November 2022 Grocery Challenge

EssexHebridean

Weekly shop done a day earlier than usual here as we’ve got plans for tomorrow. Sainsbugs this week as I had some handy till spits from when we popped in for MrEH’s paper last weekend. So £4.50 off a £30 spend, double points and a 150 extra points voucher too - all worth having. Oh and a handful extra for buying bananas too. 

As well as the food stuff there was also my Mum’s birthday card bought, and a pack of tea light candles - excluding those the food spend came to £30.77. Notables today were no 2pint skimmed milk at all - there were some YS’d 1 pints marked down to “only” 69p though so I grabbed  two of those (I know, doesn’t sound very marked down to me either!) and have put one in the freezer. The price of FR chickens appears to have rocketed - although I know Sainsbugs have always been dearer than T’s. I’ll be getting my money’s worth from it for sure! Apples were a win - British Braeburn x6 at £1.15 a pack.  Got a twin pack of naan breads to have with curry tonight - at £1.50 it’s a lot cheaper than getting them from the takeaway and they look like nice ones, too! 

£92.54/£200 for us now - 3 weekly shops and a veg box definitely still to come. 

hazeldreams

We're at £447.81/£580. Super pleased with this and just one more week to go for November.

Gettingmyshiztogether

hazeldreams said:

We're at £447.81/£580. Super pleased with this and just one more week to go for November.

Thats incredible Hazeldreams 👏🏽

Well done! Any top tips please do share! I think, if my memory serves me right, you've reduced your budget by hundreds of pounds.... 👏🏽👏🏽

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

Hello all 

£63.67 spent today online 

weekly shop in with fresh, frozen and cupboard items. I’ve got quite a freezer full now so I think next week is either a small shop or I’ll do it later in the week to use up what I’ve got first. 

£186.33 left 

£84.42 spent

split across Tesco and Lidl. I’m amazed how much Lidl prices have jumped recently. 

I needed a few general stock items like bleach, condiments etc that had ran out that bumped the price up.

£101.91 left so need a few cheap shops for the rest of the month or reconsider my budget next month 

A massive £78.80 spent this week 

it was technically more but I’ve deducted Christmas treats as they are for presents and family around. I don’t want to count them. 

I definitely think I’ll go over now. I’ll carry on keeping a tally this month and next month and then in January look at a more realistic budget for the month 

hazeldreams

Gettingmyshiztogether said:

hazeldreams said:

We're at £447.81/£580. Super pleased with this and just one more week to go for November.

Thats incredible Hazeldreams 👏🏽

Well done! Any top tips please do share! I think, if my memory serves me right, you've reduced your budget by hundreds of pounds.... 👏🏽👏🏽

Hi! I think the discipline of having this forum, and tracking every penny, has been the biggest change for us. Yes, we were up to over £1000pm at one stage. It's shocking when I write that figure out! Having OH on board is also a big difference. We used to be a 2 income family, now its just mine, so he does the food shopping and has seen first hand how much prices have/are rising in relation to groceries and its turns out, he's actually very good at being frugal! Much better than me! 

Practically, on the day to day front, we do all the basics that you've probably already read on here; meal plan for the whole week, starting by planning meals from what we already have in the cupboards/freezer; searching and trying out cheap recipes; I don't eat meat and so the other 3 members of the house tend to only have meat in a curry once a week - the rest of the time we eat a lot of chickpeas, lentils, potatoes - all of which are super cheap; we batch cook a lot and freeze the leftovers. So for e.g. if we cook a soya mince bolognese, we always make one batch for this week and one for the week after. And finally my favourite, any leftovers from plates on the night go into a tub for me to have for my lunch the next day. I love leftovers! I know some will bulk at the thought of this, but I figure if I'm microwaving it anyway, any nasty germs will be zapped!

Oh, nearly forgot! I use YNAB to track all expenses and now I put an entry for each weeks' shopping budget (previously I just had one entry for the entire month and that just didn't work for us!) That's also made a huge difference - instead of seeing one big lump and just shopping to that amount, now we see just what we have for that week.

Hope this helps!

Hazel x

Soontobeoap

Thanks @hazeldreams.
Getting really concerned about @elsiepac now. Has anybody heard anything?

Popped into tesco whilst doing a trip to garden centre to see the shiny beautiful christmas section. 
Watching an 18 month old looking in awe at the singing reindeer made my day.

Was really shocked at prices of free from products. Fusilli pasta 85p in Sainsburys 2 weeks ago tesco today £1.10, lasagna sheets £1.00 about 4 weeks ago but £1.25 this week. I have also read about a 5 day strike in own brand factory that will create scarcity of some products. I dont know how true this is! 
My policy for the last few months has been to only buy branded stuff when it is on offer and to buy store brands as and when unless yellow stickered or really good offer but now wonder if I should stock up a bit more again. 🤷‍♀️

This budgeting lark keeps you on your toes thats for sure. 
Good luck everybody. 

ps86edi

Last week has been an odd one. I should have had more time after submitting my coursework but I don't think I've found the mental space to relax yet. It might just be all my pains and aches trying to get me down. The rains haven't helped, but we managed to get out of the house most days. To be fair, school drop-offs and pickups can't be helped. I have a goal of a daily walk even when the weather threatens to make ice pop out of us.
I finally made Mistplay work for me, and have taken out £15 in gift cards in the last few days.
Total expense (after deducting all the cashback) was £21.16. A big chunk of that was today's shop at Superdrug. They have large shampoos at a discount for members. Our nail clippers needed replacing, so bits and bobs have come together with fruits and milk to edge us very close to the budget.
I am hoping we won't cross the £100 mark, but with increasing prices and all the shiny things on display, I am not very confident we'll make it through this month without breaching our budget.
Total expenditure- £85.83/£100

pinkypig

Evening 😀.  I’ve done a small top up today so £13.02 spent mainly on milk, coffee, dog treats and few other fresh bits.  I collected an olio box before I went which had enough fruit and veggies for the week.  I’ve rejigged my meal plan to use up what needs using first.
I made my first instantpot risotto and it was so nice, it was also very straightforward and took 6 minutes!!
To continue my use up month I have made cheese scones to go with soup for this weeks lunches and a sourdough for breakfasts.  I made an extra one for DD and made Rocky road for DS.
The freezer and cupboards are still looking very full and olio is proving a great source of fruit, veg and salad as long as you are not to fussy.  Consequently, I’m hoping to have another small top up next week 🤞🤞
£66.35/£150
Wishing you a happy weekend 😀
PP xx

SausageDogSandwich

Morning everyone, £6.69 spent on Friday. No plans to spend until Tuesday when will need more milk. Did get a few things from olio yesterday, mostly bread products, a pack of apples and a few sandwiches. 

I don’t think we are going to be able to manage on £50 for the next 12 days, I’m going to try but need plenty of fruit and veg, milk, cheese etc.   
£99.19/150 spent

leftatthetrafficlights

My November budget ended on Thursday- in all honesty I'd lost track but I know that I didn't go over (bought a few other bits from it too) so I'm declaring at £250/£250. 

First spends on my December budget will happen today - I'll keep a closer eye on this one! 🤦‍♀️

Really hope @elsiepac is okay - very concerned that no-one has heard anything 😕 😔