February 2026 Grocery Challenge

determined_new_ms

morning guys! I think I will declare my my spends for Feb. I won't go shopping again until Friday and that will be from March's budget. I'm wondering if my annual budget is a little too ambitious….

Feb spends: £285.11 - a little over budget, however this month ran from 23.01.26-28.02.26 so I'm happy with that. Let's see how I do when I go shopping on Friday as I am going to move to monthly GC shopping!

YTD: £389.25

moginstein

@goldfinches I'd never heard of fossicking. Thanks for the new word. Love the idea of finding treasure in the fridge, freezer etc, even if it is something to rustle up for tea, not sapphires!

Fossicking is the recreational, non-commercial search for gemstones, gold, fossils, and minerals, typically using hand tools like pans, shovels, and metal detectors. Popular in Australia and New Zealand, this activity involves searching surface soil or shallow diggings. It requires adhering to local regulations, such as obtaining a Miner's Right in Victoria. 

Energy & Mining +5Key Aspects of Fossicking:

• What is Found: Common finds include sapphires, zircons, gold, quartz, and various minerals.
• Equipment: Only hand-operated tools are permitted, such as picks, sieves, and pans.
• Regulations: It is generally prohibited in certain areas (e.g., some NSW national parks), and specific permits may be required, such as ForestrySA permits.
• Technique: It involves searching through, or "puddling," soil and gravel, often in areas where these materials were historically found.
• Origins: The term originated around the 1850s Australian gold rush. 

ps anyone else having to go through their comments and delete a pile of extra letters that are randomly added, or is it just me?

JingsMyBucket

Howdy y’all. Here’s my shopping for the past week.  

£25.13 at M & S on Friday for bananas (1.61), YS whole pineapple (88p), loose broccoli (86p), 2 packs of Italian sausages (6.50), butter (2.00), 500g fusilli pasta (75p), 550g extra mature cheddar (4.25), feta (2.40), 2 cans of baked beans (90p), and a bar of 70% dark baking chocolate (1.50). The chocolate is for eating, not baking as it’s really inexpensive. 🙂 

On Saturday evening we had a Morrisons delivery which cost £68.60 after various substitute rejections and a refund for some rotten/damaged peppers. We got lots of salad, said 3 pack of peppers, sweet potatoes, kiwi, shredded mozzarella, blue cheese, sliced ham, Italian cold cuts, cooked beets, tomatoes, dish soap, 1kg tub of peanut butter (5.95), 2 big tubs of Fage Greek yoghurt (11.80), basmati rice (white and whole), couscous, black peppercorns (3.30), various ramen, coconut milk and other stuff. 

Total £340.35 / £350 spent. £9.65 remaining. 

We’ll actually come in just under budget I think. When I’m out tomorrow I’ll stop by M & S to get a baguette and some more butter to round out our dinners for the first half of the week. 

Nelliegrace

Thank you all.

thriftwizard

@Nelliegrace, I'm very sorry to hear about your dog & chickens; even the birds leave a little hole in your heart but losing your faithful companion too is heartbreaking.

Well I've been away dancing for the weekend and there have been no grocery spends beyond the £33.07 spent at W8rose on things that were running low before I went. I haven't added it yet but I think that leaves me somewhere just below £370, and there's really nothing much needed until this weekend, so I think that despite my misgivings, I will have managed to stay inside my budget - for once! Kudos to DD2 for creative thinking & cooking with leftovers & store-cupboard staples whilst I was away!

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

I have two spends to declare: £3 spent in Morries on Friday, when DH managed to buy three full-sized cans of pease pudding for £1 each(!), and £7.19 in Sainsbugs on Sunday on 8 bananas £1.39, 1L milk 90p, 200g Paneer 2x£1.75, and 200g chocolate cookies £1.40.

Naturally, in the change from Sainsbugs, I got a £2 coin, which has immediately gone into the Running Away Fund money-box. Why does this always happen when you’re running low on cash? (We have a house rule: Never Spend a £2 coin. They are for holidays.)

This brings our total spend to £186.10/£189 leaving £2.90 for the rest of the month.

(I am loath to declare, just in case we do have to buy something before payday on Friday.)

Is it just me, or is Pease Pudding another shelf staple that has disappeared from most supermarkets? The only brand I know, Foresight, is owned by Princess, the same people who used to do the 450g cans of mackerel and - I’ll swear - also did the same sized cans of pilchards In tomato sauce. However, I when I look at their website, only the small tins of mackerel-in-sauce and tins of anchovies are visible. Nothing else. Humph!

• Pip

joedenise

Mr T also sells pease pudding - both the small cans and the large cans. I don't eat it but sometimes buy it for my friend to give to her sister who is unable to get to the shops.

goldfinches

@PipneyJane - the tins of pilchards in tomato sauce that were an absolute staple of my parents tinned food cupboard in the 70s and 80s were Glenryck brand, is that the same as Foresight or a competitor. I always used to enjoy crunching the bones. I'm sure I have seen the Glenryck tin mentioned in a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe fairly recently but cannot find the exact reference now.

@mogenstein - thankyou for the information, I had no idea of the fascinating background to the word.

I did some shopping with a very tight list this lunchtime and managed to stick fairly closely to it which was good. I spent £9.24 in M&S on cucumber £1, feta cheese £2.75, a beef tomato £0.95, a seeded roll £1, frozen petits pois £1.90, a leek £1.05 and ys dill £0.59. Then I spent £5.78 in Mr T's on cc price walnuts and cashews £2.65 each and a ys bag of mixed baby leaves £0.62.

Some of the walnuts are for baking but I also add them to my breakfast yoghurt and salads too so I'm including their price in the main GC amount for now.

That makes my new GC total £88.35/£168.

thriftwizard

Pease pudding isn't hard to make; I'll get a ham joint (usually unsmoked gammon) from the butchers or the market (supermarket ham can be a bit too salty, but not all are) soak it overnight, drain, re-cover with water & boil for about 5 minutes, then drain it again to remove the worst of the nitrates etc. Then cover with water & slow-cook it for several hours (about 4, on high until bubbling, then low) with vegetables, herbs & spices - usually onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaves, pepper, a few cloves & a few juniper berries, sometimes also leeks and/or a teaspoon of honey. (Dried nettle is another worthwhile addition but I'll accept that's probably too hard-core for most!) Once the meat comes out for the "main" I'll remove the bay leaves, blend up the "stock" and add a good quantity of rinsed marrowfat or split yellow peas (I think at least half by volume, i.e. 500ml if you have a litre of stock) then cook for another 3-ish hours or until the peas disintegrate or mash with no effort. Switch off & allow to cool overnight. Leftover ham will usually be very crumbly & not much good for slicing, but is perfect for adding a little meaty punch to salads, pasta sauces, omelettes, etc. & freezes well. The gammon may seem expensive initially but can add to lots of meals and the pease pudding, which will usually do two of us for lunch for 3 days, or can also be frozen, is almost free - dried peas are literally cheaper than chips! And keep in your storecupboard forever…

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896666#Comment_81896666

@goldfinches THAT’s the brand I was trying to remember! (It wasn’t Princess.) Thank you for the link.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896763#Comment_81896763

Thanks for the recipe @thriftwizard, I’ve copied it into my recipe file. The problem with making my own pease pudding is volume. We don’t eat it regularly enough to justify the freezer space - usually only if I make Liver In Orange Sauce, which is about 4 times a year.

• Pip