April 2025 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

I'm just about done in March and running at 22.59% (against on-track 25%) for the first quarter. Not as good as it sounds, with my DH eating masses of F&V on his low-fat medically determined diet and I now have a surplus of milk (as he uses most of it).

I am hoping for £250 or less in April, out of my £3000 annual - it needs to be more like £200 if there is to be anything for Christmas excess. Speaking of which, cheese anyone? I still have four blocks in the freezer, purchased last December 

LotsOfTea

I'm going to up my normal budget this month as we've got family staying plus 2 weeks of school holidays to factor in so I'll go for

£400 please.

otb666

£600 monthly please

TravelCrystal

So I know it’s not April yet but DS1 and partner are dropping in tomorrow. As I had been running the fridge down ready for next week and  they don’t eat meat I decided to drop into Lidl’s 
On a plus they had 2 boxes of f and v for £1.50 loaded with goodies. 

I also had free potatoes.
Made the most of my visit and have added more to the freezer. 

Spent £75.24/£250

Should last for a while.

Have a good week everyone 
The weather looks great 

T.C

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone, 

Thank you 😊 as always @elsiepac for running this great thread.

This month sees the increase in our council tax and water rates costs. Unfortunately l don't have a pay rise to match so I'm reducing our grocery to compensate. This means the budget is £470 for food, toiletries, and cleaning products for 4 adults and 2 hungry children. 

I'm very aware of the impact the school holidays could have on our spend. The last few months I've spent loads early on and then had to rein things in. That's not likely to work this time so I'm trying the opposite strategy this month.

So far l have completed a cupboard/freezer inventory, based the food plan on existing stocks and made a very considered list focusing on this weeks needs.
I went shopping and spent £55.50 out of that £13.05 was on non food essentials like toilet roll, bin bags, kitchen roll. Another £16.54 was on fruit and veg and £14.91 on meat and dairy. Rather annoyingly I've just noticed that l scanned the milk twice, that's £1.45 wasted 🙄.

New totals £55.50 / £470  

Have a good day 

Soontobeoap

So I have started early. DH needed half and half sugar which meant a trip to Sainsbury's before the end of March so we decided that Friday was restock day. £44.00 spent .DH was with me so Crisps, choc bars and hot cross buns made it into the trolley!🤦

 Then to Aldi where we did the bulk of our shop. £32.90 spent.  We now have pate, eggs, salad and mushrooms to have on toast for our lunches next week.

thriftwizard

Thank you for our new thread, @elsiepac! I'm going to leave ours at 

£500

for April, please; it's a 4-week month for us. Feeding & cleaning up after 3 adults FT, with 2 different diets going on, and various visiting family & friends. We do still have DS3 here part-time too, but he does tend to spend a couple of nights a week elsewhere & I believe he's off to Chile for a couple of weeks mid-month. OH & I will be off to Wales house-sitting again at the end of the month but that's not going to affect the budget much; we'll still need to eat there. Also, I do have some of this month's food already stashed in the freezer - but it'll probably get replaced with more buy-aheads when I do use it!

smudgybunny

I’d love to join, if I may? I tried once before, but as with so many things life got in the way. So I’m back again with good intentions. While there’s only two adults in the house, we have lots of friends and family coming and going on a regular and ad hoc basis who all need feeding so I’m aiming for £300 for the month with £70 for toiletries, cleaning products and other household bits. We find it easier to separate the budget out and try to by plastic free where possible, shopping at the market and local refilling shop. Excited to see if we can stay in budget!

t14cy_t

please put me down for £100 this month. the freezer, fridge and cupboards are full!!  olio has been very slow in the last few weeks.  will be visiting a community fridge this month so that will help.

GSDMum

Last Friday's Tesco delivery came to £145.03 which is coming out of April's £300 budget. I've not had such a big shop since Christmas. 

Now have £154.97 to last till the end of the month, which works out 3 x £35 shops and 1 x £50 at shop at Easter. At the moment fridge is full, as is the freezer, we'll not be starving. 

Did bag a bargain gammon join with the Tesco delivery - will slice and freeze most of it for salad dinners and sandwiches.