December 2021 Grocery Challenge

MissRikkiC

£80.42 to declare having been spent with £42.28 also spent from bulk. 

Bulk was big bags of frozen veg, kilos of pasta and rice, dog treats, lots of loo roll and kitchen roll, many many dishwasher tablets, salts and rinse aid plus a few baking items. 

Main spend was normal fruit, yogurt, veg box, chopped tomatoes, salad bits, butter, eggs, cheese, veggie sausages, frozen fruit, muesli, peanut butter and a few packets of biscuits. I actually handed back the milk (annoyingly so as I’d added 2 x 2 pint cartons instead of 2 x 4s to the order) however just spotted they’ve not been refunded so will need to call about that. 

Glad I’m reflecting here as I’ve also just remembered there was £4.50 on beer purchased for hub which he owes back for (as agreed whilst I’m pregnant he can’t have beer from the grocery budget 🤪) so actually will need to update for both of those revelations next time! 

PipneyJane

Thank you for the new thread, @Dizzy_Ditzy and for standing in for @elsiepac.  (Hope you are feeling much better @elsiepac.)

Please count me "in" for December, with a budget of £160.90.  

This is higher than our usual budget of £140, because we have £20.90 left to roll over from November.  This budget is for all groceries for two adults.  It excludes meat bought at the butcher's shop - that's paid from the Meat Fund - and the Christmas goose, which will be paid for by the Christmas Fund (as will the tree).

The other change to our budgets is that we're starting a "Booze Fund" this month.  £10 each per month, which will be left to accumulate until we (hopefully) get to go to Carrefour or Super-U in France sometime in 2022.

- Pip

Herbyme

Welcome back @elsiepac! 

Please can you put me down for £600 for December?

It still feels like an embarrassingly large amount. But thanks @Suffolk_lass for the encouragement, it really helped me to see things differently. December is not the month to cut the spend any further though, will save that for January. 

Doom_and_Gloom

Our budget for December will be £300 to take into account Yule. 

Can't quite believe that this is going to be the last one of the year! 
The budget is for 2 adults all food and drink (sans alcohol), toiletries etc and all food, treats, hay etc for our chinchilla. 

Thank you for doing this thread. It is very helpful as I feel more accountable. 

Mr S shop £24.74, L!do shop was £31.03 after a £10 off £40. Total £55.77 so far. 

£55.77/£300.
£244.23 left. 

K9sandFelines

£250 again please, to run from the 25/11 til the end of the year. 
Thanks. 

QueenJess

Hi, I’d like to join for the first time. Can I go for

£600 this month

for two adults, two children that eat more than the adults, including xmas and all cleaning stuff etc? 

It’s pretty high, but I don’t really have control of the budget as I had to hand over the food shopping to DH due to pregnancy and then a non sleeping baby afterwards and he doesn’t want to hand it back…

However, I just put in an A*di click and collect order to bulk buy tons of stuff for the month and so hoping I will be able to cut down some of his more expensive habits. Can’t face a big shop in person with naughty baby.

This is all going to be tiny steps from here!

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

Hello Elsie

please put her down for €280 again. It’s December so we have friends round, plus bank holidays, plus my daughter will be home for lunch some days. Ive had €40 from last month so €320 in total 

€280 for December 

€5.47 spent

waiting for hubby to get paid so really using the dregs of the cupboards, fridge and freezer. I needed a few fresh bits though 

Finstickle

elsiepac said:

 I just have no energy guys, I've found I'm severely iron deficient and I'm struggling to fit in taking the tablets around all the restrictions of when you can take them.

@elsiepac when I was pregnant I took Feroglobin Effervescent tablets for low iron (makes into a drink).  the dose isn't as high as the tablets but no restrictions that I recall on when you could have - might be worth doing so at least you're getting some top up.

Also, apologies for liberty, are you taking Vitamin D?  I take 4000 iui? a day.  Earlier this year I was quite ill, of that tiredness was a massive factor and my GP recommended a high does of Vit D - she recommended that I just continue to take it as well even when I was well again.

Finstickle

My first spend of the month on an AllPlants order.  Not ordered since my 15% off and as they emailed me a £15 voucher and we'd just eaten our last meal it seemed rude not to

£48.88 / £515

elsiepac

Finstickle said:

elsiepac said:

 I just have no energy guys, I've found I'm severely iron deficient and I'm struggling to fit in taking the tablets around all the restrictions of when you can take them.

@elsiepac when I was pregnant I took Feroglobin Effervescent tablets for low iron (makes into a drink).  the dose isn't as high as the tablets but no restrictions that I recall on when you could have - might be worth doing so at least you're getting some top up.

Also, apologies for liberty, are you taking Vitamin D?  I take 4000 iui? a day.  Earlier this year I was quite ill, of that tiredness was a massive factor and my GP recommended a high does of Vit D - she recommended that I just continue to take it as well even when I was well again.

Thanks @F@Finstickle - I do indeed take vitamin D every day after being found to be deficient years ago after a loading dose, so I now take a daily one and also B12 because I was found to be deficient in that at the same time as iron - B12 and iron I've always been fine with but I've struggled with everything so much since covid last year - brain fogginess, massive fatigue, memory, aching, loads of random little things and it was all kind of written off as post covid stuff, but a few months ago a doctor actually said lets do full blood tests and found my iron and B12 were insanely low!  As they've always been fine before (and I've been vegan for many years but always been fine as I eat well with supplements) the doctor reckons covid depleted all my reserves basically! So I had loading dose of B12 over 5 injections and I'm now taking a daily tablet in addition to all my fortified stuff I was having before, but the iron tablets are still a loading dose.  As I also take thyroxine for an underactive thyroid I've been diagnosed with since being a teen, that's the one that is specifically mentioned on the iron packet, and as you can't have it around caffeine either that essentially rules out the day time.  So basically I have a window about an hour after dinner where I have to try and remember to take it - and quite frankly I always forget.  I will look into the effervescent tablets as that could be a good top up as well - thank you so much for the recommendation.