October 2021 Grocery Challenge

MandM90

It was really hard to keep on budget this week, but I've just completed the online shop and done it! £75.86 including pizza, strawberries and ice cream (DD having a couple of friends over on Sat night, £5.50 on cat food (we're not actually short but it keeps going OOS so I buy it when it's available), and the ingredients for a Christmas cake. As that included a small bottle of rum I'm fairly pleased, but this week I had to forgo yoghurts and a couple of other treaty bits. Will make flapjacks and crumble and hope I'm forgiven!!

Remaining: £230.97/400

goldfinches

enkeltliv said:

Did you say pickled blackberries @goldfinches? I've never heard of the like 

Another grocery spend via Aldi this morning. I'm down £11.21 so a total of £23.80 spent

Here's where I got the recipe from Brie and pickled blackberry toastie recipe | Sainsbury`s Magazine (sainsburysmagazine.co.uk) I had the juniper berries already and used ground allspice which again I already had and then used the whole zest of an easy peeler that I already had rather than buying an orange. It was very easy to do and did fit a 1 litre jar perfectly. I left it in a corner for six or seven days and then tried them. They've come out a lovely dark pinky red colour and are soft and tangy but the seeds are still hard inside them so I think if I repeat it I'll look for seedless ones to use.
Anyway here's a photo I took the first day I tried them.



See what I mean about the colour, it's really pretty.

jozbo

goldfinches yum those pickled blackberries look delicious . We are out of blackberries now and can’t find any near us to forage but would love to make that next time I get my hands on some.

Been to L1dl this evening for a weekly top up,got almost everything on my list but forgot toilet paper … grr hopefully we will last til next week as we have a reasonable number of rolls in
The app gave me £10 off last month (due to £200 spend) and then I had another £10 off a £10 spend for the first 7 days of this month. Seems like a mistake!! But I got the weekly shop for £13 which I can’t complain about and that leaves me with £134 (£60 once the veg and fruit box is deposited) for the rest of the month.

nannygladys

Goldfinches - that's a good haul, no wonder you had a bad!! 

I have been shopping today, community pantry, HBs and the land of the Lid. I can't remember exact amounts as I have filed the receipts but the updated signature is correct, I know the community pantry was 5.50 though.

It was a mix of household, fridge and cupboard stuff, no freezer stuff as its rammed, so I'm all set up until very near payday. The peppers I was going to stuff today will be done on Sunday now, as I have a veggie quiche to eat over the next two days, it's ages since I have had one so really looking forwards to it.
Nannyg

Hettyhound

I have so far spent £3.60 in B &M, £56.38 in Aldee and £25.39 in Hom3 Barg4ins.  This means I’ve got £94.63 left.  I will be going to Asd4 tomorrow; not my normal shopping place but my son’s cub group is doing some activity thing near by so I’ll shop while they are active.  I should only need fresh stuff as I was gifted 3 bags of tins and dried goods last weekend.  My aunt has been volunteering at a food bank but they have seen a massive drop off in demand over the last few weeks as a lot of people have gone back to work.  They have closed this particular location and are directing people to the main food bank for the city.  They were told the volunteers could take the bits that were left so my aunt asked if I could have some as I’m a single parent.  I’ve been making soup for lunches this week and I’m hoping these few warm days will ripen some more of my tomatoes.  I also made some bean burgers with the tinned mushrooms I was gifted.  I’ve got chickpea masala planned for tomorrow tea.

goldfinches

I needed milk today as well as bog roll so went to M*rks with a very short list and wonder of wonders spotted the Pedro Ximenez sherry that I just couldn't find anywhere I could get to last year so snapped up a bottle of that which I may now be tasting (hic, cheers).  🍷
I've decided to take the cost of that out of the treat fund so I spent £9.15 on loo roll, 2 x tinned, chopped toms, 4x organic milk, carrots and 4x radishes which makes my new total £13.90/£124 and my average daily spend £1.98. 

I did make a very mild curry out of two of the onions, garlic, cauliflower, leeks, fennel, beetroot and one of the carrots I bought today, I had one portion for dinner tonight and have 3 more in the pot. I had frozen fruit from freezer stocks with f/f yoghurt for breakfast and the rest of yesterday's onion bhajis with frozen peas, sweetcorn and fine beans for lunch so the stocks are reducing somewhat.

Bluegreen143

How much do people spend as a family of four? 

A few years ago I got really into this challenge but it feels like two kids later everything is so expensive. It’s tough too as cutting back too much leads to tension with DH. So I’m just curious how much families of four can expect to spend realistically (my kids are still young at nearly 6 and nearly 3). 

DH insists on buying a lot of (own brand) crisps and cola and a pack of (value or own brand) biscuits a week but beyond that we tend to make things from scratch and I don’t buy packaged snacks for the kids (except oatcakes and the big tubs of Greek yog if they count). We eat a lot of F&V and don’t stint too much on things like spices and flavourings… we could definitely do better I think, we have been quite busy of late and ending up with food waste, and I think all the stuff right now on the cost of petrol, gas etc is making me nervous and want to cut back. 

Our weekly shop seems to vary quite a bit between £70-100 which includes general groceries too (eg toiletries) but not alcohol. We pay about £7 for milkman deliveries. Sometimes we do a small top up shop and sometimes we don’t, and we get chicken feed and toilet rolls delivered in bulk so that’s not included in the cost.

Herbyme

@Bluegreen143 a number of us have the DH Challenge ( maybe that should be OH) as well as the Grocery Challenge… it’s a tricky one for sure 🥴. Maybe there should be a thread for it, it’s been discussed before and it’s interesting to hear how others work around it 🤔 

MandM90

@Bluegreen143 family of 4 here too and also buy a few cheap fizzies, crisps and biscuits but mostly homemade snacks and my budget is very similar to yours. Ours includes loo roll and cat food and occasionally a bottle of wine, however we don't eat meat which probably brings the cost down?

diminua

Two more spends to declare - the pain au chocolat from the supermarket yesterday (95p) and today's A&C delivery, which is one small veg and fruit box and two venison steaks - that all comes fortnightly - and butter, which I get once a month because I only use it for cooking. (£23.49 including delivery)