October 2022 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

I popped into a local Indian supermarket that often has good special offers today and I noticed that they are selling special tins of Tropical Sun brand sardines in  both sunflower oil and spring water for 69 pence each. The tins I saw were all in plastic wrappers with 69p printed on them like this one Tropical Sun Canadian Style Sardines in Soya Oil with Hot Peppers - 10 — Tradewinds Oriental Shop so if you're near a shop that stocks this brand it might be worth dropping by.

Doom_and_Gloom

Thank you elsiepac for doing this thread. As I keep saying it really does help keep us accountable, even if some of us blow the budget it would be worse if we weren't on here I'm sure.

Our October budget is going to be £294.50.

The month goes 1st to the 31st

This is for two adults, my OH and I, and a chinchilla. Includes all food and drink (except alcohol), cleaning products, toiletries etc and all chinchilla items (food, hay, sand, treats etc.).
Really hoping to come in budget however I know tracking the spends is better than doing an impression of an ostrich and not doing so. 

Between L!do and Mr S we have spent £70.16 so far.

£70.16/£294.50.

£224.34 left.

try_harder

Please could i join in again in October . My budget is £250 ..We are on holiday at the minute until next weekend and have money set aside for this week so im hoping it will be doable .Thank you

leftatthetrafficlights

Dh just remembered he bought loo roll on Friday so another £7.39 to add! 

£62.39/£300

bupster

Hi @elsiepac - thank you for running the challenge again. 

Please could I set a budget of £200 for the month again?

I've yet to come in under it, but I'm learning a bit more about myself and my spending each time, so it's all good

JingsMyBucket

Happy Sunday all. We just returned from the monthly farmer's market 

£20.56 at one of our favourite beef/lamb stalls. We bought pork sausages and 2 lamb "knuckles" that will be good to braise later in the season. Those went straight into the freezer. We also got four huge and meaty sausage rolls which cost £9 alone. We gave 2 of those to Mr. Jings' cousin & his wife. 

£6.20 at another stall for beef samosas, a veg pakora, and a goat cheese + vegetable tart. 

£12.00 from a stall for a couple frozen mac and cheese dishes. Again, directly into the freezer for later. 

£5.00 on two big glass bottles of freshly pressed unpasteurized apple juice. One of those also went to the cousins. 

A couple of feel good bonuses: we had a couple nice corned beef brisket (salt beef in the UK) deli plates for lunch before visiting the rest of the stalls. I asked the vendor to sell me some of his herbed cream cheese and it turns out he deliberately didn't charge me for it! 

Another one: Mr. Jings is involved with an edible garden project around town and they have an installation at the train station where the farmer's market is held. On the way out, we picked fresh kale, rosemary, and lemon balm. Oh yeah, some of the kale also went to the cousins as well. I'll add the remaining kale to a quiche. 

£43.76 / £300.00 spent. £256.24 remaining. 

Because I'm budgeting roughly £55/week for 4.5 weeks and £50 for a bulk fund, I've got about £11.24 left to last us until this Friday. We'll need to buy more milk and yoghurt tomorrow or in the middle of the week. Let's see how this goes.

atrixa

I'm up to £53.45/£145.

I've been making the most of the yellow sticker section and I haven't paid full price for bread in weeks.

Chilli for tea from the freezer tonight and tomorrow, then I'll be doing tex-mex of some variety for me and bf on Tuesday evening.

Keedie

Can I please join for October with a budget of

£300 for 1 adult & 1 teen

This includes toiletries and cleaning products, and the month runs from 1-31 October, with £41.87/£300 spent so far. I didn't end up tracking anything or shopping savvy in September so this is my first proper month.

Soontobeoap

Back from holiday yeasterday. After a long, long day we popped into the co- op on the way home to buy bread and milk for breakfast. Also got some potatoes, salad stuff, juice, bacon and biscuits for DH (yes, he came in with me!!!!!) £20.00 in all.
When we got home I discovered that the freezer door was not sealed! A tub of beans had exploded and pushed the door. Freezer was still same temperature and everything was still solidy frozen except for 2 beef joints. I just cant believe that ice lollies in the door remained frozen but the beef had thawed. Any way i had to throw it away as we had been away 9 days amd i didnt know how long it had been like that!! Absolutley gutted.

Whilst i was checking food i did a freezer stock take. I am now determined to work my way through the freezer and cupboard stocks before buying too much more food. 

Tomorrow we have a tesco delivery coming with brand named goods on offer and a few basics. I cant tell the difference between the taste of tesco beans and heinz but there is a huge price difference. Their apple and orange juice is a great price when bought in 4 packs and their toilet rolls are also good value. They last forever as they have twice as much paper on each roll than they used too. Also bulk buy of flora proactive buttery, mccain crinkle cut chips and cathedral city lactose free cheese as they are on offer to club card holders.

I think i picked the last of the runner beans and tomatoes today. Green toms are in windowsill to ripen. 

Off to do meal plan now. 

Doom_and_Gloom

Soontobeoap said:

When we got home I discovered that the freezer door was not sealed! A tub of beans had exploded and pushed the door. Freezer was still same temperature and everything was still solidy frozen except for 2 beef joints. I just cant believe that ice lollies in the door remained frozen but the beef had thawed. Any way i had to throw it away as we had been away 9 days amd i didnt know how long it had been like that!! Absolutley gutted.

Little tip for the next time you go anywhere for longer than a few days, or in general really as it helps to know if you have a power cut also and how bad. Put a tub with frozen water in the freezer with a 1p/2p coin on top of the frozen water. You will know roughly how bad the freezer defrosted this way by how far down the coin has sunk before re-freezing.