September 2022 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

@pinkypig - brilliant budgeting & shopping!

Another £13.10 added from a quick dash into w8rose between digging spuds/picking beans & leaves/cutting a courgette for the weekend (& onwards) and trotting off, hauling my sewing machine, to the Repair Café, at which I'm one of the stitchers. Nearly howled at the price of butter, but L!dls hardly had any when I went down there. If I factor in fuel costs, it's even stevens; adding in the time factor, w8rose was the only option.

I still have nearly all of two weeks left of September to get through, feeding 3+...

diminua

Two pains au chocolat for Monday and Friday in the office (2.20 in total), and I haven't been out so other than that it's all grocery spends - milk, butternut squash, carrots, bread, coffee, broccoli, chillies, washing powder, apples, bin liners, tomatoes, one fruit and nut chocolate bar - £20.30. All the veg was for a home made veg curry on Thursday that did for two meals. I can't really post a recipe as it's very much a 'that tastes about right' or 'there's too much water in that pan' process for me, but the butternut squash and courgettes and onions are roasted, the carrots and broccoli boiled, and you bring it all together in one pan with garam masala, chillies, stock and tinned tomatoes at the end once the veg is soft, and thicken with cornflour to get the sauce the consistency you want. I've spent £88.87 so far. 

London_1

I think setting a rough budget, and even if you are a few pounds over, or if lucky, under is such a help, as when watching some of the TV shopping style programmes it seems a lot of people really don't think they spend the amount they do. 
The way I look at it ,(and I have been budgetting  for many a long year ) if I keep within range of the amount I set then even if I go a little bit over its not too much of a worry. After all when I am under then I will squirrel it away for the times when bills come in unexpectedly or I want to treat myself or one of my grandchildren to something nice.

I like to have a little bit of 'Happy Cash' as my late Mum called it. Its the bit when you can blow it on what ever you fancy,even if its only a naughty squashy cream doughnut, it make you or your family happy then the lean times aren't so bad.

My Mum's budget went as follows, sound roof over your head, heat to keep warm, food in the cupboard, and a little bit of Happy Cash for treats. 

Her Happy Cash was the occasional coffee to drink, as she adored coffee, but as my Father didn't she rarely bought any.

Being a very practical person the family always came first with her, so although we had rationing and austerity post-war we never went to bed hungry .

Often the food was a bit bland, but she livened it up with herbs and spices I guess that's where I get my taste for them from, as I have one shelf in my kitchen cupboards that is just for herbs and spices as even the 'beigest' of food can be woken up with a little something added

I have a pot of soup cooking at the moment consisting of the last of the carrots diced up ,a handful of lentils,some ground coriander, a couple of diced spuds, some tumeric, and a good shake of garlic pepper, and a touch of sweet chilli sauce.My kitchen smells rather lush at the moment and the soup will do for at least three to four lunches, cost around 50p plus the cooking.

it looks like we are all more or less on target and even a pound or so over is recoverable in the end.
Pinkypig that sounds like the birthday meal was brilliant and well worth the effort  

JackieO xx

Well done everyone only 13 days left until October  

Crazycatlady2

I’m on £320 with a Tesco delivery due tomorrow. Lots of meet to make meals and freezer is full of easy junk meals to cover all bases I think.
my neighbour gave me these and other than a simple cake I made I’ve no idea what to use them for…suggestions for simple easy things would be ideal please as I don’t like cooking 😂

Crazycatlady2

Nnot sure if pic added to first post properly 

FrugalThymes

Went into town with the eldest and ended up buying some things for the kitchen as well as the pantry cupboard. Spend is now at 

£186.85/£200

This being the first month of actually setting and keeping track of a budget, I wasn't expecting perfection and I imagine we'll go slightly over, so we'll see

Sayschezza

London-1 as I have said in a previous post I don't count treats in my housekeeping budget which is just as well because if I did I would be definitely bottom of the class. Good job there is no challenge thread about that. Phew.

Soontobeoap

£24.08 spent in Aldi today and then I forgot oxo cubes and bread! Beef and pork mince £4.19 for 750g instead of 2 for £7.00 so I will be bulking it out with grated carrot and veg to make it go further in the lasagna and savoury mince and a few extra bread crumbs will go into the meatballs. It is getting harder to make the budget stretch but so far I am still on budget. Good luck everyone. 

goldfinches

I'm very impressed by everyone's ingenuity at avoiding spending, particular kudos to @Soontobeoap and @pinkypig for dodging your spending pitfalls in such stylish fashion. You both are an inspiration to the rest of us.

I had to do a top-up shop today as, thinking about it, tomorrow the shops will likely be heaving and on Monday they'll be closed so I hastily made a list to take me to Wednesday and set forth. I bought a bag of onions, a bag of carrots, 3 x radishes, f/f greek style yoghurt and a large jar of gherkins from M*rks for £7.15 which makes my new monthly total £57.79/£120 and my average daily spend £3.39. There wasn't any of the milk I normally buy so I decided to spin out my current bottle until Tuesday by reducing the amount in my coffee and topping it up with cold water instead.

JIL

Crazycatlady2 said:

Nnot sure if pic added to first post properly 

Soup or curry perhaps? 

I did see a nice soup idea some time ago and tried it. 
It was basically prepare the squash and other veg, such as carrots, potatoes, onions and leek and roast them slowly with some chilli flakes. Add to a stock and blend.  However I'm never one to follow a soup recipe so I cant give quantities. 
I would add that in the name of mse, do this when you are using the oven already