September 2020 Grocery Challenge

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Welcome to @moneyonmymindsam, @dumpling,  @goldfinches and @viv0147
Welcome back @BrassicWoman, @mumtoomany, @Puddleglum, @Pixie_Fairydust, @Finstickle, @Mrs_Cheshire and @jam2019 (I've updated your annual)

Suffolk_lass

Welcome to the new people. I recommend the pages at the start for a shortcut to the accumulated wisdom of this thread over many years and some excellent low-cost recipes. It took me longer than most to make it work for me (I had a smug, I know how to do this attitude, that basically meant I did not make the savings I could have, as early as I could have). Good luck to all of you.

I am hoping DH's money arrives in the account on Tuesday morning as I really need to go and do a bit of shopping. We can live on what is in (stores, garden, freezer) and what is delivered (eggs and milk) but I need some more lightbulbs and have no spares (how?). The credit card bills are humungous this month but there you go. I will cut my cloth accordingly.

The list on the fridge only has two things on it but they are both different kinds of lightbulb and I don't like getting these online (after a pack of "bargain"bulbs blew really quickly). Another month before we have the range back on - it is a rule! I am hoping the weather picks up a bit. I never fancy salad when it is meh outside. Sad really as have lots of cucumbers and tomatoes in the garden.

joedenise

SL sounds like it's time to make some chutney then if you don't fancy salad!

Suffolk_lass

Tomatoes all go to make "canned" tomato sauce as per the Italian/American Nonna on Youtube I follow. Cucumbers, still eating in lunch rolls or cut into sticks dipped in hummus but the surplus is building

Pixie_Fairydust

Morning

£2.36 spent on bread, skimmed milk and butter substitute at local shop, couldn't face the supermarkets! Cambridge was very wet and windy yesterday, not like August at all, more November ☔
Pix
Xx

viv0147

HI, the way I got my shopping under control is every Sunday I write a menu for the forthcoming week, doing this has many advantages. (1) It eliminates waste, (2) you only buy the shopping to suit your menu, so no unnecessary spending. If during the week you don't particularly want what you have on the menu for that day you can interchange the meal for another day.

PipneyJane

Afternoon All and welcome to the Newcomers.  May I second @Suffolk_lass’s suggestion regarding the wisdom in the posts linked at the start of the thread?  They are well worth a read.  If you don’t know where/how to start, just save all your receipts for this month and track your purchases.  (I use the free spreadsheet app that came on my phone.)

As mentioned on the August Challenge, we’ve got a surplus to roll forward to September - an amazing £25.40.  This is thanks to a postponed shopping trip to MrT’s, which will take place at some point this week.  Since we both got paid on Friday, September will now start for us tomorrow, when we’re planning on doing a “big” shop in L!dl to spend another £5-off-if-you-spend-£25 voucher from DH downloading their L!dlplus app.  (I did it in August.)

@elsiepac - please increase my September GC budget to £165.40.  Thank you.

- Pip

sarahj1986

Hello 

please add me €350

we moved apartments first week of August so it’s been chaotic but we are settled now. I need to ensure we have a cheap autumn and winter. Hubby isn’t working due to the government closing all nightlife. €350 is the maximum but I want it to be lower 

goldfinches

Thanks to all for the warm welcomes and waves to the other new members. Here at goldfinches mansions it is officially winter as this morning I disinterred my thermals and, after finishing the last of the salads from the bottom of the fridge, I fired up the slow cooker to batch cook dinner. Get ready for a heatwave to hit Oxfordshire any time now!

SL these lightbulbs have lasted more than a year already and lowered my electricity consumption by 2 KWh a day although I'm not sure if there is a branch anywhere near you. 
https://www.screwfix.com/p/sylvania-bc-gls-led-light-bulb-1521lm-15w-4-pack/405gx
I do find them lovely and bright too, so very helpful when reading or sewing.

Off to portion out the rest of the batch cooked chickpea curry ready for tomorrow and the day after and then will read the recipe list to see what I can make without having to buy any more shopping. Cheap and cheerful for September, that's my motto, goldfinches. 

zafiro1984

I've been missing for several months on all forums. Life has been just manic, no staff, no income apart from pensions and I haven't been off our place since the end of February - that's six months ago. DH and I start early and finish when it goes  dark. I have never stayed at home for so long.  Animal and human feed/shopping has all been delivered. Thank goodness for the telephone and internet.

I'm now starting to feel a bit more in control, I'm using any spare time to make preserves, plus cakes, biscuits etc for the freezer. Today's offering is rosehip and orange marmalade. So far, I've taken all the seeds and hairs out of the rosehips and they are gently simmering away. 
I  overstocked on groceries during the last few months, I didn't do it on purpose, I just didn't do any meal plans and bought what I thought we needed without checking what we already had, so now it's time to use up what I can, make lists and meal plans and buy only what I absolutely need. 

Elsiepac - i notice I am still on your list but please don't put me down for any amount  this month as I have no idea what I will have to spend. All I want is to be in control again and see some shelf and freezer space.