November 2021 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

My "a few things" shop on Friday was a bit more than I hoped. I will need to go again this week, as the local store is expecting some of the Christmas in-store bakery bits I freeze. I might go today as it will be quieter, but I need to make soup today (it will be homegrown courgette)

joedenise

@thriftwizard if you've spent £50 on Christmas stuff and taken it out of the GC money then I wouldn't say it was creative accounting to take it from the Christmas money; after all that's what that money is for surely!  I'd certainly take it there and add that £50 back on to the grocery money.

diganddog

New Total: £153.14 / £320

£31.93 spent this week on our weekly shop - should mention that I’ve had some small spends in between that I’d forgotten to count so updated the total above to reflect this.

Only one more weekly shop until the end of the month for us so I think we’re going to be well under the target

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

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. 

€5.10 spent in Aldi

I needed more cheddar cause I couldn’t get any in Lidl last week. We are having lasagne for dinner so needed it and baguette to make my own garlic bread. I’m going into Lidl tomorrow so hopefully it’s back in stock. I much prefer it and on weight/price it’s best value for money. We use enough cheese anyways. 

The reason why I spent over €5 is cause my daughter was with me and I let her pick up a few things. I don’t do it often trust me cause she will buy the whole shop :-D

€60.75 left. I don’t need much tomorrow just some fruit, protein yogurts and hopefully cheese. 

€21 spent (well it was €20 plus some cents but I’ve lost one of the receipts!)

I managed to get cheddar cheese in Lidl today hooray! I also got fruit for the week, sushi got my lunch as that’s my treat. My daughter has a bakery cookie too. In Mercadona it was just crisps, cereal bars and protein yogurts. I also got items not included (hair clips and razors) so deducted that from the total 

€39.75 left. Meals sorted for the week. Maybe a few pennies spent on fresh bread but shouldn’t need anything until next week. Salmon for dinner tonight and enough to make fish cakes tomorrow. There’s loads of stuff in the fridge, freezer and cupboards 

cornishchick

£16,27  spent in Iceland, met a friend for a costa lot, ( separate budget lol ) so popped in to get a couple of things, including some chocolate treats as my partner is down for a couple of days. 
He then arrived with a bag of delicious party foods and specials from his work ( Marks) SO I have a fridge full of lush foods I don't normally get lol which should last me till the end of the month. 

£57.37/£100

mumtoomany

Weekly shop today, as in town anyway. £9.86 in Aldi, £3.52 in home bargains and £7.50 in the veg shop. For my £7.50 I got, two punnets of red grapes, a large bag of green grapes, half a kilo of mushrooms, two kilos of tomatoes, for punnets of cherry tomatoes, a bulb of garlic, six lettuce and eight large heads of broccoli. Not a bad haul today. Should only need milk now until next week. Total to date is £2598.28/£2750, speak soon, mumtoomany.

MissRikkiC

mumtoomany said:

Weekly shop today, as in town anyway. £9.86 in Aldi, £3.52 in home bargains and £7.50 in the veg shop. For my £7.50 I got, two punnets of red grapes, a large bag of green grapes, half a kilo of mushrooms, two kilos of tomatoes, for punnets of cherry tomatoes, a bulb of garlic, six lettuce and eight large heads of broccoli. Not a bad haul today. Should only need milk now until next week. Total to date is £2598.28/£2750, speak soon, mumtoomany.

I need me a veg shop like this!

mumtoomany

Feel free to shop at this one. If you live near South West wales. They sell pound boxes, so for example one of today's had a flat lettuce, the four punnets of cherry toms, the garlic, the mushrooms and an avacado. (I put the avocado into another box, nobody here would have eaten it). They had potatoes at two sacks for ten pounds today too, also wooden barrels for twelve pounds, they stock some strange things sometimes. This shop helps to keep our food bill low. Mumtoomany.

Smoosh

I have a few spends to update on:

30p on Saturday on 2 big bags of crisps and some madeleines (all YS).

£6 on Saturday on 8 litres of fizzy drink. 

£19.73 today on the main weekly shop which got us 4 litres of fizzy drink, 1 litre of juice, hairspray, pasta sauce, 6 pints of milk, Quorn mince, 1kg chips, Quorn nuggets, 2 pizzas, 500g spaghetti, a ready meal, kitchen roll, a loaf of bread and some cookies.

Was surprised how much it came to, but the Quorn is quite expensive. 

Then a further £4.03 in another shop on veggie sausages, ketchup and sweet and sour sauce.

Meal plan:
1. Sweet and sour Quorn nuggets with rice.
2. Quorn bolognese with spaghetti. 
3. Breakfast for dinner (veggie sausages, beans, hash browns, fried eggs).
4. Omelette and chips.
5. Veggie sausage casserole with mash. 
6. Pizza. 
7. Out at family's house for dinner.

Only £18.64 left of our budget. I'm not sure we're going to make it. Next weekend I'm going to go through everything we have left and create a meal plan for the week that utilises it all as best as possible. 

Blackcats

Spent quite a lot on bits and bobs for a family lunch.  I suppose technically I should separate that out from main grocery spends but I think I'll just declare it all.  I plan new budget category pots next year which will include "entertainment" so in future I will keep separate account of spends.  I've got 3 bottles of wine in stock now and 2 bottles of shlo*r which I'll try to keep until Christmas 😇.  I used the leftover roast vegetables to make a nice cous cous meal tonight and had some leftover pudding so this week's meal plan can roll forward by a day.

£92.09 spent.  Balance to last until end of month £163.18