September 2022 Grocery Challenge

FrugalThymes

Hello all! I'm new to the forum, and I'd love to join in with you all.

There are 4 of us, 2 adults and two teens, plus a hamster I will be using up as much as I can in the cupboards, fridge and freezer as well as making use of the Olio app. Please put my budget down as:

£200 for the month

Finstickle

Hi @elsiepac,

Can you put me down for £512 for the month please?

Finstickle

So, I have made a big change this month - I paid for the membership and joined CostCo - hoping that it will help keep costs down.
I went slightly mad this first shop and spent £333.29, however there are items in there that will carry over to next year (10 toothpastes etc) so although it is a big hit in the month I'm hoping it will balance out over the year.
I will be trying to keep a really close eye on it as I have spotted a couple of things where just because the choice is different I paid a bit more.  Bought lamb, don't normally as so expensive but it was a good £/Kg price, will definitely stay as a treat though and I'll be comparing prices to musclefood and continuing to try and get YS meats where possible.
I went with my mum who calculated a 50% saving vs her usual supermarket shop.
I would say mine was closer to 25% as I am a bigger bargain hunter than her, however that is worth it.
(Also they have a massive discount on fuel which I am looking forward to utilising)

£30.27 at Lidl on the bits that I couldn't get from CostCo - also stocked up here to avoid having to go back, I can get Fruit & Veg from the greengrocer, or use what's coming from the garden and save myself the temptation 

Feeling very stocked up now, and hoping for lots of no spend days

Currently £387/£512

Soontobeoap

Have not started the month well. Tesco last week did not have the gluten /dairy free fish and pizzas that I had ordered so i took a trip to supermarket today with 3xGC  and DH in tow. This is not a good combination of frugel shoppers! 🤦‍♀️. After ice cream and sweet treats were added as well as more cereal, fruit and veg ( I underestimated how much 3 boys could eat) our total was a shocking £66.00 leaving me with £114.00 left for the rest of the month. Back to a tighter budget and strict meal planning next week.

LadyWithAPlan

Kinglemum said:

I’ve seen a few people here have separate budgets for bulk buying etc which i think would help me as I’m forever stocking up on things we use regularly and it skews my totals. 

I’m aiming for £350 overall but £300 on grocery and the remaining £50 on bulk buying and alcohol. Fingers crossed that works!

i started having a separate bulk fund and it has really helped as you are not busting your Grocery budget. Where I buy stocks that might be partly used for this month and also for the next few months - I split the cost across my bulk fund and my monthly grocery budget in proportion.

 A fellow MSE (maybe Suffolk lass?) guided me but she adds £400 at the beginning of the year. I have started adding £30/month to bulk fund - and what I dont spend gets left in. Maybe try both ways and see what works best.

September challenge   £160 for the month - not including home stuff,  toiletries or alcohol or restaurants - I have special budgets for those. 
Plus £30 bulk fund - I have £25.50 in there from last month to carry over as well.

Tx @elsiepac for running this challenge

stoplurking

London_1 said:

….This is roughly this weeks menu plan for me and every meal is costed to the nearest penny 

Hope this helps a little it just shows that its possible to eat without spending a huge amount , but then I don't eat ready made or instant meals or take aways Nothing wrong with those who do, but its just not for me. I also don't eat snacks (apart from a ginger nut or two ) and I never eat crisps I just think they're a waste of a quarter of a potato for 45p when I can buy a bag of spuds which do far more.

JackieO xx

Hi JackieO, I’m just a lurker, not a challenger, but I wanted to thank you so much for your very detailed reply re how you manage to keep your budget so low.  I didn’t quote the whole post, hope you don’t mind. 

I feel as if I want to print this out and stick it on my fridge to remind me of all the things that add up to making great savings on the grocery budget. 🙂 I do some of these things some of the time but really need to start doing most of them, most of the time.  My first thing is once the current, expensive, boxed cereals are done I am going back to porridge for breakfast.  I usually wait till the clocks have changed then start on the porridge until spring, but I do love porridge and it is so much cheaper, it makes sense to get back to it now rather than in a few months.  

 I do make soups and use my slow cooker a bit but will be doing much more of both. 

We currently budget £250 a month for the 2 of us but my partner seems to look at that as a target so if there is anything left in the last week or so he plans treat-type things to use it up.  I’m going to be stricter from now on and at the very least use any excess to buy in extra toiletries or something.  

And your comment about the crisps being 1/4 of a potato made me laugh but I will remember it next time I’m hovering around the crisp aisle.  

Thanks again Jackie, and good luck for September everyone.  

SL

Blackandgold_2

@Finstickle So, I have made a big change this month - I paid for the membership and joined CostCo - hoping that it will help keep costs down.

We've had a Costco membership for years and I get a lot of meat from them. We sub divide and freeze but it's all good quality stuff. Even their loaves of Hov** are less than £1 and we used to get and freeze packs of the part baked baguettes and rolls. 

I catered for 150 for my husband's retirement party from there, including some YS Stilton that the woman on the till sent me back for!

London_1

stoplurking  you are more than welcome honey I can't take the credit for the quarter of a potato.
My late Mum said when my eldest brother brought a bag home back in the 1950s (I had never seen them before )
She looked at the bag, then at my 15 year old brother and said 'do you realise how much you have spent on a tiny bit of a potato', back then I think it was a 2d bag of Smiths crisps with a twist of salt in blue paper at the bottom.

 She roared with laughter and said fools and their money are so easily parted boy.
Explaining to him the economics of the price of a spud, and what he had actually spent his errand boy wage on. She sliced up part of a potato to show him what his 12-15 crisps had cost. I don't think he ever bought another pack. I've never been keen as to me they are just wasted calories that don't satisfy any hunger,but each to their own  

The belt tighening which we will all be doing this winter often starts with the "light bulb' moment when you are in a shop and about to buy something and you realise
 Hmm do I need it, will I use it, can I do without it  if its No,No,Yes then you are on your way to being a little be smarter when it comes to shopping.

Shops are not in business to help you, they are in business to extract as much cash from your purse as possible. Highly paid psychologists work out the floor plans so as you walk around you are tempted by your eyes and your nose.

Walk into virtually any supermarket, and the first thing you see is fruit and veg which is there to catch your eye with colourful piles of stuff, the more colurful the better.Potatoes came further away
Nice bright fruit is usually first, the brighter the better, healthy salad stuff nex,t so your subconcious is thinking 'oh I've got my family some nice fruit, so salad will keep them healthy, then green veg again a healthy idea is put into your head towards the end of at least two counters there is a basic boring  spuds ,onions etc for essential buying .

Then as you walk up and down the aisles, you see first meat, subconcious again 'Ah meat to go with the veg for dinner' You are thinking exactly how the store wants you to think.

Then comes cheese,butter dairy stuff and maybe biscuits and cakes but they will usually come before bread its all laid out to entice you to buy

 Sugar is always at the back of the shop so you have to go past other stuff before you can get basic essentials
Its extremely clever marketing 

Similar to childrens shoes in a shop always being upstairs so you have to go past adults one that might make you buy for yourself first

If you think about the layout of the majority of supermarkets its very cleverly done and most supermarket layouts are very similar no matter whether its Tesco,Aldi's Asda, or Sainsburys, its always fruit first

If a supermarket has a change around for some reason folk seem to panic as they have become accusomed to stuff being in the same place .Simarly if you are in your kitchen you know without thinking were the tea,coffee sugar is kept as its always there.

So when shopping you have to be wise to their tricks .I ALWAYS take a shopping list and I set it out as it will come up around the shop so I know I will buy maybe some apples then walk away and buy some mince maybe and so on its the buying a small amount that helps lower the bills .If you set yourself a goal and say today is going to be X amount of shopping and nothing else and get it and come out within ten minutes you will have lost the urge to browse and linger and maybe spend more than you need or want .Great differance between need and want .Need is essentials for stuff you cannot do without as you have run out of it , want is buying with your eyes , like 'treat' yourself or your family for all your hard work in getting the food in to feed them So separating need and want will help you bring doen the bills.We have all done it haven't we wandered around a shop and spotted something and thought 'Oh that looks good' perhaps a different cleaner, that promises that you house will sparkle if you buy it. it won't anymore than the god knows how many at home in the cupboard under the sink that you have forgotten about  Thats shopping with your eyes
I'm just as guilty  over the years having bought the latest gadget/cleaner etc and used it once, put in the cupboard and forgotten about it .

My youngest granddaughter had a great time emtying out my under the sink cupboard last year when she moved into her own home

I now only buy what's strictly needed, bleach disinfectant and unless I come down with some dreadful bowel problem no more tha 6 loo rolls at a time.

Look in your cupboards before you go shopping, and see how much hard cash is just sitting there doing nothing. Thats cash that could be in your pocket or bank account. Also always eat before you shop you won't be so tempted to buy as much  

Hope this helps a little 

JackieO xx:)  

Soontobeoap

Does anyone have a recipe for sweet onion chutney that they would recommend. Also how to I preserve it so that it doesn’t go mouldy. I pay £1.50 a jar at the moment. With onions so cheap it has got to be cheaper to make it.

so pleased with the glut of runner beans that I have grown this year. So many in the freezer for the winter.

I am not very good at making sauces but have found that if I stew tomatoes and mix with one third of a 59p jar of pasta sauce from Aldi it makes a pretty good pasta sauce. A good way of using up a glut of tomatoes or the ones that go a bit soft in the fridge. I can’t believe that in January I was paying over £1.00 a jar for one meal! It has gone up even more now too.

I also add left  over red wine, sugar and a couple of apples to a thinly sliced red cabbage cook it all up and then portion it into 4 containers for freezer.

I saw swedes for 50p each in Aldi last week. They are 80p in Tescos so bought a couple and froze in small chunks after blanching. This will do 4 portions of veg for the 2 of us.


GS,s go back to Mum and Dad tomorrow and so I have a lot of fridge sorting to do. I am frying up the potatoes left from the boils that I did with gammon a couple of days ago. Have already managed to freeze the leftover sweetcorn, have sliced gammon that was left into small chunks. It will do at least 3 meals in omelettes or pasta along with the leftover grated cheese. Someone on this thread said that their freezer was their friend. I know the feeling. 🙂

hazeldreams

Hi all,

I’d love to join in please! 

We are 2 adults, 2 hungry teens and a hungry black lab! 

Our groceries include all food, alcohol, cleaning products, toiletries and we have been spending roughly £800pm over last 3 months (down from £1000pm before that). I know it’s a huge sum compared to others on here but we’re trying to do it slowly as we’ve crashed and burned just cutting right back in the past! 

£750 for September please