April 2026 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

Morning all, I've spent a very productive morning icing the cupcakes and muffins I made yesterday. I made this Chocolate Banana Muffins recipe for the omnivores and this Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake recipe for the vegans and then split the mixture in half so that I could make some cupcakes with ordinary flour and some with gluten free flour. That worked very well except that I guesstimated the cooking time for that size cake and didn't get it quite right so they're a bit squidgier than I'd like but they still taste good. I made the full amount of the vegan icing in Mary's recipe and although each cake and muffin has a generous dollop on top I've still got about half of it left so that's gone into the freezer for another day.

These are the chocolate banana muffins with bunnies and carrots sprinkles and chicks and eggs sprinkles both from Mr T's at cc prices this week.

These are the dairy-free chocolate cupcakes with Get Baked vegan sprinkles.

Apologies for not remembering to snap the photos until after I'd boxed them all up. I didn't want to move them around again because they're all safely wedged ready to be carried on a walk.

Greying_Pilgrim

More spends to own up to 🙄 £3.81 spent in h0me bargins. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds and cheats ginger. I have amended my siggie figgie.

I will spend the rest of the evening out.of.the.shops. 😳

Greying X

Finstickle

First one was a big one!

I needed some items I know Asda never has and also wanted to get some bits for Easter so did a Tesco shop last night.

Receipt started at £121.96 but came down by £24.20 due to Clubcard for a final value of £97.76, much higher than I have had in a long time!. However when I look it was clearly Easter chocolate - £17.45 and a bottle of gin - £21, all of which was actually on clubcard offers so could have cost another £12.75.

There were a couple of other larger spends - a big bag of lentils for £4.20 and Halo Top ice-creams as a treat for £5. We are away staying with friends next week so although we will contribute / need some bits it should be a very low week to offset.

Current Value:

£97.78/£350

otb666

400 spent of 600 budget 2nd of 4 weeks. Think I will have to go to aldi for next 2 weeks rather than waitrose. And yes I have changed next month to a 5 week rather than this month as did not want to go horrifically over budget. I shall shop on friday instead of Wednesday the last week.

goldfinches

Evening all.

I didn't do any food shopping today partly because our local M&S food hall is closed for some reason, a friend pointed out that there might be quite a lot of reduced items when it reopens so I might go past there for my morning walk tomorrow just in case.

Meanwhile I have just put in my order for this fortnight's Riverford box and chose the Quick Organic Veg Box which has Carrots (650g), Wild garlic (100g), Cauliflower (x1),Purple sprouting broccoli (350g), Butterhead Lettuce (x1), Tomatoes (480g), Asparagus (200g) and Chestnut Mushrooms (200g) for £21.95.

That makes my current totals

GC main challenge £21.95/£180
Baking Fund £0/£30
Bulk Buy Fund £0/£48

I am planning to make hot cross buns this Friday so will need to check the ingredients against stores tomorrow and make a short list for anything that's missing, otherwise I plan to finish up the cauliflower, cabbage, cheese and eggs in the fridge along with the end of a packet of basmati rice for tomorrow and lunch on Friday.

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81945782#Comment_81945782

how you finding riverford now the min spend has gone up from £15 to £20

JingsMyBucket

Budgets updated up to here.

cowboymum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81946733#Comment_81946733

Hi @Sallyp2 - as I'm cooking and buying for 4 adults, our spend has always been more than the minimum, on average about £40 a week (we get through a lot of veg!). I did notice that I could add chicken carcasses on top of the veg box last week and you used to have to spend £15 on meat to get it delivered so was quite pleased with that (£4 for them, loads of meat on them and it made chicken casserole plus lots of stock for soup).

More massive spends to declare today - Sainsburys £83.83 - this included a side of salmon for £10 which will do 2 meals; 2l of EV olive oil (on offer with nectar so worked out £7.10 per litre - so expensive these day); several bags of the cheap veg; lots of tins and a couple of easter eggs for my adult children :-)

Also Riverford £40.80 so total spend £233.55. very much hoping that I will only need to spend a little before next Thursday for milk and possibly fruit (plus a cheeky bottle of wine for Easter?!).

Planning on making hot cross buns today and possibly another loaf of bread as the oven will be on. Fridge and freezer are now bursting at the seams!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs

Spends to declare. Thursday is my "normal" shopping day, so spending today isn't out of the ordinary, but given how money has been leaking from my purse this week…… 🫤 I spent;

Ald1 - £8.06

L1dl - £17.11

Sains - £3.58

Al's was for some onions, garlic and Saxon tatties from the promo (they also had Kingsman tatties - same varieties as T3sc0s), and then some lunch snacks for LG when they return to school.

Lil's was more a 'normal' shop - porridge oats, bread/baps, milk, a bottle of wine and some hot chocolate (for holiday).

Sains was for some Osprey tatties (they had Elland too, Lils had Melody and Elland), ans then sea salt and a cucumber which were the only 'useful' options on my n*ectar offers this week 🙄

A total of £28.75 spent.

Greying X

Soontobeoap

I have just done another shop for salad stuff, baking potatoes and cold meat for lunch tomorrow when I am feeding 10. Also bought ice lollies and some lemonade. The cheap veg at Aldi was limited to 4 items per person so I got a swede and carrots = 4p each and a bag of white potatoes and a bag of white onions for 8p each. I wanted to get a 8p clove of garlic but will try and get in there tomorrow if I have time. £38.51 spent today.