January 2021 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi CW18, good to see you around again. Hope you're keeping well?

I've had a small spend of £10.33 at Ald!, rolls, raspberries, spread, a red pepper and treated myself to a bottle of Amaretto. 

Florenceem

Just a spend of £1.30 here on milk and a baguette.
Had everything in for dinner - Cheese & Onion Pastie + roasted potato bits + SS carrots/swede.

cw18

Mrs_Cheshire said:

Hi CW18, good to see you around again. Hope you're keeping well?

I'm coping thanks.

Been suffering from sciatica (though it appears to actually be piriformis syndrome which can cause the same problems) since last May/June.   Seems to have been flared up because I lost my swimming !!   Didn't ventured back to that when gyms were (temporarily) open again, as the new structured sessions don't really fit around my sporadic working hours.   I had planned to go back this week (off work on a rest week), but they've all had to close again.....

I had a bout of it early last year which three hands on physio sessions sorted, but I can't get that with all the lockdowns     Not sure it would be as effective until I can get back to swimming either.   Doesn't make work (postie) easy though

Hardest thing is not getting to see my grand-daughters.   We're in different areas, so sometimes we're under different rules.   Managed to 'sneak up' late in May once we were allowed to travel to exercise (I went for a walk around their area, parked outside their house, had lunch sitting on car bonnet whilst they had a picnic in their front garden, and then they happend to set out with their Mother (my DD) on the same walk a minute or so ahead of me - on country lanes so we could shout backwards and forwards ).  Saw them again under the 'rule of 6 in open space' towards the end of September (organised a sports day for them as the 8.5 year old was upset about missing it at school at the end of school year - and she's not a physically active child so we wanted to encourage her), and again on Christmas Day.   2 of the 4 have already have lockdown birthdays meaning I've not been able to share them properly, with eldest turning 17 in August and youngest turning 7 in November.   GD3 turns 9 later this month (same weekend as my birthday), so that's another.   GD2 will turn 16 mid-March, so it's looking like she might just about manage to escape it - but we're not holding our breath.

Few more spends to add to my totals (£4.62, taking me to a total of £32.35/£155).

Forgot about a 75p loaf my OH had picked up for me.  And I nipped into an Asd@ yesterday to see if they had any bargains (2 tins of soup to try, a ys loaf and a pack of ys bagels for £1.36), then A!di because I needed ham for butties (also picked up ys stir fry veg to go with chicken, noodles and sauce I already have in the house, so a total of £2.51 there).    Whilst there I picked up the first of my 2021 Christmas presents (reduced to clear) and the washing powder I need very soon but comes from a different purse.   Bought the 2-in-1 to try.   Same price as the standard powder, so if it's any good it will save the cost of fabric conditioner - only a couple of £s a year, but it's still a potential saving.

VickyV

Just nipping on to report a couple of spends on groceries today. Spent £11.41 on all the fresh consumables that we get through at a rate of knots. Avoided the fizzy pop and anything we didn’t need so pleased with that. Got the bits I need to make DS2’s birthday cake tomorrow too! 

Totals stand at £22.18/£200 hopefully no more this week! 😁

Vicky x

elsiepac

I did a nice L1dl (£26.77) and Tesc0 (£17.05) shop yesterday based off a rough meal plan but also a few extras - L1dl have a lot of the Sweet Freedom range (choc shots and syrups) in the Middle at £2.49 each so as I bought 4 that was £10 of my shop in there straight away and the rest was all veg! T3sco included the veg/herbs L1dl didn't have, and also bread, vegan yoghurts (have become very fond of their Free From Apricot Fromage Frais - on SW it's 4 syns for the whole pot which is 2 servings for me, but it's £1.65 a pot! I get 1 or sometimes 2 a week - me and mum share one on a Tuesday when she comes for dinner - she's my support bubble), a couple of spices, balsamic vinegar, a couple of tins of beans and a bag of Hul4 H0ops Pufts, my current favourite treat!

Suffolk_lass

Hild0 said:

I have a few questions. What do people who don't drive do - do you get a delivery from e.g. Asda, or just do smaller shops more often? Are there certain things that you just don't buy, e.g. fabric conditioner? Has anyone ever had a Nespresso capsule habit and given it up?

I do one big shop a month and then top up with fruit and veg in between. We bake our own bread and get milk and eggs delivered. When we do the big shop we do a click and collect but also go in on the same day because the loose fruit is not on the web page. It is about 4-5 miles each way. My neighbour also adds anything I need to their order when I ask and I provide her with bread flour as I order it in big sacks.

I don't use any fabric conditioner, I use half the amount of laundry detergent recommended and do the hottest wash the machine can handle once a month for all the towels and tea towels, dish cloths and any handkerchiefs with a cap full of distilled white vinegar to reduce soap scum and limescale.

I use an Italian coffee machine like this one instead of pods. No sacrifice in flavour or quality, no waste and the little ritual of putting the coffee in with a scoop is just the same convenience as a machine that takes up 3 times the space and costs at least twice as much. 

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:

 

I use an Italian coffee machine like this one instead of pods. No sacrifice in flavour or quality, no waste and the little ritual of putting the coffee in with a scoop is just the same convenience as a machine that takes up 3 times the space and costs at least twice as much. 

I couldn't agree more about coffee machines. We use a Russel Hobbs bought from Lidl a couple of years ago, it works well, is easy to clean and no hassle to use, cheap to buy and cheaper than pods to run.

BrassicWoman

£46.47 at Tesco. I am still irritated by the delivery fee but it does save me time, and life is somewhat complicated these days, so all good really. I got falafel instead of meatless balls so I guess Greek night is in my future!

Merlin's_Beard

£2.70 from the local shop last night sets me off for this month.
I'm struggling to balance myself with my new area - for the last eight years I've lived within 5 minutes of a large superstore of some description, and now I'm in a village with a medium (expensive) Coop and the nearest superstore ~30 minutes away.

How do people in similar situations organise themselves? I'm used to doing essentially fairly equal weekly shops in which I can pick everything up that I need, and not really doing much in the middle, but it seems to be not working out great for the set up I'm in now?

Florenceem

No spending here today.