April 2026 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Thanks for all of the info folks. I am constantly looking for new recipes I think we will like. I do love to see a pic along with recipe to. Anyway I digress

I was making dinner tonight and it really struck me how cheap this one had turned out to be

We are having pasties with roast potatoes swede, peas and gravy.I am using

Half my 8p swede = 4p

One third of bag 8p potatoes. = 3p

A little flour and margarine for pastry

Guesstimate =80p

Scraps of beef leftovers + beef stock

And leftover veg to use up. Total 87p for both of us.

I would love to know the cheapest meals any of other GC pals make for their family's. 😉

I seriously wish DH would eat a jacket potato with filling but he will only eat them with cold meat and bubble and squeak. Still that's quite cheap if I use slices of meat left from a roast.

JingsMyBucket

Evening folks. I just realized I haven’t updated in quite a while and have quite a few shopping trips to declare. We’ve been wrapped up in personal admin tasks and looking for client work for the past couple weeks so have been heads down. Here’s what we’ve spent in the last 10 days. 

£1.69 at Savers for cough drops 

£9.50 at M & S for 2 bags of coffee beans

£34.58 at Morrisons including a combination of £16 off in More Fivers and a £6 money off coupon. That total got us 2 for £5 sausages, 3 for £10 meat/fish (battered cod, 500g pork shoulder steaks, and 1.3kg thighs/drums), corned beef slices (3.00), 1L extra virgin olive oil (7.00), 2 bags of bell peppers (3.58), bananas (88p), 2 eggplants (1.18), double cream (1.20), skyr (2.00), store brand Greek yoghurt (1.15), cottage cheese (1.75), 2 tubs of ice cream (6.00), Philadelphia (1.35), pasta (69p), Savers dark chocolate bar (65p), and Nature Valley cereal bars (4.75)

£28.06 at Lidl for leeks (89p), arugula (76p), fresh parsley and cilantro (1.00), baby tomatoes (1.35), mushrooms (89p), 2 packs of sliced smoked salmon (5.26), pecans (2.99), cashews (1.69), 3 boxes of Greek week halloumi (5.97), Greek week black olive tapenade (1.49), 15 eggs (2.89), butter (1.99), and tortilla chips (89p)

£16.35 at Morrisons for 2 banana bunches (1.56), celery (75p), 2 limes (48p), 2 packs of ham trimmings (3.38), some meaty smoked pork riblets to make soup (2.35), 2 cans of plum tomatoes (94p), wholemeal bread (75p), butter (1.99), block of cheddar (3.00), and a bag of frozen wonky peas (1.15)

£10.03 at Lidl for pasta (64p), eggs (2.89), red pesto (89p), 2 500g punnets of strawberries (2.98), 2pts organic milk (1.25), oatcakes (69p), oranges (69p), and a free sack of 2.5kg potatoes as my free vegetable. 

Total £329.07 / £350 spent. £20.93 remaining. 

I’m so surprised we still have a bit of budget left going into the last week! We can use that for bananas, yoghurt, eggs, and cheddar to top off the last bits for the month. I’m really glad I’ve started shopping more at Morrisons. Their More Card scheme is much more fruitful than Tesco’s point system. I’ve used so many vouchers for a necessary lean month in order to help make ends meet.

Thinking about it now, without all those vouchers, I probably would’ve gone over already. When I swing by there later this week for Fage yoghurt a couple other items I’ll rack up another 700 points. By the end of this month, I should have another £5 voucher waiting for me. 

Let me go catch up on the rest of the thread. Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

goldfinches

Evening all and thanks for the interesting article @Nelliegrace which did give me furiously to think as the Provincial Lady used to say.
@Soontobeoap - those are impressively cheap pasties and they sound delicious too.

I did an awful lot of walking to various shops today in search of reasonably priced and in stock agave nectar which I finally ran to earth at Mr Ts for £3.30, I also bought Lao Gan Ma black beans in chilli crisp £2.99 and a kg of 0% fat greek style yoghurt at M&S for £1.95.

That makes my new totals

Main GC Total £173.23/£180
Baking Fund Total £13.39/£30
Bulk Buy Fund Total £32/£48

Uh oh, I'm definitely going to need more milk either tomorrow or Tuesday and some more lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber tomorrow so I might cycle to Aldi for those.

Good luck to all of us pinching the pennies until Thursday.

K9sandFelines

£19.03 on fruit and veg via Just€at from the Co-op with the 60% Monday discount offer

I've got a few more spends from last week to add too

goldfinches

Evening all, the weather has just broken here and the rain is now lashing against the windows so I've decided to change tomorrow's batch cook into home-made baked beans and brown rolls unless it brightens up overnight.

I only got as far as the MrTs on the corner today so bought some more little gem hearts, 90p, and some ys red chillies for 28p but have decided to make up some milk powder from stock rather than buy any more milk before Friday.

That makes my new totals

Main GC Total £174.41/£180
Baking Fund Total £13.39/£30
Bulk Buy Fund Total £32/£48

T-3 and counting!

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81953407#Comment_81953407

made for idiots? Who was that

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964767#Comment_81964767

don't beat yourself up … my april budget / spend went to the moon & back on artemis

cowboymum

Mores spends to declare;

£1.70 newspaper for FIL; £5.55 for beer and crips (post allotment!); 94p for reduced potatoes.

Total £8.19 bringing grand total to £587.52 / £620. Have a riverford box on order for Thursday. Will need a tin of sweetcorn for a stew I'm planning but I don't think I will need anything else.

Am planning on shopping on Thursday as this is my normal day but this will be counted in Mays budget

Suffolk_lass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979588#Comment_81979588

MFI - street slang name for the fitted kitchen people at the economy end of the market. They ceased trading at the start of the financial crisis at the end of 2008

Elizabeth49

Well, a combination of being poorly (twice) and not having an oven for two weeks meant that I went over budget this month.

Final totals £456.81/£425.00

Bulk fund £29.22/£40.00

At least the bulk fund came in under budget, £29.22 spent on on-offer laundry liquid and coffee pods.

So, I'm going to move onto May now and hope I can do better there.