September 2022 Grocery Challenge

Ginmonster

I popped to the SM yesterday to pick up only the things we needed - apples, bananas and a cucumber - so I am proud to say after spending £2.97 I am still in budget for the month at £199.26/£200. 🎉

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs!

Coming in to report a small spend of £3.43.  DH did give me the money back for the throat lozenges, so I've 'done the adding/subtracting math' and the budget now stands at £198.97/200 for September.  I did spend some money today - but on items that won't be used before October (mostly frozen), so will work out the 'damage' to October's budget separately.  I did pick up a tub of Bertolli spread bb 2/10 in H3r0n today, so as we will start that probably on/by Friday, I included the 89p in my £3.43 spend.  It saved me 20p on buying MrL's generic olive spread tub, anyway.  

I haven't been in our local H3r0n for some time.  I was pleased to find a few bargainacious bits today.  I am trying some frozen 'faux' pork (don't make it sound too attractive, do I 🤔), as they had it on offer at 3 bags for £1.  I bought a slow cooker a while ago, and I'm struggling to make it 'work' for us (I think it's none too efficient on electricity myself, and prefer my PC), but want to give it a fair go before ditching and chazzering, so I figured 'pork 'n beans' might just be a dish to try (make Brooke proud 😉).  This will be in the October meal plan though.  

Went for a pootle around MrA last night, whilst LG was at club.  No YS'd stuff, and yet again, it looked like the whole of Greying town had shopped in-store before I set foot in the door.  But I'm still not sure if empty shelves are down to supply issues or restocking procedures.  There was plenty of the JE grapefruit pieces in stock last night (without dented and bashed tins - yay!), but as the product was in light syrup, and was only something like 2p (iirc) cheaper than the MrA own brand which was in juice........ I left it on the shelf.........Yes, I realise it can be washed off (the JE pineapple is in light syrup too 🙁), but there are times when you just can't be bothered.........  If it was for a significant saving, well then, yes, maybe.  But tuppence.......

I'm trying to switch how I use the freezer going forward.  There's no doubt that this 'new to me' freezer is considerably cheaper to run, but it does also have less space in it, and I'm finding that does cause issues.  Going forward I am going to try to ensure that it is only used to hold....... 'functional' foods - foods that are high value (not necessarily high cost), in terms of being able to immediately put a meal on the table.  So more 'family' portions of.... curry/stew/casserole, rather than small portion leftovers.  So eg, I have no room for 7 pots of 'leftover' single portion mashed potatoes, but do have space for a bulk cooking session shepherd's pie or a lasagne or something.  I also want to free up space for frozen veg.  We use alot, and I have found it difficult having only one bag of eg Broccoli or one bag of peas at a time, instead of perhaps a bag of each.  It's not rocket science, I know, but you get used to working one way - with the tools available to you - and now that my available tools have changed, I'm having to adapt.  I also want to make room for several 'cheat' meals.  I'm happy to not buy frozen fish regularly - particularly since the price went up, but sometimes you need to know that there is a 'cardboard box fish, chips and mushy peas' meal (or variation thereof) available to use at the end of a long day, or perhaps to prevent an emergency 'take-away'.  We're lucky that the takeaways are so awful near us, but increasingly, takeaways are getting too pricey anyway.  As it happens, I did pick up a box of 2 breaded cod fillets (B1rdz ey3 brand) in H3r0n today, as they were £1.50 - which is cheaper (proportionately) than the 4 portion generic box versions sold in MrL and MrAl.  A bag of oven chips and a can of mushy peas or baked beans, and I have a tea for us (as long as I have fish fingers for LG!).

I will need bread for Friday, so won't declare my month finished as yet.  Over all, I'm pleased with what I have spent, as I've bought quite a bit of pantry stock and non-food items this month.  Having said that, I need to get clothes washing powder in the October budget, and that (increasingly) takes a chunk of change, so October won't be a picnic - particularly as there is half-term and an additonal 'Baker Day' to budget for as well.  And yes, I AM showing my age...... 😂 

Still, at present we have our health and changes to paypackets appear (at the moment) to be going through seamlessly, for which I remain grateful.  

£198.97/200

Greying X

cinnamon123

Last shopping of the month! And what a crazy morning. Got stuck in traffic in my town because they were redoing the roads and ended up stuck for over 30 minutes on two blocks. Mind you if they had just put up "road blocked" signs so people wouldn't turn down a street only to be redirected, it probably would have helped 100 of my fellow neighbors who also made the same turn that I did. Sigh. (The roadwork is needed so I am happy they are doing it but a little warning would have been nice.)

Needless to say by the time I made it to the grocery store, I was out of time, energy and patience. Still, I managed to spend $76.27 on fresh veg, bread, salsa, pickles, eggs. cream, cheese, choc bar, plus a few other bits and bobs.

Because of the crazy start to the day, I actually managed to come in just shy of my target for this month - finishing at:

$396.86/$400 (grocery budget-food only) + $66.48/$200 (stock-up budget).

Overall, it's been a good month. I've enjoyed keeping a closer eye on our spending as well as reading everyone's updates. Looking forward to October. (September's been a dry month by choice so really looking forward to Sat and a nice glass of red)

thriftwizard

Um - is it me, or has October vanished without trace? And we seem to have become unstuck... no further spends to report here, but was going to drop my declared aim for October slightly, having managed to pick up the cashews & almonds this month, kind of free. Ah well, I expect it'll turn up again at some point!

Doom_and_Gloom

£1.54 spent in Mr S since last post.

£279/£285.
£6 left.

Hopeful that we will come in budget.

Kinglemum

Just popping in to report I’ve gone over (again) for this month. Total spent £414.35. Approx £100 was from my new bulk fund which I’d allowed £50 for. However I doubt I’ll be spending much more next month so that should even out.
Removing the £100 bulk i’m on roughly £314.35 which is only £14.35 higher than I set so it’s not actually as bad as it looked initially. My problem is that I just can’t resist a bargain and my freezers are full to bursting as a result. Must work harder on this!

Whilst I don’t post often I try to catch up and find a lot of the posts here helpful for my own budget so thanks to everyone, will try and post more often myself next month!

PipneyJane

EssexHebridean said:

@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. 

Ooohhh…..  Thank you for the tip @EssexHebridean.  I have vague memories of seeing them being refilled back in “the old days” but assumed that was because you could screw the top off.  (That was back in the 1970’s when talc actually came in metal containers.)

@FrugalThymes - in your shoes, I’d have a different bank account for the business money and treat it as “not mine”.  In my head, only the money in my personal bank account is mine to spend, so I transfer all the bills money/savings out on payday to other accounts (automatically done by standing order).  I think of this process as “quarantine”.  Even when I lived by myself, I had a separate Bills Account, because I learned that if I didn’t, I’d spend that money and end up not being able to pay the bills.  

HTH.

- Pip

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning

I have a £2.40 expenditure to own up to.  I bought milk £1.55 and bread 65p in MrL today, and I couldn't resist a tub of triple choc flapjack bites which were reduced to 20p (normal price £1.99).  I couldn't have made the flapjacks for 20p and also have a food grade tub for storage going forward.  

So I end September on £201.37/200.  I'll take that overspend all day long, as I've bought quite alot of 'stuff' this month, and (like everyone else) had to absorb price rises on various items - notably bread, milk, yoghurt and olive spread.  October will be a completely different story, and I'm already not feeling the least bit confident of meeting the challenge I have set myself.  I do still have £20 untouched in the bulk fund.  I'm minded to buy a sack of tatties if I can find some for a reasonable price, which would blast a hole in a week's grocery money, but may actually constitute a bulk buy, as if they are good tatties, a 25kg bag usually lasts us into the following year.  We were very lucky last year and when out adventurising, picked up a bag of potatoes off a random farm gate for £5 and they were delicious and stored well.  

I was very surprised at how quiet our local MrL was today.  OK, so it's never rammed early on, but I'm wondering what has changed, as it certainly used to be busier.  There were no £1.50 boxes at all today, not even a shelf for them.  

I  bought some washing powder today and that will come out of the October budget.  I didn't think to look in MrL (do they stock p3r$1l non-bio?).  But I was disappointed to find that our local HB appears to have washed their hands of the brand, and MrS wanted quite alot of money for the brand....... so, rightly or wrongly, I have plumped for a box of MrS own brand non-bio.  It's the 70 wash box for £5.70.  It doesn't smell the same as P3r$1l, so I don't suppose for one moment it is made by the same manufacture but put in a different box.  I am a bit worried as we've stuck with P brand over the years because it didn't cause us skin rashes, and anything overly perfumed doesn't do the resident asthmatic any good, so it's a gamble that may not pay off 🙁

£201.37/200

Greying X

JingsMyBucket

JingsMyBucket said:

Happy Sunday everyone. It’s beautifully sunny in our patch of Scotland this morning. 

Just a quick check in to note we spent £7.35 at M & S on Friday. Mr. Jings got a steak pie and we got some (British) biscuits for me. There’s something else but I’m forgetting. 

£167.87 / £300.00 total spent so far.  £132.13 remaining

For this week I’m aiming to keep below £30 and that should be easy enough because the fridge is bloody packed. 

I'm going to start cooking now for the week — from my cooking plan I posted earlier in the week. We ended up eating leftover soup or just randomly improvising the whole week. First up for cooking is going to be hamburger soup / minestrone. Later this evening I’ll do the Mexican beans. We’ll have variety for lunches for the week. 

Morning all, checking in for the end of the month. Between my last post and today we've spent an additional £185.63. that brings the total for the month to £353.50 – so £53.50 over budget. There are/were a few things we could have trimmed but it was a combination of restocking some items and some prices rising. Oh well. I think I'll set the October budget to £300 (£250 for 4.5 weeks + £50 for restocking). 

 I bought a big beef roast earlier in the month and we've been eating off that for a bit now. I'm going to make soup with the last of it today and turn some off apples into an apple oat crumble. Onwards and upwards everyone. Have a lovely day!

Soontobeoap

@Greying_Pilgrim I changed from persil some time ago and now use supermarket own non bio. Usually tesco but also Aldi and my sensitive ones have not been affected by smell or had any itching. I have bought a small tub of whitener from Lakeland that I occasionally throw a small amount of into a whitewash. But I use that very rarely so it still comes out much cheaper. My DH has hay-fever and we cannot have flowers or any other perfume smells in the house without him sneezing like a nutter and getting all bunged up. He also has allergies that affect his skin so I am always very careful and can't use fabric conditioner. Hanging washing on the line to dry is the best smell anyway. Hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.