September 2018 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Congratulations, Mrs FrugalinShropshire! Wishing you both every happiness.

£6.40 spent at the market today & I'm kicking myself because I left a bag behind on another stall, thus wasting £2.40-worth of broccoli & leeks. In my defence, I've had a heavy cold this week & am still feeling a bit as if I have cotton wool for brains. Ah well, hopefully someone will put them to good use!

Now DS3 has returned to uni before heading off to Mexico, I can rein the budget in hard for the rest of the month and beyond, until they all reappear at Christmas. (At least, I hope they will! Though eldest & DS2 may go to their partner's parents for some or all of it, understandably.) So although there's only a bit over £100 left and quite a lot of month with 4 adults to feed, I'm hoping I can make it; I shouldn't need to top up much this week. Bananas & milk, possibly?

luckofthe_irish

Congratulations FrugalinShropshire! Wishing you so much happiness!

Grocery spends this weekend were:
£31.00 in Aldi
£1.93 in Lidl

A little over the £30 budget I set myself but I did have a friend staying with me from Friday-Sunday who I also fed and watered out of the budget. Hoping that will last me now for the week without any top ups. Made big batches of sausage casserole & thai chicken for meals for the week, and I have all my snacks and breakfasts sorted.

That leaves me at a total of £62.42/£125

I have two more big shops before payday so as long as I keep both weeks at under £31 I should hit my budget... leaving me with a saving of almost £150 on groceries this month compared to last month! Wish me luck!!

JingsMyBucket

FrugalinShropshire wrote: »

Hello all, I am restarting the challenge on Monday and budget £180 for the rest of the month. We have plenty of food in the house as I got married last Tuesday and we got back from our ‘minimoon’ today. So I begin my budgeting as a married woman on Monday!

Congratulations @FrugalinShropshire! I hope your week as newly married is kicking off really well.

My birthday party this weekend was a success! All the food came out well, everyone loved it and they were all well fed. As what usually happens with these situations, I overbought on a lot of items. There are 2 big chicken breasts stashed in the freezer along with some hunks of beef. I'll probably make fried chicken strips from the breasts and soup from the beef at some point in the next month. The weather is getting chilly around here. I also have a ton of limes, tomatoes, and cilantro leftover. I'll probably make more guacamole to use up some items there.

And of course, a lot of beer leftover, as I told OH would happen. Most of our guests stuck to the wine and quite a few brought wine. Not as many people drank juice as I estimated so we have to find some way to get rid of it since we never drink juice. We also have way too much rice as well. I think I may just put a bunch of food outside our building with a "FREE FOOD" sign for passersby to take it away.

Yesterday was finally a NSD so at least I've racked up 1 for the month. :rotfl: I need to compile the receipts from Friday and Saturday to ensure the final total. Too bad so much of that would be "useless" food since OH kept buying the wrong thing at a store instead of just waiting until he could get the right thing at the next store he visited. Sigh. This is why we have so much rice in our house. There are two HUGE boxes of instant rice that we'll never ever use at all. That's going outside the house in the FREE FOOD box.

We have lots of salad greens we can use throughout the week though. I'll do some stocktaking later today and make a plan for the week. I'm still recovering from it all, especially because we had to attend an event yesterday for a friend of mine and didn't get to laze around all day like we wanted.

First some work though. Have a great Monday everyone!

flubberyzing

An £8.64 spend in Lidl. Mostly fruit and veg and some bits for breakfasts. Taking me up to £20.39 out of £70 so far this month.

donnajt

Save_Dosh wrote: »

I would personally include it. Mine used to take packed lunch and are long grown, but it's your budget, so whatever feels right for you. Anything you a/c for means more money in the bank (so to speak).

What I do is put it into a bulk buy fund, so I can buy stuff when on offer, or dip in on tight months. Some people treat themselves and others have a takeaway/treat night at the end of the month, holiday fund. Whatever feels right. Well done for coming under.

Thank you Save Dosh, having thought about it last night, it makes sense to include it, its a food spend and DS was packed lunch until late last term and suddenly decided he wanted school dinners

Having a bulk buy fund is a great idea, I'm stuck between my holiday fund and the bulk buy so I've decided to split 50/50, generally what I do is if I have money left in my purse at the end of the week I hide it in my jewellery box (original lol!) and then the following week if I have money left I stick this in the jewellery box and transfer the money from the week before into one of those money tins you need a can opener for

candygirl

Been to ALDI again n spent £12, making it £85/120😲

MadamMim2013

A few spends and one large shop today = £72.06 to add
£118.36/£325 so far.
Getting into the swing of things with boys back to college and eldest also working.
Made a very tasty beef pie (slow cooked the filling, made a puff pastry lid) veg and new potatoes. Used up the ends of the puff with choc spread in little rolls, they didn't last long!!
Must make more of these meals and freeze extra portions

Merlin's_Beard

Congratulations Mrs Frugalinshropshire!!

candygirl, I can beat that.... £80.21/£100 so far. Very oops!

I think I need to write lines or something... "I must stop buying c**p!!"

candygirl

Merlin's_Beard wrote: »

Congratulations Mrs Frugalinshropshire!!

candygirl, I can beat that.... £80.21/£100 so far. Very oops!

I think I need to write lines or something... "I must stop buying c**p!!"

Haha we're soo bad 😁I'm justifying it by thinking I have enough in to last the month, except bread, milk n maybe cheese 😁

stellata

I spent £11.24 in lidl on basics, but also 3 packs of granola which was on offer as That'll be my breakfast for the next 6 weeks. I've been eating my way through my stores so next month will be harder.