October 2021 Grocery Challenge

pelirocco

MandM90 said:

I have £70.02 left out of £400. My last shop will be delivered on 30th Oct. I'm looking forward to Nov as only three Saturdays so I'll have £100/week 💰💰💰

I think you may need to recount

goldfinches

I did some heavy duty meal planning this morning and then wrote a very tight shopping list and duly cycled over to W8rose and trotted round the shop merrily ticking things off and being very good about not succumbing to temptation on various fronts. Then I got to the till and I hadn't managed to hit the £30 so I had to rush and snatch up some herbs to get me over the threshold to use my £6 off voucher which didn't please the family behind me in the queue. 

Anyway, the damage came to £24.06 which makes my new monthly total £93.30 and my average daily spend £4.05.

Mrs_Cheshire

Currently standing at £160.51/£350 with 1 week left. Will need a few groceries, something for son's birthday tea and a cake, so hoping to come in under £200 this month. 

pamsdish

Been missing in action for 2 months, I must rein in my spending, and will check my bank account for monthly spends, been stay at S,I,L, Fri through to Sunday, just paying for bits and pieces, but still spending on Amazon, will update for Oct later and start checking everything from 1st Nov.

LadyWithAPlan

Nov Challenge goal  - I am thinking £165 including my bulk fund of £10 - or maybe I should just throw an extra £100 into a bulk fund separately as £10 does not go far when buying in bulk and then as I use the stocks I take it off the grocery money if I remmber the cost  - how do others track their grocery vs the bulk buying of food?


Despite writing 2 days ago on here I did not need much food in ... I went and spent loads today on toiletries, household stuff plus   £36 on food..

Oct  Groceries Challenge  Oct 24th   £148 of £160 + 6.65 of £10 bulk  - just £3.35 left for the month..

I have not been very well the last few days but I did pop out today to get some bits to various shops today  as I needed fresh air and some medicine .. so I spent loads...
 I  have practically spent my Oct grocery money but I do have a lot of food in the fridge and freezer for the next few weeks. My small 2 shelf freezer is stuffed full of ingredients plus my own batching and my pretty large tall fridge for one is full.. Not planning to buy an extra  freezer til I move and see what that kitchen looks like but I do understand why my parents have 4 freezers. The minute you start batching or where they grow veg etc .. you need the room. So even though it is just me I definitely want an extra freezer. I have the room now but it is a space for a dishwasher .. very tempting to fill that space with a nice white goods  but I don't need either a dishwasher or an extra freezer right now, especially as may already be ones there once I move. 

I did just google freezers and this fabulous freezer room came up! Just £3.8k (!) and it makes me think of James Bond movies where one might get locked in.
https://adexa.co.uk/Freezer-room-1500x1500x2010mm-Volume-3-3m3-Panels-80mm-Adexa-FR1515201?language=en&currency=GBP&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiNSLBhCPARIsAKNS4_eVyJ-_CTyrhzCimU1kOWTApzneK3oKxWiYXvuSns6WwXZTvGb4NzgaAoHQEALw_wcB

Popped into Lidl and then past M+S about 4.50 today and picked up lots of YS items, I have started splitting the packs up  asap so  for example I got some lovely M+S salmon fillets but have re-bagged as 2 x 2 portions rather than having to de freeze all 4.  This is saving me loads, gives me more space and more choice - I love the Gressingham Turkey Burgers which come in packs of 4 but again I have started freezing 2 at a time.  It is really helping with choice and wastage, I get bored of my meals. 

Plus had a TOO Good to Go 'exotic  fruit'  magic bag of plantains (thought they'd be a veg..), pineapple and  also 2 different fruits I am not sure what they are called.  I love plantains and rarely buy them - Like to dry fry them with paprika.. It cost £4 instead of £12 - it was an expensive stall  but I am not convinced for once my goods were that reduced - maybe £6 or £7 max but at least I can try some new things and I've not had a pineapple in ages, so it feels like a fruit/veg box instead

I keep hearing of lidl veg boxes but I have never seen one... are they normally in the veg section? or by the tills?

 I also bought some Holland and Barrett  green powder mixes as they were in penny sale  - hoping they will help me get better and I had ran out.. They are very alkaline but they not really food  .. but as I have spent my beauty and toiletries money this  month I am  not sure where the cash  comes out of - maybe household... Next month  I will up my beauty and toiletries pots  -I dont spend much but  as my items are not cheap but they last months eg my Mac cleanse off stuff - £24 but lasts easily 6 months even with 2 x daily use, equally shampoos etc.  So I need to start thinking of bulking these pots up as I hate to ever touch my emergency fund.

NSD 12/13

@goldfinches I love the idea of you checking out apple trees everywhere. My various family members have loads but I need to visit - May take a suitcase next time!

I love a great Chinese supermarket - I used to go to the ones in Chinatown in London a lot. Sadly being GF means I cant buy those delicious frozen dim sum any more..

joedenise

The Lidl veg boxes are usually near the tills.  I go and look for them before I do my shopping.  If I manage to get one it means I can leave some things which are on my list!

PipneyJane

@LadyWithAPlan - our Bulk Fund is kept separate to the GC Fund.  It used to live in a different pot in the kitchen but now gets paid into a savings account.  How we spend it depends on where we’re shopping.  If say, I’m buying 10kg of flour in MrT’s, then I’ll spend cash from the GC Purse, transfer the price of the flour to me in the bank and reimburse the GC Purse with cash from my own purse.  (Does that make sense?)

Talking of L!dl veg boxes, we bought one yesterday.  Nearly 3kg of perfectly good, fresh mushrooms for £1.50.

I have multiple spends to declare.  I went to L!dl on Thursday evening after work, in the hope that I could do my main shop for the week.  Big mistake since they run very lean and had sold out of most fresh veg - I could only buy mushrooms - all the eggs and had no own-brand sanitary pads. £16.10 spent.  What they did have was arborio rice, so I bought 2kg, 1kg of soft dark muscovardo sugar and some chocolate based treats.  

We went back on Saturday morning.  Still no Cien sanitary pads but, this time, they did have fresh veg, eggs and the aforesaid mushrooms.  £27.79 spent.  We stocked up on chorizo, cooking bacon, a “family pack” of onions (2kg for £1), sweet potatoes, carrots and broccoli, as well as toiletries.  
 
On the way home, we went to the butcher’s, spending £31.10 on a large roasting chicken (£8.60), 4 slices of calves liver (£10.30), 4 chicken legs and 4 chicken breasts.  This was paid for out of the Meat Fund.

Afterwards, we went to MrT’s, spending £18.80 on yoghurts, brown lentils (2 x 2kg bags for £3 each), vanilla extract and sanitary pads (MrT’s own brand 66p for 12).  We also bought 4 large cans of pilchards in tomato sauce for £1.10 each.

Yesterday’s L!dl shop pushed us over the £100 mark and gave us a £2 off voucher on L!dl-plus, so today we went to a different Lidl, spending £8.34 on a YS Pork Shoulder joint, YS Salt & Pepper Pork Belly, two YS quiches, YS black bread and 2 focaccia. Still no CIen Sanitary Pads but at least now I have some in stock.

Finally, we went to MrT’s to buy our Sunday paper.  (L!dl won’t take the subscription vouchers but MrT will.). Naturally, we checked out the Condemned counters.  YS low fat pork sausages and a YS steak pie were added to our basket, together with a 500ml pot of creme fraiche.  Excluding the paper, £4.50 spent.

All of the above brings our total spend for October to

£141.80/£160. I’m declaring and will roll £19 over to next month.  

We’re away for a long weekend and won’t be shopping between now and the end of the month.

- Pip


PS:  I’ve spent this afternoon playing freezer Tetris and making a large pot of “Base” to freeze.  All the meat is now in the freezer.  To make Base:  fry onion with garlic and sliced mushrooms.  We used 5 onions, 5 large cloves of garlic and about half the mushrooms.  It cooked down to three takeaway containers.  I’ll do another batch on Tuesday and shoehorn it into the freezer too.

Finstickle

After thinking I was going to come in under budget for October, Asda ruined my plans.

A late delivery on Thursday which was missing all fridge items    31 items missing so definitely couldn't manage and had to go to the shop on Friday.  Spent £38.70 against a refund of £28.98 - additional treats in the form of cookies, fresh bread, YS lamb etc, none needed but an extra £9.72 spent!!
Lamb has already been batched into 4 portions of curry and is in the freezer maturing.

Also ordered some Childs Farm bubble bath for DD off Amazon - I buy bar soap from a local shop and OH has large quantities of shower gel so it never seems to make the shopping list and as I had a couple of other bits coming I added to the order.

DSS has come for a few days of half term which means we get through a bag of potatoes a meal!!!
Back to the shops tonight for some greens, bread and potatoes to see us through the week.

Currently £493/480
Will be really looking at what we need before venturing to the shop this afternoon, will go to Lidl on Friday when I get paid so just need the next few days.

Herbyme

After much head scratching I've finally worked out that the approx £40 pending in my bank account is the Who gives a Crap order. I hate having invisible pending items showing (in this case, from Friday to Monday) so I'm planning to switch banks, it doesn't sound like a big problem but it feels that way when I'm waiting for it to 'land' so I know what it is.

Just did the week's Morries shop (£104, gulp) so should be ok til 31st, £25 left for fresh veg, milk, bread emergencies etc.

Still an awfully big spend this month but also a lot lot less than last month, I will knock off £50 for my November budget and hope to keep going in  the right direction. This thread is such a massive help, thanks one and all!

MissRikkiC

Declaring us done for this month. 

I don’t think we did terrible but not 100% convinced as to final spends. That said I have stuck to the same budget and taken new approach to shopping this month. It’s not the cheapest approach (such as shopping at L1dl etc) however may mean we resist buying unnecessarily. 

See you in November all