July 2021 Grocery Challenge

Finstickle

thriftwizard said:

I've decided that as I'm still fairly well within my budget, I'm going to do a bulk order of flour, which will see us well into the autumn. One of the things that's been taking me over-budget in the last few months is the irresistible bread our local artisan baker produces; I'm perfectly capable of making it too! Not quite as excellent, but I'm not helpless, I've just got out of the habit. I know my insides definitely prefer properly-prepared sourdough & other slow-risen breads; supermarket loaves just make me blow up like a balloon. Will report back when I've done the deed.

100% agree with regards to the bread @thriftwizard, i've found exactly the same myself and it does drive me to try and make it at home

Finstickle

Only a normal Lidl shop for me in the end (poorly toddler put aid to thoughts of getting organised and doing anything online).
A nice shop of £81.62 including a £15 bottle of rum - the weekly shop used to be £150 easy, every week so really happy with that.


Currently on £405.94/£450
I may need a small top up in the week for fresh items, but looking good for finishing under target this month

Finstickle

Just checking my bank to update all my budget lines and found a missed shop and a takeaway  
I haven't always included takeaway in the grocery budget but as it replaces grocercy cost and there's no additional benefit, like going out to dinner, i've decided it is the best place for it.

Updated £456/£450 - £6 over, but blaming my poorly toddler for the takeaway

nannygladys

Hi everyone

Small shop tonight of £3.97 ,so total so far £8.33 and I shouldn't need anymore before I get paid on Wednesday, so the plan is to redo my budgets and decrease my grocery budget and readjust others so I have more money for other 'stuff' that needs saving for! Menu planning a necessity and eating from the lottie and ys when I can get them but only if I need them that is. 
Nannyg

elsiepac

@Pixiehouse55 your narrowboat retirement sounds amazing! You definitely deserve it - sounds like you've put in a lifetime of caring for others and now you get to enjoy your life.  I live near the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal and walk near Saul Junction quite a lot - it's very lovely there! I once met a man walking his pig.  Yes, his pig.  I got chatting and turned out he lives on a narrowboat and wanted a dog but as he works fulltime in the town he felt it wouldn't be fair, so he researched it and got a pig instead! He had to get a livestock license to be able to travel with the pig (who was called Rumpole!) but he'd done it all and can go about 100 miles of canal! What a life!

@nannygladys sounds like you are well on top of things!!

As for me I've basically been struggling with life in various ways since I had covid last year.  A Couple of the big things I've been left with is a real difficulty with concentration, focus and memory, and also extreme fatigue/exhaustion.  Also anxiety, but I'm already being treated for that.  My new doctor suggested we do full blood tests as I've not had a full lot done since Feb 2019 when all was normal and the results came back today.  I'm very very deficient in both iron and B12.  It's interesting as I am vegan, but I've been vegan nearly 8 years now and my levels have always been normal.  They really have plummeted since feb 19 (iron from 39 down to 5 and B12 from 547 down to 166).  I haven't really changed much but the doctor interestingly said it could well be that being so ill used up my reserves and I've just not been able to build them back up! Particularly with the B12.  But my symptoms are 100% consistent with those deficiencies so I actually feel quite relieved it's not all in my head and I'm not doomed, because lately I've been feeling like there's no hope for me and I'll never feel "normal" again, so it's quite the relief I'm going to be given loading doses of each which should sort me out.  Anyway, it's made me think about my diet and it could be improved as I have found I'm turning a little more to convenience foods - mostly due to my total lack of energy - so I want to turn it round and I'm not sure which way it'll affect my grocery budget!  

Sorry for long post!

goldfinches

@elsiepac - sorry to hear you have been having such a horrible time since your bout of Covid but very interesting to hear about your iron and B12 levels which sound as though there is some light at the end of your tunnel.
I've been a vegetarian for 40 or so years now and over the years and through various illnesses have found that my levels of iron are very prone to being drastically and speedily depleted by any type of illness no matter how minor and that without supplements it is much harder to top them up again without eating meat or fish.
For this reason I take daily iron and B complex supplements as the other problem is that by the time one actually notices any symptoms ones levels have got very low.
All that said its cheering to hear you're getting a loading dose to get you topped up nice and fast and I hope that you will feel the effects very quickly.

I have to confess to a further spend on milk, yoghurt, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, carrots and olives at M*rks which came to £8.55 making my running total £152.49/£124 and my daily average spend £5.86 which I hope will be my last outlay before August.

MissRikkiC

Well I’ve been quiet on her for a week but can report we came under budget for July!! 

221.77/230 

I whisked away the leftover pennies from both the bulk and food account into a pot labelled underspends from previous month and hope to build that and chick it should the credit card come the end of the year. Equally I’ll use it before then incase we go over so as to not affect the current month. 

I think £230 was reasonable and our freezer and cupboards are still well stocked so going to leave as is for another month and if I can manage to stick with it, without the extra ‘bulk’ or ‘bbq’ pot since there isn’t anything else happening in the month, I’ll reduce for September! 

See you in August!! 

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, not been on for a liitle while so have just spent a few minutes catching up with everything. We're currently on £286.56/£350. Will do a small top up tomorrow and then will need milk and a few things getting in for the weekend. Hope to end the month on £300 or less. 
Will do another sort of the freezer before August as I want to use up the remaining odd bits and do a batch cooking session to save some time whilst the kids are off. Makes life easier on long days out to come home and just have to heat something up rather than starting from scratch. 

Going to plant some salad leaves seeds as well to complement the tomatoes we have growing. Didn't get many strawberries this year so will have to look into how to increase crops. Got a few pears on the tree which are growing nicely. Need to plan what to grow next year as I've got loads of seeds but always miss the sowing window, 

nannygladys

Yay I made it!!!! 
So tomorrow is the start of my next 4 weeks, in the morning I will be doing a sort of menu plan after seeing what I have in and doing the money shuffle. The bit of change I have left over has already gone into an empty jar to hopefully start to accumulate and I have plastic envelopes ready and waiting for my different categories oh and an unused notebook to record it all in, so I am getting organised.
Nannyg

thriftwizard

I'm reporting a small spend of £3.42; running errands down in the conurbation earlier, I remembered we were out of mushrooms, bananas & sliced bread, so popped into L!dls as I was going past. I couldn't resist also picking up one of the £1.50 boxes too, as it had lots of onions in & we were pretty low on those - the home-grown ones are still drying out. I suspect other customers do swap stuff round - 3 potatoes doesn't seem overly generous, & 20 onions might well be overkill for most households - but anyway, it suited me. That's only the second one I've ever bought; the first one had lots of rather bruised apricots in it, which made a wonderful batch of ice-cream.

If I were closer to them, I'd be tempted to do a challenge for using up the contents of the boxes in interesting & imaginative ways. I'm gazing at half a pack of Spanish tapas peppers & wondering what to do with them; to be honest these particular ones are quite far gone & drying them for the seeds (to try growing next year) might just be the best use, but working out how best to use everything in there is an idea that I could have fun with...