December 2018 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Well. Truth be told, the plot has rather - gone missing - somewhere along the way, but I've added £220 to my total which I'm pretty sure is, if anything, an overestimate, and also includes the festive booze - i.e. two boxes of wine & a small case of Per0ni. I still have some leeway, and there will be a last-minute dash for things like milk, cream, & fresh saladings for Boxing Day, but basically we're all in now until the point where the Offspring start vanishing off to their respective homes again. (First outsourced Offspring is on the coach as I type, arriving 9-ish...) And there'll be plenty of leftovers, and there's stuff in the freezer, so expenses from here on in should be minimal.

Oh dear, that does sound rather like famous last words...!

CRANKY40

NSD today. I have a small gammon joint in the slow cooker for this evening and I will be making a chocolate fudge cake once I've mopped the floors. Almost all of the jobs done

pamsdish

£4 in Aldi , parsnips swede, granny smiths and some cocktail sausages,

JingsMyBucket

Evening everyone and happy Sunday. Yesterday was a NSD but I went out on Friday for a few more things. We’re officially on vacation now and arrived earlier this afternoon. We took several snacks with us and I’m really glad we did because it enabled us to eat something when first arrived at the apartment. The apartment is also on the 5th floor so 6 flights of stairs. Poor OH had go up them several times because we were in the wrong section of the building compound. The bags were also heavy because OH packed two bottles of wine for us to drink and three large beers to gift to a friend!

€6.00 on Friday for some last minute bits before traveling.

€39.58 today at a couple of stores in the vacation neighborhood for dinner tonight and breakfast items like yoghurt, water, eggs, etc.

TOTAL SO FAR:
€293.15/€350.00
12 / 12 NSD

Tomorrow we’re heading out to buy presents for each other and our Christmas dinner bits.

Vanlady

Monthly budget will aim for £300 £279.50/£300
To include all food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, cat food and cat litter, non alcoholic drinks.
NSD will aim for at least 15 14/15

Good evening everyone.
My challenge will be for the whole month; so just over a week with £20.50 to go, mmmm, gonna be interesting. The fridge and cupboards are full so we don't need anything except some milk tomorrow, I'm gonna give it my best shot at being inventive with what we have in. But I too am going on a yellow sticker hunt tomorrow in the hope of finding some bargains.

I have taken advantage of all the cheap veg on offer at the minute so soup will probably feature heavily on the menu. Any surplus veg will be cooked and frozen.

Gracie, I love those 3 for £10 offers, that's when I usually stock up on salmon for the freezer. I don't have a bulk fund but I think the idea of saving any money left over from the challenge to put to a bulk fund sounds a great idea.

Suffolk_lass

No sign of people round here cutting back at Christmas. I popped out yesterday to the big Morries and parked up half a mile away and walked in. I was a bit damp but much quicker. I only wanted some white bread (for Turkey sandwiches!) and some of their "best" range curry sauce.

I have one more shop to visit this morning. Unfortunately near Asbo's and so may involve queuing. Hopefully as it is the camping place it won't be too horrific on its own!

elsiepac

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I've put the new January thread up for those ready to start the new year! Otherwise keep posting here as usual!

Sorry for the loss of your poor cat CRANKY, glad the HT and the other cat have each other.

Thankfully I don't need to visit the shops today - I went a couple of times for odd bits in the last couple of days and it was like Armageddon was about to hit! So, so ridiculously busy! I bought a few vegan nibbles to have for tea tonight at mum and dads as we always have the nibbly bits and crudites and houmous and things for tea on Christmas Eve! I always buy a couple of vegan ones so I know I have something I like! Christmas Day morning we have bagels for breakfast which I have in my freezer ready, and I bought vegan butter to take up to put on mine. Out for Christmas lunch and I have my vegan cheeses up there ready for in the evening and I'm taking a share bag of crisps and a tub of Twiglets (yum!) that I found on offer. My mum has made gingerbread men which are vegan too, and mince pies also, so while my dad and sister go off to get "pre-loaded" at the pub tomorrow morning, mum and I (who don't drink - her for medical reasons and me for no reason except I'm seeing how long I can go..it'll be 6 months end of Dec!) will ice the gingerbread men which is a more fun and significantly more festive activity in my opinion!! Boxing Day we will have leftover bagels for breakfast, then at my nan and grandads for our annual big family get together, in the afternoon, so that'll be nibbly party food and nuts and things, then I'll resume normal service from Boxing Day evening. I already bought fresh veg that will be fine after the festivities, so I won't need to rush to the shops, and means I can resume some semblance of normal healthy eating from Boxing Day evening!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas!

pamsdish

£3 in co-op, will add to my sig and finish up any more minor spends year end.

PipneyJane

Merry Christmas Everyone, I hope you have a happy and stress-free one.

Thanks for setting up the January thread, Elsiepac. I’ll join in a moment.

I’ve got multiple spends to declare in the last week, including £33.72 in Lidl (where we spent £14.99 on the Beef & Bone Marrow Pie, which featured in their newsletter), a trip to the farm shop for our Christmas veg (£7.50) and an £11 trip to Sainsbugs yesterday for unnecessary Cointreau to go in the Orange Sauce to accompany the Christmas Goose. (I was sure we had some Cointreau in stock but DH insisted we buy more. I was correct.) In total, we’ve spent £88 in the last week but the Christmas Fund will pay for the Cointreau, so that brings it back to £77.

Sainsbugs was heaving - complete chaos, with long queues at most of the tills. The lady in front of me at the till was having problems paying with a Sainsbug Gift Card, which the till struggled to accept. She looked exhausted and close to tears so I made up my mind that, if the girl on the till couldn’t get the card to work, I’d buy her shop for her. It was £36 and I figured she could do with a pleasant surprise. At that moment, the card finally registered.

We picked up our (preordered) Christmas goose this morning. The butcher shop was busy, with four staff on duty. The goose is 6.62kg and cost nearly £90. It’ll be worth every penny: delivering 3-4 meals, a large pot of stock and a kilo or so of rendered fat. We set money aside each month to pay for Christmas food, so while the bird is pricy, it won’t hurt.

I think this will be our last shop for the month, so I’m going to declare at £155/£155. I can’t think of any reason to go shopping before 2nd January. The house is heaving with food; there will be plenty of leftovers; my MIL is feeding us for two days later this week.

I’m off to make Coconut Rough, before stuffing the goose with chestnut stuffing and shoving it into the oven for tonight’s “Polish Christmas” (our big Christmas celebration). Tomorrow’s dinner will be a fresh round of roasted veg, accompanied by a Carrot & Hazelnut Roast together with cold goose. Whatever remains of the goose will be bagged and frozen by the 27th, with the bones simmering down to “jus” in the stock pot.

Happy Christmas All

- Pip

Vanlady

Monthly budget will aim for £300 £289.80/£300To include all food, toiletries, cleaning stuff, cat food and cat litter, non alcoholic drinks.
NSD will aim for at least 15 14/15

Evening everyone.

Visited aldi and morrisons today, pleased to say that nothing was bought in morrisons. And strangely enough both places were relatively quiet.

£10.30 spent today in ALDI, £3 on milk, mouthwash, pasta and dried herbs, and the rest on reduced ys foods. That's new years day sorted out :T

I will aim to spend as little as possible on food in the next week, the cupboards and freezer are full so we shouldn't starve.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas