September 2022 Grocery Challenge

EssexHebridean

I managed to entirely forget any form of either meal plan or shopping list ahead of doing the weekly shop on Saturday.  There's the effect of two weeks on holiday, and a week either side of making do with what we have and just buying bare basics! 

Anyway - £44.09 in Al's, then MrEH got a few bits in Lil's that we'd been unable to get in the earlier shop and that was another £5.18 so I'll round up and call last week £50 I think. that adds to the £12 from the previous week to leave us on £62/£200 with 2 weeks to go in "shopping terms". It's not going to be a challenging month even allowing I want to get some additional storecupboard bits, but then I knew it wouldn't as it was always going to be a relatively short month. 

Definitely noticed both price increases and shortages of things though - Al's didn't have 4pt bottles of full fat milk at all - and I see looking at T's prices theirs has gone up another 6p in the past few weeks. Mozza's are advertising butter as "cut price" at £1.99 and I see that everyone else's has gone up to that same level too. There was no 32p pasta to be had in either Al's or Lil's. Sigh. Probably need a reevaluation of the storecupboard at some point and will also remember to stock up a bit on butter as well as last time it increased I seem to recall it went up twice in quick succession. As a vague point of interest I just price checked the big 30 pack multipack of crisps we buy in T's and that's gone from £3.20 > £3.75 in the space of a month - hardly an essential buy I know but the increase there really is astonishing. 

PipneyJane

Good evening All

Well, I totally lost the plot at some point during the month.  Did two shops on Saturday, sat down and logged them on Saturday evening and then wondered why the ”balance remaining” on my spreadsheet was completely different to what was left in the GC purse!  Turns out that I hadn’t logged at least 3 shops.  Thank heavens the L!dl+ app keeps copies of your receipts.

Saturday’s shops were £20.09 in MrT’s and £5.47 in L1dl.  I spent £6 on 6 travel-sized talc in MrT’s, stocking up for future holidays while they were on 3-for-2.  At £1 each, that’s the same price I remember paying in Sainsbugs at least 5 years ago, which was a bargain then.  That’s when I last stocked up.  (I’ve been doing the GC since 2017 and have no record  on my spreadsheet of that purchase, but I vividly remember the price.). Theoretically, the Bulk Fund should pay for the talc, but the GC is in the black so I won’t raid the Bulk Fund.

If anyone is after Lactose-free cows milk, L!dl are still selling it for £1.15/L, while MrT’s are charging £1.55.  I bought a litre while in L!dl, since it’s long dated (over a month).  Also nabbed a YS 2L bottle of skimmed milk - our preference - for £1.09, down from £1.55.  (I’m lactose intolerant but take a lactase tablet when using normal milk for my breakfast.)

Since I won’t be shopping between now and Friday….

I’m declaring at £137.30/£144.90, leaving £7.60 to roll over to October.

- Pip

diminua

Groceries: Milk, bread, tomatoes, eggs, mozzarella, mushrooms, tinned tuna and jam (the last one for the store cupboard). 

Treats/food out: Two pastries (Friday and Monday's breakfasts) spring roll and chips (Friday's lunch) drink out with my brother and dad (Thursday) one cheese toastie and chips and more drinks on Saturday as I was up in Liverpool.  

Reading this over I can see why I didn't feel my healthiest yesterday. I did make my own lunch though, and then veggie shepherds pie that will do for dinner today and tomorrow - and I'm planning a veg lasagne on Thursday that should also last two days. 

I have £45.4 left. I'm not declaring yet though as I know I need coffee, and possibly more milk. 

pinkypig

Hello 
Pay day tomorrow so I’ll be starting my new month.  I had one small spend on Sunday when I called in at B&M when I was passing to get firelighters.  Still no firelighters but they did have sriracha at the bargain price of £1.89 and we are nearly out so I got one.
Final spends for September (including a birthday get together fakeaway and three birthday cakes) was £143.84/£150 🥳
Very pleased with that .  Thanks for the inspiration and for keeping me accountable.  See you over on October.

PP x

thriftwizard

Well - I've spent money on groceries today, but I don't feel the need to update my total! Basically a whisker over £60 spent, on replacing the cashew nuts & flaked almonds which went off with DD1, and two boxes of decent wine to stash away for Christmas. And it was money that HAD to be spent fast; long story short, I found 3 x paper £20 notes tucked into a Bible in my bedside drawers. I have no real idea who or when they are from; they are not business money, although I keep a cash float, but that was cleared of paper notes ages ago. And I've not been £60 short in the family finances at any point. They were in a King James Bible that belonged to my father; I think I must have rescued it when Mum's bungalow was sold & we had to clear it in a rush. I will tell Mum about it next week when I go to see her, as I'm assuming they were hers, but she'll just laugh & tell me to keep it.

Paper £20s & £50s cease to be legal tender on 30th September...  I'm so glad they turned up in time! Swift action needed... I'm not inclined to drive down into the city & pay for parking in order to pay them physically into our account, even if I had the time, but I'm trading this weekend & there's lots to prepare. So the only thing to do was spend them! I was left feeling that I should donate 10% in true Biblical fashion, so I've added a bit to my foodbank donation (which I do by direct debit, so they can fill in the gaps) to say thank you to Whoever drew them to my attention in the nick of time!

Chrystal

What a lovely find @thriftwizard... it's left me with a lovely, warm fuzzy feeling.  XX

hazeldreams

Just a quick note to thank everyone for the warmth and advice around focussing on not comparing budgets, realising mine and everyone's else's situation is so different. I'm learning so much on here and benefitting massively from holding myself accountable on this thread and a couple of others.

Last shop of the month and Friday and looking forward to coming in on budget for possibly the first time ever!

Hazel x

FrugalThymes

I've lost track a little because some spends over the last few days have been part groceries for now, part store cupboard/pantry. I think I'll just have to round it up to £300/£200 for this month, but have different budgets for the separate things next month

Have avoided takeways except a pizza the first week (when I realised just how much we spend and was shocked out of the habit!) and I think had 2 starters or puddings at the pub instead of any 'full' meals at our games group nights. 

I've realise that I have a bit of an impulse to spend money as soon as I have it so I'm going to start paying any extra I have into an account that we can only access at the bank - the debit card broke and we decided not to get it replaced until the overdraft is completely cleared. I WFH on my own small craft business, so my income is pretty sporadic - it's too easy to see a couple of hundred pounds of 'fun money' suddenly appear when really it should be used for more sensible things! 

I just has a Sburys order delivered - They had a couple of 'world foods' things I wanted so I decided to do a full pantry shop to get the order over £60, then used the 'first online order' code on their website for £15 off. 

Overall, even though way over the budget I set, I'm happy that I'm more in control and looking forward to October! 

thriftwizard

FrugalThymes said:

 I WFH on my own small craft business, so my income is pretty sporadic - it's too easy to see a couple of hundred pounds of 'fun money' suddenly appear when really it should be used for more sensible things! 

So glad I'm not the only one! I started my little enterprise so I didn't feel guilty buying things for myself from "family" money, but for years now it's paid for things like rent deposits for the assorted Offpsring, joint camping trips etc.. I still have a tendency to see it as "my" money rather than a part of the whole domestic economy, but I only have to miss a month or two's trading before I realise that it's pretty essential really, especially if I want to buy well (i.e. best quality) when we really do have to buy. "Pin money" makes all the difference.

EssexHebridean

@PipneyJane the J0hns0ns brand travel sized talc containers can be refilled for future uses - the top although it doesn't appear to want to come off will actually just pop off with a flat bladed knife under one edge and twisted - you can then just refill using a funnel (or a makeshift paper cone, as usually happens in our house!) cheaper AND better for the environment than buying multiples of the smaller ones! 


The cost of this week's veg box hit the account yesterday so that needs adding to my total - there will be another of those later in the month as well.