for new ideas 
T.C

t14cy_t

bought 1.5k of dry cured smoked back bacon from local butchers today for £18. so, £64/£100 so far this month. luckily olio has come up trumps this week. so on track for a cheaper month.

thriftwizard

Oh 'eck, plot lost; I see I haven't posted last weekend's main shop yet, but have added yesterday's non-perishables run of £60.60. The main shop was pretty low, somewhere around £50 IIRC, but I need to ferret around & see if I can find some evidence for that!

ETA: Eeeek! Goes to show how misleading memory alone can be: it was actually £87.15! £16.71 at the supermarket, £30.44 at the butchers & £40 at the market, on fish, fresh fruit & veg. I thought I was doing so well, but - not exactly!

goldfinches

TravelCrystal said:

Thank you for the recipe @goldfinches, I’ve passed it on to one of my dear friends who is gluten intolerant. Always looking for new ideas 
T.C

@TravelCrystal - I also have a friend who is a coeliac and I've got some tried and tested bakes to pass on.

Meera Sodha's vegan and gluten free banana bread
Good Housekeeping Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Nigella Lawson's Luscious Vegan Gingerbread
Nigella Lawson's Lemon Polenta Cake
Nigella Lawson's Triple Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

I've made lots of other gluten free recipes over the last five or so years but these five are my absolute standout successes that everyone likes and requests again.

AnotherNewDay

AnotherNewDay said:

Have others noticed how the price of chocolate keeps on rising...

First official April spend today. I had a £5 off £40 at Lidl so stocked up on cat food and then did a shop which I hope will see me good for approx 10 days

Cats on £24.97/£50 and have approx 3 weeks worth of food. Human/Household on £6.37 from early April budget spend on end of March Lidl voucher offers + £23.91 = £30.28/£50.

I have slightly fudged the spend figures as in Lidl distribute the £5 off across the whole of the shop, whereas I have kept the cats at full price and taken the £5 of the human part of the shop....but they honestly don't need it as much as I do    

Another update from me and a slight change to the budget......after Lidl's announcement on Easter meat and veg I've added an extra £60 , now it looks like this.....

Easter meat and veg = 2 x legs of lamb + 2 x legs of pork + 3 x green beans + 3 x 2kg potatoes + 3 x 1kg carrots + 3 x 500g parsnips + 3 x swede = £55.21/ £60.

Cats on £41.95/£50 as I've bought 2 x bags of dry food, 2 x pack of 20 of meat stix and a bumper pack of dreamies. 

Human/Household - now slightly over on the budget as I have splurged on Easter treats, so now have £28.89  to add to the budget which is now at £59.17/£50

I'm ok with this as I would have put in the Easter meat/veg budget at the beginning of the month anyway.  As for the splurge on the Human/Household I can afford it, so it's not a problem. The main reason I set my budget so lean each month is because it helps me food plan. The freezer is now fully stocked again, so I won't need to spend so much over the next month or so anyway. I've also been thinking about increasing the Human/Household budget anyway as it is increasingly a challenge to stay within £50 (even without Easter treat temptations) with ongoing rising costs.....so this might increase in the next couple of months anyway. 

Chloris

I have had a little sains shop at £7.64, Superdrug at £7.50 (sunscreen picked up by dd so a bit more expensive than I would have liked), and my weekly tesco delivery at £143.15. My weekly delivery was over my guideline of £130 this week but I am laid up with a twisted knee and ankle and just cba or up to a thorough stocktake. I’m hoping purchases will even out next Monday when hopefully I will be more mobile. 

Ds has been making rhubarb and ginger pie with the crop in the garden which has been a big success. I can’t seem to find any rhubarb recipes which are healthy which is frustrating. Pie and custard is delicious but I’d love to make something else too.

I ordered an instant pot air fryer from the MSE email which arrived on the weekend, so hopefully that will help the energy bill. It’s been used almost every day for ds1. I’m on the look out for healthy vegan food recipes for the rest of us too. I did find a sunflower seed falafel recipe that I’m going to try to ease myself into salad season. I have a bag of sunflower seeds in the back of the cupboard which needs using up so hopefully that will be a nice treat.

Over half way. Good luck everyone!
£396.47/£650

Pennypincin

Lost the plot a bit this week and have £7.42 left out of £40 of this weeks budget.
I seem to be still stocking up the freezer and cupboards after the great declutter of them both.
I've tried to make the most of the cheap veg at the moment, so I can make veg soup and stews in the slow cooker.
It really comes in handy having the offer for the veg.
I've managed to get frozen fruit after a local Tesco having issues with the freezer.
I'm hoping to be able to hang onto some of this weeks budget for the bulk fund.