May 2026 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

No worries @PipneyJane, I got you. 🙂

I decided to start my month early because I went shopping yesterday and don’t want to shop again until Monday or Tuesday so this covers the start of the month. 

£28.43 at Morrisons for 2 packs of asparagus (89p each), 2 packs of cherry vine tomatoes (57p each), bananas (88p), accidentally grabbed organic bananas (1.80 !!), 2 sets of Laughing Cow triangles (1.00 each), butter (1.99), cottage cheese (1.60), Activia yoghurt (2.00), Fage 5% Greek yoghurt (4.75), 500g house brand Greek yoghurt (1.15), 2 pts milk (1.29), ramen, and snack bars (4.75).

£21.16 at Lidl for apples (89p), blueberries (1.19), mixed dried cranberries & raisins (1.39), various fruit yoghurts, pretzel sticks, potato sticks, paprika peanuts, a dozen eggs (2.59), 2x canned mackerel (1.98), and a chicken samosa for my lunch. 

Total £49.59 / £350 spent. £300.41 remaining. 

Morrisons has had some excellent vegetable sales lately. That said, I was rather distracted while shopping and had that banana faux pas along with accidentally picking up unsalted butter instead of salted. Phooey! I did pick up another 2,395 More points yesterday and I'll finish this month's challenges with an additional 3,000.

Greying_Pilgrim

I need to amend my May spends by +66p. I wandered through M&$ today, looking to see if there were any brown baggie 'waste' bananas (there weren't), and spotted a bag of YS'd red onions for 66p. I know L1dl have had them in the PoTW for 68p (just last week), but we're headed into salad season, and I prefer red onions in salads, so I figured they were worth it. I won't be starting to use them until May though, so it's fine to come out of the May budget. I don't routinely shop in M&$, so I hadn't realised that they'd gone to selling their bananas either in a pre-banded clutch (for £1??) or individually for 18p each (don't Ald1 do that too?).

Anyway, no bananas, but red onions bought.

Greying X

ArgyllLady

£200 a month for May

First time attempting this and new to the forum so hopefully getting it right on the formatting!

I am starting with a £200 a month budget and I’m not sure how appropriate that will be - could be massively overgenerous, could be fairly tight. I was initially thinking more like £100 but conscious that I am also intending to start making rather than buying lunches so may actually see an initial increase so have given more flexibility for the first month.

Particularly want to focus on using what I have rather than buying something for dinner without checking cupboards/freezer and avoiding purchasing interesting things to bake or cook with just because it sounds like a fun project. Current intention is to stick with my local grocery store which is all organic and more expensive, but if unable to stick to budget there will go further afield for the supermarkets. My month runs from 26th of the month and so far have spent £13.79, all on stocking up on items running out.

Elizabeth49

£435.00 for May please.

My month runs from 30th April - 29th May and my budget includes all food and household items for two adults and one cat.

I did think about breaking the budget down into food/non-food/pet, but decided that I'd only give myself a headache trying to keep account of it all.

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81983148#Comment_81983148

agree - the food / non food / pet spend tracking muddled me right up x

cowboymum

Did so much shopping yesterday at different places did actually manage to give myself a headache! But most monthly stuff now done hurrah!

Tesco: £91.45 (signed up for free trial of club card plus so this was after 10% discount) plus £6.50.

Sainsburys: £27.15

Lidl: £24.43

Grape tree: £2.89

Total: £176.88 / £550

Greying_Pilgrim

Spends to own up to. I did a 'sort of' weekly shop today. I have signed up for the L1dl app, so needed to shop and claim my 'freebies' and we're out of the ordinary stuff, like bread, coffee and apples and stuff like that. In total I spent £44.38 today, across L1dl, Sains and h0mebargins. I got British asparagus as my 'signing up' vegetable offer in L1dl, otherwise the season will have passed without me having tasted so much as a morsel of the stuff. I did get some YS'd apples today.

I have updated my siggie figgie - which is already looking perilous, considering we're on day one, never mind week one of the new month…….. 😕

Greying X

JingsMyBucket

Budgets updated to here.

Welcome @ArgyllLady !

ArgyllLady

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81983648#Comment_81983648

thank you :)

Blackcats

I'm not sure how I managed to not post during April but anyway I'm back for May. I've tallied up how many meals I need to make at home in May as we will have a few days away (different budget) a planned meal out (different budget) and some home cooked frozen meals to use up.

£300 for May please