March 2026 Grocery Challenge

moginstein

@PipneyJane yes I find supermarket layouts really annoying, especially when they move stuff around. If they think it will mean I'll spend longer there and spend more money, they're wrong, I get annoyed and go somewhere else!

Apart from the Trolley app, I used the Tesco app to find products, compare prices and see if they are in stock at my local (often the answer seems to be no😢)

And Sainsbury's also has a stock checking page, but not everything is listed (and they don't add the prices)

https://stockchecker.sainsburys.co.uk

oceandreamer

I've almost got through the meat in the freezer so this month is definitely going to be more difficult, but I'm keeping to

£200 for the month.

Jen_x

@Soontobeoap Thank you for the welcome. I find most 'all in one' recipes give a denser texture than the creaming method. I've tried loads over the years as lemon drizzle is hubby's favourite. I'm currently using the one by Taming Twins

Lemon Drizzle Cake {Easiest EVER Recipe!}

It's so easy and turns out great every time so might be worth giving at try to see if it works for you x

First spend of the month here as Mr W has just delivered £135.16 worth of groceries. I tend to shop fortnightly to get the most value out of the delivery fee. I find Ws fruit and veg keeps longer than most other supermarkets so I'm prepared to pay the tiny extra amount ( literally pennies) to avoid the food waste. In fact in terms of buying ingredients (as opposed to ready made stuff) I'm finding there's very little difference between the major supermarkets at present. Sometimes (just for funsies and because I clearly have far to much time on my hands 😂) I'll do a comparison shop with the other online supermarkets when I'm doing my order and the difference in price is pretty negligble.

I shouldnt need to shop for the rest of the week but I will be popping in to read everyones posts . Have a great week everyone.

GROCERY CHALLENGE £135.16/£400

determined_new_ms

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904419#Comment_81904419

there is a lemon madeira cake in the recipe index on the first page. I haven't made it so can't vouch for it. But I often think I will because oh likes medeira.

1st of March and I've already gone over budget! Monthly shop was purchased on Thursday £258.45/£250. I'm starting to think it's too low for us… I doubt we'll need much more as pantry, fridge and both freezers are bursting. Will definitely need milk, and maybe butter though. About 65% of snacky things stored away to come out later in the month and stop lo (big one? She's bigger than me now!) snaffling it all at the beginning of the month.

Just had an amazing use it up lunch, using a bit of lentil tikka soup, odds and ends of veg (half a stirfry pack from olio and some caramelised onions) and I made some lime and coriander rice. So good!

diminua

Finally made my pumpkin curry - roasted pumpkin (I was doing home made chips last night, so put the pumpkin slices in to roast then), carrots, onion, the last of the frozen peas, garam masala, hot paprika (chillies had gone bad, luckily I only wanted a mild curry so paprika worked) garlic, coconut milk powder, veg stock cube, water, onion, green pepper (going soft so thought I'd use it up), and lentils (red and green).

Fried the onion and green pepper and simmered the lentils and sliced carrots awhile before cooking it all up together, so quite a lot of work really, but I've got at least three dinners worth out of it.

Shopping today included £10.35 in Ts - bread, coffee, mini eggs, a carton of orange juice, tinned fish. £18.35 in W's - including veg, soft cheese, grenadine and ginger ale as I've given up alcohol for Lent and decided to try making a Shirley Temple (quite nice with plenty of ice and a squeeze of lime to cut through the sweetness), and £13.26 in the zero waste place - more choc-filled eggs (aargh), coconut milk powder (for the curry), pasta, broken brazils, dried soya chunks and I'm sure there was a sixth thing but can't remember what.

So that's £41.96 spent, but I do have quite full cupboards now.

JingsMyBucket

Welcome @Jen_x and other new folks. I also love that username!

Budgets updated to here.

JingsMyBucket

Evening all. I'm going to keep my budget the same for this month: 

£350 for March 1 – 31. 

That extra £50 will hopefully cover restocking the freezer with meat from the Easter sales. Today I went shopping at Lidl and M & S for some usuals but also to restock a few bulk items. 

£48.60 at Lidl for asparagus tips (1.39), 2 eggplants (1.58), baby tomatoes (89p), fancier tomatoes (1.99), 3 packs of herbs (52p each), broccoli (89p), mushrooms (1.29), mixed bell peppers (1.79), cashews (1.79), 2 dozen eggs (4.98), sausages (2.49), a wedge of parmesan (3.75), 2 blocks of butter (3.98), 2 bags of vegetable crisps (2.70), fizzy vitamin C tablets (1.19), frozen mac and cheese (1.09), and milk (1.25). I also got some Italian Week items: Italian fennel sausage (3.79), 2 jars of pesto (2.98), 400g pizza mozzarella block (2.79), smoked Scamorza cheese (2.99), and a box of four cheese risotto (1.49). 

£23.40 at M & S for bananas (1.26), clementines (2.80), a lemon (45p), avocados (2.00), potatoes (1.10), basic mozzarella and cheese pizza base (4.00), 4 cans of baked beans (1.80), and 1L extra virgin olive oil (8.50). 

Total £72 / £350 spent. £278 remaining. 

That’s weird it came out to exactly £72.00. Anyway, here’s what’s on the menu for this week: 

• Roast pork with roasted potatoes and salad (tonight)
• Pizza topped with sliced meats and bell peppers; salad
• Spinach and potato curry; Egg curry; spinach rice
• Chicken tortilla soup 
• Mushroom risotto (use dried porcini mushrooms + fresh); asparagus 
• Batch cook tomato sauce with Italian sausage and peppers 

Soontobeoap

Small spend at Aldi on bread, wraps, eggs broccoli, milk and margarine. I have started meal planning again but I think it will take a week of small shops to get us back on track with what we need.

remmie

First spend of the month £27.54 at Al*I. I will need to get dog food this month so will have to rein in the spending, although we have plenty in to use, must get meal planning.

I've made a start, chicken drumsticks out of the freezer, marinated in a bbq sauce, to be served with jacket potatoes and hm coleslaw using up a small bit of cabbage and the last carrot in the fridge. Hope I can keep this up.

wishus

Joining in again with

£150 for 2 adults

Cat food is already purchased for the month so not counting that. Need to buy washing powder this month though.

Today's spend £7.89 at Mozza's £142.11 remaining.

Really need to eke out the supplies this month as so many other costs…