April 2026 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944163#Comment_81944163

Since both packets got the same weight (497g each), I suspect the “tolerance” is either on the supermarket supplier’s scales or on your home ones @Suffolk_lass . Have you tested your home scales with other known weighted products? (IIRC, commercial scales do have to be calibrated every-so-often. I’m not sure if it is a legal requirement or if it’s just an auditor’s nice-to-have, although my brain is saying “weights and measures regulations”…)

Also, thank you for the new recipe index @Suffolk_lass. It is easy to use.

I have my first shops of April to declare: £2.99 at a local greengrocers for a 4kg sack of large onions, and 96p in Sainsbugs. DH went to Sainsbugs to take advantage of a Nectar offer, buying 10x1kg bags of coarse bulgar wheat for £1.77 each, down from £2.35. That’s 4-5 months supply for us. The Bulk Fund paid for the bulgar wheat, but while he was there he also purchased a hand of bananas (78p), a loose carrot (12p) and a loose mushroom (12p). Both of the latter were purchased because we had vouchers for extra Nectar points. He spent 24p on things we‘ll eat and made 80 points (equivalent to 40p).

This brings our GC spend to £3.95/£180.

L!dl kindly gave me a Spend-£40-Get-£5-Off voucher, available tomorrow. I’m struggling to write a shopping list that’ll get me over the threshold. I suspect I’ll wander around, adding things up on my phone, and when I run out of shopping list, pick up cheese or chocolate to make up the balance.

• Pip

Elizabeth49

Hi, I had a lot going on and lost count for March, but I'm back to try again in April. I've now retired so I'm hoping that I'll have more time to shop and cook.

£425.00 for the month plus £40.00 bulk fund.

LotsOfTea

I spent a grand total of £3.87 today on a pack of red peppers, a cucumber, 2 bags of onions, 2 bags of potatoes, 2 bags of carrots and 2 packs of broccoli. I'll be doing some batch cooking tomorrow to use some of them up and get them stashed in the freezer.

£3.87/£300

goldfinches

Evening all. Thanks to @JingsMyBucket for the new thread and to @Suffolk_lass for the new recipe spreadsheet.

I'm here to try again, I got very close to staying within my budget last month so am hopeful for this month. However, there are several birthdays coming up including my own so I'm thinking about adding all that expenditure to the treat fund which is normally for coffees, tickets and eating out etc.

Could you put me down for £180 for the main GC, £30 Baking Fund and £48 Bulk Buy Fund please.

That covers all food, household items and basic toiletries for one moderately active vegetarian woman.
The Baking Fund covers baking for a group of 12 on all 5 Wednesdays (9 omnivores, 1 vegetarian, 1 vegan and 1 coeliac vegan.)
The Bulk Buy Fund is to snap up multiple non-perishables to stash in the cupboard when they are on offer.

Good luck to everyone.

Sallyp2

been reading the last couple months threads and had target spends but too disorganised to track spends and update as i do a few adhoc shops!

aim is £200 1 april to 30 april - everything is going up this month - its relentless

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944163#Comment_81944163

funny you should mention pack weights … i sometimes weigh fish items like smoked salmon etc Always under the pack weight esp in Sains!

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944962#Comment_81944962

if you can't spend £40 at lidl to save £5 ignore the voucher and bin it. The spend thresholds are designed to get you to spend more for one person`s benefit - Lidl's

its liberating ignoring the marketing coupons - don't get sucked into thinking you've saved £ if you had to buy extras to reach the limit

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81945496#Comment_81945496

Oh, I know, @Sallyp2 It's not a saving, if you're spending money that you wouldn't otherwise spend. 😁

I just want to ensure that we get everything we need/want and get as close above £40 as possible, to maximize the bang while minimizing the buck. I find it harder to spend £40 in one shop, since I got out of the habit of shopping monthly (which we always did prior to the Pandemic). Given that I'll be making chocolates for Easter gifts, I'll include the purchases for those in this spend, even though it means the Christmas Fund will have to reimburse the GC purse later.

• Pip

cowboymum

Signing up for April £620 total

This is for 4 adults, including Riverford veg box and dietary things for me (GF, dairy free). We mainly eat vegetarian /vegan and my mum has given me bulk amounts of GF flour so that will help.

Already spent £150 so far on some bulk buys from Hodmedods and grape tree.

Greying_Pilgrim

PipneyJane - I'm with you on the difficulty of spending £40 in one shop anymore - I even struggle with the £30 in Sains for the additional n*ctar points.

I have been shopping today. We had to take DH to a hospital appt, so visited the nearby huge MrT whilst we waited. I bought some of the Easter veg (Saxon variety potatoes and brown onions). I did also get some YS'd grapes for 88p rather than £2 😱I also dropped in at L1dl, and bought more Easter veg pots, carrots, parsnips, shallots and a swede - all for 60p 😁 The carrots and parsnips were reduced further to 4p - is that to match….. M0rr1sons? I then went to fArmf00ds; olive oil and a 12 tray of plum (meant to get chopped) tomatoes was the bulk of the spend, but I also got some dates, pasta sauce, tinned beans and they had malt-ezer bunnies for 29p ea. Aren't they 50p each elsewhere? In total, on food I spent £19.54. which is 😱 for the first day of the month, but vfm with what I got. I have already updated my siggie figgie.

Greying X