August 2022 Grocery Challenge

diminua

Just dropping in to record that I've spent £102.07 so far, which is more or less on track. Keeping soft cheese or houmous and mini tomatoes in the fridge at work is helping. I need to buy some carrots for coleslaw, but that can wait until Friday when I'll probably need bread and coffee too. 

Doom_and_Gloom

Last post was the 4th. I've been worse than normal to do with my disability so while I've been reading when I could I've not been posting on the site.

Spent £107.37 in Mr S, L!do and the local mart since that last post. 
At the local mart OH picked us up a 4kg net of red onions for £2.99, 2 bags of scotch bonnets £1 each (aprox 100g in each) and a bag of fresh ginger for £1 (aprox 300g). Against Mr S for what we got we saved £2.18 so that is positive. I would even argue that they were better quality for these items too. 

I'm having left over African peanut stew for dinner today. Made the other day in my PKP, it was a 'those vegan guys'  recipe that was tweeked to be able to be cooked in the PKP 😊. Really recommend the recipe. I'm a huge spice head though and 2 and a half scotch bonnets with seeds went in the paste and I still questioned when eating it if another half or whole should have gone in lol. 
OH will likely have his omelette sandwich tonight with ham in it. 

£249.21/£250.
£0.79 left. 

No chance of coming in budget 😔. Only have ourselves to blame. We had foods that can easily be made up to meals when I'm worse than normal that are healthy and easy for OH to make me.  However we both went with the buy more option so my OH could make 'comfort' meals for me as I was really feeling sorry for myself. Mistake noted and will now make sure those foods are in in future to combat such high extra spends. 

joedenise

I've decided to move £50 from my GC to my Bulk Fund as I am buying quite a lot of freezer and pantry stores so my budget is now £200 rather than £250.

A few shops since I last posted across Morries, Mr T, Lid* and M&S.  Total spend to date £78.71 of £200.  Now have £121.29 for rest of the month with is OK as we are over halfway through the month.

Nicki_Sue

My month runs from 17th-`16th so....
Our first spend was my DH nipping to A1di today at £27.73 - We needed loo rolls and a few vegan things we can only get there. I'm doing a big shop tomorrow at Lid1 and Ic@land after running the big freezer and pretty much everywhere else down.

£27.73/£650 

CJRyder

£1.76 spent on Sunday, followed by a more fruitful shop today as Sainsbury's in town didn't have what I wanted on Sunday. Nectar price of £2.19 for a 600g block of cheese so picked up two along with some other bits and pieces for a total of £16.48 today. Also the second veg box of the month arrived - £17.50.

£1.76 + £16.48 + £17.50 = £35.74

£34.65/£155 --> £70.39/£155.00

wishus

Late reporting a spend in my refurbished A*di - apparently it has made all the stores identical, which is why I was wandering round wondering where everything was. Ah well, exercise!

£17.50 spent. Leaves me with £42.17. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning GC'rs!

Been to do the 'normal' weekly shop at MrL (the big store) so have some spends to own up to.  MrL was out of frozen broccoli so I nipped up the road to MrAl, but they were OOS of seemingly most of their frozen veg, so no dice there.  I did nip to MrS to get the broccoli, but it was all in the same area/circular route, so not too much extra fuel expended.  In total today I spent £29.59 across the 3 stores.  I'm disappointed to learn that MrAl is as prone to have SEL prices not match their till prices as MrL 🙁I bought some jam that said £1.19 on the SEL and went through at £1.25 🙁But it's was still cheaper than MrL for the 'special' stuff - don't know if it will compare in taste, we'll have to see, which is actually why I bought it, as MrL has gone ridiculous on the price of it's lookylikey good mother jam.......

There were plenty of £1.50 boxes today, but the distribution of the produce was very odd, and there wasn't a box that 'sang' to me in terms of useability.  Most of the boxes were fruit 'or' veg and the ones that were a mix were quite random in their make-up.  

We did pick up some YS'd strawberries in MrL.  I ended up buying 2 punnets, as although they were differing sizes (I think one was from the 'premium' selection), they were still cheaper than one punnet of the standard strawberries.  We've not had many strawberries this year, so it did represent a little bit of a splurge.  There was also YS'd tahini again, but I didn't buy it as it was the stuff with honey in it again, and i still have some left over from last time.  The honey is quite strong.  I did notice that in the A1ma Lat1na brand, they also sell dried Lima beans.  I have never cooked with those before, although I remember meeting a farmer who grew Lima beans in America (over 30 years ago now 😮) and have always wanted to try them, so will look to try them sometime.  

2 of the loaves I bought were YS'd and I don't think there were any price discrepancies in MrL today, so that coupled with no (obvious) price rises - limited to what I bought rather than as a general sweeping statement - means today's shop has at least yielded us something to base some meals around!

£151.65/200

Greying X

mumtoomany

Hi, all. @Greying_Pilgrim and others, have you ever tried complaining about the difference between the SEL and the price charged in Lidl and Aldi? I know in Tesco when I've complained, and taken an assistant from customer service to check, they've always refunded the difference. Sometimes twice the difference if they think this is under their "double the difference" policy. If nothing else it might make them check the SELs more often. Some people, who've maybe added up on the way round, might not have the extra few pence. 
No more spends, but am running out of mum again and somewhat short of nappies, so may be shopping again soon. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Nicki_Sue

A busy morning.

The BIG shop has been done. 
£65.09 at Ice1and
£59.33 at Lid1
£22.79 at Te5co
=147.21

That's the freezer filled and the cupboards with some milk and bread in the freezer too. Lots of beans and pulses, pastas, rice, noodles and more in stock too.

Shopping around for the better deals was time-consuming but worth it. 
That's £169.94/£650
I need some cat food but otherwise, I'm set up (hopefully!) for a few NSDs now.
This weekend I'll properly update my stock lists and do a couple of meal plans.

My biggest irk is that my Lid1 Plus card didn't seem to scan.

thriftwizard

£63.73 added from today's trot around our independent shops, the supermarket for dairy, and a quick dash into L!dls in passing for extra fruit juice. Need to keep the market shop to around £40 tomorrow if I'm to stick to target for the month.

In other news, targets will have to drop soon! We lose DS3 to the frozen North - ok, Newcastle - at the end of next week, and not to be outdone, his twin sister & her boyfriend have rented a place in a town near us for a couple of months, to see how they cope. They are both working PT whilst studying, so they know it will be very tight, but bills are included & they've done their sums so know they can just afford to try it out. They're planning to move to a cheaper area once his course (an MA conversion) is finished next summer, so this is really just sticking a couple of toes in the water. That'll leave just 3 of us here until mid-November. Wow...