September 2022 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Morning GC'rs

Then i went into HB.  Spent £13.32 in there, on seemingly very little, although I did stock up on batteries, so that bumped the cost up.  I'm delighted that LG is so enamoured with reading that they read in bed by torchlight.  Less enamoured with them falling asleep with the torch left on...... just like their dear mumma did all those years ago...... no wonder my parents ranted about the cost of batteries 🤔#comesaroundandbitesyouonyourbum

Had a wonder through M&$ f00dha11.  More yellow stickers than customers, but nothing caught my eye.  Was it goldfinches mentioning a lack of block hand soap for sale in M&$?  Purely out of interest, I noted that W1lks and HB didn't seem to have much block soap in stock today.  There wasn't the 'range' there used to be, and not much of what they did stock iyswim.  Interestingly they also had big bottles of hand san in HB, 3 for £1 - mere pennies, can you remember the riduculous prices charged in lockdown?  

£82.52/200

Greying X

I think the world has discovered that blocks of soap are considerably cheaper than the equivalent liquid hand wash, @Greying_Pilgrim. 

My thoughts re batteries:  if LG has inherited your sneaky-reading-in-bed habit, you might want to investigate rechargeable batteries and a recharger.  Worth it for both financial and green reasons.  We have a Sanyo recharger which takes AA and AAA batteries.  IIRC, complete with one set of AA batteries, it cost less than £20, but that was nearly a decade ago.  We’ve bought additional rechargeable batteries since then but the originals still work - I use them in both of my mice (work and personal).

- Pip

atrixa

£5.92 spent on a very soggy trip to Aldi this morning. I've noticed a few minor price increases on my usual buys, but nothing as drastic as what Mr M are doing.

My store cupboard is starting to look much healthier now, comforting to know I can dip into it if I'm about to go over my grocery budget or can't get to the shops.

Total is now £114.66/£155.

FrugalThymes

Have any of you tried wetfelting soap bars? I did it a couple of times - made the soap last longer and prevented it getting soggy. Our girls kept getting lumps of soap down the drain and it solved that problem too!

I've just had a parcel of 500g paprika, 500g garlic powder and 750g of onion powder delivered. Cost £15 in total but I couldn't get to any Asian shops to check their prices. 

Oli0 was great last night, and we were gifted a Strawberry trifle, a 50/50 loaf, a quiche (picnic tomorrow!), pork pie, lettuce and carrots. I haven't been very successful as a volunteer for the program; the collection slots I'm assigned to never have anything but hopefully that means no food waste rather than employees forgetting and chucking it all in a bin!

Dinner last night was really nice, I made some black bean burgers with cajun spices, carrots, tomato puree, water and oats to bind. First time and I didn't get any scowls from the kids they would have eaten it regardless but it's great that I can make them again and not annoy them. I had two left over for my breakfast today warmed up in the airfryer, and then lunch was leftover sushi rice, salad and fishsticks after making rice balls for DH and the kids lunches... because we ran out of sandwich fillings! 

I feel I'm getting a tad obsessed with being frugal, but I'm really enjoying the challenge of making things stretch and learning so many new things! It makes me far more hopeful about our chance of coping through the winter.

Total now £119.64/£200

Ginmonster

I've invited some friends over to be fed at the weekend as they're without a kitchen at the moment and surviving off things they can microwave so I popped into town today to get some supplies. I spent £9.70 in Sains and £21.97 in Aldi and inevitably some of it was stuff I didn't actually need (I'm looking at you square toaster crumpets - yum!). I was scandalised to see butter has gone up again to £1.99! Real butter is my non-negotiable luxury for toast and bread but I don't use it in baking any more. That said, the baking block I picked up today was 95p and that used to be about 65p not so long ago. It seems to be happening so quickly it's hard to keep up!

I'm up to £139.65/200 so I'm not making life easy for myself for the rest of the month but I've got plenty in the fridge at the moment and can do it if I'm careful.

Tea tonight will be another non-essential item from today's shopping - some pukka pies which were on offer at £1.25 each with some homemade oven chips and peas. It's Friday Pieday! 😁

thriftwizard

I'm going to be horribly close to the line this month; only just over £100 left in the kitty & 2 Thursday/Friday shops left to go. But I'm only feeding 3 most of the time, and we're well stocked-up now, so it should be possible. I was wondering how the heck I'd spent so much at the supermarket yesterday but when I examined my receipt closely, I realised it was because I'd stocked up on a number of store-cupboard items that were on S/O and we were almost out of. So now to draw the purse-strings tight for the rest of September...

cinnamon123

JackieO - Trader Joe's is one of the supermarkets I frequent. Great store/employees/products and good prices. Purchased by one of the original co-founders of A!di (the A!di Nord brother) and I believe it is still owned by his heirs. 

diminua

I'm up to £56.22 spent. Not too bad as I did get some store cupboard bits - arborio (paella) rice, some tinned soups, and also went for a drink yesterday. Bought lunch in the canteen today too, which was lazy but on Friday they do potato wedges and pasty (bean today), which is extra tempting. 

I've also taken an inventory of my store cupboard and think I need to make a meal plan to use up some bits - desiccated coconut, pine nuts and custard powder won't last forever, and there's a point spices stop being spicy - I've got garam masala, paprika, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon and mixed spice (and oregano, but that's a herb) all open since last winter. Luckily we're getting to the time of year I want to stand over a hot stove. 

LittleGem

Another £27.49 spent today in Mr.S, was aiming for a £30 shop so I could use my £4.50 off voucher so that was a success, although I stocked up on a few things like cereals and a few branded things we particularly like. I’m not sure I’ve actually got much for my money compared to Lidl though!

up to £89.73/£200 so getting tight for next week already 🙈

pinkypig

I made it to Friday without any top ups 😀😀. The only fresh food left was a very small yellow pepper and a tiny bit of yogurt though!

Aldi food shop which was £33.55 and included the ingredients for three birthday cakes which I’d forgotten to budget for 🙈.   Still on budget though (just).  I also feel like I’m winning at life as the large family pack of peppers were all red and orange - no green ones 🥳

Meal plan is done based around batch cooks in the freezer and the fruit bowl, salad drawer and veg baskets are full😀

Hope you all have a restful and thrifty weekend.

PP x

Doom_and_Gloom

I am soo thankful to my amazing parents. Saw them today and to help my OH and I a bit with the cost of living they gave us a 'care package' with food items and toilet rolls. Must have given us items easily worth £30+, most of which we habitually buy anyway but also some treats which was extremely nice and helpful of them. I nearly became speechless when after giving us that package that they handed me a bit of money to go towards our next electric bill. I'm ridiculously thankful to have parents who are not only able to do this, but are willing to help us in these times even when I never asked them for such help. It's times like this I am reminded just how privileged I am. It makes me more upset for those that are struggling and have nowhere to turn to other than food banks and/or getting into debt/more debt. 

While I'm not a fan of the monarchy generally, I am mourning the death of the Queen and without a doubt it's going to be very odd having a king instead. I honestly can't believe how some people are celebrating her death; something that is abhorrent to me and makes me wonder at some peoples humanity. 


£25.75 spent in Mr S since last post.

£183.15/£285.
£101.85 left.