November 2021 Grocery Challenge

pamsdish

Spent £51.80 in Morries, but not really, earlier this year I told you all about an out of date saver stamp card, emailed Morries and they said "sorry, out of date", these are saver stamps paid for with cash, not points earned, so yesterday I went to Morries, I had the card with me and a plan, the stamps are the same, just exp 2019 on every stamp in tiny figures, so went through the checkout and presented the card, name and address on back required, fictitious, cashier accepted with no qualms.
Very pleased with it, I don`t feel "dishonest" they had been bought and paid for, Morries were, in my opinion breaking trust by refusing in the first instance to accept them.

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

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 

€2.93 spent

my daughter is enjoying a “continental” breakfast in the mornings - cheese triangles, yogurt, fruit, small breakfast cake. I needed to get more yogurts and cheese triangles for her plus a baguette for lunch today 

€36.82 left 

Finstickle

A couple of updates since I last posted.

Big shop at Lidl last week - £90.30
No top up shops!!!
Big shop at Asda, being delivered today - £125.16

I really tried last week to get everything we would need to avoid the extras I inevitably buy when I go out, after spending £10 on Lucozade in the first 10 days, I've not bough any since :-:smile:

OH has also decided that he will have beer on the joint account, as I have wine, but he will buy his rum himself.  So this month I'll show the total with the reclaim, going forward I'll exclude from my numbers.  I'll still buy it as obviously much cheaper at the SM than the corner shop but means the food budget should be a bit more stable
Alcohol reclaim MTD: £54

Current: £413/£550 - £137 remains

LadyWithAPlan

Nov  Groceries Challenge  £107.70/ £140  + £13.87/ £100 bulk 
Went to office  yesterday as normally wfh  and unusually I did not take food with me so had some street stall food £6.50 for lunch and snacks £2.40 . plus travel, the amount of money I am saving by not going to the office  regularly on food, snacks and travel is in the hundreds... I do like to go in once a week for the community and easier to get some stuff done in live conversation but am v happy it is not FT work from office any more.

I am aware I have 12 days left of month and £33 to play with in main.. I am entertaining next week, so some may have to come from entertainment budget. I have loads in freezer so will run that down a bit but I will be buying my freezer black Friday weekend (way too excited about a white goods purchase)  so may well be using my bulk fund to stock up more. I think it will be fun to go food bulk bargain shopping for my freezer and I think it will stop less trips to grab food. I live in London so it is about less trips so I don't spend as much o things I dont need rather than availability. I cant seem to go to a shop without buying sweets or tortilla chips!

This is my first month with a decent bulk fund thanks to @Suffolk_lass - added the £100 and my idea is to add an extra £100 in January

My fridge looks empty but my 2 shelf freezer is stuffed full  -so I am definitely not starving. I do need brown rice - will see where best to buy in bulk, DF milks in bulk, some veg and fruit, I will get a FR Chicken to also make stock for next week soup. I also feel like making and batching up Green Thai curry so I will see what I need  extra for that.

I am soaking some mung beans as we speak to make a moong dal this afternoon, you can never have too much in and it is delicious and v good for you.  I only have one portion left in the freezer so feeling the need to stock up.


Just pulled beef mince out the freezer to make a large batch of chilli tomorrow and some beef meatballs I will fry up later with some sauce. I bought some seeded GF bread mix reduced so I will see how that turns out maybe this weekend, not tried making my own GF bread but I know it can be difficult.

jozbo

Grocery budget now in minus figures, I’ve been adding from the contingency fund and latest is we are about £40 over. It’s on account of having guests that I will need to do all catering for. I’ve done my best to make this as affordable as possible while having treats too! Needless to say there has been lots of meal planning and batch cooking going on Chez Jozbo. 

Spends today -
£52.30 L1dl, used the £10 off grocery spend , couple of vouchers and managed to nab one of the £1.50 fruit and veg boxes filled with things I needed , so that was good.
£17.10 Mozzas on the things I couldn’t get elsewhere - brown basmati rice, GF bagels, nice and GF Ice cream, nitrite free bacon, cardamom.

hope we are out of the woods until payday now. I’m going to increase next month’s budget slightly because the packed lunches and bulk deficit mean we need a bit more than past couple of months.

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, doing well with the budget so far this month. Going to have to utilise my slow cooker more as the ovens not working (its gas and won't stay on), thankfully the hobs still working. 

Haven't done a meal plan this month so need to have a freezer dive and plan the rest of the months food. 

pamsdish

Mrs_Cheshire said:

Hi all, doing well with the budget so far this month. Going to have to utilise my slow cooker more as the ovens not working (its gas and won't stay on), thankfully the hobs still working. 

Haven't done a meal plan this month so need to have a freezer dive and plan the rest of the months food. 

I had a similar problem, had the part replaced, cost £16 and £45 to fitter, still didn`t work, turned out it was the replacement knobs I had recently fitted, not long enough, gorilla glued them in place, still going well.

mumtoomany

Another £8.25 spent, milk and mince pies, (Huntly and Palmers, 59p box at Farmfoods,) Total now at £2606.53/£2750. £143.47 cash left plus £50 tesco, and M$S vouchers and nectar points. Getting tight! mumtoomany.

LadyWithAPlan

@jozbo yes moving the grocery budget over the Xmas and entertainment  is always fun. I will be adding extra cash to the Dec budget  for Xmas food and entertainment.

A very exciting morning, I finally saw and purchased a l*dl veg box...woohoo, I had heard of them and like a WILLY WONKA Golden Ticket I have been searching and not finding. Of such small sweet delights a life is made )

 I had to pop out early to get some cleaning stuff so I popped in to the LIDL as it was next to Poundland.. and there shiny and new were 3 veg boxes
I only bought one but what a bargain
£1.50 box has punnets of grapes, blueberries, raspberries, mushrooms plus 6 bananas, 8 satsumas, a mago, 4 carrots, 2 red peppers and 10 potatoes. #BARGAIN

Nov  Groceries Challenge  £111.78/ £140  + £13.87/ £100 bulk 
£3.08 lidl - veg box and 2 x DF milk + sweets £1 form elsewhere

I also bought some household stuff but that comes from a different budget.

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

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 

€2.93 spent

my daughter is enjoying a “continental” breakfast in the mornings - cheese triangles, yogurt, fruit, small breakfast cake. I needed to get more yogurts and cheese triangles for her plus a baguette for lunch today 

€36.82 left 

35c spent 

baguette for lunch 

€36.48 left

Ive actually got quite a bit of meat in the freezer. There’s chicken breast, pork chops, pork mince, chorizo sausages and fish fingers. I think we should be ok with €36.48 for shopping till December