November 2022 Grocery Challenge

leftatthetrafficlights

An additional £28 spent on bulk buy stuff this week (vegan chicken stock & vegan beef stock) but should see me through the next 6 months so worth the outlay! 

£70/£250

Kerreh

Well so far I’m at £72/£200

£41 on half a tank of diesel 03/11
£31 Food shop 05/11

Rounded numbers as DC purchases get rounded up and the pennies auto moved to my sinking funds account.

Food shop actually came to £45 🤯 but used £14 in loyalty card vouchers as part payment of it.

£6 of that was something my mum couldn’t get so she’ll pay me back for that.

£6 was also 160 teabags … I can (and have been) switching levels (eg brand for supermarket own, supermarket own for cheaper supermarket lines) but I won’t compromise on good tea.

Doom_and_Gloom

Greying_Pilgrim said:

PipneyJane said:

I’m not criticising @Greying_Pilgrim and @Doom_and_Gloom, but my thought re the 28p tins of L!dl chopped tomatoes is that 4 tins isn’t enough.  Since they are unlikely to remain at that price and supplies are intermittent, why not buy a tray of 12? FWIW, that’s what I did last month and I know that it’ll take me 2.5-3 months to get through them.    At a minimum, they are 5p a can cheaper than MrT’s best offer (now 3-for-£1), but we can’t hope they will stay at 28p for much longer. 

What I am trying to say is don’t just think of your next week’s meals when shopping.  If it’s something you regularly use, buy a couple of months’ worth.  Stock up when there’s a good deal.  (This is why I have a Bulk Fund.)

- Pip

None taken sweetie - but the reasons that I only bought 4 tins yesterday was a) because I pay in cash, and I only had a finite amount in my purse to cover the cost of my MrL shop - and had other things on my list, b) we use tinned tomatoes regularly, so these were in fact topping up the store cupboard, c) I do have passata and tomato puree in stock too and d) although they had the tins in stock in my branch, there weren't pallets and pallets.  I would say there were probably........... 100? tins.  Perhaps someone's need for a tin of tomatoes might have been greater than mine that day........

Our home isn't huge, we don't have masses of storage space, and whilst tinned tomatoes is definitely a high use item with us, I have to tread a fine line between having food on hand and having room to move about the house...... There is a history of hoarding in the family (although not, ironically, of food), so I'm rather keen for that trait to die off with the previous generations.......

I get that prices are on the rise, but I can only do so much to cushion the blow for our family.  We're all ready used to cutting down and cutting out. Doing without  may just be the next logical step and we will have to see how we go.  

We only picked up 6 as we have a stock in as it is, this was a top up. I believe we have at least 17 tins of tomatoes in right now, that seems fine to me. We buy a tin of tomatoes nearly each time one of us goes shopping to help spread the cost and to make shopping easier. We have a trolley dolly that OH takes to shop from time to time but OH prefers to shop with our reusable bags, no car here. He did take the trolley to L!do but with everything else we needed he came back with it full even with 'only' 6 tins of tomatoes in it. There is also the puree and passata in stock though they will be the next to stock up on again as an they are starting to get low in my opinion.
Like Greying we have limited space as we live in a 1bed flat. I've already had to be creative with storing some items when finding them on a good offer and buying more than immediately needed. The OH isn't happy with some of the places the stock has ended up but at the same time is glad we have it to fall back on. The stock I've built up for us comes in handy when we both are unable to go out for whatever reason. 

kacie

Another £13.98 spent in Aldi, but they didn't have the milk I get so I'll have to go back at some point next week  

Total 57.99/70

Caroby

Hi all, first main shop yesterday. We'd run out of loads of things, fridge had nothing but an old jar of mustard, a tub of dairy-free spread and two bendy carrots in it. So we spent more but some stuff will last a few weeks.
Gave Lidl a miss this time, they've had a lot of gaps on the shelves lately for some reason. Nipped in to Morrison's and spent £5.31 inc roast parsnips, pittas and Quorn southern fried bites for DH (on offer at £1.50). Across to Aldi £51.49 then to Asda £11.88 inc £4 for DH's Twinings Earl Grey (he's definitely not posh but won't change to another brand) but at least we saved £2 on the usual price, got some cling film for 73p too. Tesco last inc a few small savings and £3.43 on food bank, total there £27.61.
It all added up to £96.29 so have to be careful the rest of the month if we want to stay under £180.

Doom_and_Gloom

£5.43 spent in Mr S today. £2.25 of that was on yogurt for OH and he is feeling like he is getting ill and yogurt for some of reason usually combats him getting ill. 

£55.16/£240.
£184.84 left. 

Soontobeoap

We are still waiting for the part to arrive for our hob and running down the freezer. Tonight we had a mint grill each, chips, and peas in the microwave with gravy and mint sauce. Strange one but we avoided a takeaway, filled our tummys and used up freezer odd bits! 🤣.

Son is coming tomorrow for the day with dil and GDs so 7 of us for lunch. I nipped to a neighbour who kindly boiled some eggs for me whilst we shared a cup of tea. I have made a sausage and egg pie, will cook chicken in the morning and along with ham, salad and baked potatoes we will have a lovely lunch with plenty to spare for another couple of days i should think.

Did an Aldi shop today which is added to my total. 

SausageDogSandwich

Husband spent £1.74 today on hot dogs for tomorrows dinner. Haven’t done any other shopping but will need to fetch a few fresh bits tomorrow and some coffee.

£19.08/150

Amara

£31.39 so far. No big, weekly shopping so far, just using up things from fridge, freezer and cupboard. I received voucher for Zero Cola , while topping up my heating. It's valid to Monday, so I need to hurry with collection.

pinkypig

Good morning 😀. 

Reporting a £24.90 spend this week on two small top up shops.  We are still eating up a lot of batch cooked meals from the freezer so that is keeping costs down.
I’ve had no luck with TGTG veg boxes from M .  I’ve reserved four this week and they’ve all been cancelled due to no surplus.  

I’ve read about a few people on here using Olio and last time I looked (years ago) there was nothing in my area but it now seems to have taken off.  There are three Food Waste Heroes fairly near me who collected and distribute food from Tesco on the days the charities don’t need it. One had a lot of baked goods which I didn’t need but another had fruit and veg.  It was a bit of a drive but in my little car it was about £2 in fuel and I combined it with another couple of errands so it was worth the travel.  She’d left me a huge box of things (what I’d requested and extras she had left) .
There was a bit of prep to do to but it only took me about 15 minutes to get salad bags emptied into air tight containers lined with reusable cleaning  clothes that I keep just for prolonging the life of veggies, chopped up herbs, spring onions,  broccoli and bananas  for the freezer,   I’ve got enough decent bananas for snacks this week and fresh veggies and salad for the next few days and there’s a bag of bits and bobs to give to DD. 

 I’ve also got a glut of avocados so I’m going to use the ripe ones for breakfast this week and in two new recipes I want to try and I’m going to have a go at freezing the rest.  Having just finished my huge lemon mountain from TGTG I’ve now got 10 more lemons🙈😂😂.  

What an amazing App - we (and DD and her BF) will have fresh fruit and veg all week plus surplus in the freezer that would have gone in the bin😱. Thanks for the tip MSE buddies 😘
PP xx