April 2025 Grocery Challenge

ET22

After considering my situation after the very valuable advice on here, Ive decided I cannot do 25 pounds a week. Its not realistic for me and I certainly couldnt cut right down to that straight away. I think I will probably start at 35 because I couldnt cope with it being cut too far back in one go and I will just have to balance the budget elsewhere to accomodate. 

Doom_and_Gloom

Doom_and_Gloom said:

£182.01/£240.

£57.99 left.

Since last post we have spent £67.59. 
These spends were between
Waitr*se = £14.36 (Between 5 shops).
L!dl = £6.79.
Mr S = £43.44. (Between 2 shops. One in person as I was picking up my new glasses and it was in the area. One was a delivery where a couple bottles of alcohol, different budget, made it so we got a £1 slot.)
TGTG = £3.

£249.60/£240
£9.60 over budget.

I knew we would go over budget this month. However this is a little worse than I was expecting. Thankfully the Mr S delivery last night means we are very stocked up. OH will need more bread and milk to cover the month which will likely be another £5.50. Although he has beef to cook for sandwiches he now has no beef for stir fries, his favourite go to dinner. He likes to select his own joints so he'll be going to a Mr S hopefully on Friday for their half price joints. If he goes on Friday I'm hoping he can pick us up some cheap vegetables too. I'd estimate that to come to another £30  .

Not living near a shop that does good discounts anymore is really making itself known. However no matter how much we go over budget I'm still going to keep posting!

LiveSimply

@ET22 have you looked at the nimble fins link on the first page? They report some typical budgets, and show the differences between a young active male and a not so young and not so active female. Huge difference in money spent. 

I’m adding my second shop of the month. I got points from Sainsbury’s, points because I bought specific things, Nectar prices, and 5x points because it was over £100. Loads of stuff I didn’t need got thrown in to bump the price up, soap, toothpaste, tins etc. 

sams247

Popped on to add my £10 spend on community food, and a further £4.76 as Sains to get the bits n pieces CF didnt have.  Fridge full, letterbox freezer section full, so hoping that will tide me over for a while.  

Budget £180/£76.33 left

K9sandFelines

£2.20.spent for daughter on chocolate and £1.25 for teabags at the Co-@p
Then £8.79 at Tesc@, but got more for my money as I had vouchers.
So, £8.99 to add
£7.82 at Am@zon on pasta, agave and a tub of peanut butter.
£5.98 at local ethnic shop on sesame seeds and sweet chilli sauce

£22.79 to add to signature.

Soontobeoap

Just checking in to add £39.00. it's manic here at theoment but I want to stay accountable.

K9sandFelines

Soontobeoap said:

Just checking in to add £39.00. it's manic here at theoment but I want to stay accountable.

Know how you feel, same here !!

goldfinches

Chloris said:

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

@Chloris - a couple of years ago a friend had an enormous glut of rhubarb on his allotment plot and positively insisted we all accepted carrier bags full. In desperation one afternoon I made an improvised compote with some blackberries I'd picked which was a huge success. He used the jar I gave him as jam and I used mine as a compote for breakfast with 0% fat greek style yoghurt.

I've dug out my notebook and my proportions were 

953g of prepared rhubarb (each stalk cut into 1 to 2 inch lengths)
100g sugar (any type you like the flavour of)
484g blackberries ( I don't see why you couldn't use frozen fruit here and also swap in something else you can get hold of easily and cheaply)

I put the rhubarb and the sugar in a large pot together over a low heat, once the rhubarb had given out enough liquid to stir the mixture easily (about 15 to 20 mins) I added the blackberries and stirred them in. I left it to cook until the blackberries had disintegrated completely and the rhubarb had collapsed. Then I tasted it and it didn't need any more sugar but you may like to add a bit more at this stage, I used brown sugar which added a lovely flavour. Then I left it to cool down and once it had I ladled it into clean plastic containers and glass jars. It froze well and kept for at least a week in the fridge once thawed.

I hope this sort of thing is what you mean by healthy and that your ds likes the sound of the recipe.

t14cy_t

few goodies in b and m yesterday so now £77/£100. doable. xx

Chloris

Thank you @goldfinches, that sounds lovely. I’ll give it a go for on top of my porridge.