December 2022 Grocery Challenge

WilliammLesly

And I try to make a list of products and food and spend on paper for more control over the budget)))

Paspatur

FreedomBringsPeace said:

Hi can i ask what budgets singles have and how they keep budget down. Any advice would be useful ty

Hi, I think this is very much down to what you eat and who else you feed and if you have special diet requirements
@LadyWithAPlan has said £145 plus bulk fund £30 per month
I don't have a monthly budget because luckily I don't have to and I bulk buy fish and butcher meat and ys items and supplies for grandchildren and they may be not at all or all 4 in one month
My average Jan to Nov is £115 per month, this is buying farm eggs (£7.50 for 40) not long since they were £6, fresh fish which I freeze and butcher meat which I freeze and things I don't eat but the grandkids do
I am not GF or DF or anything else (except real block butter not spread) so I guess that saves me money
I am also not a big eater and never eat puddings or sweet things or drink fizzy pop which I see some people spend a lot of money on
I can afford to eat what I want but seems my small appetite, no interest in puddings and the fact I can make fishcakes/fish pies etc. with the cut off ends of my bulk fish delivery and cheap potatoes helps
I also love home made soup which is still relatively cheap
Look at what you eat and how much it costs and maybe make changes if some items are high percentage
I don't buy takeaways through choice and eating out is infrequent and from another budget as is alcohol

FreedomBringsPeace

@LadyWithAPlan wow! Thank you so much for your very comprehensive response! At the moment i have £200 budget but feel this is too high on weeks where i dont need household items.

Im allergic to fish, some egg products, coffee, not a big meater eater, i also have an extreme aversion to peas and beans.

I think shopping weekly is better for me and will lead to more targetted purchases and less wasteage. 

@WilliammLesly i think sticking to a list is something i need to work on.

My favourite meal at the moment is one pot mince and tatties. I also have the mince with pasta mash crackers.

So much to ponder! Thank you x

FreedomBringsPeace

@Paspatur my weakness is soda. But im vutting it down alot and have switched to mainly Vimto no added sugar squash.

Oh how i wish Aldi/Lidl would start deliveries. I rely on deliveries so i prefer tesco. Clubcard deals allure me lol

herebeme

FreedomBringsPeace said:

Hi can i ask what budgets singles have and how they keep budget down. Any advice would be useful ty

I have £150 a month for me. That’s food and household stuff bought in a supermarket, corner store or street market. I also shop in central-ish London. I shop once every two weeks with a car. I go into the corner store for topups (this is where I leak money and buy lazy options, so I am trying to cut this down). My budget does not include my huge Nespresso habit. 

Household
= laundry detergent/softener, dishwasher tabs/dishwasher salt, cleaning products, hand soap, washing-up liquid, foil, kitchen towel, etc. But excludes toilet roll which is on subscription. I buy what’s on offer rather than being brand loyal, but I don’t make false economies (i.e. imho economy washing-up liquid is a waste of money as you need so much and it doesn’t work on baked on food). 

Food
I mostly eat vegetarian, it’s cheaper and veg usually has a longer life. 

I meal plan, roughly. I have staple bulk/batch meals that I rotate through, and I then eat the same thing for days in a row - if I had a bigger freezer I could avoid this by freezing portions and then mix it up more easily. I have some quick fixes like pollock fishfingers for when I want a change/comfort food. I’ll also reverse meal plan if I have leftover veg that needs using up. 

I make a shopping list when I go to the supermarket and I try not to deviate. But if there is an amazing special offer I will absolutely change my plans there and then. Certain fruits and veg are cheaper/better to get frozen especially if you only use a little but often. 

I use the hand-held scanner thing at S’bury’s as it lets me see my total as I go along. 

I love reading recipes, but I don’t tend to stick to them, more using them as inspiration. But I think learning principles like how to make a curry base, basic proportions for soup, or how to thicken fillings for a pie are useful to know. 

Flavour is important. I have a lot of different spices and condiments, so even if the veg base of the meal is the same from one week to another I can make it taste very different quite easily. Coconut milk is also a useful store-cupboard staple. 

Some basic equipment that makes batch cooking easier: big deep tray/cooking dish for the oven, hand-held blender for soup, magi-mix type thing for chopping veg, big saucepans, Tupperware.

Breakfast.
Oats with frozen berries. Oats are very cheap, buy supermarket own brand in big sizes. Frozen fruit is way cheaper and lasts ages. I prep overnight so the fruit has time to defrost. I might do avocado on toast or eggs on toast as a weekend treat.

Lunches/Dinners
- Quorn chilli. I pad it out with lentils, canned tomatoes, and finely minced veg (ie carrot/celery/courgette). I do use ready prepped spice mixes (I try to get these when on offer; yes you can make your own mix, but the prepared ones do taste better imo, though I am making way more volume than they ‘recommend’ but I find it still tastes fine.) 
- Veggie curry with potatoes. Just cook minced onion, garlic, ginger and spices and then add whatever veg, diced potato and chopped toms, top up with water/stock and cook till done. It’s an easy way to use up tired veg, and if I have cooked lentils or beans I haven’t used somewhere else, those can go in too.
- Lentil shepard’s pie. I used to cook lentils from dried, But I use tins now as the cost of cooking them is just too much, and with a tin of green lentils padded out with minced carrot/celery/onion/leek plus a can of chopped tomatoes I can get enough filling to make 6+ portions. I like to top pies with mashed potatoes, it’s easier and more filling than pastry. 
- Soups. Leek & potato, tomato-ginger-coconut, mushroom, butternut squash. I make my own stock and freeze it in portions sized for making soup. I often take ideas from the stuff you can buy in store. 
- Fake risotto. A meal from student days that I still like as a quick fix. I use those microwave bags of rice, and mix in pesto and crème fraiche and some peas or sautéed veg. Canned tuna too sometimes. Bit of Parmesan over the top. 
- Lentil Dhal. Love it, super simple and cheap.
- Veggie burgers/fish cakes I tend to leave for weekends as more time consuming. I tend to go to local fishmonger and get their packs of off-cuts for fish pie, but these work fine for fish cakes too. 
- Summer time lots of salad and stuffed tomatoes/stuffed peppers, but I want more stodgy in winter.

Sweet stuff
I mostly have yoghurt with bananas. I buy whatever yoghurt is on offer, but I don’t buy the over processed stuff. 
I stew fruit too, mostly apples, sometimes plums - this sort of thing freezes well. Crumble with oaty topping as you can basically toss almost any fruit together and it will be ok. I like baking, I mostly make quick breads like banana bread, tea loaf, courgette loaf - once you understand the principles you can basically make stuff up. 
I tend to blow my budget by buying ice-cream, or chocolate, mmm, I love it, especially the really expensive stuff - sigh. I try to not walk down those aisles. 

Drinks
I don’t really drink much alcohol, that helps budget a lot; I ask for gin etc for Xmas/B-days and I get own-label mixers. Other than that I drink water or coffee. 

SausageDogSandwich

Morning all, didn’t think we had spent anything this week but just done the banking and husband spent a few times at work, £2.38 in total. I’ve not been anywhere because of the frost/ice apart from school run. I do have a Tesco delivery coming tomorrow again, mostly do to get a bottle of jd and baileys while on offer  will add that when I know how much exactly it is. 

£79.96/350 spent

Soontobeoap

@PipneyJane can I just thank you one more time for the sainsburys nectar app tip. I have done a few bits of christmas shopping with nectar partners to buy gifts we were intending to buy anyway. Then yesterday we popped into sainsburys for petrol and £60 worth of shopping. Our points targets have  unbelievably been met. With the bonus points we now have £16.05 to spend on grocerys. One happy bunny here. I would never have thought of shopping this way. Just looking around for where I got things from whilst looking for best prices on my gifts has made me extra money that will all be taken forward to february next year. Super pleased. I have also ammassed £37.00 in tesco vouchers as I only went down to one online shop a month with them in september.

Yesterday we bought ourselves a few little treats whilst in sainsburys. A bottle of coke, cream soda, nuts, biscuits. We really enjoyed it. I think being frugal with our shopping this year has helped is enjoy simple treats more when we do buy them.
Happy christmas all. ❤️

goldfinches

Waving hello to all and a friendly welcome to all the new posters on this thread.

I'm about to hobble very slowly up to the shops for my first spend of this month with a very short list as I shan't be able to carry much back so that will be a good reason not to part with many pennies.

I have been enjoying reading all the posts and keeping up to date on this thread, even though I haven't felt well enough to be out and about myself which has meant I've eaten some rather odd combinations of food from stores and freezer. On the other hand I'm pleased that I've managed to keep myself going without needing to organise and pay for a delivery or whatever so that's made me feel good to get this far with a full budget. 

Today's shopping list

milk
fresh veg
cheese
yoghurt
fruit

I made a loaf of bread yesterday from this recipe Easy No-Knead Golden Linseed Bread Recipe (bakerybits.co.uk) and as I still have a few onions left in the bottom of the fridge I'm planning to choose whichever fresh veg look nicest and make a soup in the slow cooker. I'll have bread and cheese for lunch with a bit of fruit. The soup should make 6 portions and I'll make some cous cous to pour it over or add some rice noodles to it or even make some dumplings to float on the top.

I'll report back later and hope I shan't have to admit to an orgy of spending when faced with the tempting shelves!

thriftwizard

@goldfinches, hoping you will feel better soon!

Dashing to to record an epic £115.17 spent today, between the butchers, bakers, market & supermarket; we have DS1 & fiancée plus DD1's Bf all weekend, so feeding 7 adults and it's kind of a festive feast, as they're not with us at Christmas, so I felt some unusual expenditure was called for. A huge vat of chicken & lentil soup has already been made, mince pies & butter tarts will go into the oven shortly (along with a big Crown Prince squash to roast for the DD's veggie lasagne later) and our lasagne will follow on; the Welsh contingent won't get to us until 10pm, as they're leaving straight after she finishes work, and DD1's Bf will stagger in from London at about 11.30, so our meal tonight needs to be something that can just sit in the cooling oven & be re-heated as & when. Tomorrow night's tea will be butcher's sausages & rosti, and Sunday's roast is a big leg of lamb - more like an arm & a leg, OH says! Hoping for enough leftovers to see us through until next weekend's shop - lamb tagine, sausage casserole, etc...

Gettingmyshiztogether

Back again! I nipped into our local shop today to grab a chocolate bar and discovered them finishing up their reduced to clear section. 

I spent £8.85. For that I got three chicken breasts (£2) a 500g of 5% fat beef Mince (£2) x2 3 Peppers (44p each) a bag of parsnips (30p) a tub of blueberries (60p) two mangoes (70p) a 500g tub of natural Yoghurt (25p) and a sandwich (75p). I have cooked the chicken breasts for sandwiches for DD1 next week (I ve Frozen it into portions) and dog treats for training. I ve browned the Mince with garlic, onions and carrots ready for putting into bolognese, lasagne, and chilli tomorrow. Peppers and Parsnips have been chopped and put into the freezer. Quite pleased with my finds! 

Weekly shop tomorrow for us, but will need much less now! 

£114.04/ £460
= £345.96 left to spend.