September 2022 Grocery Challenge

Greying_Pilgrim

FrugalThymes said:

I've been a little hooked on 'Under the Median', an American frugal couple's channel on utube, and will be trying out some of their energy saving tips and a black bean burger recipe that looked really tasty!

I love Hope & Larry - they are good presenters.  Their sons are the spitting image of both of them too!  Did you see the Q&A with the older 2.  Good to know that they didn't think frugality was detrimental to their upbringing!

Greying X

mumtoomany

Hi and welcome, @FrugalThymes. Have you compared the price per 100gms of the big bag with small bags of pasta? I've always found the big bags to be more expensive. Every little helps! Hugs, mumtoomany.xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs!

MrL shopping today. £23.72 spent on - I have to say - not alot.  I did get 3 packets of nuts (which of course are costly), and a bottle of wine, but otherwise....... certainly not enough food (on its own) to feed a family of 3 for a week.  My MrL store was OOS with plain flour (plenty of SR - and, irony of ironies, enough white/wholemeal bread flour to keep a bakery supplied for a week!), and porridge oats (no surprise there.  The surprise is now when the oats ARE in stock 🙄).  Thankfully, both OOS items haven't left us short as they were both replacements as I'd taken the last packet out of the cupboard.  I have a bit of headroom to re-stock.  For that reason, I didn't bother ducking over to MrAl.  

At least the SEL's married up with my till receipt again this week, and nothing that I purchased had risen in price.  The brazil nuts and almonds both had a 10p reduction in price.  Still expensive, but it all helps. 

I didn't get a £1.50 box today.  They were really odd combinations - several of them virtually mono-veg.  They certainly weren't flying off the display and the till operatives had taken to asking customers if they wished to purchase a box today before pressing 'total'.  I'm afraid I stand by my principle of only buying what I know I can use, so the fact that it is reasonably priced, or YS'd or even 'free' is immaterial.  Am I going to use everything?  If the answer is anything other than a resounding 'YES', it stays put.  

Can't think of owt else relevant to add about grocery matters. other than I need to take a ruddy long look at TODAY's.DATE. and sellotape my purse shut! 🤣 Tbf, I have bought some 'bulk' items in this month's budget, so whether it is beans, bog roll or bread flour, it will last for longer than September.  

Have a great day team GC!

£106.24/200

Greying X

FrugalThymes

@Greying_Pilgrim I just watched the Q&A, thank you for the recommendation! What lovely sons they have I've found something else on utube that is proving to be incredibly interesting - a £5 for 5 days food challenge. So many fantastic ideas! www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHDTP8P9SFI&list=PLk5KvJPikK01f-axkJ7AMYfIYOfjcwUQ4&index=27 

@mumtoomany good point, yes I made sure after getting caught out in Tsco before! A few pence cheaper per 100g, not as cheap as the Just Essentials pasta shapes but they were out of stock unfortunately.

JingsMyBucket

Morning all. I'm still catching up on the thread but wanted to post my latest spends before I fall too far behind. The Tesco delivery this morning came to £66.36, so only a penny off from the estimate. I also put in a £16.59 Holland & Barrett order for teas, granola, and a bit of chocolate. That should be the spending done for now. Next week I'll head to our halal store for chickpeas, hummus and wraps. I'd like to start making my own hummus again instead of settling for supermarket options. 

£160.52 / £300.00 total spent so far.  £139.48 remaining

Well, that's a wake up call. For the next three weeks I'm going to aim for £30/week spending which leaves a bit for stocking up on olive oil or toilet paper at the end of the month. We have plenty of fruit and veg after the Tesco and farm deliveries, enough to last us about 10 days. At least. 

London_1

Hi chums ,and welcome to our new chum from across the pond. My eldest grandson Danny lives in Manhattan, and has just gone back after 6  weeks at home here in the UK. He says some things are cheaper here but others are more expensive .I think it depends where you live he says there is a 'Trader Joes' near to where him and his wife use for groceries. he says its sometimes the oddest things that cost more £3-4 for a cauliflower ! but he loves his coffee the best.

I have been fine at keeping my purse firmly closed until hopefully next Tuesday, which will be a slightly bigger shop. Streetch stuff out as much as I can as I am away for five days next month so stashing some cash for the extra cuppa's and cake whilst away  

So I am slowly converting folk to the economics of buying crisps My late Mum would be so chuffed,  as she always thought they were akin spending cash on fresh air, or water (although many people buy water all the time now ) which she would just hoot with laughter about. Just think how many cases of crisps can be made form a 5lb bag of spuds for around a quid

Gone on,  think about it   that's a lot of crisps, no wonder the companies can afford to pay huge salaries to ex footballers to promote something which is really not
 A. very healthy and
 B. vastly overpriced  

  

Just listening to the radio and the Queen sounds as though she's not too well I hope she is ok  

JackieO xx

Greying_Pilgrim

FrugalThymes - I love AtomicShrimp, he's very down to earth, realistic and practical - and nerdy enough to crunch numbers, calorific content and think about how something is going to taste/look, it's not just about the cost with him - and he's honest if something doesn't work.  I also like that whilst he is 'laid back', he sets and follows very firm 'guidelines' for his challenges, you don't feel he's making stuff he wouldn't eat, or relying on an already full storecupboard.   His other 'non-food' videos are good entertainment too. 

Another interesting channel is southern frugal momma.  She's in Tennessee, so of course the monetary value is $, but she is starting to do alot of $5 challenges (feed a family for a day/storecupboard ingredients) - she's getting her home-schooled sons on board and is a thoroughly likeable, helpful and interesting YT'er.  Her subscription numbers are building fast as her content is spot on.  $5 is approximately £4.36, so comparison/emulation is quite doable, even if we have different stores here to shop from.

Greying X

goldfinches

Thanks to all for the interesting links to frugal sites to browse for inspiration and very interesting to hear about prices in other parts of the world too.
I just popped back to mention that I solved the soap shortage by tidying up my bathroom shelves and finding a Gruum sample box which I think I bought from a link in one of the MSE emails ages ago so I'm quite pleased with myself for this.
I can also claim another NSD on account of having been out foraging for windfall apples this morning and having eaten up odds and ends from the fridge for lunch. 
It's now bucketing down outside which I'm hoping will stop in time for me to get to my evening class without a soaking but the forecast doesn't look promising so I'm off to find my mackintosh and umbrella.

hazeldreams

Feeling very sombre but grateful this morning. I can imagine the whole of the UK (and beyond) is feeling the same.

Just a quick update to say we're on £202.68/£750

That's an overspend on the new weekly budget of £150pw, but it's been a great learning opportunity for our first week back in the world of true frugality. I've learned that I can no longer still spend on groceries and class it as an NSD! We've spent almost the same amount popping to the local Tesco for "top-ups" as we did in Aldi last Friday.

Our aim this week is to ensure our Aldi list is robust enough to get us through the week!!

Hazel x

London_1

Good Morning all ,eldest DD dropped in last night and I cooked her a nice spanish omelette which she enjoyed and we watched the unfloding things on tv ,very sad and she said I will be strange Mum to have a King instead of a queen and she's 55.
She also brought me some odds and ends she had picked up a bag of carrots ready prepared reduced that will be turned into spicy carrot soup today and a nice bag of half a dozen sweet potatoes so definitely no shopping rquired for the rest of this week. I am soup making this morning. Spicy carrot and coriander, and I need to bag up the celery I made yesterday,and will hunt out some more soup bags so some can be cooled and frozen.

She also brought me my new kettle I had ordered, its only one litre and a lot lighter for me to hold and a quick boil one as well makes 2-4 cups which is a lot better electric wise than my bigger one I shall clean that one out and put away in case of emergencies as a spare.

All's looking good for the budget this month though so pleased with how things are working out

JackieO xx 

                                  £4.89/£60.00 so far in September and 8 /9 NSDs. £55.11 left in budget