October 2016 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

.Thanks elsiepac re the peanut butter. I do agree that 'JUST' peanuts isi best, but I tend to buy Sunpat when on offer - 2 x 700g for £5, as it has no palm oil, or Wholeearth - sustainable palm oil, but next time i'm gonna have a try at making my own, apparently its just ground peanuts. I find Meridian too expensive, as I do use a lot of the stuff.

FrugalinShropshire

Back from my Aldi/Morrison shop at £45.49. No YS but some good bargains for the winter store cupboard. I bought extra bleach, baked beans, pasta , longlife milk and pesto to squirrel away. OH's fave Baked crisps were £1! So I bought 3 weeks worth. Very pleased to have come in 8p under budget for the fortnight, yippeeeee!!!!!!

elsiepac

Ive just been looking at next months budget - it's going to be so tight!Not just grocery but everything. And then unless I can keep it really tight, I will be really screwed in December! So yeah...Having a little panic here!

To be positive, I've tried to plan a bit - bascally I need to stock up on cleaning products, including, annoyingly, dishwasher tablets. I use EcoZone for pretty much everything as it's vegan but it's not that available in the big SMs (I've seen a couple of bits in Asda before but not loads and Asda isn't near me.

So I went on BigGreenSmile.com which is normally the way I order my things - I do a big order every few months which gives free delivery too. Went through there, priced everything up and added to basket - it came to just over £40.

Then I went to Ocado, priced the same things up and due to various offers it came to £38. BUT I should have a £20 off £60 order, which means I can get £22 of essentially free stuff if i go via Ocado!

So I've put everything in my trolley and it's at £62.29 before discount, so £42.29. Ready for me to place the order on Wednesday.

5x Cauldron Original Tofu Block 396g £7.50
1x Flahavan's Organic Jumbo Oats 1kg £2.40
2x Napolina Chopped Tomatoes 4 x 400g Offer - Now £2, was £3.50 £4.00
1x Waitrose Love Life Bulgar Wheat 500g £1.10
1x Waitrose Love Life Quinoa 500g £3.29
2x Knorr Vegetable Stock Pot 4 x 28g Offer - Now £1, was £1.45 £2.00
1x Blue Dragon Dark Soy Sauce 375ml £1.99
3x Ecozone 3 in 1 Anti-Bacterial Multi Surface Cleaner 500ml Offer - Save 20%, was £3.29 £7.89
2x Ecozone 3 in 1 Bathroom Cleaner & Limescale Remover 500ml Offer - Save 20%, was £3.55 £5.68
2x Ecozone 3 in 1 Ocean Breeze Toilet Cleaner 750ml Offer - Save 20%, was £2.29 £3.66
2x Ecozone Daily Shower Cleaner Spray 500ml Offer - Buy 2 for £6 £6.00
1x Ecozone Enzymatic Drain Cleaning Sticks 12 per pack Offer - Save 1/3, was £5.99 £3.99
1x Ecozone Classic Dishwasher Tablets 72 per pack Offer - Save 20%, was £15.99 £12.79
Offer savings -£15.40
Total £62.29

I figured by getting all these basic building blocks as my "free" items (free because I would have spent the £40 on the same cleaning products from biggreensmile), it frees up the rest of my grocery budget for fresh stuff. I already have lots of grains here plus dried beans and some tins, and like ALL the herbs and spices!! So I think I've planned that pretty well.

Thoughts?

Oh and the drain cleaning stick things I'm trying for the first time - I have terrible trouble with the bathroom plugholes in the sink and bath - it takes about a month after having cleared them with unblocking stuff that they start to drain really slowly again. I hate the plughole stuff from Tesco as it's just nasty chemicals and like I said, lasts about a month for me. These sticks each last a month so this pack is 6 months worth of unblocking - the chemical stuff I've been buying is £6 a time unless on offer, so this should be a good investment. Hope they work!

Wysiwyg49

elsiepac wrote: »

Oh and the drain cleaning stick things I'm trying for the first time - I have terrible trouble with the bathroom plugholes in the sink and bath - it takes about a month after having cleared them with unblocking stuff that they start to drain really slowly again. I hate the plughole stuff from Tesco as it's just nasty chemicals and like I said, lasts about a month for me. These sticks each last a month so this pack is 6 months worth of unblocking - the chemical stuff I've been buying is £6 a time unless on offer, so this should be a good investment. Hope they work!

We have problems with our shower plughole mainly because of DDs lovely long hair!! Every month or so have to use a plunger and a customised knitting needle (end bent into a hook) to extract a horrible hair-berg the size of a guinea pig. :eek: Planning to try a stocking filter or something to stop them getting down there in the first place.

Back on groceries: £14 at butcher and £59.odd at Sainsb so I am a bit over budget but feeling OK with October's result.

This weeks meals:
One-pot chicken casserole and broccoli
Pork steaks with mustard mash and green beans
Chicken pie, potato wedges and peas
Spag bol and HM garlic bread
Chicken fricassee

Planning to make Hairy Bikers' sage and onion tear-n-share bread after watching Saturday Kitchen, looks delicious...and banana and Nutella muffins as have 2 very ripe bananas left from last week. Everyone eats the new fruit when I bring it in and leaves last week's in the bowl!!

See you all over in November...

Meekie

Several smallish shops in the last week so new total is £ 226.10/360- amazing. I had no idea I could spend so little and eat so well. I used to do a food shop online every week and spend £80-150. Thanks for helping me to see the light!

lynnejk

elsiepac wrote: »

................Oh and the drain cleaning stick things I'm trying for the first time - I have terrible trouble with the bathroom plugholes in the sink and bath - it takes about a month after having cleared them with unblocking stuff that they start to drain really slowly again.

I put a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda on each plug-hole, gently tip over about double that of white vinegar, leave for a few minutes and then slowly pour a little boiling water down to empty. I do it every week and, touch wood, don't seem to have any smells or problems

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

We have problems with our shower plughole mainly because of DDs lovely long hair!! Every month or so have to use a plunger and a customised knitting needle (end bent into a hook) to extract a horrible hair-berg the size of a guinea pig. :eek: ...

You can buy little silver plug-hole covers that stop most of hair going down with the water. Usually in the £ shops


Had another NSD here today :j


Hope you all have a super Tuesday
Lx

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yipee!! x

elsiepac

elsiepac wrote: »

Then I went to Ocado, priced the same things up and due to various offers it came to £38. BUT I should have a £20 off £60 order, which means I can get £22 of essentially free stuff if i go via Ocado!

So I've put everything in my trolley and it's at £62.29 before discount, so £42.29. Ready for me to place the order on Wednesday.

Firstly thank you for all the advices re my plug holes! I'm not sure what exactly is going on with them as it's a 90s build house and the people who lived there before me had exactly the same issues - they reckon these newer cheapy builds have narrower pipes which exacerbates any issues!

Anyway on the subject of my Ocado shop for tomorrow, my £20 off £60 voucher ran out but they've sent me a new one for £30 off £75, which is actually better as it's 40% off rather than 33%

So I'm going to add a further £13 of non perishables to the list and aim to only buy fresh stuff for the month of November. I'm thinking frozen peas and sweetcorn, pasta, olive oil maybe... as long as I don't waste it on stuff I won't use I should be fine and it's justified!

I don't want to buy veg from Ocado as very expensive so seems a waste when I could get it much cheaper.

allyro

Still under budget at the moment. Have to say that all the meal planning tips on here have helped though it's been hard convincing my other half to try it. Pretty sure for next month I can reduce it further.

[Deleted User]

£3.25 spent today, meaning I have £1.09 left of this months budget, to go 'till end of month. I don't really need anything, but it's really going to be tough for me to not spend anything. We shall see.