May 2026 Grocery Challenge

Sallyp2

popped to Tesco yesterday for a few bits and did a short shift on cards in sainsburys

shocked to notice that the majority of deals are chocolate & sweets & biscuits & crisps as well as fizzy drinks

in tesco a selection box of Fox's biscuits was £5.40 down to £2.70 on clubcard and the bb date was january 2027! Put it in my basket but put it back before checking out.

otb666

550 spent of 600 budget 2nd and 3rd shop of 5 week month. So looks like i have overshot again. I switched supermarkets to get hubby appetite to improve and it certainly worked but might have to revert back to aldi for a bit. We got some cheap lamb over Easter and we had it at weekend and made us both feel icky. Do not think we will bother again for a while as now we eat less meat when we do eat its hard to digest. I wont adjust budget up yet as hoping to be one less adult from July so should go down back to being within budget. Which will make a nice change. We spend half our budget on food and half on bills. So are not extravagant elsewhere for sure. Just got to put breaks on bank of mum and dad as well as been too generous there as well.

Greying_Pilgrim

I went non-food shopping to home bargins today and ended up spending some money on food items (they're not always in stock in our branch, so you have to pounce when you can), plus I spent some money in Sainsbugs too, so I had better fess up!

hb spends was on dried fruit and nuts, 'Jarlick', and a tin of condensed mushroom soup which came to £7 and a bit of change. In S, I only went in for a cucumber 😵‍💫but ended up stocking up on some frozen things - they had 3for2 on frozen fish fingers and pieces, and I got some paneer at n*ctar price, some frozen veg, eggs and some pasta. Spends in S were £15.95, so total food spend today was £23.13. I've updated my siggie figgie, and given we're one week in to May, and I've spent well over half my budget, I don't think I'll be under this month…… I mean, never say never, but……….let's be realistic here ☹️

Greying X

Soontobeoap

I am in shock. Just been to Sainsbugs. Granted I bought 3 packs of lactose free cathedral city cheese as I had nectar reduced offer. 3 packs scampi ( not had for long time as £6.00 for 2 of us) on 3 for 2 offer and toilet roll as we prefer theirs. The rest was branded bits and bobs but it cost £109.00!! 😱 I had been doing sooo well. Bread and iffits ( as my DHs gran would have said) for the rest of the month! I still havnt got anything for DS and family at the weekend!

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990034#Comment_81990034

Joins Soontobeoap on 'Bread & iffits' for rest of t'month……. 😕👍

Greying X

TravelCrystal

sorry @Elizabeth49 about your cat, we had to have ours put to sleep last month. I know how you feel. We won’t be having another one, it’s too upsetting 😢

cowboymum

Few spends today - Tesco £16.21 and sainsburys £1.75, riverford £23.95

Also.bought some supplements from local health shop - would normally put these in another budget but it's run out. So an extra £14.80.

So total now £252.91 / £550

K9sandFelines

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81984957#Comment_81984957

Do you have a recipe please? I have malt extract still in the fridge. I get mine from Am@zon. I tried before and it didn't work, or at least didn't taste like the ones in the shop (which is what I'm used to). I'll have to adapt if your recipe includes egg.

Nelliegrace

@K9sandFelines

Home made malt loaf won’t be like commercial malt loaf with these ingredients. (They may vary, a different company is making it now.)

Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin (B3), Thiamin (B1)), Water, Raisins (14%), Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup (Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Colour: E150c), Maize Starch, Malted Barley Flour (5%), Barley Malt Extract (4.4%), Vegetable Fat (Rapeseed, Palm), Rice Starch, Salt, Yeast, Preservative: Calcium Propionate.

I use a Bara Brith, tea loaf, recipe and replace some of the sugar with malt extract.

https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2022/11/old-fashioned-malt-loaf.html

Greying_Pilgrim

That's interesting that the recipe you've linked to Nelliegrace is broadly similar the one I have in my recipe index, which I've credited as coming from bbc good food - although I notice now that it's not the recipe that pops up first, and is ascribed to Mr P Hollywood, baker - but it is the same as the one that is posted on bbc middle east.

I only made the recipe once (I think) - probably because of 2 factors (that were my "mistakes" not necessarily down to the recipe). I suspect, but can't remember - that I didn't use muscovado sugar - I probably would used granulated, and that the cake didn't go dark brown, oooey-gooey 🙄(silly me), plus the Lavender and Lovage recipe only uses 200g of dried fruit, whereas the bbc version gives 300g of dried fruit - and I suspect I have long run out of the capacity in my grocery budget to put over half a bag of sultanas into a cake (my bad). The 'Tea Loaves' recipes in my (modern-ish - only 30 yrs old 😱) bero cookbook are both far more modest with the fruit content (175g).

I'm thinking now, I should revisit the malt loaf/tea loaf/bara brith recipe, but use far less fruit - after all, thinking about it, it is the squishy, stickiness of the malt/brown sugar that makes malt loaf, not necessarily the fruit in it 🤔 My mum was Welsh, and I remember Bara brith being wheeled out if we went to visit my aunty - it was always wrapped in butter papers to keep it moist 🥰 My mum rarely made bara brith, welsh cakes were her goto. And yes, 'at home' when I was a kid, we had the commercial version of malt loaf too - I seem to recall it was 'quite cheap' - although never lasted very long……..

Food memories 🥰

Greying X