May 2025 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

@PipneyJane

Re OATS

Would the Kavanaghs ones from Aldi suit? I just looked it up and they are from Northern Ireland and organic.
Also the Flahavan's ones which are slightly dearer but also organic.

Soontobeoap

£4.69 spent on a few bits at Aldi
 Trying to.work through freezer and fridge. I think we have 2 GSs at the weekend though. Not confirmed yet. 

GSDMum

I'm getting myself muddled between my home accounts and the one I'm tallying up here. So from now on I'm sticking firmly to registering monthly totals from the 1st of each month and going with my own budget software. (Hope that makes sense). 

So far this month I've spent £215.72. £300 is my monthly aim, if I see a bargain I'm allowing myself a £50 leeway. 



@PipneyJane just to add to suggestions for organic oats, have your tried https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/ ?

goldfinches

I've had a very busy and tiring day what with a friend needing her shopping done because she'd sprained her ankle and getting up the hill in the heat to my allotment so I'm just popping in to claim a NSD from my budget. The money I spent on my errand of mercy will be refunded once the ankle heals so I'm not counting that, which works for me.

I'm planning to bake these Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Biscuits tomorrow morning and then sandwich them together in pairs using the leftover icing from the lemon ones I made a fortnight ago, which I've just taken out of the freezer so fingers crossed.

Pennypincin

Hi everyone.
Apologies as I've not kept up with the thread and posting my spends.
I kind of lost the plot and didn't track my spending.
I had about £10 left, which I put into the bulk pot.
Starting again this week.
Sorry to hear that things are tough for people.
Thinking of you.

LiveSimply

I’ve just done my shopping. Because of offers on individual things and an offer if you go over £100, I bought lots of things I don’t need now but will definitely use up eg soap, oil and so on. I just went through my receipt and worked out that if there were no offers and I just bought what I actually wanted I’d have spent £53. Which is kind of interesting. And whenever I do buy extra to get an offer, I have a moment of panic trying to fit it in the fridge and freezer, but it fitted in very well, phew!

So now I’ve spent (I go 1st to 31st) £153 out of a budget of £250. This is only my second month though so the budget is more guesswork than reality. 

Nelliegrace

May Budget £155.
8th May, £19.30.


9th May 
We went to Asda on our way home from Dobbies where we had our members’ free hot drinks and 2 for 1, large scones with jam, cream and strawberries, £4. 

Asda had tins of Ma Made prepared Seville oranges for marmalade half price at £1.20. I texted my sister and bought enough for both of us, 8 for £9.60.
My sister let slip that their WI won prizes in the homemade marmalade competition at their local county show WI marquee with a tin of this, made up by one member and entered by six of them. 



I bought 2x basic meusli £2 a kilo, 2x tinned prunes £1.10, wholemeal bread flour £1.05 for 1.5kg, basic salted peanuts 59p, courgettes £1.07 for 2, rhubarb £1.38 for 3 sticks, mushrooms 89p, salad potatoes 78p, grapes £1.37, 5 oranges £1.29, and yellow stickered milk 97p, vine tomatoes 59p and lettuce hearts 29p. 
£26.01.

There was a (badly written) article in The Times online this week saying that pensioners were shoplifting basic items because they could not afford them. The basic state pension has just gone up by a £6.95 to £176.45 week, £9,175 a year for women over 72, if they get the full amount. It doesn’t leave much for food after rent, rates, and utilities, the tv licence, and other necessary expenses, which have gone up by more than £360 in the last year.
The comments were unkind, all pensioners are of course multimillion pound home owners.

Asda 2x Milk £3.10

Total £74.67

LiveSimply

Is there anywhere I can find average prices for dried stuff like sultanas, nuts etc? I buy as and when but I’d really like to find that eg cashew nuts are currently £xx per kg, and so on. 

It’s not something essential, and I don’t buy them regularly enough to keep track of prices. 

remmie

Another small shop, mainly bread and fruit, bringing my total now to £84.78. At almost halfway through the month I'm hoping to crack this, although milk needed soon.

£84.78/£200

moginstein

LiveSimply said:

Is there anywhere I can find average prices for dried stuff like sultanas, nuts etc? I buy as and when but I’d really like to find that eg cashew nuts are currently £xx per kg, and so on. 

It’s not something essential, and I don’t buy them regularly enough to keep track of prices. 

Hi, LiveSimply
Not quite what you are after, but I  use the Trolley app. Ive just checked, and there is also a website https://www.trolley.co.uk/

It has lots of products, you can search for a product eg raisins, and it will bring up the prices at each store. If you look at them, it then tells you what the highest, average and lowest price has been, and has prices per 100g. I sometimes use it to make a note of what the price is per 100g if its for something I don't buy very often (like walnuts).
You can also get alerts for when prices change.