April 2026 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

Evening all, the weather here was absolutely beautiful today too; I do hope it stays like this for May morning as I'm going along this year.

Because the weather was so good I made the Baby gem, tamarind dressing and avocado crema salad today so went shopping with a list this afternoon and managed to stick to it too. 😇 I bought focaccia for croutons from the really good bakery (£3.60) and garlic, a lemon, 2 x ys organic gem hearts and 2 x avocados in M&S for £4.37. I didn't buy any dill because it all looked a bit limp and I don't really care for it either and I still have half the focaccia left to eat with lunch tomorrow.

That makes my new totals

Main GC Total £164.99/£180
Baking Fund Total £13.39/£30
Bulk Buy Fund Total £32/£48

When my Riverford box came this morning they'd substituted broad beans for the purple sprouting broccoli so I need to have a think about how to use those but otherwise I'm still cautiously hopeful, I've only got to get to next Thursday, fingers crossed.

Good luck to everyone else spinning things out to the end of the month.

diminua

Getting a bit tight now. Bought maris pipers, tinned tomatoes, dark chocolate, pesto, eggs, bread and milk today. I will definitely want milk by the end of the month, otherwise I think I'm ok. £3.27 left including nectar points.

Nelliegrace

Grocery Budget for April £150.

20/4 DH bought milk x 2 £1.35, mini pork pies £1.24, pastries £1.37, y.s. strawberries 49p.

£6.50 spent.

23/4 We shopped at Aldi.

Milk 2 x £1.65, cream £1.39, evap 52p, Pollock fillets x4 in breadcrumbs £2.99, flour 70p, prunes £2.79, pears 99p, 7 bananas 88p, wonky grapes £1.36, super 6 offer; English apples 2 x £1.29, 4 large oranges 2 x £1.29, and tomatoes £1.19, red stickered items; cabbage 18p, avocados x 2 17p, and blueberries 39p.

£21.99 spent.

I bought a melon £1.50 and a jar of rum and raisin marmalade £2.99 from the market yesterday.

£4.49 spent.

Total £118.39.

There was an article in The Times this week by Milly Rousseau about her four months trial of a £50 a week grocery budget for 2 adults and 2 preschool children. She seems to visit a different supermarket each week to get as much as she can for her money, using offers and reduced price items, and she writes about it in her blog.

The comments amused me. Most seemed to assume that she started with no food at all in the house so her weekly shop could not feed them enough meals and how could she manage without potatoes? I assumed that she bought potatoes the week before and checked her fridge and pantry before she went shopping.

If The Times was giving serious information about healthy food shopping on a limited budget, there are many people more experienced by necessity.

My weekly grocery spending seems low, mostly spent on dairy, fresh fruit and vegetables, but with it I have built up a well filled pantry and a freezer full of meat, fish and cheese. In these troubling times I should add a few items which will keep well, rather than try to be under budget. Food prices are expected to rise.

This bit in the article did make me think.

“Spending less on groceries but being able to afford a cleaner helps my mental load, it has done wonders for our relationship and halved the arguments in our household.”

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Nelliegrace - I found the article (without comments) available free elsewhere online. Interesting - but I don't think the newspaper wants to give information about shopping for healthy food on a budget, I think Milly fits the readership/homelife/income bracket demographic…….

In order to help myself to (try) to keep to my budget - in the face of rising prices, I have downloaded the MrL app. I know I'm late to the party, and folk much more skilled in ninja grade shopping skills than I have been making whoopee with it for yonks, but I'm hopeful I can make it work for us. N*ctar has become something of a disappointment, with few, if any 'useful' offers each week. I still have a MrT CC, but don't routinely shop there.

Greying X

cowboymum

Few more shops today;

£8.94 in tescos this morning (milk, marg, fruit, f ozen berries). Also spend £5.99 on a too good to go pick up from a fancy patisserie later. I've never tried it before and I thought it would be a treat for pudding today. Total for April £579.33 / 620.

Also.picked up masses of black bananas from olio so currently cooking banana bread in the over. I've made it gluten free so I can also partake in cake day!

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81976922#Comment_81976922

Hmmm….. You’ve piqued my curiosity @Nelliegrace . We all know that it is possible to eat well on a low budget, but it takes planning. @Greying_Pilgrim where did you find the article?

Also, GP, you aren’t the only one to be frustrated with the N*ctar offers. I think their algorithm is based on the assumption that “you bought this last week, so you’ll want to buy it again”. Why else would it offer me a discount on yeast, a week after I’d purchased it for the first time in over a year? Sometimes, you just have to play them at their own game. We regularly get offers of 40 extra points on loose mushrooms, so buy one, spending 10-15p to get the equivalent of 20p back. (2 points = 1p)

Yesterday, I went to Sainsbugs to take advantage of the N*ctar algorithm. We’d been offered “SmartShop” prices on their own-brand recycled toilet paper* (normally £3.25, reduced to £2.77), and another on 450g Yeo Valley Greek-Style Honey Yoghurt (normally £2.25, reduced to £1.92). In the end, while I purchased the former, I bought 2 YS tubs of the yoghurt at £1.70 each, so got even more off. £10.77 spent - the rest on fruit and veg - plus we scored an additional 140 points, so that’s 70p to spend on treats at some point.

The offers in the L!dl app are far less tailored. I think they’re driven by whatever L!dl have in surplus and want to flog. For example, we rarely buy biscuits from L!dl but this week had a 15%-off offer on their half-dipped chocolate chip cookies. Since we’ll need a pack for the games club tomorrow, DH picked them up while he was buying dinner this evening. £9.34 spent on the biscuits, a quiche, salad, pudding and a very nice smoothie. (My DH has a sweet tooth.)

The above brings our total GC spend to £175.60/£180, leaving £4.40 for the rest of the month.

@Soontobeoap hope you enjoyed your Wembley trip.

• Pip

*Sainsbug’s recycled toilet paper is post-consumer, so has very good green credentials.

Greying_Pilgrim

"We earn six figures but feed our family of four for £50 per week"

Greying X

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977379#Comment_81977379

Thanks for the link @Greying_Pilgrim. Interesting but, as usual with these articles, an annoying piece of fluff - never enough information given to the reader so that they can learn something from it. Presumably, Milly posts on Insta.

Being me, I had to work things out. Per the article, their base costs per month are at least £4,510. £ £3,700 (mortgage+bills), £400 nursery, and Nanny £440 (£110x4). After that, she has £1,500 a month at her disposal, which has to cover the grocery bill, cleaner, clothes, etc. No mention of Ed’s spending and nothing about car or commuting costs.

I had a play with the tax calculator on www.listentotaxman.com. He’s got to be earning much more than £100,000 per annum for the numbers given in the article to be sustainable. At £100k and assuming he only makes the default auto-enrolment pension contribution of 5%, his monthly take-home pay would be just shy of £5,296. At £125k it’s £5,984. At £150k it’s £6,982 and, despite the article’s scare-story on tax rates, he’d still be taking home 55% of his salary.

Based on the above, my vote is that Ed is earning at least £150k.

• Pip

Greying_Pilgrim

I stick with my opinion that the article wasn't for folks who have to stick to a fixed budget. It's like the vast majority of cooking programmes don't teach you how to do the basics - with the possible exception of some of Delia's progs.

On topic, if anyone is looking for inspiration a US based frugal vlogger, Christine over at FrugalFitMom, has developed a month of meals based on $30 (approx £22) per week. The inspiration has been her 2 oldest kiddos (21 & 19) going to college. She shops at wall-mart, shows what she's purchased and how she's cooked/used the food. She does exactly what Nelliegrace talks about, using foods/seasonings bought one week, to last for other meals.

It won't be useful for everyone, some of the prices are much lower than in the UK (eggs are supercheap), and of course, some are much higher than the UK (milk and bread spring to mind). BUT, the premise of her series, is tight budget, shopping weekly, but within a broader framework of meals for a month. There will be somethings folk don't use - I personally don't like porridge, and certainly wouldn't eat flavoured 'quick oats' - but hey, that's me. She's giving inspo, not dictating what you must eat (and she does give plenty of ideas/alternatives).

I'll leave a link for her 'month' video - it is an hour long, but it might help someone working on a tight budget - although I'm not sure if it is meant to be for one person - she makes alot of food. How to eat for $30 a week

Greying X

LotsOfTea

I do wonder if the journalists writing these articles have ever met any normal people. I think I'll stick to here for getting my budgeting tips 😂