February 2026 Grocery Challenge

diminua

£1.81 left for this month. I am definitely going to need a pint of milk, and likely bread as well, so should come just a bit under or over. I did spend a frivolous amount on choc eggs to put in the cakestand - I keep telling myself they're there to look nice and not to be eaten.

Which reminds me I've only used up one of the pumpkins (in risotto) that I bought partly for decoration - they're keeping well so far but won't keep indefinitely. Roast veg soup, maybe.

moginstein

@diminua I also have a pumpkin that I've been storing, and think I should roast it soon as I'm going away, and don't want it to turn in my absence (it'll go soft and rot, not become a carriage!)

I'm planning to roast it in cubes, and then freeze it for another meal in the future, probably added to a curry.

Matron_Midge

Declaring February at £350.02/£400. Short month for us as we are off away for a trip but our cupboards and freezer are full ready to start March on our return. Will only need fresh stuff in 1st week.

goldfinches

Evening all, hope everyone's well and enjoying the sunshine.

I did some shopping yesterday and spent £12.05 at Sainsbury's on saffron, ground almonds and cashews. Then I also spent £8.05 in Tesco on cc ground coriander, pink onions, vegan chocolate and root ginger.

That makes my new totals

GC £99.60/£168

Baking Fund £20.20/£24

Bulk Buy £7/£100

Nelliegrace

Annual Grocery Budget £1,825 for 2 pensionners.
February Grocery Budget £140.

We went to Aldi after short mat bowls in the village hall yesterday afternoon.

Milk £1.65, yoghurt £1.65, evap for porridge 55p, flour 99p, walnuts £1.65, sardines 45p, cauliflower £1.19, broccoli 79p, sprouts 62p, satsumas £1.39, bananas 88p, pears 99p, grapes £1.37, blueberries £1.09.

£18.56 spent.

Total for February £116.29

£23.71 under budget.

Soontobeoap

@Nelliegrace I am in absolute awe of your yearly budget which you manage to stick to. We too are 2 pensioners and I am quite pleased with roughly £3400 a year. I know that we are all doing our own thing and it is not a competition but obviously I would like to get it down more. I just wondered if you would mind if I asked a few questions to see if it is reasonable for me to try and get it any lower. We have Grandchildren to stay (3 at a time) for roughly 8 weeks of every year. I wondered if it was always just the 2 of you or do you feed others? Also I include toiletries, cleaning materials etc and wondered if you have a separate budget for that? Also are you vegetarian? I know that meat takes up an awful lot of our budget! Any tips would be very gratefully received. Thank you.😊

Went to Sainsburys today for an offer on toothbrush. Spent £35.00. we are also splurging on tempting things to eat still after the lurgy. Also I can't even think of meals to cook. Have told DH that I have to get back to planning after the weekend.

Calling it for Feb now at £330. I was way off with budget but have been thinking!🤔. On average DH and I spend about £50 a month on food toiletries and cleaning materials. (Sometimes a little more). We now have the Grandchildren more often to help out the parents with full time jobs in school holidays. When they come they stay full time for the week. So If I allow £25 a week for each one of those + a few snacks to make it a bit more of a holiday I am not doing too bad so I am determined not to beat myself up about it.

The freezer is still chock a block with all of the joints that I bought just before Christmas when they were half price so once I get back into meal planning and batch making I am hoping we will get some cheaper months. Son and family are coming on Saturday but other that that I think we have a visitor free March.

zafiro1984

Getting towards the end of the month, a total of 7 shops across Lidl, Sains online and Sains in store. I've really tried to be frugal and use what I already have. However, I think I've now developed an addiction to Youtube and their money saving ideas - sad!!. The comment 'Must get a life - comes to mind. I've always batched cooked as it saves such a lot of time in the long run and I've been doing that quite a lot this month. Sadly I'll be £23.13 over budget this month, however I spent nearly £400 in Feb last year so I can live with this overspend.

So far £273.13/250 overspend of 23.13

Finstickle

Declaring for February at £306.06/£400.

Really pleased with how February has gone and to be so far under budget. I was away for a week but did a Musclefood top-up in the month which was as much as a standard weekly food shop for me so being £100 under is a really good result.

Nelliegrace

@Soontobeoap I am old enough to have learned traditional cookery at school as well as from my mother and grandmother.

My interest is in the WW2 Homefront, particularly in food production, food education and rationing. I read quite a lot, and we put it into practice, growing what we could in the garden of our small semi, keeping poultry for meat and eggs, raising meat rabbits, beekeeping, having an allotment, and foraging, bread-making and preserving. We joined the Smallholders and the Beekeepers Associations, and attended lectures and practical days, and I joined the WI. I asked our local butcher how to cook cheaper cuts and offal, and he would exchange a gourmet rabbit, and quail eggs, for a bag of meats, and gave me chicken carcasses and stock bones. It was a lot of fun.

We are older now, retired, not so fit and have reduced the work load. I shop at the local supermarkets and cook for just the two of us. At present I have just some fruit trees and bushes in the garden, we freeze some fruit, I make jams, and we store the apples in the garage. DH makes the bread as we need it, a 400g loaf, in the bread-maker, and makes our daily milk kefir. I do the baking once a week when the oven is on for a Sunday pot roast.

I am still interested in food, and try to shop wisely avoiding UPFs. I buy mainly basic ingredients to cook from scratch, as Michael Pollan wrote, “Eat food, mostly plants, not too much.” I buy British when possible, especially seasonal vegetables. Our meat ration is £2.50 each a week. The freezer helps with budgetting. I look for reduced price, plain meat or fish, and special offers, especially the half price joints and salmon at Christmas and Easter. (We bought 5kg of venison from the local game butcher at £8 a kilo in December.) I check the price per kilo. At present pork, whole chicken, and turkey mince are about the best value. A family size pack or joint can be more economical, I divide it all into portions and freeze it. Small portions of meat can be stretched with pulses and plenty of vegetables, in a stir fry, a stew, a vegetable mince, or a pie. I make a lot of nourishing soups with bone stock. I freeze butter and cheese in weekly portions too. If cream is reduced price, I make it into butter. Cheese goes further when grated for sandwiches or with jacket potatoes. I buy plain Greek Style yoghurt by the kilo and add homemade jam or our remaining honey and nuts. I buy nothing labelled low fat, a sensible amount of fat is necessary, we use the well-tested weekly ration quantities.

Homegrown produce usually looked imperfect, but tasted very good. I like to buy the cheaper, wonky fruit and vegetables, budget oranges, the smaller pears and bananas. We have half a banana and half an orange each with breakfast. I don’t buy fruit juice. We don’t have the hens now, so I bought mixed sized eggs, we are used to those, sometines a small egg is just right, a quail egg was perfect for a glaze on a pie. I buy supermarket own brands and economy porridge and basic muesli. We buy loose leaf tea and budget range coffee beans. We eat very well on our food budget.

We have a small portion of fish and chips just occasionally, the local chippy is very good. We don’t have any meals delivered. We take a flask of tea or coffee and a picnic or slice of homemade cake if we are going out. We get 26 hot drinks a year for £12 membership at the local garden centre, which seems good value.

We spend little on toiletries, cleaning materials, etc. from a separate budget. I make our laundry liquid and use vinegar instead of fabric conditioner. I buy Aldi toilet paper, packs of Waitrose or Sainsbury’s Sensitive bar soap, DH’s shaving soap, Pure Liquid Soap, (or fancy bar soaps and savon de Marseille, red-stickered at TKM.) I use the minimum SLS and paraben free shampoo, and don’t buy conditioner. I cut up really old cotton socks and cotton T-shirts for cleaning cloths instead of wipes and paper towels. We buy Eco washing up liquid on offer and in bulk.

weenancyinAmerica

@zafiro1984 - Could you let us know which youtube people you think are worth looking up? That would be wonderful. Thank you.

@Soontobeoap and anyone else trying to save money - be sure to look at the information that Pip did that is listed on page 1 of the Grocery Challenge - lots of really good ideas.