November 2021 Grocery Challenge

LadyWithAPlan

@Wraithlady the discount voucher for Goodclub.co.uk would be great thanks, I will check it out. Feel free to dm me or pop on here.

@DanielleNic87 welcome I have only been on this MSE site for the last 2.5 months and my spending has drastically dropped, savings gone up and I am learning loads o the various forums. I am sure having more time and being happier will pay off and hopefully your side incomes can start getting more income back in. At least you felt you were able to leave.
I also am a sucker for a YS  


@pixiehouse your canal journey sounds lovely - is it damp or is the boat well insulated?

@jozbo yes food is more important , I am also GF and lots of GF ingredients and foods  are more expensive - though it does stop me buying reduced items often if they have Gluten in them. I also loved a Good To Go bag but so many are stacked with bakery products .... the Waitrose one is good but always at least one or 2 things in it with wheat in..

@goldfinches
 let me know how your fudge comes along. I am surprised your cookies went down a treat with the walking club. I am GF DF so I make some nibbles but do need to get some decent low sugar sweet treats happening.  I made up a GF DF oat raspberry and raisin cookie recipe but the amount of  sugar is fairly scary!


Nov  Groceries Challenge  £75.19/ £140  + £10.52/ £100 bulk 
£4.52 bulk and £19.54 today.
- as I went to the gym tonight after wfh all day, successfully dragging myself  there at 7pm despite it feeling very hard to get out the house. - woohoo!  However as I have ran out of DF milk, yogurt and eggs I went to LIDL after te gym which is very near. Despite a rammed freezer and loads in fridge and the cupboards I spent £24.56. Some was bulk - tinned tomatoes, sauces plus some YS meat, lots of veg, 2 packets of sweets and one pack of 6 pack crisps.
Only bought one DF milk, 6 eggs and 2 DF yogurts though - these were what I ran out of but I could not carry more .. So I need to stock up on these as these products are what normally drive me to the store in the first place. 

Re cooking my experiment of  pork in a GF crispy batter  (used sparkling water as well ) I tried today were very tasty if a little weird idea wise but the GF batter is not quite right  - it fell off so I will experiment further. I have somehow against all odds squeezed 2 lots of home made beetroot soup in freezer as well. 

I have seen a  3 drawer new freezer for £159, which will match some other kitchen goods and will fit in freezer space  - v tempted  but trying to wait to see if Black Friday has crazy deals.

Free money   £15.62/£100
saved 54p in LIDL coupons and 50p in Tesco against a Shopmium offer.

NSD 5/15 still 

goldfinches

@LadyWithAPlan - the fudge mixture tasted very nice when scraping the saucepan, will let you know how it tastes after chilling in the fridge tomorrow evening. Here it is cooling on my kitchen rack earlier.



Regarding sweet treats, I've made these biscuits before and they are not very sweet Healthy Oat Cookies Recipe - olivemagazine and I think that you could use a GF flour as a straight swap along with a DF fat like Naturli or Vitalite and get a good result.

@jozbo - sorry for the setback in your repayment plans but agree that food is more important at the moment. 

@DanielleNic87 - welcome to GC and to the unending battle against the YS temptation, I've started telling myself how much more money I save by not buying whatever it is just before I push open the door to the supermarket which sort of helps.

Shopping: I spent £6.37 at M*rks on y/s aubergine, y/s salad, cauliflower, tomatoes and courgettes. Then I spent £5.40 on chocolate and pistachios, £14.29 on brandy and ginger wine and the bulk fund spent £8 on instant coffee all at Sains. 
That makes my new monthly total  £26.19/£120 and my average daily spend £2.91.
The Christmas fund new total is £19.29/£150.
The baking budget allows £5 per Wednesday in the month so is £20 for the month and current total is £5.40/£20.

LadyWithAPlan

@goldfinches that is a thing of beauty and a wonder to behold as I get ready to go into the office for once. I have pork chips frying to take wuth me and my home made DF GF chocolate muffins but that fudge makes me want to dance

Will check out your recipe suggestion. Have a great day all.

Planning to buy some special masa corn flour, expensive but what you need to make tortillas properly apparently 

Suffolk_lass

I find the best way to avoid YS temptation is to not go shopping. I will need to go at some point as we are now defrosting butter, on the last pot of yogurt, and running out of cheese. Yogurt is the big thing. It often does a dessert as there are certain things that just leave you (well, us) with a too-savoury taste. Last night I opened a jar of plum and apple (home-grown) and made some custard.

Seriously, if you are a sucker for YS, add in the cost of keeping it frozen for however long and the bargains are not quite so marvellous

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

Hello all

its been a busy few days here

Ive kept the receipts. I used to do this but stopped and that’s why I feel like our spends have gone a bit chaotic in recent months. My husband working loads probably didn’t help. He’s only working part time now and our daughter is in nursery. This is giving me so much more time to keep control if spending, meal plan, make things in advance etc 

Anyways!

€78.95 spend over several shops. This does include some Christmas treats. We went into Lidl on Thursday as they had special buys on. We got pjs for our daughter and slippers for hubby. I’ve deducted that cost from the above. I’ve got to get more water and milk today from Aldi but that should be it. We are doing a big Carrefour shop for next week which will have all the bulky items in it. I’ve gotta make this last as much as I can in November. It will obviously include many fresh and frozen items. 

Just to update this 

€12.85 spent this morning. I didn’t intend to spend that much BUT they had reduced meat, pork mince, chicken breasts and pork chops. I’ll happily use those next week or following week. All bagged up in the freezer. Discount of 30% off which is great. I also got the big bottle of washing detergent as that was on special offer. 

€188.20 left with our big shopping coming next week too 

€22.35 spent today

i went up the other end of Palma Nova to get Lidl and Mercadona specific items - pasta, cereal bars, chocolate, mince beef, yogurts, cakes and Lidl special buys of Christmas presents (deducted from the total). I always treat myself to sushi from Lidl 30% off not bad and I love it. 

€165.85 left

shopping due to delivered tomorrow. Some of it is for December so I’m going to deduct an amount off the spend based on what we will use. We tend to bulk buy tins, cans, toilet rolls etc every 6-8 weeks. We shouldn’t in theory need very much for a good 2 weeks. Certainly don’t need any meat or fish for at least 2 weeks. Fresh items like fruit and veg maybe. I’ll update you on that tomorrow 

€100 spent on Carrefour shop

it was €146 but as it’s a bulk shop I’m allowing the €46 for next months spend.

we got a lot of stuff - fizzy drinks, lentils, beans, chickpeas, frito, water, toilet roll, cling film, foil, cleaning products, nesquik, milk etc etc 

€65.85 left which in all honesty will be fine. We’ve got at least 10 days worth of meals. I’ll need to buy fruit next week and maybe bread but that’s it for at least 10 days. 

pamsdish

£23.61 In 4 differing shops.

chirpycheap

£63.31 spent so far this week.

£47.92 in Tesco topping up the fridge and pantry.
£5.66 stocking up on dishwasher supplies in Home Bargains

£4.13 on some grocery bits and bobs in Home Bargains

£5.60 on pecans, cranberries and chia seeds from Costco. I share a portion of the large bulk sized bags with my sister and parents. I don't have a Costco card but fortunately my sister does and she kindly picks up any items I ask for. 

Balance so far £204.53 left of my £300 budget

Wraithlady

LadyWithAPlan said:

@Wraithlady the discount voucher for Goodclub.co.uk would be great thanks, I will check it out. Feel free to dm me or pop on here.

I've DM'd you

Pixiehouse55

@LadyWithAPlan our Narrowboat is very warm. We have a log burner and central heating via the Generator. It's beautiful warm and cosy. We actually took our jumpers off last night as it got so hot😅🤣

We took mince out the fridge, packet of chilli con carne,mtin of chopped tomatoes. No kidney beans or onion. We've got wild rice to go with it. 
 We got a carrier bag of cooking apples the other day. I know have some flour so I will make a apple crumble tomorrow . 

cornishchick

cornishchick said:

met my daughter for a charity shop rummage. nothing for me,
then as the Food warehouse was nearby dropped in and brought a few bits as a few pence cheaper than my normal Asda shop.£11.50 bringing my total so far too.

£23.54/£100

went to a local to work Lidl, it's a little more out of my way on the way home from work, but actually, the detour seems worth not going to Asda.

£17.29 on fresh salad, some cheeses and fruit and sausages for the rest of the month(hopefully!)

ohh and the other day I spent 0.98 pence on cuppa soups in BnM. 

£41.1/£100