December 2017 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

trifle-wist wrote: »

Spends so far of £29.74, including this week's big shop in Aldi for £14.62. All I need now is to get hold of tahini for a dressing but at around £2 I'm not sure I can justify it!

Tahini lasts forever and £2 is nothing for a jar that will probably last you about 6 months. That's about 33p/month. A great return on investment, I say!

K.Mack

Hi everyone,
Been a busy week with a visitor and us going away for a couple of days.
Bit mad at hubby for buying things we didn't need at sainsburys on Sunday AND didn't keep receipt so he spent 18 pound 'something!' The things I needed would have come to less than a tenner! :mad:
So going to put new month total to 94.00,leaving 56.00 until 28th December.

[Deleted User]

trifle-wist wrote: »

All I need now is to get hold of Tahini for a dressing but at around £2 I'm not sure I can justify it!

I find Tahini too strong, personally, so when I make houmous, I substitute it for peanut butter. Tastes better in my opinion, not sure if it would work in your dressing.

Been living out of stores. Spent £1 on some dairy free spread. Still have lots of meals in freezer and a ton of fruit. Gonna make some dips, coleslaw and some soup. Just really need to buy cucumber & cabbage and I am sorted 'till Monday. Don't think I have ever spent so little in the first week and been so stocked - mustn't speak too soon, mind. Have updated sig.

EDIT: just noticed this. If anyone knows of any charities that would be able to benefit from this http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/aldi-offers-christmas-eve-leftover-13984791

Highland_Fling

Hi everyone,
spent another £10 today bringing total to £35.
Asked my sister to bring me a steak pie from the butcher. Usually would make my own but don't have the energy at the moment so went for the easy option.
Will also make lentil soup tomorrow and vegetable soup using leftover veg in fridge. Thank goodness for my soup maker. Love it, just switch on and wait for buzzer.

K.Mack

RedFraggle wrote: »

Also spent £32 on rat food Saturday. Didn't really need it but was attending a rat show (yep, they exist) and rat rations were there and it saved me £10 postage by ordering for collection. Reckon I've spent £70 of my £400 already!

How have I never heard of a rat show?! I've had rats for years! Love the rat ration stuff too.

JingsMyBucket

Happy Friday folks. A few spends to report:

DECEMBER 8th
€6.40 yesterday for pork chops, bananas and some cheese snacks.

I never did make it to Lidl yesterday. I firmly put that notion into the !!!! It Bucket. There was too much stuff to do before leaving today.

TODAY
£15.30 for some Scottish wares at the outdoor market straight outside King's Cross/St. Pancras station. We picked up Scottish cheddar, a log of blood pudding, and a haggis bridie (it's like a turnover stuffed with haggis).

£13.26 at Waitrose for beer for OH, savoury crackers, a greeting card and some ibuprofen for me.

We also collected our Boots and Holland & Barrett orders this evening after buying ourselves warm pyjamas in Debenham's. We're going back out tomorrow to get more clothes and food/Boots stock up shopping done. Final stock up on the perishables will be Sunday morning and afternoon before heading back.

Totals so far:

€49.58 / €350.00 for groceries
£95.20 / £200 London stocking up fund
1 NSD

starting_again_in_the_sun

Spent 31.42 € on Thursday across 2 shops, included a birthday cake for OH and various treats. Think I will have a separate treat budget next month!

Have about 110€ left of our budget, think we can do it! Hoping to go to IKEA tomorrow which will mean 12€ on meatballs but that does 6 meals so not too bad.

Will try to do meal plan later, hoping that minestrone soup and 3 bean chilli will mostly sort out this week!

thriftwizard

Hmm, this is not going brilliantly so far - having a couple of months off has de-railed me. £157 spent yesterday, between the market, L!dls and the wholesalers. Admittedly some of it was festive fare, which technically comes out of the money I've saved up over the year rather than the everyday budget, but not very much. I see butter has gone up another 5p, and a number of other basic items had too. That said, I shouldn't need to buy anything except food from here on in; toiletries, cleaning & laundry stuff & pet/livestock food should all see us well into January. But if prices continue to rise, and don't fall back in January, I shall have to rethink my strategy.

The exception is potatoes; a sack that cost £10 this time last year is £7 from the farm shop this year, and 50p less if I want to try to haul one back from the market. Pineapples are also very cheap just now; I'm paying £1 for two lovely ripe ones at the market. So it's not all doom & gloom.

There's also the matter that I have had to step up a gear, as it were, mentally, with DS2's return. I'd probably relaxed a bit because with only two of the four inhabitants eating meat, I could dovetail my efforts & cook one sauce to split to do a meat version (usually with meat left over from the weekend) & a veggie version of things. But DS2 doesn't eat "things-in-sauce" alas... I don't intend to pander to him too much, he's a grown-up & can cater for himself, but the resulting chaos in the kitchen (just from having too many cooks, one usually on a deadline to get out to training/the gym) means it's generally better just to try to stick to things he does like. He'll be off again at the start of January, when his ex leaves the little house they were renting, which they have at least until the end of February. Hopefully he'll find a housemate to share with, so he can keep his independence & I can have my kitchen back!

try_harder

Hi a little late but please could i join in ,i have a budget of £442 for the month of December i now have £278.92 left .

just_trying

Shopping today just under £85, though I've bought stuff that is going to last ages.

From farmfoods incase anyone's interested, carte d'or ice cream- Eton mess, hagen daz - vanilla and Ben and Jerry cookie things with ice cream in middle all are £1 each.

A couple of beef joints and pork from Morrisons to.

Weather is cold and snowy here, youngest has had a day off this week and last week. Due to weather and heating.