April 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Hi all.@goldfinches as far as I can tell you do incredibly well. All of your temptations sound healthy ones and you deserve a treat now and again.

We went to Sainsbury's to shop this week and take advantage of the half price lamb that has just arrived. 2 legs of lamb bought to see us through until December for £34.00 . That will do DH and I at least 10 meals or we can roast one for a crowd of 5 or 6 and get 5 meals out of it for ourselves. Either way it is a lovely treat. I have quite a few roasting joints and a chicken in my freezer now all bought at reduced prices so I am hoping that the savings begin to show soon. All in all £61.00 spent. Hoping that DH and I can stay out of the shops until next weekend now apart from bread and milk.

DD got a new job today. It is working from home and she will have lots of meet and greet sessions when she starts the job. As her  house has builders in and it is school holidays she will be coming here to stay with the boys. We love having them but will need to buy fun picnics etc to keep them out of the house whilst Mum works. So pleased that she has found a job so quickly after her job was faced with redundancy.

Doom_and_Gloom

Thank you @elsiepac for doing this thread.

Our April started on the 1st.
Our April budget is going to be £240. So if you can change it to that on the list that would be amazing. Thank you.
The month goes 1st to the 30th.

This is for two adults; my OH and I. Includes all food and drink (except alcohol, that has a different budget), cleaning products, toiletries etc. Although this is a little more than I'd like the budget to be I think for now it is better to leave the budget as it is (£8/day).

We didn't come within budget in March. It ended up at around £8.45/day instead of the £8 we wanted.

£182.01 spent already! I wish that was a typo or miscalculation but it isn't.
Meat and cheese for OH is all bought for the month. Had to buy bin bags and toilet rolls. With the usual bread, fruits, vegetables and the like that we needed it added up quick.

At least being on here means that any over spend should be limited as I'm held accountable.

£182.01/£240.

£57.99 left.

It really is starting to look like I'll have to talk with OH about possibly upping the budget. Not great as soo much is going up and we are a low income household . 

JingsMyBucket

Thanks @elsiepac for running the grocery challenge. I’m joining this a bit late because I’ve been noodling on how to work the budget this month. We have friends visiting from NYC who will stay at a VRBO near us and I’m going to put together a welcome grocery shop for them. They’ll be arriving in the evening after traveling for 30+ hours. I think I’ll allocate £100 for their/special grocery shopping and then £400 for ours. 

This month I’m aiming for:

£400 for April 1 — 30 for us (2 adults). 
£100 for friend shopping. 

JingsMyBucket

I have some spending to declare already. We had a Tesco order last Friday which totaled £83.08. Most of it has lasted us through this first week of April so I’m splitting the amount between March and April. So £19.16 was allocated to March and £63.92 to April. 

I also purchased a salmon variety box for our visiting friends so they can have breakfast easily the morning after they arrive. That cost £53.45 including shipping and will arrive at our place a couple days before them. I’ll get other groceries for them closer to the date. 

Our budget: £63.92 / £400 spent. £336.08 total remaining.  

Visiting Friends budget: £53.45 / £100 spent. £46.55 total remaining.  

We need to do a top up shop this weekend for basics like yoghurt, fruit, dishwashing tabs, etc. I’ll try to keep that to £30.00. I need to update the freezer inventory and work out a meal plan for the next week or so. 

sams247

JingsMyBucket said:

£100 for friend shopping. 

Its funny how things look - that could indicate you spend £100 buying a friend, and, to be honest, in some cases thats a bargain! 

Managing a NSD today as I had my shift swapped from evening to day.  I had a curry in slow cooker for tea made with free veg (community food) and little jackets for lunch.

LiveSimply

I’m in deep financial doodah and need to get a grip. I’ve not been paying attention to MSE for years. So I’m here, there are two of us in the house, I’m going to start with a random £350 and see where we end up. 

Cupboards are pretty full, I last did a shop on the 30th, so 6 days ago. I will need milk and bread in the next couple of days but apart from that we’re good for now. Is that all I need to say and do for now?

£350 budget for April, starting 1st ending 30th.

JingsMyBucket

@sams247 hah, that’s funny! £100 would totally be a bargain for these friends. I realized a few months ago that we’ve known each other for about 18 or 19 years! We started off as coworkers and just kept being friends. 

PipneyJane

LiveSimply said:

I’m in deep financial doodah and need to get a grip. I’ve not been paying attention to MSE for years. So I’m here, there are two of us in the house, I’m going to start with a random £350 and see where we end up. 

Cupboards are pretty full, I last did a shop on the 30th, so 6 days ago. I will need milk and bread in the next couple of days but apart from that we’re good for now. Is that all I need to say and do for now?

£350 budget for April, starting 1st ending 30th.

Welcome, @LiveSimply.  I’d suggest reading your way through the frugal threads linked at the start of the Grocery Challenge.  You may find some inspiration.

I have a small spend to declare from this afternoon.  Sent DH to L!dl to buy muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast:  £7.22 spent.  As well as the muffins (79p), he bought YS meatballs (99p), a dozen free range eggs (£2.79) and GU deserts (£2.75).

This brings our April GC spend to £70.42/£172, leaving £101.58 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

cheerfulness4

My April target is £250 from 1st - 30th April. 

So far I have spent £38.86

Soontobeoap

£7.92 spent today on fruit and veg + ice-cream for DH.