October 2021 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

I have not shopped again since 30th September, but that was October spend. The milk bill is £1.90 for next week as we are off to visit my Mum and DS will be house and cat sitting. He really only uses milk on cereal and in the odd cup of tea. Eggs also cancelled for two weeks so resumption just before we get back. A dozen eggs is plenty for him. I might even take 6 with me...

Other than that there is loads of frozen food; bread, meat and veg, plus onions, carrots and potatoes, and squash drying. He will be fine for 2 weeks but I will leave him a card in case. The store cupboard has biscuits, cereal and crackers, and there is cheese in the fridge. Just no pizza, ice-cream, chocolate or stir fry kit!

I'm hopeful for this month as we get back for the last week (and the second week we are away is in the north of Scotland, with lots of eating out planned - which is a holiday and entertainment budget)

JingsMyBucket

@Hettyhound thanks for mentioning cherry loaf. I’ve never heard of it and searching for it led me to this lovely sounding Nigella Lawson recipe that looks right up my alley. https://www.nigella.com/recipes/cherry-almond-loaf-cake

I’ve added it to my recipes and I’m planning to make it in a few weeks. 

diminua

Today was an extravagant day. I was at the National Gallery with my aunt to see Poussin – she’s a ‘friend’ of a number of galleries and museums so she gets free tickets to exhibitions and then I get drinks or coffees and cake to pay her back – so £12.20 on that, which I don’t mind at all, but also £5.20 on coffee and croissant on the way in, which is the bad habit I know I need to break.  

Then on the way back I popped into W8rose as I was passing and got ‘essential’ milk and carrots, bread, and a bottle of rum I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Another £27.70 gone. 

That leaves me with £76.33 for the rest of the month, which was a bit of a shock when I totted it up. I do have plenty of fresh veg and dry goods though, so I'm confident it’s doable, but only if I start paying more attention. 

nannygladys

Hettyhound - I don't go ys shopping very often as I always spend on the food I don't really need just because it's a bargain!!!! And like you it's usually on bread and cakes lol

Nothing spent today, but I went to the allotment and came back with lots of veggies which will be shared with dds, and it should last me a week or two.
Nannyg

Herbyme

Home today after a week away, glad to find the adult offspring used the fridge and freezer stocks sensibly and didn’t leave them to rot while living on takeaways. Progress! It probably  helped that I left a list of the contents of fridge and freezer. 

Just planned dinners for the next ten days (meant to do 2 weeks but ran out of inspiration). The list is much shorter than usual, the benefit of better planning. Finally got round to researching what to do with that elderly tin of figs, and will have some with yoghurt and granola for breakfast. 

This may seem blindingly obvious to others, but I’ve only just worked out a quick way to get from a meal plan to a shopping list (I find that a tedious process): I’ve written, in a notes app on my phone, a list of my top 20 dishes and put links to each recipe along with each dish, so I can compile a menu (based on reverse meal planning) and a detailed shopping list at the same time.  Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!
Rather a lot spent on alcohol in the last week, for drinks ‘in’ while we were on holiday, but we ate out a lot so  I’m still on target because eating out comes from another budget. 

I’m actually getting a lot of satisfaction from doing the GC again and feeling much more in control. I actually think the planning means we may be eating better too

goldfinches

Just popping in to record another NSD today as I'm still eating my way through the accumulated stores in the fridge and freezer.
I did manage to polish off the last of the fresh figs with the last chunk of stilton at lunchtime today and then discovered half a pot of cottage cheese lurking at the back of one of the fridge shelves so I'll eat that tomorrow.

I'll have to do some spending quite soon as I shall need milk and yoghurt but I'm trying to go as long as I can without setting foot in a supermarket or food shop and managed to persuade myself not to call into M*rks today but to come home instead. I can definitely see the difference in my spending compared to the same stage of last month so it's worth it.

@JingsMyBucket - snap on Nigella's cherry cake recipe as I was also looking at it earlier on today.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, spends are currently £93.08/£350, although I'm really hoping to keep it under £250 if I can. I was given loads of store cupboard bits by the younger boys school this week as they'd done a collection for the food bank and any families who get fsm. Will really help as our heating/water bills have increased due to our company going bust, rent has just increased too. 

EriSteadyGo

Quite a bit over this week, but got some store cupboard bits that will last me for quite a while. Managed to get our fruit and veg from the market for £9 (cauliflower the size of my HEAD for £1.50) but where I didn’t do my weekly shop online, I then overspent by going into L1dl in person and buying stuff we might not really have needed as much. My total this week was £90.79. Am going to need to cut back next week, but should find that quite doable given that I’ve now built up quite a stash of stuff in the freezer. 

Herbyme

DH went to W8rose for a pie or a steak, and some stewing beef. Came back with pies, steaks, beef, 2 tubs W8rose posh ice cream… £60. He was hurt that I wasn’t very grateful to him for ‘going all that way’ ( NB I had already done an Ald1 shop, for £57 for the weeks shopping). He had left it too late for the farm shop for the meat hence the trip to W8rose 😬🙄

ancientmum

I started the month with buying  a bag of reduced bananas from M@rks, 5 for 25p. They were marked as overripe but were fine apart from some bruising. Then to Mr.s for some bread  milk and staples, £7.85.  
I had to go to another town to the bank on Friday so visited the market while there and got some local produce: honey, butter and brie.  Fruit and biscuits from Coop and a trip to Asda for wine and frozen fish completed the shopping with a grand total of £28.70, so £41.30 left for the next three weeks.