May 2026 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82011198#Comment_82011198

I do feel considerably better, thanks @Sallyp2 . I was admitted with cellulitis in my right hand, which was very slow to respond to antibiotics, so they had to put me on IV ones. Now, I can move and bend my fingers and flex my wrist. Most of the swelling has gone down although I still have a lump where whatever-insect-it-was bit me. I guess, I’m about 80% of the way back to normal.

• Pip

Blackcats

glad you are feeling better PIP and hope that your final 20% of va va voom returns soon.

Sallyp2

Doing HH maths on a hot & sweaty bank hol! Am removing pet food / treats and toiletries from budget. New adjusted total £198.18

• seems Ms Dog & Ms Cat are costing me £80-£100 per month in food, treats etc. Dog groom is on top!
• toiletries need an allowance which can carry over as my menopausal face needs a quality face cream but Clarins is out of budget
• petrol day to day needs an allowance

Spend at co-op Friday £50.95 for bank hol beer, ice creams, chocolate, crisps, fruit, 4x rtc chicken fillets and some other bits

New total £249.13 / £310 = £60.87 rem until 31 May

TravelCrystal

@Sallyp2 when we had the cat that was under a separate budget as is fuel and toiletries I use for myself. DH buys his own. Friends on here include different things in their budget. When we are on holiday I allow £10 per person per meal when we are out, because I’m tight 🤭 all other food and wine we drink is included in this budget. Some friends have an ‘entertainment budget’ I believe.
I have finished on the May post and continuing on to June as my delivery tomorrow will be mostly June food. I have ordered quite a bit so I don’t have to shop for a while and for the £2 charge it’s worth it occasionally

T.C

cowboymum

Well I failed spectacularly on curbing spending on holiday so am just going to state £50 for extra holiday food (luckily I have a little slush fund for holidays so the extra came out of that!)

Shopping over last few days since back at home;

• Sainsburys £12.71
• Aldi £9.07
• Lidl £1.97
• Tesco £6.32

Total £507.11 / £550

Going shopping on Thursday but that will be next months shopping

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

Hope you are surviving the heatwave. I have a small spend to declare from Monday: £4.13 spent in L!dl by my DH. He went in for spring onions (69p) and came back with those, some crème fraiche (75p) and a 480ml tub of Deluxe Vanilla Ice Cream (£2.69). I can’t begrudge him it really, but I wish the ice cream hadn’t all disappeared in one session.

This brings our total spend to £155.60/£184 leaving £28.80 for the rest of the month.

• Pip

Elizabeth49

Hi, nipped out to the Co-*p today, lettuce £1.15, 2 snack pizzas £1.14, TV magazine 0.85p, bread £1.45, total £4.59.

So declaring for May at £367.95/£375.00

Quite happy with that as I was overbudget for March and April.

thriftwizard

Oh dear, I've been woefully lackadaisical whilst we had the family here & have come very close to losing track altogether, not to mention missing things here! The weekend was lovely, but went mightily haywire catering-wise, with people having to change plans at the last moment due to missing roofers (DS1 & co) house viewings (DS2 & co) and transport difficulties (DS3) so my carefully laid menu plans had to be rearranged constantly. But we had a lovely time, albeit without DS3; once everyone had wandered off again, I realised that we could basically get through nearly all of this week just eating up the leftovers - so no cooking in this heat! I will need to buy a few small items tomorrow to do a stir-fry, to use up the last of the chicken & quite a lot of veg, but that won't break the bank. Overall I spent £144.88, taking me up to £418.41, if I count Saturday's Thai take-away as either Family Contingency or Entertainments. (To be fair, I have counted beer, lager, tonic etc. into the total for once; that's usually under Entertainments & I don't think I'd bought any since Christmas! When they were all at home I allowed £50 per month.)

Friday is payday so I should probably start June's "allowance" there.

cowboymum

Spent a further £28.60 at Tesco - impromptu dinner for sons and friends (they eat a vast amount it seems).

And another £26.63

Total £558.34 / £550 - I'll sign off here for the month with my overspend and head to June!

K9sandFelines

Just reporting in to say I've been updating my signature and keeping a tally of spends, but just haven't had chance to post each one.

I'm not doing too badly but could be better.

I've bulk bought some dehydrated soya chunks recently one bag for now one for store, and soya mince. So that should see me through definitely til the end of this month's challenge; and a few spices and bits from the local world foods store