November 2022 Grocery Challenge

Kerreh

I feel like everything else in my budget is ticking along reasonably well and this is the only place I can trim. I have the best of intentions each month, get to the last 1/3rd and run out of money so stick it on the credit card to pay back from the following month's budget... and so on so forth each month. Will work on reducing the amount in coming months.

So (including diesel for the car as I don't separate the two)

£200 for the month please

SausageDogSandwich

Went shopping to aldi1 yesterday, milk, onion rings, crisps, cucumber, squash and paracetamol £11.86 spent already. This morning I made a vow to myself - no more shopping until Thursday at the earliest, if we dont have something we will do without it. Then my phone rings and grandad wants to go shopping 😅 I managed to stick to my plan and didn’t spent any money at all! 

I’ve also switched the (shared) small freezer off to defrost this morning and packed everything into the big freezer, I have been slowly emptying it but then on Thursday I usually get quite a good haul from olio and fill it back up again, so have decided im not collecting anything from there until Thursday this week however tempting. And unless it’s something to be eaten on that night or next day i won’t collect convenience foods and freeze them else I’ll never have space for Xmas food in there. 

£11.86/150 spent.

Blackcats

Preparing to start November and I'm full of optimism although I know it will require effort and planning to keep within budget.
we were so fortunate on olio - beef steaks, jumbo prawns, chicken fillets, sea bass and chipolatas as well as 2 lovely seeded loaves.  I wonder if luxury items like these are not selling so well anymore.  We've had a couple of "finest" ready meals from olio recently which seemed pricey before they were yellow stickered and still didn't sell.  Spaghetti bol for £5.75 for a single serving is expensive. 

So meal plan for this week is merely a re-arrangement of the above items and existing fridge, freezer and cupboard items.
We have lots of apples from the garden which are great with porridge or overnight oats for breakfast.   We have eggs, tins of beans, tuna and 2 tubs of frozen soup so lunches are sorted too.
I'm going to budget £10 for this week to cover milk, bananas and other eventualities (chocolate type eventualities 😀)

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 November budget is going to be £240.
The month goes 1st to the 30th

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. Yes I have lowered the budget total quite a bit. However after looking at items that need using up and making a meal plan for the month which I hope to stick to it should be more than possible. 

£0/£240.
£240 left.

atrixa

Blackcats said:

 I wonder if luxury items like these are not selling so well anymore.  We've had a couple of "finest" ready meals from olio recently which seemed pricey before they were yellow stickered and still didn't sell.  Spaghetti bol for £5.75 for a single serving is expensive. 

I've just been trying to work out what could possibly be in a spag bol which could justify £5.75 per portion. Was the packaging gold plated?  No wonder it didn't sell!

I'm up to £90.21/£140 after a shop in Mr M first thing this morning. Managed to get two YS loaves and some veg for a reasonable price. I picked up some frozen spring rolls to have as a starter for tea tomorrow. Nearly fainted when I checked the receipt and realised they were £2.99 a box! Won't be buying those again.

JingsMyBucket

Hi @elsiepac thank you for managing the thread. 

We're a couple in SW Scotland with no kids or pets. This month we'll have to restock on laundry items and I'm planning to cook a bit for our upstairs neighbours who are expecting twins in November. I'd like to fill their freezer a bit with some lasagna, hand pies and a few other things to help with their first couple weeks of being newborn bound. I also might cook an American Thanksgiving dinner again too... 
Could you please put us down for: 

£300 + £50 for bulk buying/stocking up/Thanksgiving = £350 for Nov 1 – 30

We're planning to have Christmas dinner with the cousins in town and we might do some food ordering later in the month so that's another reason to pad the budget this month. Good luck everyone! 

Elisheba

Did my big monthly shop this evening. £38.76 in Lidl, and £20.84 in Aldi. So that's £59.60/£100 altogether and leaves me £40.40 in my budget for the rest of the month. I hopefully won't need very much other than some fruit and veg, so fingers crossed for coming in under budget 

cinnamon123

Thank you @elsiepac for the new thread.

My budget for November is $525 (food only) and no stock-up budget for the month.

Might get tight but we'll do our best!

LadyWithAPlan

 Nov Grocery £140 + £30 bulk

Tx @elsiepac for running this again
I have come in under the last 2 months but entertainment and treats budget was blown. I have dropped by  £5 
NSD goal 17 
Freezer fairly full but I am bored with my food so need to find some new healthy frugal recipes...

I have finally given my energy monitor to my parents as they have 1 fridge, 1 huge American fridge/freezer and 2 other freezers..  (1 freezer so far is 1.33p/hour) 
I have worked out my kettle is 4.6p to boil a full one -so I am then topping up a flask of hot water as otherwise I put the kettle on 15 times a day .. I like to drink good coffee, earl grey and also hot water. 
I worked out my main fridge freezer is costing £10 /month, my second one is off.

hazeldreams

Hi @elsiepac! Thanks for running this thread!

We have to knuckle down this month as the CC has to go before the end of the year! Please can you put us down for;

£580 for 1st-30th November (2 adults, 2 teens) for food, alcohol, toiletries, household products (everything basically!)