October 2016 Grocery Challenge

lynnejk

Evening folks

Had another NSD here today :j

Hope you all have a thrifty Thursday
Lx

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yipee!! xx

XSpender

Ran out of everything last night so quick trip to co-op for milk, GF bread, yogurt for DH and something for tea - £12.26 spent.

I went to Aldi first thing this morning to get what I could and planned to got to Asda to get the rest. I haven't been to Aldi in months and was impressed that I could get everything put pine nuts, I even got GF good quality sausages I didn't bother with Asda and will either miss the pine nuts out of the recipe or pick them up at Sains at the weekend as we will want some beer too and DH likes to choose his own. £75.89 spent and I got loads of meat and fruit and veg.

My total now stands at £362.63/£500 and as well as the beer and pine nuts I will do a final shop of the month next weekend as we don't get paid until the 31st but should come in comfortably under budget for the first time in forever!

elsiepac

Hi everyone

Sorry I've been a bit absent.

This month I came in part way and set myself a grocery budget of £80 to last me until the 25th Oct as my payday is 26th and my new budget month begins.

Stupidly, I haven't been adding up as I went along, but I did keep all my receipts. I've just added them up and found that I've spent £78.38!!! Caught it just in time I think!
It was interesting making myself look back and go through the receipts (as usually I'd just write it off and have no idea what I'd spent but start over again next month!). There were quite a few small spends, veg top ups here and there, but these were not as bad as I thought they would be - maybe coming to £15 or so. I had one big shop of just under £30 where I know I bought extra to what was on my list, but some of it was store cupboard and frozen and I still have it. I need to stop my hoarding mentality! Also, there was a £14 spend in H&B on various tofu, some veggie sausages I haven't tried before (Dee's Traditional Vegan Sausages - not impressed, I would never buy again! Specially when Linda M ones are vegan and like half the price and much nicer!), and some Tofurkey for sandwiches. I still have some left of this, enough for one more sandwich I think.
There were quite a few treaty little spends - £3 or £4 doesn't seem much at the time, but it's money wasted!

And almost worst of all, on my unplanned trips, I realised I bought plastic bags on EIGHT occasions! Ridiculous! Need to remember to keep a bag in my car at all times and not just take one on a planned shop! What a waste of 40p. I do reuse them, but still.

So I now have 6 full days to get through... on essentially £1.62! I'm well stocked on previously batch cooked portions in the freezer, including butternut and spinach dahl, bean and pepper chilli, African peanut stew and Harissa aubergine and chickpea stew. I also have some vegan sausages and I think 2 vegan "chicken" breaded fillet things. I have some vegetables in the fridge, but not sure how much...

After all that, I've just realised I'll need loo roll before then, plus shower gel. So I will definitely be going slightly over. Was hoping to have that £1.62 for veggie top ups!

Plan (to be updated)
Thu 20 Sep
Lunch: I have a store bought soup I had bought on offer
Dinner: Leftover mushroom and lentil marinara with courgetti (I bought tons of courgettes reduced the other day and they are no weight watchers points so I use instead of pasta! Plus, I love them!)
Fri 21 Sep
Lunch: The other store bought soup I bought on offer
Dinner: Butternut risotto (using up half a butternut squash from the fridge) - I'll go light on the rice and bulk out with the butternut so it's less points for me on Weight Watchers! :rotfl:
Sat 22 Sep
Lunch: Tofurkey and cucumber sandwich using rolls from the freezer)
Dinner: tbc
Sun 23 Sep
Lunch: tbc
Dinner: Possibly breaded Vegan Quorn fillet with roasted potatoes, and hopefully broccoli if I have some left, with gravy
Mon 24 Sep
Lunch: Meal out with family (my mum and dad are just back from a 5 week holiday in the States which they started in Washington, then did the whole of the proper old route 66, incorporated a couple of nights in Vegas, and ended up whale watching in Monterey Bay, driving up the Pacific Highway and finishing up in San Francisco! So we have a lot to hear about and luckily it's my day off work!)
Dinner: If needed, it'll be something light, like a quick veggie soup - tbc
Tue 25 Sep
Lunch: tbc
Dinner: tbc

LesP50

So spent 32.74 + 4.07 = 36.81 - 1st week, nothing 2nd as on holiday 25.74 3rd week and 28.40 today, all in Lid1 or Ald1 so total so far 90.95 pretty pleased with that for my 1st month , don't get paid til 31st so still need to buy for a few days towards the end of next week

thriftwizard

I've managed to stay out of the shops this week, but I know I'm going to exceed my target because I'll need to re-stock tomorrow and again next Friday, and our month runs until the last working day, i.e. Mon. 31st. I've stuck rigidly to my meal-plans and have made even more then usual; almost all meals are cooked from scratch round here, including breakfast, but I even woke my sourdough starter up this week and made bread! (As DD1 works in an "artisan" bakery shop & gets a decent staff discount, I don't normally need to do this.)

However, despite my failure to stick to October's target, there are a satisfactory number of festive items stashed in odd corners of the house & garage. So December should be a doddle!

pamsdish

£30 on bits and bobs, should just about get me to end of the month.

lynnejk

Evening everyone

Had another NSD today :j Definitely need milk t/m though

Hope you all have a frugal Friday
Lx

elsiepac

Bought YS "Finest" potatoes at 69p.
New total is £79.07 but still need loo roll and shower gel so will go over a small amount.
Lots of veggies in fridge so hopefully won't need to buy more but we will see. I eat a lot of veggies!

Hope everyone has had a lovely day and yay for a FAB FRIDAY tomorrow!

LC x

freyasmum

Well, we are currently at £246.18, which is £46 over what we would have expected at this time in the month. HOWEVER, bulk buying has meant that we don't have to buy any cleaning supplies and we have enough dinner meals to last until the 29th.

We have another £63.82 to spend this month before we hit budget - and are currently a colossal £177.44 under last months spend :eek:

Currently at 1,050.81/3650, and only in the third month!