November 2021 Grocery Challenge

h2401

Hi! 

This is my first time doing this challenge so I’m aiming for £300 for the month. I hope this is realistic lol. It is to cover my own groceries, food for 2 dogs, toiletries, makeup, household cleaning stuff. 

diganddog

First spends of the month today: total £28.11 / £320

I had a quick check of our cupboard stock yesterday and a clear out of anything out of date so I had a good idea of what we have in - this along had probably saved me £30 - I tend to think I’m quite good at keeping track of what we have in (the amount of cereal we have at the moment would beg to differ!).

Today’s spends were:
- Crisps, 4 pints of milk, mini rolls, weetabix minis, penne, ravioli (tinned), chilli (tinned) x2, tomato soup, tortellini x2, block of cheddar, dog biscuits, paracetamol, ibuprofen, 2x packs of mince, toilet roll and a bacon cob because I was hungry (ooops).

No big spends this week as I was mainly topping up the treat box and stocking back up on my tins, plus we have lots in the house already!

Smoosh

So far we've spent £43.32/£200

That's been one weekly shop, 1 top up shop and dog food and treats for the month. Second weekly shop will be done tomorrow. 

ArtDecoGirly

£180

I would like to join in please. Definitely feeling the pinch so I would like to be put down £180 for the month please. Just two adults (me and a very fussy adult autistic son, although he’s trying really hard not to be as fussy). I have loads of toiletries and cleaning products so mainly food and pop 

Blackcats

Please can you put me down for November - £320 

Blackcats

Please can you put me down for November - £320 

cornishchick

Hi all I need to tighten the belt yet again, so joining in 

£100 for me this month just for food and household items.

spent £12.04 so far as paid for November on the last Friday. 

Suffolk_lass

I have drawn a line under October, which looks a little better than it was because we were away for two weeks. Actual spend was £143.63 plus a little on stores - I had to buy canned borlotti and chick peas (my own borlottis were not plentiful this year and I had omitted to pressure cook a bag of chick peas, to store in can-sized portions) plus I took advantage of an offer on toothpaste to buy three large tubes of Colgate Total (original) for £2 each. This is how I incorporate my "brands" into my shopping. I would have bought more but the storage cubby hole already had five and I don't want them to go out of date (and with DH's sensitive tooth stuff, £20 worth of toothpaste is more than enough, even for someone with a Suffolk siege mentality).

So I have £800.25 out of my £3000 annual budget for November and December. It sounds too much, especially as I plan a mostly-freezer month for November, with a bit of Christmas prep but it suddenly goes all wrong in my experience.

I think I have been doing this since 2009 now. It really is worth sticking with and I have said before, there are different stages to go through with this challenge. I was definitely one of the smug brigade who believed I could trim a bit off and assumed deprivation or low budgets among those managing on £200 a month. Testing our household around brands continues to this day. Little does DH know that the special cheddar I buy is £5 per kilo on offer, as one example - on the other hand, the medicated shampoo is over £8 a bottle (where is the eek shriek when you need it?)

flossyblog

Hi everyone,

November grocery challenge  2 adults €3,000 year budget, I am up to €2,954 total so far and almost certainly go over with 2 months remaining. As usual food and household inventory listed 

Freezer

4 Jalapeno Beefburgers

1 Chicken fillet 

3 Chilli con carne

9 bolognese

5 shepherds pie

2 chicken thighs 

1 Kerrygold unsalted butter

1 bonduelle petit pois

1 bonduelle haricot verts

1 portions mirepoix 

2 roasted onion portions 

Store cupboard

2 tins  Bonduelle chickpeas

1 jar Go-Tan ginger puree

7 pkts Tilda Basmasti rice

8 Kellogg's all bran cereal

1 douwe egberts coffee pods

1 tomato puree

2 tins cubed tomatoes

2 heinz baked beans

5 red wine

Hendricks gin & tonic gift Box unopened (2016) 

Herbs & spices 

Salt & Peppercorns

sage

parsley

Cayenne pepper

Turmeric powder

Fennel seeds

Cloves

Cumin seed/Cumin powder

Chilli powder/Chilli flakes

Black cardamom/Green cardamom

Cleaning & Household supplies

3 Ariel liquid 

2 Dettol kitchen spray cleaners

1 Glorix bleach

1 Viakal 

1 Ecover chamomile washing up liquid

6 Scourers

2 Golden buddha Incense

25 Eco Bin bags

24 Edet Toilet rolls

2 boxes kleenex tissues

Dishwasher tabs

Dishwasher salts 

2 ltr cleaning vinegar

Freezer bags

Toiletries  

1 OralB Toothpaste

4 Jil Sander Hair & Body shampoo

2 Alyssa Ashley musk bath & showergel

2 Kérastase Nutritive Bain satin Shampoo

1 Kérastase Nutritive fondant Magistral hair conditioner

1 Alyssa Ashley Body lotion

2 Rexona maximum protection roll on

1 Nivea creme

4 x 30ml bottles lavender/tea tree essential oil

cotton buds

Finstickle

No weekly shop for me so far, just daily top-ups, not the plan but each day is below £10 and I won't need anything for a couple of days so could be a good plan for this week.

£7.75 in Co-op on Sat, bread, milk, cakes for a Halloween party contribution (I made DD's outfit so didn't feel the need to bake )
£7.85 in Co-op on Sun, bread, milk, crisps, lemonade, lucozade, ham - sugar was required after a late night Saturday
£22.70 on Chinese food last night, as our take always are always because we can't be bothered to cook I do put them against the food budget - also the leftovers will feed DH tonight so definitely contributing to the food budget.

 it also avoids deciding who's paying if it comes from a 'fun' budget, fun budgets are our own, shared funds are very specifically for household needs and we needed a Chinese last night

I'm also about to get a delivery of fried eggs and kisses - leftover from a friend's sister's wedding 'sweet table' - so shouldn't need to buy any sweets this month

£47.62/£550.00