March 2026 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

I think maybe it is the scale of the meat in my freezer that is the issue. Just by way of illustration; I have had three years of half a lamb a year, not fully consumed - so working that down to the point where I have one whole leg, rather than the 4 half legs (shanks used) and one whole leg I started with. I know there are still chops - packed as 2s or 4s in the freezer - hence the carrier bag with the portioned meat.

When I buy chicken - usually thighs or breasts, I portion the pack up and unless in a plastic basket or carrier bag, they are the worst at slipping down between the other bits and I hate finding them, months/years later - there were fourteen portions on my side-of-the-freezer inventory (which we both miserably fail to maintain) last time we counted. I have used the 2 year old Turkey crown, and two joints of beef too, but they last us 3-4 days, so with a couple of meat free options that is a week of meals per joint for us.

It is a slow old process, working down what feels like a hoard of unused food, that I am paying to store. It needs to be less, not missing completely.

Anyway, I go north to my Mum's tomorrow, and Mr Sl is charged with eating out of the kitchen freezer, for the few days I am away.

I have carrots, cabbage, one leek, potatoes, frozen veg, tins, jars, dried starch (pasta, rice) as well as the freezer- so unless he wants bowl fruit he needs no purchases while I am away. I now freeze most of the bread ready sliced after watching Tim Spector on carbs (What Not to Eat) - that means it lasts longer as he has to get it out and toast it, so unconscious grazing seems to be biscuits and/or cheese focused again now!

This week's milk delivery brings us to £158.83 for March, with one more (£7,75) to go, on 27th. I may yet come in modestly under my £200 target. I hope to be under £650 at the 1/4 year point against my annual £3000 target.

Nelliegrace

@Suffolk_lass I have the same situation with the freezer, three drawers packed with small roasting joints and meal portions of meat. It is a game of Tetris to find anything and to get it all back in after a search. I couldn’t resist some nice thick pork steaks, 30% off, this week, so five of those have been bagged individually, squeezed in and frozen. The sixth, about 6oz, made a meal for the two of us for 35p each.

We make a 400g loaf, a mix of wholemeal and white, a bag of flour makes almost four loaves.

goldfinches

Evening all, hope everybody enjoyed today's weather.

I've done several small shops since my last post but have managed to keep them fairly small each time which feels like a win.

My new totals are

Main GC Challenge £159.78/£186

Baking Fund £22.44/£24

Bulk Buy Fund £33.99/£93

I did buy three large tubs of O% fat Fage yoghurt today because the eat by dates were all in May and I find that it last ages because it's so thick that I don't need much for breakfast each day. I've put them in the bulk buy budget partly because I think they do qualify and partly to give me the best possible chance of coming in under budget in the main challenge. I know it's a bit of a dodge but I really need to keep up my motivation.

I also bought crunchy peanut butter to make these cookies this week with the egg replacer powder I've got in stores because it's going to be an incredibly busy start to the week and I'm going away next weekend so I'm sticking to a tried and trusted recipe I know everyone likes and can eat just to make life a bit easier.

Soontobeoap

Roast beef tonight with Yorkshire puds. Very nice. Bought some kidney in the butchers to add to left overs and make steak and kidney pies. £7.20 spent in M and S and £3.90 at the butchers.

joedenise

@goldfinches - I too would call that a Bulk Buy and use my Bulk Fund budget for the yoghurt. If I buy anything which is going to be used over the longer period it comes from the Bulk Fund. I do the same with sausages as I buy them from a butcher but he's not in town where the SMs are so buy far more than I'm going to be able to use that week or even month. It's what I decided my Bulk Fund was for.

Jen_x

Hello everyone. A pretty frugal week for us until we got to Friday when DGD (who were raising) started with a horrible sore throat and all she wanted was ice cream. only had 1 small portion in the tub in the freezer so hubby was dispatched to the village shop to forage. Thankfully he left the £8 Cart d'or in the shop freezer and came home with a tub of generic vanilla ice cream which was still £3.99!!

I'm looking into investing in an ice cream maker again. I had one in the late 80's but crumbs, it was a lot of effort so it didnt survive the first house move! I'd need to find one that didn't take a whole afternoon to make half a tub full but you do know whats going into it if you make your own dont you? Some of the shop bought ones have an ingredient list as long as your arm.

I also had to buy milk on Thursday so altogether this week I've spent £7.29

Grocery challenge £315.41/£400

Pay day is Thursday so won't declare yet as I'll definitely need milk before then x

remmie

A lot of shops to declare, I really must get better at posting them on here, but at least I keep a record in my diary (old school).

So, I'm afraid to say that I'm now running at £316.72 for this month. Way over where I want to be, but I have realised a couple of things.

1. My budget is for everything, food, dog food, toiletries, cleaning materials and alcohol. We should be able to manage on this, but breaking it down to £75 a week, dog food comes in at about £15 or so of that. Then any toiletries (loo roll etc), which can leave maybe £50 for food.
2. The rising price of meat. I have a very fussy DH when it comes to food. He won't eat mince, pasta or rice, which makes padding out meals difficult. This doesn't usually bother me, but it is making things more difficult at present.

So, I think I will just carry on logging my expenditure for the rest of the year to give me an idea of what we're spending, and have a rethink next year.

Soontobeoap

@remmie. I think that's a really good idea. The first year I worked on trying to do better than the last year. It isn't a competition just trying to get your own budget down if you can. Interestingly my Hubby was very fussy when I first started this challenge. Now he is looking for the cheaper alternative, putting things back on the shelf if he thinks they are too expensive and suggesting beans , egg or mackerel on toast some evenings for a cheap dinner. I do still have trouble with him throwing in sweet treats but lam working on that!🤣

whitecatcreamsofaDOH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81912945#Comment_81912945

Bit late but thanks so much for this Pip! I sometimes visit suppliers in Brum and it’s not too far from the Wing Yip branch - I’ll check it out.

whitecatcreamsofaDOH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81915132#Comment_81915132

I’m a bit tired today and literally just googled “bulk buy tea bags big river” 🤣🤣

This is great tip - thank you!