April 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Welcome @smudgybunny . Good luck. With Easter this month it's always harder to guestimate. I hope that you manage it. Enjoy the challenge.

@GSDMum that was a bargain. Mine was a third off in Sainsbury's. I was too keen and jumped the gun.🤣

Still looking for half price lamb joints for Easter. Could someone give me the heads up if they spot them first please?that could be wishful thinking I know but a leg of lamb does 5 meals for us and at half price that's a good deal. DH loves lamb.

PipneyJane

PipneyJane said:

Thank you for the new thread, @elsiepac.  Hope all is well with you.

Please put me down for £160.

but note that I may amend it if there is any cash left from March. That £160 will cover all supermarket grocery spending, including cleaning products and toiletries, and is for a household of two adults. Our month will run from 1st to 30th.

- Pip

Please change my April budget to £172 @elsiepac. 

We finished March with £12 in the GC purse, having started our April today in order to take advantage of a Spend-£40-get-£5-off voucher from L!dl.   £35.56 spent, mainly on staples:   Cashew nuts 3x£1.75, 800g Wykes Farm mature cheddar £5.25, Salmon en Croute £4.99, gnocchi 4x£1.19, chopped tomatoes 12x39p, tinned sweetcorn 6x65p, 1kg frozen Four Berry Medley £2.99, 1L lactose-free skimmed milk 3x99p, salted anchovies 3 tins x 69p, garlic & herb cream cheese 2x95p, 4-pack garlic 95p, 30% crème fraiche 85p.)

We then headed to Sainsbugs to buy mushrooms, loose veg and bananas.  £7.36 spent on 300g mushrooms 2x97p, Loose veg: 532g broccoli £1.17, 1.118kg carrots 77p, 5 bananas 78p, peppers £1.28, 1.19kg sweet potatoes £1.42.  

After £2.08 of shrapnel this brings our April GC Spend to £45/£172 leaving £127 for the rest of the month.

Meal Plans

All breakfasts are cereal.  All lunches are leftovers, unless otherwise stated.  Snacks are bananas, yoghurt and HMl flapjack or Jam Crumbly.

Sunday:  pasta bake with bacon
Monday:  mung beans curry
Tuesday: Fish cakes served with broccoli and sweetcorn
Wednesday:  pasta with HM tomato sauce and meatballs
Thursday: at football so MrT’s meal deals
Friday: Carrot & Cashew Nut roast served with roast potatoes and broccoli
Saturday:  fish pie

- Pip

wannalot

Hello All

@elsiepac, thank you for setting up this thread. Can i be included please?

i used to participate in this challenge a lot, but I’ve fallen off the wagon rather badly and I’ve been spending far, far too much on food. 

It’s honestly a bit of a problem. I grew up in a house where money was short, and it was occasionally a struggle to keep us all fed, and I think it has left me with an urge to seek out bargains and keep a good stock of food in the house. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I’ve taken this to stupid extremes. At first, this just meant that my freezer was totally full, but I’ve also overstuffed the fridge, and bought stupid amounts of cleaning products, toiletries, tea, tins, berbs and spices. And now I keep buying even though I can’t accommodate any more food. And I’m totally disorganised, and end up having to eat stuff which I have let get past its Best Before date. I know it’s fine to eat, but it seems daft to hold on to stuff for so long while I buy more and more. And at least some of the cash I have spent would be much better in my bank. 

Anyway, sorry for rambling! My plan for April (up to 25th) is to stick to a budget of £100.

Ideally, I want to use up a lot of the stuff I have before I buy anything else except some fresh veg, so I’d ideally come in much under budget, but I want to have some wriggle-room to stock up on a few things which I do actually eat regularly and which are often reduced in price near Easter, i.e. lamb and salmon. Of course, this will only be possible if I have eaten a lot out of the freezer over the next 3 weeks.

carboot_karaoke

Evening all, 

It's not April yet and I've already got a second spend to declare 😬. 

£7.41 spent in Asda on squash, ice cream and a large block of cheese.  

New totals £62.91 / £ 470

Quantaqa

wannalot said:

Hello All

@elsiepac, thank you for setting up this thread. Can i be included please?

i used to participate in this challenge a lot, but I’ve fallen off the wagon rather badly and I’ve been spending far, far too much on food. 

It’s honestly a bit of a problem. I grew up in a house where money was short, and it was occasionally a struggle to keep us all fed, and I think it has left me with an urge to seek out bargains and keep a good stock of food in the house. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I’ve taken this to stupid extremes. At first, this just meant that my freezer was totally full, but I’ve also overstuffed the fridge, and bought stupid amounts of cleaning products, toiletries, tea, tins, berbs and spices. And now I keep buying even though I can’t accommodate any more food. And I’m totally disorganised, and end up having to eat stuff which I have let get past its Best Before date. I know it’s fine to eat, but it seems daft to hold on to stuff for so long while I buy more and more. And at least some of the cash I have spent would be much better in my bank. 

Anyway, sorry for rambling! My plan for April (up to 25th) is to stick to a budget of £100.

Ideally, I want to use up a lot of the stuff I have before I buy anything else except some fresh veg, so I’d ideally come in much under budget, but I want to have some wriggle-room to stock up on a few things which I do actually eat regularly and which are often reduced in price near Easter, i.e. lamb and salmon. Of course, this will only be possible if I have eaten a lot out of the freezer over the next 3 weeks.

Hi @wannalot, I can do this stocking up thing too and I really need to be mindful about not doing it.  I also do the same with cleaning products and toiletries.  It can be hard to resist stocking up when I see a good offer even although I have more than enough stock already at home.  I about to go on holiday from work in the next week or so, so when I am on holiday I am going to do an inventory of all my stock - toiletries, cleaning products and food in the freezer, fridges and pantry and make a plan to use them up.

La_escocesa

£400 budget please! 

Hi everyone 👋

Please could I join in? It's my birthday and Easter holidays so there are at least 2 take aways happening too... 

I've got £66.09 on my online shop coming tomorrow so we're already looking at £333.91 remaining. 

Thanks everyone! 

Suffolk_lass

I feel for you @wannalot. It sounds as though you already know what your over-spending weakness is. Your solution might be to shop from home - make meal plans from what you have in already, and then start a list of things you need to buy, not fall prey to. I do keep a well-stocked pantry, but the bits in quantity are the non-perishable offers. I haven't paid full price for my branded choices, literally, for years now. If you want to join us on the Reverse Meal planning thread, it's a way of tracking what you are doing food wise, not just money-wise, with lots of suggestions is you want them.

You are not alone, many of us pay the supermarkets to store their food for them. I got my DH to shop for a while, as he is better at buying only what is on the list

remmie

1st shop of the month came in at £55.01. Plenty in stock including dog food so hoping to keep costs low ready for Easter bargains.

£55.01/£300

diminua

Hi Elsiepac,

Could you put me down for £220 as usual please? That does not include Easter things for other people (holiday budget) but does when it's just me (creme eggs, for example).

thanks, 

Diminua

sams247

Good Morning all.  Here we go.  Messed up March whilst being away but back on the watch again.

Aiming for .....

£180 this month

Thats a little higher than I'd like but I'm taking birthdays and Easter into account.  

@wannalot I get what you say.  I was raised in a no money household and we learnt about bargains, storing and making do, and I tend to only feel 'OK' if my fridge and cupboards are well stocked.  Its been my challenge to run stocks down, use what I have and not constantly be on the prowl for more 'things' at low prices, things I dont need usually!