April 2026 Grocery Challenge

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all another £25.35 spend at Tesco to declare. Mostly fruit, veg, bread, milk and snacks for the kids.

Planning my final "Big Shop" for the month on Fri/Sat. Currently on track for a decent underspend.

Grocery Budget £245.47 / £400

Bulk Fund £49.06 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 269.18 / £450

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs

'Big' (?) shop done this morn. I went to L1dl and $a1nsbugs. I was lucky enough to get a green box in L1dl today, although I could quite happily have skipped - they weren't that inspiring, but the one I selected had 2 items that were on my 'going to buy in S' anyway, and 2 items that - had I had more of my budget left/a bigger budget, I would have liked to buy, which made it worth £2 to me today.

I did buy some ready grated mozzarella - I had a big mould clump in the middle of the previous bag I bought just before Christmas (from 'ome bargins), so 🤞 this bag is OK.

Between the 2 shops, I spent £30.16 - and I didn't really get anything 'exciting' for that amount of money ☹️ But at least I have a little cash left over to get us to the end of the month, so……

Away to update my budget line.

Greying X

PipneyJane

Good afternoon GC’s

I have a shop to declare from Monday. DH went to Sainsbury’s without me on Monday evening, to take advantage of a Nectar points offer and buy some much needed yoghurt. £8.55 spent on a 9-pack recycled toilet paper £3.25 (plus 180 extra Nectar points, equivalent to 90p), 450ml Yeo Valley Greek Yoghurt with honey £1.85, YS 450ml Yeo Valley Raspberry Yoghurt £1.60, and mushrooms £1.85.

This brings our total spend to £155.40/£180 leaving £24.60 for the rest of the month.

Should be do-able. Now, if only I could find my get-up-and-go, I’d go cook dinner. I’m suffering from yet another cold and am completely uninspired, food-wise.

• Pop

Soontobeoap

We went to Sainsbury's this morning. I bought quite a few hair products as I am trying to embrace my naturally wavy hair that has occured in my latter years. Hopefully will save on electricity for blow drying. It falls flat the next day so needs perking up each day. Worth trying though I think. Any way the products were £15.00 which bought my total to £49.20. I bought a large pack of mince £9.25 to get it cheaper overall and made 2 lasagnas and 2 cottage pie bases from it so quite pleased with that. However it is interesting to note that a large joint of beef for roasting, when half price at Easter and Christmas now cost the same as the minced beef at regular price! 🤔

Suffolk_lass

I'm a bust for this month. I have left Mr Sl for another weekend and he seems to have been in consumption mode (including having a whole cod loin to himself! 😮) - he always insists he has had enough supper and then late-night snacks too. We had a simple egg tagliatelle and tomato sauce with grated cheese and lots of black pepper last night. Oh yum! I still have plenty of jarred passata from last summer so simple, quick suppers will be the thing. I have got the last two salmon fillets out to pan fry with plain steamed veg for this evening. Letting the flavours speak for themselves. I have an M&S receipt yet to include - I had to replenish the coffee bags and tagliatelle as I don't often go. I will be well below the one third of the year level of £1000, but I need to be, to have a bit extra for next December. I shall be below £300 but I was aiming for £200

cowboymum

Today's shopping;

£2 community fridge, £13.96 Tesco, £27.70 Riverford

Total £43.66, so grand total £564.42 of £620. The bit left needs to pay for next week's riverford so leaves £27.88 left for groceries. Quite pleased with that! Have planned meals up to Thursday next week so hoping I will only need to buy a few bits of milk, fruit etc. for the rest of the month

LotsOfTea

I had a shopping delivery today which came to £96.56 but which did include some booze for entertaining over the weekend.

I'm up to £203.38/£300 for the month.

goldfinches

Evening all, hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine today. I certainly did and have the red nose to show for my lunchtime walk because I forgot to put on any sunscreen and didn't take my baseball hat either. 😎

I went to M&S for milk (£2.50) and then, as a special treat, bought a cc price punnet of strawberries (£2.75) from Tesco plus my next Riverford box comes tomorrow so they took the money (£20.50) today. I'm getting potatoes, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, little gem lettuce, chestnut mushrooms and courgettes and here's the meal plan.

Harissa roast carrots, mango labneh & mint - need to buy date syrup, Fage yoghurt and mango chutney
Sweet potatoes, amba and orange blossom - need to buy lemons, amba and pecans
Toasted buckwheat tabouleh - need to buy fresh parsley and coriander
Lime pickle and miso roasted sweet potato - need to buy lime pickle and fresh coriander
Hawaij roast potatoes - need to buy banana shallots, fresh parsley and a lemon
Baby gem, tamarind dressing and avocado crema - need to buy avocado, fresh dill and a lemon
Mushroom skewers - need to buy fresh oyster and shitake mushrooms
Black lime and Sichuan pepper courgette fritti

Then, I noticed in M&S that both aubergines and pointed cabbage are in the Marketplace offer and looked really delicious so I'm planning to make Pickled aubergines and tahini and Hispi cabbage, whipped sesame tofu and double ginger once I've got through everything from the veg box.

That all makes my new totals

Main GC total £157.02/£180
Baking Fund Total £13.39/£30
Bulk Buy Fund Total £32/£48

That's just about where I was expecting to be now so I am really beginning to think that I can make it to the end of the month within budget for once, I'll just have to keep not being tempted in the supermarket and make the cheaper dishes from the meal plan first.

Hey ho and off I go, good luck to everyone else on this thread too.

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone, the weather is glorious today.

I have some grocery spends to declare…more than l had hoped £128.99 altogether 😱 isn't it always the way!!

However in my defence £30 was toiletries, we needed shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, body lotion, deodorant and l also brought travel size deodorant for an upcoming flight. Scandalous at £5 but still cheaper than checking in hold luggage.

I hadn't planned on buying a lot of meat just enough till the end of the month but the mince beef l normally buy was reduced to £2.27 for 500g so l brought 6 packets. l also brought 3kg of chicken thighs some of which I've deboned and deskinned for curries or pasta dishes, 2kg of chicken drumsticks and a pork shoulder joint. I was considering buying pork shoulder steaks on offer 700g for £5.25. But then l noticed the joints on offer so l got nearly 2kg for a £1 more 😇. I removed the skin and excess fat and chopped up into chunks for a casserole. The meat yield was over 1.6kg so I'm using half today and the other half has gone into the freezer.

After my meat haul at Tesco l went to Lidl for a block of cheese and salad, frozen summer berries for my porridge, red onions on offer, chocolate bars for the kids and sun cream (different budget). This generated my free veg coupon which l redeemed for a bag of avocados.

Grocery Budget £344.46 / £400

Bulk Fund £79.06 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 398.17 / £450

Today's spends have pushed me very close to our budget, but we do have enough meat for at least a weeks worth of meals in May so maybe it will balance out.

Soontobeoap

We spent £16.00 in Aldi today mainly on picnic treats for our trip to Wembley tomorrow. 🙂. I think that will be our last shop for April. From fingers crossed.