August 2022 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

K9sandFelines said:

Hi everyone, 
Finally just caught up on here. 

I'm here til the 12th. Anybody else? 

Its a struggle to hit target lately. Times are hard.
I've already nearly spent everything. With two weeks to go, I think it's going to be impossible not to go over!!! 

I'm still here and reading quietly along. I am expecting next month's monies in tomorrow, at least for the bills account but no plans to shop this week so all quiet on the running costs account. I have just paid for our eggs and tomorrow the milk bill will go but both of these will be in September, as it were.

Times are hard and I am looking at what else we can trim. I have flour and salt in so DH is feeding his sour-dough after a summer of it languishing in the fridge, and will bake our bread once it has pinged back into life.

@Greying_Pilgrim Our Fridge-freezer malfunctioned this week after DH accidentally (obviously accidentally) left the freezer door ajar and much food, and especially red cabbage, homegrown chillies and herbs, had to be thrown away. A replacement is coming tomorrow but after a mid-afternoon revival yesterday (!!!!) we will stash the older one in the garage, instead of sending it for recycling (costing us £25) just in case. It's a trust thing now it has failed. Thank goodness my regular saver matured in August, as we at least had that little cushion to pay for the replacement.

On the back of the FF failing, we are considering reducing stores by a fair bit. We need to balance that with all the reports of potential food shortages, but it feels like a nonsense to be paying electric to store food that the SM has, so maybe some analysis of frozen food vs price rises is needed here.

wishus

Checking my keep notes and I had £11.76 remaining in my budget, which pretty much got absorbed into my leisure spend. Anything left this month, I'm saving!

Greying_Pilgrim

Suffolk_lass said:

....On the back of the FF failing, we are considering reducing stores by a fair bit. We need to balance that with all the reports of potential food shortages, but it feels like a nonsense to be paying electric to store food that the SM has, so maybe some analysis of frozen food vs price rises is needed here....

Aw hey hun, it's never nice when mechanical things fail.  But I absolutely hear you on the review of 'what' is stored in terms of food, and the 'how'.  Now that we have our 'reduced capacity' freezer I'm definitely going to have to prioritize what goes in.  We do use pretty much all that ever is frozen, but even I will admit there are some things that are constantly passed over in favour of other more 'interesting' items.  And another thing I annoy myself with is having to use 'bigger' storage boxes for small amounts of stuff, because I've used all the small pots.  Fresh air taking up space - doh!  And I know that I have been guilty of just 'shoving stuff in' to this 'new' freezer, to avoid the alarm going off.  I'm not really sure what I actually have anymore, so that is one area that I can tighten up on straight away!  Inventory! 

Yes, I've definitely got to up my game on 'how' I best use the freezer going forward.  Time, energy and resource savings are all important considerations, but there is still room - for me - to make better prioritisation decisions.

Greying X

mumtoomany

No shopping bought again, will need milk tomorrow. Curry was enjoyed more by some than others, used up a box of roast squash out of the freezer, that had been languishing for almost a year. Also threw in some chicken, not much, leftover potatoes, peppers from the tunnel and onions. Today will probably be pasta Bolognese, but with turkey mince, have no beef. Don't tell anyone. 
In other news, the baby, (great nephew) is now back at home, having been discharged from hospital yesterday. One year old and two year old will be going home on Saturday. Grandma, grandad and daddy will be coming for them. We'll miss them, but will only then be feeding seven people each day not nine, and no more nappies to buy.
Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

PearlRose

August goal £400
Actual spending £407.68
Overspending £7.58

Can't believe it's already September We were away for five days in August, so the spending covered 26 days. This includes packed lunches when we were out and about.

Greying_Pilgrim

Just popping in to report that I listened to Suffolk_lass and duly took action to inventory the freezer!  It's helped to know what is in each drawer and note that down on a piece of paper on the front of the freezer and it's also enabled me to do some adjusting, take a couple of curries out for us tea and ergo make room for YS'd stuff from today.  WIN!

And yes Dear Reader, there is some stuff in there that certainly does NOT warrant the electricity to keep it long term, so utilise it I must!  A useful exercise and undertaking.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

8.00pm Thursday 1st Sept - "Secrets of your Supermarket Shop" on Channel 5.  

Forgot to add earlier that this programme is airing tonight and is supposed to have tips on saving energy when cooking a roast dinner.  I have no idea if the info will be good/bad/indifferent or startlingly obvious - and as a vegetarian, I would no longer know where to start cooking a roast myself, never mind how to cook it efficiently, but I thought I would mention it, just in case it is of use to someone.  The programme is on for 1hr, and there are other topics covered - it's not just about the roast.  

Greying X

PipneyJane

Good evening All

We did one last, small shop in L!dl on Monday.  £3.50 spent on Peppers and Chocolate.  Once I account for 18p of shrapnel popped into the coin jar…

I am declaring for August at £147.60/£152.50, leaving £4.90 to roll over to September.

@LadyWithAPlan, that is a very thoughtful idea to give a L!dl gift card to your parents.

@Suffolk_lass and @Greying_Pilgrim, I feel your pain re having to replace your fridge-freezer and freezer.  I’ve mentioned here before that it’s been four years since our old Samsung fridge-freezer died and I still miss it.  I had to buy a replacement in a hurry and it’s considerably smaller inside.  (I spent last weekend manning the kitchen for an event at our local community centre.  They have the same model fridge-freezer as our old one, so I photographed the model details and now know which questions to ask Samsung, i.e. what is the closest model replacement?)

On the food front, I’ve spent the last few days focusing on using things up.  We had some wilting carrots in the fridge so, yesterday evening, I made two, rather fudgy carrot cakes.  Dinner also used the oven and was designed to use up leftovers: a bacon, halloumi, fried onion and leftover mash, combined in a pastry wrapper.   (It was OK.)

This evening, I was disappointed to discover that most of the mushrooms I bought last Friday have gone mouldy.  They were a bit sweaty when I got them and despite decanting them into a drawer lined with one of these vegetable mats, they didn’t keep.  Not happy.

- Pip

Saver-upper

I havent posted here for over a week, in which time I spent £75.72.

This month, my first back into this challenge, I am declaring a total spend of £406.41.My goal had been £300.  Oopps.......

Going to try much harder in September 

Soontobeoap

@Saver-upper I think we all find the summer months the hardest. It is also Reay hard to predict with prices risi g so quickly. Good luck with September's challenge.