February 2026 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

Visitors yesterday means another SM trip is needed. No carrots, and only 2 potatoes left (as normal) and no bowl fruit. Everything else is trickling on!

JingsMyBucket

Morning folks. I have 3 amounts to declare from shopping yesterday. 

69p at Savers for a box of matches.

£38.74 at Lidl for 2 cans of mackerel (1.98), canned tuna (89p), 2 x 850g ham houghs (5.58), Philly cream cheese (1.59), sliced ham (2.19), block butter (1.99), 2 bags of frozen gyoza (5.98), frozen hash browns (1.75), frozen chicken wings (3.89), vanilla ice cream (1.95), granola (1.99), oat cakes (69p), 2x 15 mixed free range eggs (5.78), and a bar of chocolate (2.49). 

£13.97 at M & S for loose bananas (88p), clementines (2.80), avocados (2.00), Greek vanilla yoghurt (2.60), 2 cans of baked beans (90p), double cream (1.80), and extra strong foil (3.00). 

I had looked for foil at Lidl and they only had extra strong foil there for £3.something so I didn’t buy it there… only to head to M & S and they had the same supply issue. No regular foil in either place. I should’ve grabbed some in Savers when I first started out my grocery journey. Oh well. 

Total £246.62 / £350 spent. £103.38 remaining. 

Elizabeth49

£107.67 for my Sainsbugs delivery on Saturday, a bit ouch, but I stocked up on some stuff that I now shouldn't need to buy again until March, especially as some of it was Nector price.

£8.84 at the Co-op today for sandwich meat and veg.

My friend offered to get me some sausages from her local butcher, £4.64, but they are very UPF, more so than the supermarket ones, so I'm a bit put off using them now. Not what I was expecting from a 'made on the premises' butcher.

£309.07 spent and £135.93 remaining. I should just manage it if I'm careful.

JingsMyBucket

Hi all, the March 2026 thread is live

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655568/march-2026-grocery-challenge

thriftwizard

Thank you for our shiny new thread, @JingsMyBucket! I'm very temped to just gloss over the rest of February & slide gently over to March without thinking about, or accounting for, the next 11 days! But no, that'd be cheating myself. I've been a bit AWOL for the last few days whilst preparing for & attending Mum's 100th birthday party - two large HM cakes & 24 HM scones with HM jam & whipped cream added to the care home's lovely offerings, feeding 30-odd residents, staff and 23 of us family! - and have totally mislaid receipts, but I know I spent £82 at L!dls and about £35 at the market, so have added those. I didn't need anything from the butchers or anywhere else. I'll need to keep a tight rein over the next week and a half, and I am now expecting to go a bit over, but - we'll manage.

JingsMyBucket

Happy centenary to your mum @thriftwizard ! May she have more years full of vigor and joy!

remmie

2 more spends to declare in Al*i.

£38.53 and £41.36 bringing the total to £185.24. Pleased with that at this stage in the month. Only 12 more days to go, I think I can do this, although I need to go shopping Wednesday, so it may be famous last words.

Finstickle

A little catch up post before I head off for Half Term tomorrow.

£50.47 - last Asda order

£6.95 - Asda delivery pass. I am so sold on the value of this, being able to get things delivered at a convenient time for no extra cost stops me going elsewhere to top up. I've probably not explicitly flagged it before as delivery but i always take it out of my food budget.

£12.83 - small to ups at Coop

£11.08 - Sainsbury for items I planned to get at Greengrocers but missed getting there during opening hours and Sainsbury was near where i was that day

£31.16 - I didn't have enough for an Asda order and there were a couple of specific things from Lidl I wanted. DD will only drink their apple juice and I really rate their fresh pizzas

£16.25 - Tesco a couple of last minute bits for our holiday

Currently: £242.15/£400

I will organise delivery for when we return but with £158 left in the budget it is looking like another underspend this month. I have plenty of meat in the freezer but am planning on doing a Meat Free March so will need to stock up on tofu and a few meat replacements to make it work. If I can keep that shop within £100 that will be two months at £350pm and I can think about reducing down my budget :-)

determined_new_ms

Hello - happy 100th birthday to your ma @thriftwizard hope you all had a blast :)

I've gone a little over budget £279.32/£250 - and in my justification my budget ran from 23.01 until end Feb so technically I'm not over budget! However maybe £250 pm is too low for our family. Let's see how it all washes out over the year

Still feel like we're eating like kings! I had 1/2 a pack of mince that needed using so I have made taco style mince and we shall have burritos tomorrow. Have made some soured cream, which is sitting on the side fermenting.

will make some bread tomorrow when I make the tortillas (stop oh going to the shop…)

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81886774#Comment_81886774

im finding that some butchers are cutting corners to stretch margins and reduce costs. I brought some bits from the fish van at the saturday market and was very disappointed with the quality vs. what i paid