September 2020 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

Had to do a top-up shop for milk, yoghurt, cranberry juice and radishes this morning as well as kidney beans, couscous, courgettes, celery and onions.
Was enraged to discover that M*rks have moved the milk again for goodness knows  what reason this time! Really felt like b*ggering off to the nearby Sainsbobs/W*trose and had to be quite stern with myself about not snapping and snarling at the member of staff doing the display. Anyhow I then fell for the usual y/s indulgences so spent £17.75 which brings me to a total of £180.13/£200 and nine days to go.
Still, I've now got 8 portions of chilli bubbling away in the slow cooker and am planning fennel, garlic and mushrooms on toast for breakfast as a weekend treat. 
Am blessing my lucky stars that I'm halfway through the first roll of a 16 pack of loo rolls and thinking that the situation will probably be resolved one way or the other by the time I get near the end of it so that's one less thing to worry about.
Cheerful and sunny weekend to all, goldfinches.

mumtoomany

Got OH to pick up toilet roll and butter from Farm foods as he was taking DD3 to work, out of stock the other day. Another £15.04, total now £180.16/£200. Mumtoomany.

Esthermate

£27
£107/120

MazzieD

As predicted I needed iceberg lettuce and cucumber 43p each, had 'won' 50p off shopping on Lid! scratchcard so only cost me 36p.  Have everything I need until month end so declaring whilst I remember.

£86.27/£90 total spend for September
£3.73 under budget

moneyonmymindsam

70p on a Belgian bun for me and plus one to share to have at home with a cuppa . So down to £22.30 remaining BUT then he came out with 2 croissants so rounded it to left £20 for next week and slung the change in the holiday jar (about 40p). 
Lost track a bit so will have to double check balances. 
Sam x

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

elsiepac said:

Budgets updated to here

@PipneyJane well done on your amazing surplus! I've updated your budget
@sarahj1986 welcome back!
@zafiro1984 no problem - I tend to leave names on for a few months or if they are regulars, even if they don't declare for a bit - it just makes it a bit quicker and easier for me doing the budgets!
@taka welcome back!
@VickyV welcome!
@Pixiehouse55 - £300

Many thanks. Great to be back I need to budget even more with my husband not working at the moment 

€44.14 spent today 

I’ve bought some meat, salad stuff, veg, fruit, eggs, frozen bits, crate of beer for my husband, pasta, bin bags, milk, big block of spanish cheese and cheddar cheese. This should do us a week although I need to go back in tomorrow to get water and some fizzy pop. I couldn’t carry it all in one go. 

€305.86 left

€8 spent yesterday 

picked up water and mozzy plug in as I’m being eaten alive. I do get bitten anyway but even more so now there’s no tourists round. 

€297.86 left

€56.10 spent 

€11.09 in Mercadona and €45.01 in Aldi

Mercadona small shop because we’ve moved further away from them and there is a few items I like to get from there. We were up that way so stocked up 

Aldi was a top up on fruit, potatoes, milk, yogurts, Porridge, sugar, chicken on offer, nappies, fizzy pop and beer for my husband. Shouldn’t need to go back in there until mid next week for more fresh items. They’ve changed the offer days and there’s things I want to buy on Wednesday so I’ll be able to hold out until then. 

Edit - got a slow cooker from a charity shop yesterday. They are incredibly expensive here so it was a snatch. Bring on the colder months for stews 

€241.76

€48.20 spent yesterday 

fruit, veg, milk, breakfast items, chocolate, cakes and a few other items. 

€193.56 left

i have a question for you all -

my father in law has offered to take my husband shopping and buy us a big shop. We aren’t struggling financially that bad just yet. My husband issue back on the Spanish furlong scheme but I think his dad is worried it might take time to come through and just wants to help out with things like nappies, long life items etc. Should I count this spend too? What would you all do? 

€25.05 spent

 this is topping up water, fruit, veg plus some items on special offer over 3 small shops. My father in law is taking hubby and our daughter tomorrow so writing a list now. I’ll have a few precious hours to do the housework while they are gone

€168.51 left 

Hello all

As commented previously. Hubby went with his dad yesterday and spent “€140” and got a lot of bulk items (milk, nappies, wipes, toilet rolls etc), some we won’t need to top up for a good 4-6+ weeks, freezer, fridge and other cupboard items. It will help us out greatly. 

€28.51 left which is more than enough for fresh items and other bits this month 

Hello all

gone over by €5.83 but we’ve got a lot of food and other items in. I’m hoping October is a lighter month 

PipneyJane

Competsoph said:

Went to Lidl and spent a little more than I would have liked but was with Mr Compet and he seems to just chuck everything in the basket. And i swear he eats more avocados than I don't know what, maybe I should buy a plant!
Anyway £23 bringing our total to a pretty health 3/4 of the budget. 
Hoping to exchange on the house on friday so he's told me I shouldn't be worrying about the October challenge as things will be a bit hectic. Which I agree with, but surely thats a reason to be MORE careful, now with a house to run? ARGGHH

Good luck with the move, @Competsoph.  My experience is the same as @Suffolk_lass - moving house is the most stressful thing I have ever done (including divorce, remarriage, redundancies, failed fertility treatments and burying two parents).  It’s far to easy to lose something in the kitchen because someone put it in an unexpected place, throw in the towel and order takeaway.

We’re £2.35 over for September.  I took an early lunch break on Thursday and went shopping.  Before I headed out, we had £4.10 left in the GC purse.  My plan was to go to L!dl for one item to be purchased from my personal budget and then on to MrT’s to buy a week’s supply of yoghurts.  L!dl have/had an offer on Skullcandy wireless headphones that started on Thursday (£29.99, down £20 from £49.99).  I really wanted a pair of wireless headphones for running and they’re a good brand.  Couldn’t risk waiting to the end of the day, since our local branch won’t have received many.

I was surprised to find a queue outside when I got to L!dl at 11.30.  There weren’t many people, maybe a dozen, and we got in quite quickly.  They are back to limiting the number of people in the store at any given time.  After fruitlessly searching the Aisles of Surprises three times, I stuck my head into the (open) warehouse door and asked the chap working in there about the headphones.  Because they’re valuable and a small package, turns out they were stored in the Manager’s Office!  He kindly fetched them for me and gave them to the duty manager, who was on the checkout and rang up my purchases.  As well as the headphones, I’d picked up a large packet of mushrooms (£1.40), which we didn’t really need, and my semi-annual bottle of body lotion (£1.05).  Both of those make up the £2.35 overspend, since they could have waited until October.

Next stop was MrT’s, where I picked up 4 large Yeo Valley yoghurts for £4, double what I’d planned.  MrT’s  have the cheapest shelf-price at £1.30 per 450g tub, but they had a Clubcard offer reducing the price to £1 each.  (Use your regular Clubcard, get the discounted price.)  Although I was only there for yoghurts, I checked out the condemned shelves for fresh veg, meat, cheese, etc.  Nothing worth the money.  (NB:  no queue and no shortages.)

I am declaring at £167.35/£165.40, an overspend of £2.35.

- Pip



PS:  If you are worried about shortages, do you know how long it takes to use up an item?  One of the tricks I do is to write the date I’ve opened something on the packet/bottle/jar or on a label, if it’s a storage container.  When I open the next packet, I’ll work out how many weeks/months its been since the last time and write that on the new packet too.  This is how I know it takes 7 weeks to use a packet of toilet paper in the upstairs bathroom.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all declaring my spends for the month at £435.53/£400 so slightly over this month but that includes the delivery tonight which will last into October so not too worried. I've taken advantage of the Christmas Saver with Tosco Clubc*rd this year and topped it up with £200 so I get the max bonus of £12. I've also mostly shopped with them this year due to availability of delivery/collection slots etc so I'll also have approx £95 of clubcard vouchers too. I plan to spend the money I've saved towards my big christmas shop and the vouchers they've given me towards days out next year as you get 3x the value. 
Off to find the October chat, see you all over there 

thriftwizard

Another £18 spent this morning at the market, on soy sauce (£2 for a large bottle) olives & hummus (£8) 3 x 500g punnets of strawberries for  £2, 2 mangoes, bananas, broccoli, & runner beans. There won't be any more English strawbs, apparently, so I'll make OH some jam to see him through the winter. I'll also be making yet more passata, as we still have a couple of trays of tomatoes ripening in the conservatory, rescued just before the blight hit. That should be everything until payday on 30th, so I needn't have bumped this month's budget up. Even if I counted in what I spent on the food (including fish & chips one night and an all-you-can-eat Chinese meal on another) whilst camping, we'd still be under, although not by much. Let's see if I can keep it down next month...

goldfinches

Have just discovered I've gone over due to my besetting sin of "bargains". I spent £19.71 in M*rks Food Hall and £1.74 in T*sco on y/s fat free quark and y/s tzatziki which brings me up to £201.58/£200. 
However, all may not be lost as I think I've spotted a mistake on my M*rks receipt to do with Sparks offers that I believe should have been free so I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow morning.
Intend to firmly ignore all bargains /temptation next month or die in the attempt and will comb through my receipts and list all the money I could still have in my bank account if I hadn't bought them this month as a demotivator measure.
Does anyone have any other tips to help me break myself of this habit please?