September 2022 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

And it's the first weekend of a whole new budgetary experience for us! Ds3 has pottered off Up North, and DD1 & her boyfriend are on holiday for a week, then taking up residence in an annexe in a nearby town for a couple of months. They'll be back mid-November onwards, but I suspect not for long, once she's had a taste of running her own kitchen! So it's just OH & I (omnivores) & DD2 (pescatarian, but no fusspot) for a couple of months - bliss! And, potentially, cheaper... 

I haven't cut the budget that far yet; I'll need to do a L!dls/Makr0 run early next week, then see how we go. I'm still anticipating the odd visit from DS2, DiL & baby for Sunday lunch, but I expect they'll be less frequent without quite so many siblings to tease! Obviously we'll miss everyone but at the moment I'm just heaving a giant sigh of relief; we never expected to stay "parenting" for quite so long!

europe2014

Been shopping today, 1st was to Mr A £96.83 for most things including £16 on christmas which I'm hoping to absorb into my inital spend but if things are tight towards the end of the month I will take from christmas pot, then to bird flying frozen place for £8.71 - this is a 2 min walk away and is lethal as I never manage to walk in and stick to the list as i see bargains so usually spend closer to £20 and then to H and B which was £13.73.  I would like to say I wont go near the shops now till the end of next week but we will need milk before then however I will try my best to only buy milk.

I've been reading about shelftember which is something we need to do as we need to replace our chest freezer as the lid is on the way out so could do with using up as much as possible to replace ASAP

Total spend is £119.27 out of £500 so on target for a weekly spend of £125 as long as i dont spend over £5 before next Friday - I can do this 

London_1

So far day two of NSD, and I was in Dobbies this morning .My eldest grandson is over from the USA and goes back next week, so I met him and his other grandma Margaret (my friend ) there at 9.00 this morning, and he treated us both to a nice cooked breakfast and coffee and natter.

It was lovely to see our Danny bless him ,and we sat and sorted out the world between the three of us, and bacon egg, sausage hash brown and coffee.
He likes to take his two old Grandma's out when he is over, and this morning was lovely.I'm glad to say although I was tempted for a wander round the deli part,:)  I decided to wait unti next Tuesday when I go there for my regular coffee morning before I browse.

I'm hoping now to put off getting anything until next week anyway, as I have enough in the fridge of fresh stuff to keep me going, so fingers crossed I will have by then 5 NSDs under my belt

very hopeful this momth of keeping things on the downlow if I can,I'm away for five days next month with margaret to ilfracombe so saving my pennies for then.
I've actually got no family birthdays to buy for this month which will help

Onwards and upwards chums 

JackieO xxx


                                                         September budget £60.00  

Doom_and_Gloom

Thank you elsiepac for doing this thread. As I keep saying it really does help keep us accountable, even if some of us blow the budget it would be worse if we weren't on here I'm sure.

Our September budget is going to be £285.

The month goes 1st to the 30th.

This is for two adults, my OH and I, and a chinchilla. Includes all food and drink (except alcohol), cleaning products, toiletries etc and all chinchilla items (food, hay, sand, treats etc.).
Really hoping to come in budget however I know tracking the spends is better than doing an impression of an ostrich and not doing so. 

We did a bulk chinchilla food and hay shop as found the chins food at a very good price. With the way thing are we wanted to make sure that he is covered. 
We are buying odd extra items each time we shop to put aside for the winter. While we always do this we are putting more effort into it this year.

Between P@H, L!do and Mr S we have spent £109.57 so far.

£109.57/£285.

£175.43 left.

bupster

£6.89 out of the groceries budget so far - milk, tofu and sanitary pads (I read that tofu might help with menopausal crazy while I'm waiting for HRT to kick in - if I come back on here with two pencils stuck up my nose shouting Whoops Mrs Miggins then it didn't work). 

I'm perilously low in the freezer stocks. I'm down to the slightly peculiar yellow stickered stuff: 'why did I buy all that sausagemeat?' and 'how actually do you cook a spatchcocked pheasant?'. So Sunday I'm going to try a 3pm bargain hunt at Waitrose. This has been spectacularly successful in the past (though see spatchcocked pheasant) but has non-pheasant dangers too as Waitrose essentials always look *so* essential until you get them home and wonder why you've got three artichokes and a slab of Camembert. Wish me luck anyway. 

London_1

bupster  How about a Scotch egg with the sausage meat and instead of breadcrumbs use dried stuffing mix to coat them really nice, and add a bit of zing to them if you dollop a little sweet chilli sauce into the sausage meat as well.

The cheese would be nice with some herby/garlicky cream  crackers and some grapes, with a glass of wine to wash them down but I'm not to sure what you could do with artichokes, never having tasted them myself .Are they the veg that tastes of liquorice
 ?

JackieO xx

PearlRose

Thanks @elsiepac for the new thread. 

Could I have £400 again for September?  

We used to make meal plans before going shopping. In recent months, it’s not unusual to find a few items in recipes unavailable when I arrive at the supermarket, so I have to make adjustments when I get home.

Since August, we have changed our routine a little bit. DH or I go shopping first. Our shopping list would read something like '6 varieties of vegetables, 3 varieties of meat or fish, 3 varieties of fruit' — we just pick up what’s available in-store and then plan our meals accordingly. This saves us a lot of time and effort.

I have switched off the chest freezer since early June and managed to store everything we need with the fridge freezer. 

happydenial

Hi, would love to join in for this month. Hoping to claw back some of the summer holiday spends, should be helped by the fact that I have two freezers stuffed with food! We are two adults and two kids, both of whom have adult-sized appetites.

@elsiepac - please can you put me down for £400 this month. 

A spend so far of £19.79 to declare - £3.80 in M&S for milk, bread and some salad bits, then £15.99 on a large wonky veg box which I’m hoping will do us until the 13th. 

goldfinches

Waving hello to everyone and apologising for being so late to arrive this month, thankyou to @elsiepac for the new thread, much appreciated.

Please put me down for £120 for the calendar month and £20 Baking Budget with a £20 Baking Slush Fund as well. 

This is for one vegetarian woman and includes all household items and basic toiletries but not alcohol.

I have to confess to having spent nearly all of the Baking Slush Fund in Sainsby's this afternoon. I don't quite know what happened but once I'd spotted the reduced vegan butter somehow I ended up buying black cocoa powder, salted and unsalted butter x 4, unwaxed lemons x 3 and Doves Farm organic strong white flour so £18.29/£20+£20 is my new total. The flour and all the butters went straight into the freezer as soon as I got home and I think they'll carry me through to December before I need buy any more.

The Grocery Challenge spending looks positively saintly by comparison as I spent £3.65 on paneer in Sainsby's and £3.48 in M*rks on 4x organic milk, YS mixed chillies and a packet of wholemeal pittas. I was very chuffed to run across the YS chillies as they were the only missing ingredient for tonight's dinner. That makes my new total £7.13/£120 and my average daily spend £3.57.

K9sandFelines

goldfinches said:

Waving hello to everyone and apologising for being so late to arrive this month, thankyou to @elsiepac for the new thread, much appreciated.

Please put me down for £120 for the calendar month and £20 Baking Budget with a £20 Baking Slush Fund as well. 

This is for one vegetarian woman and includes all household items and basic toiletries but not alcohol.

I have to confess to having spent nearly all of the Baking Slush Fund in Sainsby's this afternoon. I don't quite know what happened but once I'd spotted the reduced vegan butter somehow I ended up buying black cocoa powder, salted and unsalted butter x 4, unwaxed lemons x 3 and Doves Farm organic strong white flour so £18.29/£20+£20 is my new total. The flour and all the butters went straight into the freezer as soon as I got home and I think they'll carry me through to December before I need buy any more.

The Grocery Challenge spending looks positively saintly by comparison as I spent £3.65 on paneer in Sainsby's and £3.48 in M*rks on 4x organic milk, YS mixed chillies and a packet of wholemeal pittas. I was very chuffed to run across the YS chillies as they were the only missing ingredient for tonight's dinner. That makes my new total £7.13/£120 and my average daily spend £3.57.

Which butter was this please? Also, was it just your store or national?