November 2022 Grocery Challenge

kacie

Need a cheap month this month, so I'm in with a £70 target. My Tesco order for the month is at £48, so going to have £20 for any aldi extras throughout the month. 

I may need to edit the order before it's due on the 2nd. 
 

London_1

@elsiepac - Thank you once again for the thread, it really does help keep us all on track


                          MY BUDGET FOR NOVEMBER WILL BE £60.00 FOR FOOD only 

I know it seems low but I only have myself to feed, and four days of the 30 days I am out to dinner, and I have pretty full cupboards and two shelves in my spare room loaded with basic essential stuff and my freezer is full, and I will be using up some of the freezer stuff to make room for Christmas bits and pieces

 I am away for a week in December  and save any left over cash from the previous six months budgets that I have squirelled away in a seperate account to have a big shop with in early January from a lot of left over Christmas stock from the supermarkets. Its surprising what you can find in the left over bits. So forward planning for freezer space starts in November.
 
   At the moment I have around £64 tucked away since June  from left over amounts from my normal monthly food budget which will help no end come early January 

JackieO xx

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

£250 for me - this is pretty much my usual budget.

Finally took the plunge and switched to a smart meter this week.  Of course I'm immediately obsessed with seeing what appliances cost more than others!

All prices are in pence per hour and obviously are rough based on me watching the little doohickey:

Kettle - 78pph
Grill - 73pph (I use for toast as I don't have a toaster - I'd be interested in what your toaster uses if someone can report back?)
Coffee machine - 43pph (I use more than the kettle so this is good)
LED kitchen lights - under 1pph (no noticable change)
Living room non LED bulbs - 1pph - when I replace I'll get LEDs
Microwave - 33pph
Extractor hood over hob - 2pph (I put on when the grill is on as I have very sensitive smoke alarm nearby!)

That's all I've done so far as it's only been working since last night!
I'll be interested in the oven, the air fryer, the pressure cooker, the shower, and the various tv bits.

I'm averaging between 3-7pph when I'm not doing these extra things with no lights on, and bear in mind I work from home so I'm running my laptop and all the peripherals including 2 monitors on this, so it's nice to know they aren't using very much at all.  I'm pretty sure it drops to the 3pph when the laptop goes to sleep and takes the monitors with it - so I can probably infer they use about 4pph.

I'm fascinated and also terrifed with all this, because I'm on a fixed rate that ends at the end of this month and it's going to increase by 2.7x or thereabouts. 

As I write this it's nearly 3pm and I've used £1.78 on gas and electric today already (75p is gas).  My thermostat is only on 16 and my house is freezing so I had to bump it up to 17 for an hour.  Yes I'm wearing multiple layers, thick socks ans alippers and have a blanket round me, but I live in a very cold house with all laminate floors and it's a bungalow too.  Also it's in a cul de sac in the inner part of a U shaped hill, and the sun goes across on the other side, so there's already minimal direct sunlight getting to the house and over winter there's about 2 months with none direct.  It's a genuine microclimate in my road! One year I had snow and put pics on facebook all excited and was confused when people were asking where I was... when I left for work that day there was no snow by the time I got out of the next road yet it was still at mine when I got home that night!  

Anyway, long story short, I'm now getting worried. So will be trying to get in more batch cooking etc.

Amara

Hello!
My budget for November is £360. Two adults, one bottomless child , cat and dog. 

skilly

Morning can I please join the challenge this month.my budget will be £350.

Caroby

Thanks @elsiepac for running this thread, we're on a smart meter too and are constantly checking it.
Can you put me down for

£180

ancientmum

Hello all and thank you elsiepac   Please put me down for £100 for November.

JIL

joedenise said:

@elsiepac - thank you for the thread once again but I will bow out now as I have a holiday which spans half of November and part of December.  Not sure whether I'll start again on return from my holiday in December but if not thank you so much for running these threads.

Even when I don't post I still read as there are some good ideas for different meals!

You lucky thing,😀 I agree I read along for ideas but dont set myself targets as such in monetary terms. Mine are more ensuring I use things up and minimum waste, so often pick up tips and ideas.
A thankyou from me to Elsiepac, especially bringing everything forward each month, so it's all easy to find.

EssexHebridean

Usual thanks to @elsiepac for running the challenge!
I will be back in with 

£200 for the month please - starting after the 10th! 

thriftwizard

I'm struggling to set a sensible budget. Stuff has most definitely Gone Up and is still going, earnings & pension have not. The number of household inhabitants is uncertain; in theory we get DD1 & BF back on 10th, but in practice we may not get her/them back FT until just before Christmas! His mother is going away to a friend's foreign home for a "few weeks" and they will be looking after the house, but it's 30+ miles from DD1's job so I suspect she/they will be here a fair bit too. Sigh! If I set a target of 

£450

I shall just have to see how I go. That said, I'm not planning to relax & just see what happens, I will most certainly try to stay on target, BUT there are too many unknowns next month to be more precise. That's for 5 adults; 3 here full time, 2 coming & going & needing packed lunches, and another 2-5 likely to be here for one or more Sundays/whole weekends! No birthdays this month, though - phew - but I will probably start amassing festive fare.