April 2025 Grocery Challenge

SausageDogSandwich

Thank you @elsiepac for the new month. Can I please have 

£400 for the month please.

As usual this is for 2 adults and 3 children, for everything. 

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here!

Soontobeoap

@ elsiepac thank you for running this thread. It keeps me accountable and even when I dont hit budget, I know that I would spend much more without it.

After discussion with DH about lunches and being stocked up for this week he went shopping whilst I was at singing for lunch items and biscuits!!!!! 🤦 I do love him dearly but sometimes despair. He bought pate, bread, ham, and 2 bulk packs of biscuits and didn't get a receipt!!! 

It was Aldi so I have guestimated again at £7.50. I have checked the dates and we should be OK for lunches next week too now. We had mushrooms on toast today as planned which used up the end of DHs loaf that he already had. We have left over chicken and tomatoes to use up before getting onto the ham and then pate as that has the longest date. We also have a lot of eggs.

Pennypincin

£3.03 spent in Tesco on budget hummus, a small pack of olives and budget greek salad style cheese.

goldfinches

@Soontobeoap - would this sort of biscuit that you can freeze and then cook one or two whenever you fancy them help you to keep your OH out of the supermarket? Perfect chocolate chip cookies recipe - BBC Food 

I succumbed to supermarket yellow sticker temptation today when I was supposedly just getting milk so am owning up to buying cranberry juice, maris pipers, asparagus and crisps as well. I will have to try harder!

Anyway that means I've spent £7.65 already which is a bit gulp making bearing in mind the price rises that are about to hit all of us.

In rather more cheerful news I've made Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake today for a friend's birthday tomorrow and the kitchen smells delicious, lovely and orangey. The shopping for that and the ingredients for her Luscious Vegan Gingerbread came to £16.45 which is a pretty hefty chunk out of the Baking Budget but I don't plan to need to buy any more ingredients before next month, fingers crossed.



So that makes my main GC total £7.65/£150 and the Baking Budget £16.45/£25. 

AnotherNewDay

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    

Chloris

I had my Tesco delivery Monday. I’m hoping it lasts all week until next Monday, with no top ups. It came in at £127.51. I spent some time taking bits out to bring it under the £130 point as I’m going to try for even weekly shops across the month. 

I was gifted some bean sprouts Monday so had those last night and DD made a delicious lemon cake. 

I’ve got bits and pieces to use up. Not sure what to do with them apart from puddings that we don’t normally eat here. I’ve got rhubarb growing in the garden, and some frozen mango that are top of my list. I’d love some ideas.

Suffolk_lass

I wafted into Sainsbugs yesterday, preferring their fruit-bowl offerings but the pears I picked up were horrible. That's it with pears now until they are harvested fresh in autumn. I managed to spend more than intended (which is why I avoid shopping) but I did pick up some nice looking cod loin that we had for supper (baked in foil, to avoid stinking out the house) and a 2 kilo pack of chicken thighs. I freeze these in smaller bags of 2. There were 15. The price has risen to £5 (they were £2.85 when I first bought them, maybe 18 months ago). Still good value at less than 34p each. 

Anyway, my spend was added to buy some fruit lollies (treats for DH, who is fat free), hummus and olives, plus a bag of peanuts. I'm away with the girls from tomorrow, and he needs treats for letting me go. Loads of veg sticks to dip are out of the GC, but he also has Matzos crackers for dipping and snacking (for anyone not on Feb/March threads, he had a massive health episode and while almost recovered from the worst part, he awaits gallbladder surgery, and is losing weight). Cut to the chase, I have not bought cheese or butter since then, as he is not eating it. Officially, he is now the Cheese Monster (CM). He misses it more than chocolate!!

So £60.31 spent, we should be good until he needs more to snack on

GSDMum

GSDMum said:

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. 

Used up one of the £35 shops today. In fact I blew it.... receipt came to £35.03  . I stupidly left my shopping list on the table which resulted in me forgetting butter. There's still one pat of butter left in the fridge so that will be the signal to go shopping again when that's used up.

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone, 

I have another spend to declare ot was meant to be bread, mushrooms, salad and coleslaw  but somehow l added deodrant, ice creams, YS hot cross buns and 2x YS pizzas which I've put into the freezer. Total spent £12. 

New totals £74.91 / £470