April 2025 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Flying past to add £101.96 to my total as otherwise I'll have tidied away/thrown out the relevant receipts & calculations! Not ideal, but not too bad for a "festival" weekend; we do have guests on Saturday night/Sunday but not the whole gang. Will stop to catch up later on...

PipneyJane

Good evening All and welcome @mandco.

I have two shops to declare, one from Wednesday and another from this morning, both in L!dl.  £29.40 spent on Wednesday after spending my £5-off voucher.  I stocked up on supplies and collected my free veg item  mushrooms, originally £1.79), together with cooking Chorizo 2x£2.79, 900g Mature Cheddar £4.99, 1kg frozen Pollock fillets £4.79, Chorizo 2x£1.89. Bratwurst £2.99, L!dl’s version of Nescafé Azera coffee 2x£2.49 (offer), packet of 6 hot cross buns 2x£1.05, 200g cashew nuts £1.75, 200g mixed nuts £1.44 (offer), mixed seeds £1.15, Crème Fraiche 85p.

One reason I went back to L!dl today is because they didn’t have eggs or lactose-free skimmed milk on Wednesday, and I’d really wanted two buy two tubs of Crème Fraiche, but they only had the one.  In addition, I realised this morning that I needed more dark chocolate, because two batches of Coconut Rough will not be enough this Easter.  (The link is to the recipe, posted on the Fashion On the Ration challenge, @elsiepac ).  

Anyway, they still didn’t have lactose-free skimmed milk.  Fortunately I still have almost 2 litres left.  But what I did find was that they had TimTams in stock!  And, at £1.99, they’re cheaper than both Sainsbugs and MrT’s!    £19.50 spent, which included a couple of packs of TimTams, a large - 450g - packet of ground coffee (cheap at £3.99), two YS items, and 5 bags of penne pasta.  I also collected a ”free” jar of mayonnaise.  

Once you take into account two £2 coins and assorted coppers going into the money boxes, there’s only £12 left for the rest of the month.  It should be do-able.  The only things we’ll need are milk, carrots, broccoli, sweet peppers and, probably, more mushrooms.  The one annoyance is that we need to spend £24 before the end of the month in order to cross the threshold for the next L!dl+ freebie, breakfast cereal.   Got to think about that and do some planning.  We might get there if we do some shopping for my MIL, which is a different budget.  Hmmm…..

The above brings our total spend to £160/£172.

- Pip

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone,  

I'm popping in to declare various spends during the course of the week.  I'll spare the detail and just say it came to £41.24.

Less than l expected for a change 😆 this was because the only lamb joints l could find were very small. As we are away next week l knew the cheap veg would be wasted so didn't get much. 

We are self-catering so l have a full list of "at home meals which feels like eating out" like a curry meal deal or bbq ribs sweetcorn and chips. Basically things l can put in the oven and forget about. It's my holiday too !! 

All the above will be from the holiday fund 

New totals £349.13 /  £470

Pennypincin

I have somehow still have £7.42 from the weeks food budget.
I will transfer it to the bulk fund.
I've bought treats that I've not included in the food budget and probably won't need to do food shopping hopefully for a day or two.

goldfinches

Evening all,

I'm pleased to say I'm much recovered from a horrible spluttery cold during which I made all meals from stores which resulted in some odd combinations but the fridge and freezer got much emptier and my money stayed in the bank. However, I've now been shopping and here are my spends.

I bought ginger, garlic, black urid daal, mint and parsley at the Indian supermarket for £6.92. Then I went on to M*rks where I bought milk, 2x yoghurt, carrots, ys ciabatta rolls, lettuce, ys cabbage, 2x radishes, 3x ys cherry tomatoes, a red pepper and frozen petits pois for £15.17. Then I went on to Sainsby's where I bought instant coffee, Maldon salt, new potatoes, tofu and a dishwashing brush for £11.93 after redeeming 500 Nectar points too.

I snapped up the ys cherry tomatoes because I always make this Nigella recipe for moonblush tomatoes with those and then keep them in a container in the fridge to add to salads for lunch. I bought the potatoes for their bit of this Meera Sodha recipe which again I'm planning to add to salads but I don't fancy the rice so won't be making that. As a special treat tomorrow I'm planning to make the Dishoom black dal along with their naan bread from the cookbook so wish me luck.

That makes my new GC total £110.56/£150. 

Chloris

@goldfinches that all sounds amazing and you are making me very hungry. Glad you are feeling better.

Soontobeoap

This week has been amazing but no time to think food really. We have had the Grandsons for 8 days and have been on a half day cruise, to Robin Hill country park where they skated, drove boats and climbed high in nets, also went swimming, crabbing, to the model village where we counted squirrels and eggs as well as looking at the lovely little houses. We have watched a duck race, done an egg hunt and had an art session. We have spent another £119.00 on grocerys and gone over budget already. The good news is that we have taken advantage of 8p veg and bought a half price chicken so should have plenty of food for the coming week and we are with our son's family next weekend to celebrate his birthday. Hopefully won't need to spend much more. Relaxing with a cup of tea now hoping that the achy muscles will be gone tomorrow! 🤣

t14cy_t

spnds this month now £89/£100, eeek!!!

LotsOfTea

Hope everyone's been having a good Easter break despite the somewhat variable weather! It's full on mizzle all day today where I live but that actually made it OK for me when I went for a run this morning as it kept me cool and the kept the pavements clear. The only other people out and about were dog walkers and other runners. I had a shopping delivery as well this morning which came to £78.71 and which has restocked the fresh stuff for the week ahead and the laundry detergent but not a huge amount else. We've got lots of stuff in the freezer though and I've sent DH off into the kitchen with instructions to make chips from the spuds we have and find something to go with them in the freezer for lunch. 

£351.44/£400

JingsMyBucket

Happy new week everyone. I hope y’all have had an easy weekend. Our friends are heading home today on a flight back to New York. Mr. Jings and I are knackered from hosting but we loved having them here. I have a few spends to report from this weekend and today. 

£15.14 at a Chinese grocery store in Edinburgh for 2 bottles of sesame oil, bulk red pepper flakes, bulk dried cloves, and a few packets of ramen. 

£29.35 at M & S this morning for bananas, clementines, 2 packs of strawberries, salad, garlic, canned baked beans, and 3 sets of breaded chicken tenders (I thought they were 3 for £12 for they didn’t ring up that way!). I also bought a  whole black peppercorn mill grinder thing but I’m not counting the £2.80 because I’ll return it this week. 

£18.64 at Lidl for 30 eggs, 8p carrots, 8p potatoes, 15p green beans, raspberries, 2 containers of black peppercorns, sliced ham, bag of peppers, snack tomatoes, milk, oatcakes, cinnamon sticks, herbs, olives, and 2 packs of micro rice. The total included me using an £8 off voucher Lidl gave me for reporting expired food a couple weeks ago. 

Our budget: £360.74 / £400 spent. £39.26 total remaining.  

We have enough budget to get us through the rest of the month. We have a stocked freezer and I'll take a stab at a meal plan tomorrow. Later this week I’ll return the pepper mill to M & S and head to Lidl to get some laundry cleanser and a few other items. I’ve also now got a Lidl coupon for a free vegetable so I’ll swipe that during my next visit too.