March 2026 Grocery Challenge

Finstickle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81929000#Comment_81929000

Thank you!

I have a good Dhal recipe i made this week a friend sent me but those curried butter beans sound very good, as does the vegan spaghetti :-)

Finstickle

Thanks for the veggie inspo following my last post, this week has been good food wise. I made a really nice dhal as my main cook for the week and some spinach and ricotta tortellini with butternut squash and a couple of falfal for protein for dinner tonight was lush!

I did struggle driving home from Wales on Sunday with very limited options, though that could partly have been the fact that it was Sunday and places hadn;t been restocked.

I went to a friend's for dinner last night and stopped at Coop for a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates - as these were part of \ with \ in lieu of dinner I am taking from the grocery budget - £14.80.

Asda today was higher than lately - £64.27 (coffee, peppermint tea and hot chocolate coming in at £11.70 by themselves!)

March total:

£343.34 /£350

- only 1 more day before I get paid and I have everything I need for tomorrow

zafiro1984

Hopefully last shop of the month done yesterday. Made a list and stuck to it - must be a first!! - and surprisingly I was in and out of the shop in under 20mins😊 Just £14.94 left, It depends on how many folk are here at the weekend as to whether I need it or not - hopefully not

£235.06/£250

LotsOfTea

Well I've busted the budget by a fair bit as I had a delivery today which came to £154.35 and spent £23.70 yesterday. I took a conscious decision to get a spare or two of things we use a lot in case of supply disruptions with all that's going on right now. Not stupid amounts (an extra 1 or 2) and only things we use all the time so I feel like I've made sensible preparation. Hopefully they won't be needed and can help reduce future budgets but we'll see. I also bought Easter eggs which added to the total of course.

Anyway, I'm done for the month now and declaring at

£377.50/£300

maryb

I forgot to update my tally for last week. It was quite a cheap week because the big bit of meat came out of the freezer so only £28.09 spent on fresh stuff up to 20 March which brought the total to £112.69 leaving £87.31 for the remainder of the month. Which would have been very comfortable. However I decided last Saturday to do some stocking up and spent £78.75 in Lidl which would only leave me £8.56 for this weeks shop. I have 50p off vouchers for milk cream and butter in Waitrose so will need to spend £4.35 out of that leaving £4.21 and a £2.50 Nectar voucher but it's pretty clear I am going to go over since I don't think I can get everything I need in Sainsbugs for £6.71!! But I'm going to see how low I can keep the overspend rather than adjusting the budget at this stage. Freezer to the rescue again - I have a chicken in there which will do for Sunday (and Monday and Tuesday and soup Wednesday - my rubber chickens are streeeeetchy!). This is the last shop of the month so I will be able to reckon up by tomorrow

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

I was sat at work when my bank notified me of a £7.50 payment to Iceland. Called Mr Ck to discover he's brought pizza for dinner tonight. I also forgot to add a £2.48 spent at Lidl last Sunday for peppers and l forget the other items. £9.98 to add to the total.

Grocery Budget £283.29 / £400

Bulk Fund £36.21 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 319.50 / £450

I will have to go shopping tomorrow, trying to decide if l do a small "get me to April" shop or, declare March now and do a full shop to cover a longer period. This might be more cost effective especially as it will reduce the number of visits l make.

I have a £5 off a £30 spend in Lidl and a couple of discounts at Tesco that will expire in a few days. But don't want to rack up a big spend so early in the month. 🙈

I think i'll do a food plan and see if l can make a strategic list taking advantage of the offers without going crazy.

maryb

I must have forgotten something vital because I think I may have got in under my budget despite spending nearly a third of it last Saturday on that stockup. I managed to get away with only spending £5.65 on fruit and veg in Sainsbugs and in theory I shouldn't need any more until next Thursday which will be April. If I do I have all of £1.06 to play with. Riches!

I might bring forward part of April's budget and buy the lamb for Easter Sunday (it's half price in Sainsbugs this week) as it will probably have a long enough useby now. Last week they were use by 2 April so this week they should be good past Easter Sunday. Except they had sold out in Sainsbugs. So I need to keep an eye out and not leave it till just before Easter

JingsMyBucket

Evening folks.

Here's the April 2026 Grocery Challenge thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661477/april-2026-grocery-challenge

JingsMyBucket

Morning all. Since my last spending post a couple weeks ago, I’ve spent £70.82 at a combination of Lidl and M & S. That also included buying ingredients to host dinner for some friends. We just spent £9.00 at Iceland last night to get some curries and a bag of breaded chicken strips. 

Total £335.87 / £350 spent. £14.13 remaining. 

That should be enough to get us some more fruit over the weekend. I may deliberately go over budget on Monday in order to get some half priced lamb at Lidl or Tesco. My Lidl Plus coupon is £5 off £50 and I'm not sure if I want to take advantage of that or not…

maryb

I just bought a half price leg of lamb at Morrisons. It was £5.97/kg Cheaper than Sainsburys which is £7.85kg with Nectar and Tesco is only doing half price on shoulder of lamb which is a bit fatty for my fussy lot