December 2017 Grocery Challenge

RedFraggle

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

Oh my word PennyGrabber, that is hilarious. You're stocked up on pasta for the next six months! :rofl: I mean, at least. You could probably do two pasta dishes per week and still be covered for a while. Hey, at least you know it's there and can now call a moratorium on pasta buying. You must resist!

Thriftwizard, I'm glad you were able get cover for caring for your mum. Hopefully she doesn't have too much shock to the adjustment.

Red Fraggle, do you mean you spent an extra £170 at Tesco or that's what your total is now? I'm not sure I'm reading it clearly. If it's an additional £170 spend, I think this is kind of normal when moving house. It's a combination of restocking plus the newness and celebration of it all.

Pamsdish, hang in there I'm sure it'll all taste good and will last you well into January.

As for me, I revised my shopping list last night by deleting what's been bought, consolidated store lists, etc. Frustratingly, I still came in at an estimated additional €148 to be spent the next two days. I removed some items and remembered that we have a €5 coupon for Delhaize and should help a bit. My new estimated spend for the next couple of days is about €132. Fingers crossed I can keep it that. If so, that should put me at €325-ish for the month.

Extra, i think if I dared to add it up it'd be about £600 for the month which is awful. Darling step son's dairy intolerance and too much alcohol (everyone, he has no problem!) are not insignificant and our old neighbours are coming for dinner tonight too. We've eaten convenience crap we'd not normally have during the moving and unpacking.

JingsMyBucket

Hi everyone. Happy Friday! I hope you've all been able to get what you need and can stay out of the busy shops tomorrow!

€4.49 at an organic store: cocoa powder to make the trifle’s chocolate cake base.

€9.44 at Lidl: paper towels, tomatoes, ham, tortellini, herbs, etc. I actually put back the butter I was going to get because I tallied my cart while going around the store and saw how close I was to reaching my budget. I really made myself think about if I needed that extra 500g of butter (€4.99) or not and realized that I didn’t. I was quite proud of myself actually.

€16.55 at Halal store: leg of lamb. A leg of lamb was technically €1 cheaper per kg at Lidl but I trust the halal store’s meat more almost than anyone else’s. It’s great quality and I’m supporting a local business.

€7.03 at Delhaize: picked up flour for the cake, potatoes, avocados, more herbs, etc. I used the €5 off coupon as well so that reduced it.

€41 at beer store: OH went nuts and bought himself about 10 different specialty beers to drink over the holidays. Sheesh, good thing I put all the other stuff back at the previous stores. I had budgeted him spending only €8 at the beer store for probably 3 small beers.

This all comes to €78.51 for today.

TOTALS SO FAR
€271.71 / €350.00 for groceries
7 NSD
£198.57 / £200 London stocking up fund

I’ve mentally cut other things from the shopping list just for expediency’s sake but it has the added bonus of saving money. Just a few more trips tomorrow and we should be done for a while. Tomorrow’s shops will also cover household stuff like Swiffers and dishwasher tabs, etc. We’re out of dry Swiffers and there are only about 8 washing tabs left. Arrggghh to December being a stock up month. At least we should be good on some types of household stuff during January.

I’m going to try keeping everything to about €40 - €50 tomorrow. Hopefully OH doesn’t go wild at the organic market when buying his mushrooms and other things!

thriftwizard

£120 spent today at the market, which takes me £8.63 over budget, but - we're all in! Apart from some festive vino, but that's out of the Christmas budget. All in all, I'm not dismayed by going a tad over, but I think I'm going to have to be a bit fiercer with myself - and the troops - in January.

JingsMyBucket

RedFraggle wrote: »

Extra, i think if I dared to add it up it'd be about £600 for the month which is awful. Darling step son's dairy intolerance and too much alcohol (everyone, he has no problem!) are not insignificant and our old neighbours are coming for dinner tonight too. We've eaten convenience crap we'd not normally have during the moving and unpacking.

Don't even worry about it for now. Stuff is bought already. Just get some extra vegetables in you to counteract all the convenience foods. (I've also been eating crap this week and have a small cold because of it. I just made myself eat salad for dinner... along with a bunch of halloumi. )

JingsMyBucket

Well, here are spends for today. I'm a bit frustrated because OH kept going over budget and it was partially deliberate. As in, he finally had a chance to do Christmas food shopping on his own and just wanted to buy whatever.

Anyways...

€22.52 at organic market by OH: bulk olive oil, white wine, mozzarella, pasta, and brown mushrooms.

€23.98 at Delhaize by OH: dry Swiffers, recycling bags, and dishwasher tablets. (The dw tabs cost €15.74 alone!! That's 50% more than we usually pay.)

€12.85 at Organic store #2: dried mushrooms for the mushroom gravy and a couple bars of soap for me.

€15.41 at Delhaize: mushrooms, bags of salad, sweet potatoes, wet Swiffers, and a small runny cheese.

€7.90 at Organic store #2 by OH: dried mushrooms for OH's main Xmas dish.

€13.32 at Delhaize by OH: clementines, butter, and cheeses for his main dish.

This all comes to €95.98 for today. That brings it to €367.69 / €350.00. Blargghhh. I even made the budget crazy large just as a buffer. Hopefully there's nothing else for the rest of the month. I have something in freezer I could eat on New Year's Day but we'd have to get something for OH.

Oh well, belt tightening in January. I think I may aim for €250 since we did a lot of stocking up already between now and when we were in London. Has Zippy started the new thread yet?

TOTALS SO FAR
€367.69 / €350.00 for groceries
7 NSD
£198.57 / £200 London stocking up fund

JingsMyBucket

Blast! I forgot to add in that we bought a bag of fancy tea this morning as well! That's another €7.50 so it brings the total to €375.19.

Harrumph.

TOTALS SO FAR
€375.19 / €350.00 for groceries
7 NSD
£198.57 / £200 London stocking up fund

Highland_Fling

Spent £44 at Markies yesterday. Christmas spending now finished.
Total now sitting £159.

short_bird

Lots of little shopping sessions over the last few days... mince pies, ice cream; eggs, milk and bread, ginger beer...
gavi$con and immod!um for when I travel - both items I find I need if I haven't got them :rotfl:
£25.08 left from the £150 which will probably disappear in a puff of smoke in the airport lounges of Manchester and Reykjavik.:eek:
See you next Sunday.
Have a good one!
:xmassmile

JingsMyBucket

Merry Christmas everyone! Just one spend yesterday at the baker for a €3.50 loaf of bread. That brings me up to €378.69. That should be it for the next two days. We've got veg and fruit to last us.

I made the trifle last with OH's help since it was my first time making one. I marinated the lamb leg as well and will take that out the fridge in a few hours to reach room temperature. I've just set out the cheeses, jellies, butter and salmon to come to temperatures as well. I can't wait to start eating!! Have fun y'all!

K9sandFelines

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

Merry Christmas everyone! Just one spend yesterday at the baker for a €3.50 loaf of bread. That brings me up to €378.69. That should be it for the next two days. We've got veg and fruit to last us.

I made the trifle last with OH's help since it was my first time making one. I marinated the lamb leg as well and will take that out the fridge in a few hours to reach room temperature. I've just set out the cheeses, jellies, butter and salmon to come to temperatures as well. I can't wait to start eating!! Have fun y'all!

Merry Christmas Jings... And everyone else.

I bought our roast last month (I am vegan) and daughter's Quorn roast yesterday; and the only extras I've bought that I dont buy already are vegan mince pies (which are accidentally vegan, so doesn't cost any extra) and some sprouts. Everything else we have in. I doubt i'll be buying much more. So hopefully I will be still under budget.