May 2025 Grocery Challenge

remmie

Well, I was right when I said famous last words. A trip to a Tesc* superstore meant I was easily seduced by the offers. Among other things some bagels and reduced smoked salmon landed in the trolley, a rare treat. So, another £36.80 spent which is only leaving me £23.20 for the month which I know I'll bust as quite a few things on my shopping list, but I figure that any saving on my usual monthly budget is a bonus.

£176.80/£200.00

K9sandFelines

£8.33 in Tesc@. Got a YS vegan cake to share between DD1,DGD and I. Did have a TGTG booked for similar price, but cancelled it for now as I'm now in the opticians and not sure if I want to go after now or what time I'll be done.
Use £4.50 in vouchers and also forgot I had loaded money on a Jam Doughnut card. Could kick myself, but I'm sure I'll have to go in again at some point for something else.

£2.75 in Poundland on crisps and some little reusable bags for 25p each and stickers for pasta  jars etc.
Don't really need the bags, but handy to have in shopping trolley and dotted about for bits of uneaten food. Prompted by finding half an uneaten easy peeler in my trolley I'd forgotten about ( grim 🤢). So, next time I've got somewhere for it to go. Granted I could have probably used a nappy bag, but thought this better as can be washed out. 

I did spend in Savers; but I don't class it as essential. It was two hair dyes and something for DD1, so not including it . I've stopped dying my hair, I'm embracing any greys that come but just fancy a different colour. Not dyed it for two years. It's down my back so got two just incase.

Total £11.08

t14cy_t

C_J said:

My £1 community fridge donation earlier today has yielded:

New potatoes
A few larger potatoes, but not big enough to be bakers
Carrots
Leeks
Red onion
Shredded red cabbage
Watercress
A tub of mixed spicy Asian greens
Bananas
Avocado
Pack of raspberries
Aubergine
Mangetout peas
Spinach
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Pack of roast chicken slices
Mushrooms
Bottle of pink grapefruit juice
Pack of M&S smoked duck breast slices
1 falafel and feta cheese wrap
1 chicken and sweetcorn sandwich
1 pack shawarma spiced chicken thigh fillets
2 Pret little stars yogurt pots
1 tub ricotta
1 tub M&S breakfast bircher muesli
1 tub organic M&S hummus
1 hot smoked salmon and rice salad bowl
1 Greek salad with feta salad bowl
1 loaf Hovis sliced multigrain bread
1 small white baguette
2 fruited teacakes
1 pot of ginger mint
1 bunch mixed tulips


This takes my May grocery total to £40.01/£160

I've already drunk two big glasses of the pink grapefruit juice, have put the duck breast and chicken slices in the freezer for later in the week. The mushrooms and ricotta will be turned into garlicky mushroom pâté to have with slices of the baguette for dinner tomorrow.

The shawarma spiced chicken will be diced and added to the mangetout peas, mixed Asian greens, spinach, a couple of the mushrooms and some other veg already in the fridge to make a stir fry for tonight, the salad bowls and sandwiches will be lunches over the next few days, and I found a nice River Cottage recipe for aubergine slices grilled with honey and chilli which I think I will make for Friday's dinner.

The watercress and potato will be used to make a small pan of soup to go with the lunchtime sandwiches, ditto the carrots and red onion. Bircher muesli, yogurt pots, bananas and raspberries will all be breakfasts over the next couple of days. I've frozen the sliced Hovis in portions of four slices at a time to use for toast when needed. I'm just about to plant the ginger mint in my herb garden before the rain arrives.

I think that will deal with most of the above, and I shan't need to go shopping for anything until the weekend as I have enough milk, butter and dog food to last until then.

well done on your spectaculor community fridge shop!!

TravelCrystal

Morning all
I am amazed how much you get at the community fridge @C_J for your donation. If it’s there why not. I must investigate further, but not this week.
I have just come in on budget this month

Just been to Liddell’s and got a few bargains.

Some time ago someone was mentioning large sacks of potatoes. Whoever you are you may already be aware, just picked up a 7.5 kilo bag for £4.09
Managed to get one of the £1.50 boxes which contained some lovely tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and Romaine lettuce, all things I can use quite quickly.
2x 6 wholemeal rolls @28p each. 4 free avocados, 3 x baked beans. Horseradish sauce, fresh coffee, marmalade and milk
£12.52 spent

So I am declaring for May £198.14/£200

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend everyone 
See you in June

T.C

PipneyJane

LotsOfTea said:

I had a big shop delivered today which came to £123.48. More than I would have liked but I did add in a few things that I don't need immediately just to keep up a stock level of 'a couple of spares', especially things we use a lot of like tea and bread flour. With things like cyber attacks on supermarkets happening there's always the possibility of disruption to finely tuned supply chains and quite frankly no-one needs to have to deal with me if I can't get a cup of tea! 

£157.94/£200 spent so far. 

You and me, both @LotsOfTea (although, in my case, it’s coffee).

Also like you, I employ what Amy Dacycyn of the Tightwad Gazette calls “The Pantry Principle” and usually shop to restock my stores.  It was most helpful when we first went into Lockdown at the start of the Pandemic - I didn’t have to worry about shopping for several weeks.

thriftwizard said:

Slinking in to confess that this month's a write-off, I have less than no idea how much I've spent! It's been decidedly chaotic; I had one of my special events to prepare for & work at as well as my regular booking. OH's health has taken a slightly alarming turn - being addressed by the docs, hopefully nothing drastic, but I'm having to drive him around for all sorts of tests - & my mother's going downhill fast. I'm not sure that next month will be whole lot better as I'll be spending a fair amount of it down a hole in the ground, volunteering on a local archaeology dig, all things being equal. But I don't think I'm too far adrift; I'm still cooking mostly from scratch & trying to use up what we have, and DD2 is filling in very capably when I'm hurtling around. We'll just have to keep on keeping on...! 

Hope your OH’s health gets sorted fast @thriftwizard.  Sorry to hear, too, about your mum.

I’m just back from L!dl.  When I went to cook dinner last night, I discovered that one of the two packets of prosciutto we had in the fridge was growing mould!  Use by date 7th June 2025.  Per their App, it was either purchased on 9th April or 10th May.   I took it back this lunchtime.  Showed the receipts on my phone; no issues.  Got the distinct impression that it’s easier for them to issue you with a replacement than to give you a refund, so I went with the replacement option and got the manager to escort me out of the store, so that the security guard didn’t think I’d nicked it.  (Fortunately, we had the second packet, so I could make last night’s dinner of Ham-And-Cheese-Crown with that.)

Also have a spend to declare.  On his way home from work on Wednesday, DH spent £16.42 in L!dl on 1L lactose free skimmed milk 3x99p, 1kg frozen four berry medley £2.99, 800g extra mature cheddar £5.25, 12 large free range eggs £2.95, Sesame Bars 4x59p.  His change included a £2 coin and various coppers so £2.16 got transferred to the various money boxes.

I was delighted when he phoned me to say that he’d found Skimmed Lactose-free Milk in the store.  Hopefully that means the drought is over.  Also, each car now has two packets of sesame bars in the glove box for Emergency Nibbles. 

The above brings our total spend to £137.80/£160 leaving £22.20 for the rest of the month.

It should be do-able.  The only things we’ll definitely need next week are fresh mushrooms, carrots, peppers and some bananas.

TravelCrystal said:

Morning all

….

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend everyone 
See you in June

T.C

You too, @TravelCrystal hope it’s lovely and sunny and warm.

Have a lovely long weekend, everyone.

- Pip

rach_anatasia

Interesting thread! How does everyone get on with only taking cash to supermarkets? Been meaning to try it.

Nelliegrace

A kilo of basic muesli is 25 portions. DH needs to write this 100 times. 
I reduced the size of the bowl gradually but caught him piling it high this morning! 140g instead of 40g. 
Greedy!

PipneyJane

Nelliegrace said:

A kilo of basic muesli is 25 portions. DH needs to write this 100 times. 
I reduced the size of the bowl gradually but caught him piling it high this morning! 140g instead of 40g. 
Greedy!

@Nelliegrace sadly this is not unusual.  Give him a suitable sized cup measure - say 1/3 cup - and tell him that he’s only allowed one scoop of his cereal for breakfast.

rach_anatasia said:

Interesting thread! How does everyone get on with only taking cash to supermarkets? Been meaning to try it.

We use cash, @rach_anatasia.  Take it out on payday.  It lives in its own purse.  Makes things so much easier because we always know how much we have left and don’t shop madly without justification.  Also, knowing that we only have £22 left concentrates the mind somewhat and makes me focus on using what I already have.

HTH

- Pip

carboot_karaoke

rach_anatasia said:

Interesting thread! How does everyone get on with only taking cash to supermarkets? Been meaning to try it.

@rach_anatasia About 10 years ago when l was made redundant and finances were very tight l used to use  cash, and leave my debit card at home.
It definitely made me aware of the cost of every single item. I would sometimes take a calculator to add up as l went along and if necessary put things back. 
Give it a try....see how you find it.  

t14cy_t

£197/£200 as did an aldi stock up. eekk!!!