September 2018 Grocery Challenge

caronc

£20 today in what should be my last September shop. Budget holding (just) @ £152/£160

Doom_and_Gloom

Since last post we have spent £18.59.

Tuscan bites, 740g sweet potatoes, 195g brussel sprouts, celery, 635g easy peelers, 750g red onions, 1168g swede, 500g broccoli, 250g spinach, 4 bulbs garlic, pak choi, houmous, rice cakes, 2 packs ground coffee, ketchup, honey and organic eggs.

£175.91/£195.
£19.09 left.

RedFraggle

RedFraggle wrote: »

£188.53 to add! Eek £32.33 left. No idea how I'll do that. It's the pet food. I spent £30 on rat food on top of the cat food (£25 of which Mr Fussy won't eat!!)

I think I'm going to exclude pet food. I buy it every third month or so. It isn't extravagant, they don't get treats except the rats which is bag of cheap Cheerios and a sack of a pelleted rat food both of which last a year. It isn't something I'm trying to economise on. It always messes me up budget wise.
Spend this week £54.07 in Aldi.

thriftwizard

Sigh... £10+ over already, and there'll be at least £14 spent tomorrow at the butcher's stall. I've been trying to put my finger on where I'm not doing so well, and I can't really, except for sure the unexpected £12-odd the other night. I suspect things have been gradually creeping upwards, and we've used a bit more of a few things than I'd allowed for... Well, next week is the start of another budgeting month and I'll try to be a bit more - conscious? - with my shopping then.

Actually I can put my finger on one big difference; the butcher doesn't do a Friday at the market any longer, so I'm going down on a Saturday too. I'm not able any longer to do my meal-planning on the day that I do my main shop; the other good food stalls are mostly there on a Friday and not on a Saturday! So it's all got a bit - bitty - and I'm not managing to co-ordinate things as well; I can't think, "Oooh, that's a good price on the beans; we could have those with the lamb," say, because I don't know any more what the meat will be. OK, that's half an excuse, I'll go & look for the other half now!

PipneyJane

elsiepac wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Work has been even crazier! regular 12 hour days, tons of extra at home, and even a 19 hour day last week! Hence my absence! I know what I've spent, but I've gone over as I just haven't planned well, as always, time constraints.

ANYWAY, I'm still trying, and more importantly, still tracking!

I've put the October thread up today too! I know, I know, shock horror, it's on time!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I haven't caught up on reading everyone's progress yet, but hope you are all doing well!

LC x

Thanks Elsie. I’ll sign up in a moment. You have my sympathies re the 12 hour days. I’ve been there, too. Once you factor in the commute, it’s more like 13 or 14 hour days. The worst week ever, was a bank holiday week in May, when I did 50 hours in 4 days - having been sledge-hammmered with deadlines/demands on the Tuesday morning - and was still in the office at 9.30pm on the Friday night. We were going on holiday first thing on the Saturday morning, so I couldn’t work over the weekend. As it was, after flying home on the following Saturday, I sat down with my laptop at 3.30pm and didn’t stop until midnight, when I worked out that the spreadsheet I was trying to reconcile to my numbers was totally flawed.

(I’m Finance. My business had just moved regions and the demands of the new region were impossible. Worse, I discovered that my Finance colleagues were a bunch of hypocrites, ignoring the deadlines that they themselves set/agreed to. My business bosses were furious, both that I had been forced to do such unreasonable hours and that it was never recognised by my Finance boss.)

My own meal-related coping strategies include: having boxes of “base” in the freezer, ready to kick off a meal (base consists of onions, garlic and mushrooms fried up when I have time); using the slow cooker on a Monday, when I have choir practice in the evening (I can prep the meal the night before); cooking double quantities and freezing half for bad days (on the days I have the ability to do so); and making quick-preparation-shove-in-the-oven dishes like pasta bakes, where I’ll use a commercial sauce but add defrosted-under-the-tap frozen veg, a tin of fish (usually pilchards) or some bacon or YS chorizo +/- fresh mushrooms (pasta bakes may take an hour to make start-to-finish, if you include preheating the oven but they don’t involve much effort).

Back on topic, we’ve had a couple of small shops this week. Both DH and I went to A$DA, separately, on Wednesday searching for their big bags of fresh peppers. (DH discovered they were an Eid special and not standard fare.). He came away with mushrooms, while I bought yoghurts. There was also a quick trip to MrT’s, where we bought some YS bagels and pita together with multiple birthday cards. Total spend this week was £12.60.

The above spend brings our GC spend to £88.44/£133.50, leaving us with £44.06 for the remainder of the month. There will be a small spend tomorrow on lunch stuff but that will be it for the month. We’re off to France for the rest of the month; any food purchases there will come out of the Running Away Fund.

Highland_Fling wrote: »

Good morning everyone
just caught up with reading the thread.
I love when people share when they are struggling. After all the thread is called the Grocery Challenge and it is a challenge sometimes to get our spending under control. Everywhere we look there seems to be someone trying to tempt us to part with our hard earned money.
However we can only try and some months are more challenging than others. I know I have gradually brought my GC target down and some months I don't succeed. However I try not to beat myself up about it because I know it is an improvement on where I was previously. I am still aware of what I am spending which I have to admit I may not have been in the not too distant past. At least we are all trying and that has to be applauded: So well done everyone for your efforts.:)

Yes, I totally agree.

- Pip

thriftwizard

£15 gone today: a large free-range chicken, a big gammon joint and a big bag of mushrooms. And I can't declare yet because I know we'll need bread & bananas mid-week - oh, and vanilla, so probably another £10 to go & I'm £25 over already. Total fail, really...

I really need to do a stock-take of my dried goods cupboard; I think we may have had a little visitor in there, and I'm sure there are a few OoD (Out of Date) items lurking at the back, though as they're mostly tins I'll probably just use up anything that hasn't been nibbled or had its packaging damaged in any way. I think I can trust the kittens to - remove - the problem, if it hasn't already gone.

YorksLass

Week 3 spends: £1.55 (milk), £8.70 Friday market and £23.87 Sainsbugs = £34.12 + x5 NSDs.

One week to go with just £7.95 left in the kitty. Once upon a time this would have really worried me but not so much now. Thanks to getting to grips with this Challenge, it will be OK. I've already planned next week's meals and know the only thing I need to buy is more milk.

Rolling shopping list for online order/delivery still isn't urgent and can be postponed until October. :j

[Deleted User]

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Wanted to ask does anyone have any ideas for cauliflower that is past its best? I have some which must be in the fridge for about four weeks at this stage - do I just bin it or is it salvageable? Thanks

I blitz my cauliflower and freeze for cauli rice.

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

€14.60 on 4 bottles of Listerine. That’s the cheapest I’ve seen it around in more than a year at €3.60 per bottle, just as cheap as it is back in America.

They have it in Poundstretcher for 90p, but they are 250ml.




Been living out of stores, mostly. Have really managed to run down so much. Nearly have an empty drawer in the freezer, which I will fill with home cooked meals soon. Spends of £14.56, plus £7 on 2kg of Medjool dates, so £21.56, bringing total to £38.86. I will need a few bits, like sweet potatoes, lettuce, plant milk, etc, but mostly ok.

Mrs_Cheshire

Just tallied up my spends from the last week, I'm now standing at just over £347/£400. I've got a voucher to use in Mr S's on wednesday which will give me money off fuel but no discount on the food this week, so as long as I track my spends as I shop I should come in on budget! Fingers crossed

JingsMyBucket

Save_Dosh wrote: »

They have it in Poundstretcher for 90p, but they are 250ml.

The bottles I bought were 500mL. So envious of the cheap groceries y'all have in the UK. That said, OH and I have been seriously talking about moving to Edinburgh next year from Continental Europe so I may be partaking pretty soon too. Y'all are the first "people" I've told about this move.

Yesterday, Friday, was a NSD. Today I went around running lots of errands.

€14.60 on 4 Listerine bottles to stock up some more.

€2.95 at the Asian market for block of firm tofu for OH and two small boxes of coconut milk.

€9.45 at an organic store for a large bottle of tamari / soy sauce. We ran out a week ago. Ironically enough, the Asian store didn't have the brand we normally buy there.

€3.57 at Lidl for bacon and two balls of mozzarella. The Lidl bacon I bought last week turned out to be really good and not very salty. I used to buy it but started buying the Delhaize house brand due to convenience.

TOTALS SO FAR:
€512.70/€500.00
7/12 NSD

I'm over but meh. I've stocked up on lots of items this month that I don't have to bother with for a while. Tomorrow I'll go get another tray of 30 eggs at the halal store since we only have 1 egg left. Since OH has been trying to do low carb, he's been eating even more eggs than usual. I've also taken to doing a couple of fried eggs and some bacon for my breakfast lately too. I've got no clue about vegetables for the coming week though.