September 2019 Grocery Challenge

joedenise

A spend of £24.80 yesterday in Mr Ts, no meat or fish needed as that will come from freezer.

£128.97 left for rest of month.

Saver-upper

I had to go out tonight and buy birthday presents for my son's birthday on Monday (will be 16).Again,because I don't really meal plan,I dropped into Asda and bought mince ,seasoning and sour cream for tacos for tea.All other ingredients needed I already had.

I had bought my son two boxes of Toffifee sweets for his birthday,but I have just opened one of them .So I guess I will add that £1 to the grocery budget as well :rotfl::rotfl:B

Tonight spent £13.59,bringing the monthly spend to £143.19/250.00

PipneyJane

Good morning All.

((((((((((Elsiepac)))))))). It’s hard, admitting to yourself that you have a problem. (Me? I have one with yarn. I am now attempting to go Cold Sheep.). The one thing I’d suggest is to keep a list on your phone of your stash, so that you can remind yourself that you have sufficient stocks when tempted. (I do a quick review of my Ravelry stash to reinforce that NO, I do not need more yarn.)

I have two small spends to declare from Thursday: £5.97 on YS ground coffee from our local Oxfam - marked down because it’s near it’s best before date - and £7.48 in Lidl. (I was tipped off re the coffee. My friend is the assistant shop manager.). That brings our total spend for the month to £81.43/£121.20, leaving £39.77 for the remainder of the month.

- Pip

jam2019

Did an asda shop today for £5.86, bought some frozen veg (peas and chopped mixed peppers), a bag of braeburn apples and some pears, 4 cans of sp tomatoes and milk.
Including an extra shop for milk during the week, total spend for the month comes to £20.82/£40 leaving me with £19.18 for the rest of the month

GSDMum

Just catching up....

So far: aiming to be under £450 for the month (this is for the 2 of us, and our German Shep dog).

Shopped:
2/9 Aldi £92.48
11/9 Tesco £72.01
14/9 CoOp £83.95

Total £248.94 > Left £201.56

We're retired, and we don't dine out, though we did have some fish 'n' chips as a treat a couple nights ago.

We also like to have a drink or two, mainly a couple of tots of whisky and ginger ale before dinner. Several months ago I bought an optic (dispenser thingy) for the whisky and I think it's already paid for itself, it's not so easy for the wrist to slip when pouring a drink now A litre bottle of whisky (supermarket's own grade) last us about 9 days between the two of us.

We used to have a glass of wine with dinner, a bottle of wine lasting us about 2 days. But... this month so far I've not been buying any wine which is a big saving. OH is thinking abstaining over October as it would do us good... 'Sober for October'. How can I refuse

I homecook our GSD's food (half his diet) as he has IBS, the other half of his diet is expensive hypoallergenic dried dog food which he doesn't enjoy. The recipe for the dog food is chicken thighs (£2.50 kg), cheap mincemeat (again £2.50 kg), and a bag of cheap long grain rice (45p per kg bag). I boil the thighs until tender, remove the bones and chop meat. Cook the bag of rice and the mince until rice is soft in the chicken stock, then I add the chicken meat. The food is bagged into 7 freezer bags. He has one of these in the morning which he loves, it's a relief after trying different foods for him over the years, none of which he enjoyed until now. In the afternoon he has the hypoallergenic dried food which in 'desperation' he eats grudgingly

I can now see where I've been going wrong for so long, now I'm actually analysing my spending.

Food we've got in so far could last us till the end of the month, backing it up with extra fresh fruit and veg.

Really enjoying reading everyone's posts, it's a great help so thank you

dan958

Halfway through the month and I am on £32.07/£80. I have already bought all my groceries for next week and did a bunch of meal prepping.

zafiro1984

I've actually managed 7 days without going to the shops - must be a record for me, but to be honest I've been too busy and no time. What it has done is make me use up things in the fridge and freezers. I've had to be a bit creative with what I have so that meals don't appear to be the same as what was eaten yesterday. Hopefully I can manage a few more NSDs before I run out of basic things like milk.

PipneyJane

Thanks for the rough recipe for dog meals, GSDmum. I can totally appreciate why your dog prefers his home cooked food to the dry stuff. I’m sitting here imagining his expression when you put the dried stuff out each night, “Please Boss, can’t I have the good stuff?”. (I joke that I was raised by a Labrador. He certainly thought I was his human child to train/cajole.)

I have a small spend to declare from yesterday: £2.45 at MrT’s. We had the roll-playing-games club yesterday afternoon, so that went on cookies (£1.10) for the gamers on our table and a bag of spinach (£1.35) to accompany the nibbles, pate and rolls left over from Proms-in-the-Park. (PITP was paid for from a separate budget.)

That brings our spend to £83.88/£121.20, leaving £37.32 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

thriftwizard

Phew... the birthday madness is behind us now, with no further groceries required! Now we have a couple of months of (relative) calm before the festive haze descends. Mind you we're already under way in that respect; The Bird has been ordered from a young smallholder friend, and a deposit paid. I'll be picking up things that are easy to store, like L1dl's gingerbread biscuits & salted almonds, every time I do a non-perishables shop from now on.

My feet haven't touched the ground all weekend, but in the few calm moments I've been reflecting that it's time to apply some serious thought to preparing for the summer run of birthdays - DD1 & DS3 early in July, DD2 at the end, OH & his twin, who often chooses to spend the day with us, in mid-August, and DS2 mid-September. This is also my busiest time of year, work-wise. Like many other big families, we've always made a bit of a fuss about birthdays, as it's their one & only individual Big Day, where other celebrations are more communal & focussed on religious meaning. This has carried on into adulthood & will probably continue until there's another generation to consider. So I need to build up resources to cover this summer "bump" in expenses, and will henceforth put aside some money every month to be prepared next year.

It's only taken me 30-odd years to think of this...!

joedenise

A small spend today of £2.09 from Mr Ts for flavoured water & some fruit teabags. I have to drink lots of water due to a medical condition and can't stand plain tap water and get fed up with squash.

Denise

£126.88 left for rest of month. Looking good as have all meat and fish in freezer