December 2016 Grocery Challenge

oceanspirit

Made a batch of this favourite of ours this morning. It freezes well and is scrummy.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/members/lilajessies-carrot-and-almond-soup

kkffoo

We took our daughter to get a dental filling in a small neighbouring town, and anticipating festive parking horror, planned a fly-by drop off, with hubby leaving us to try out the slightly out of town Áldi (with reportedly large car-park).
To our amazement, there was a free van sized parking spot right next to the dentists. So hubby decided to walk to Áldi instead, with me texting our progress so he knew how much time he had.
It all worked out, the layout was identical to our local shop, so he found everything without difficulty and arrived back just as we were sorting admin. So now I have my bread flour and washing up sponges, and other basics (yeah!) and he enjoyed his walk.

However, traffic was a drag getting back out, and I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer busyness of the scene...is pre-Christmas shopping panic contagious? My list is ticked, I need not participate...and yet it was hard not to get sucked in and exhausted by it somehow.

Áldi £4.28
£137.62/£273.08

Franalamadingdong

Thrift, when it's a choice of losing sanity or losing budget, you made the right choice!

Dosh, I reworked things and now I only need rolos, 4 pack is £1 at Tes of Co so we'll have to head there at some point over the weekend, but not today! So it's another NSD.

Kkffoo, it is so hard to not get sucked in to everyone else's panic. I'm really calm this year. Everything is sorted over Christmas for work and home and thankfully no one's been a panicky puss near me this year. Usually they're all freaking out and I get worked up before remembering that it's already all in hand.

PennyGrabber

Aaaaaaand relax! I've now finished work for Christmas. I say finished - I'm a teacher, and I'll be in work on Monday and Tuesday, but with no children, so it doesn't count!!!

Loads of fruit and veg going to waste as I left, so I took 30 apples, 30 mini carrots and a few bananas. Also, we had a party after the children left, for our secret Santa thing. The lovely ladies who organised it left the leftover food on the side for me - 10 packs of crisps, 2 dip selections, part-eaten, a pannetone, and on top of that, I had some of that food for lunch too!!

I'm off to morries in a mo to look at ys and Xmas meat, as a treat for getting through this week!!

PG x

Ps - I also had breadsticks, grapes and cherry tomatoes left over from work earlier this week! What a great week!!

thriftwizard

Phew, it's not as bad as I thought! When I located the receipts, although I knew I'd spent just over £140 (which was what caused me to panic) £40 of that was on much-needed clothing & a present for OH... and I spent just under £60 at the market this morning, so I'm off the hook & have added £160 to my total. And basically, the festive food & drink is all in now, except the bird itself, which I'm picking up next Friday. I picked up a massive bag of YS sprouts in W8rose during the week, which were prepped straight away & popped into the freezer, so I'm further ahead of the game than I have ever been before.

What DID hammer the budget, though, was having to buy two small, cheap polytunnels to keep my chickens and bantams in during the 'flu scare, as there wasn't a tarp to be had within 10 miles of here. I'm hoping to be able to use at least one of them to grow veg in next summer, but I could have done without having to buy them just before Christmas!

lynnejk

Evening folks

Butcher order today was £49.80 which comes out of my bulk buy savings, leaving me with a 79p over the £100 start fund :j

Need quite a bit of shopping over the weekend as I have run stocks quite low. This meant I was able to give the fridge a thorough clean and defrost and clean the freezers. Lovely to start C and the new year all clean and tidy

Hope you all have a super weekend and don't get too stressed about C
Lx

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yipee!!xx

PennyGrabber

PennyGrabber wrote: »

I'm off to morries in a mo to look at ys and Xmas meat, as a treat for getting through this week!!

Well, that didn't happen! My mum rang and we had a good old gossip for 45 mins, then I got into the car and remembered my headlight is out, so I had a frozen cocktail instead! Saved myself some money, and gained another nsd to boot! Only actually had one spend day since the 5th, so I make that 11 nsds so far this month!!:T:D

Menu today - breakfast will be cereal or porridge, lunch may well be leftover dips with free toms and carrots, and I'm hoping partner will take me out for dinner (long story), but if not then I'll have something from the fridge or freezer - plenty in!!

Hope you all have a super Saturday!

PG x

Franalamadingdong

Love that you chose cocktails instead penny! Lol.

£1 for me today. Got my rolos! Well, dad got them as they were £1 and he owed me £1 from the cider (already deducted from my shopping bill). Normally I didn't keep track of spending for mum and dad, but as I'm trying to keep an eye on my spends they don't mind.

PennyGrabber

Went shopping to for Xmas bits and pieces. Went to t€sc0, m0rries, @$da and $ain$bobs! Was mostly looking for presents, but of course got more xmas food too. No idea how much as yet - need to go through the receipts to work it out. The bonus is that partner bought the meat as planned, but also some cheese biscuits, some cheese, and some other bits and bobs. Everything we have will feed us for ages, and should help me with meals well into 2017. I need to be careful with what I eat as of the new year though, as I'm 40 in April, and I want to be slimmer for that...

PG x