December 2022 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

@thriftwizard - thankyou for your good wishes and sending you best wishes for your festive weekend.

It all took much longer than I thought to get to the library, poke my nose into my favourite charity shop and then trudge round M*rks food hall this afternoon but there was a lovely surprise at the till. I was given a free bottle of sugar plum fairy gin for having clicked on the Sparks advent calendar! I did happen to notice that there were rather a lot of gin bottles at that checkout, and all the others too, so am slightly suspicious that M*rks are dishing them out to all and sundry. So if you've got the Sparks app do click on the advent calendar every day, you never know.

Anyway, gin notwithstanding this is what I bought.

4 x organic s/s milk                     £2.25
1kg f/f greek style yoghurt          £2.10
750g cheddar cheese                 £5
sweetheart cabbage                   80p
swede                                         90p
500g parsnips                             60p
iceberg lettuce                            60p
500g carrots                               40p  (the only item that hasn't gone up this year)
2 leeks                                        £1.20
pineapple                                    £1.00
3 x coxes apples                         85p
6 x salad tomatoes                      85p
5 bananas                                   70p
300g mushrooms                        90p

That makes my first monthly total £18.15/£133 which is an average daily spend of £2.01 which isn't bad going.

My rough menu plan is slightly amended now but is fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, sandwich, salad and fruit for lunch and either lentil and vegetable stew or leek cheese for dinner. That should take me to at least next Monday before I need think about doing any other shopping thankfully as it's freezing cold here. Hope you're all keeping warm and well and not spending any money on top-up shops, night all.

AnotherNewDay

VickyV said:

Weekly shop done this morning. Probably bought more treat type things than was strictly necessary but got plenty of fruit and veg, a few tins and loads of cat food - which has almost doubled in price over the last few months (from 39p to 69p per tin! 😱) so at:

£151.96/£400

Hoping to have a cheap week in the run up to Christmas and then a week of living in soups and leftovers between Christmas and New Year! 🤞🏻

Vicky V x

Don't get me started on the increase in price of cat food.....plus for most of this year there's been no guarantee that even very common types of cat food would be available at any given time 

gill5blue

Hi all,
spent £127.71 /£300 
2 weekly shops done, nicely near target, and loads in my larder and freezer.
Gill5blue

jacko220

Need to control my milk buying has not changed since my wife died seven years ago. 7 pints of milk a week and a dozen eggs, milk delivered by brilliant local delivery service, I probably consume about 3-4 pints per week and the dozen eggs.

Have been going through a rough spell in the last couple of months. The milk bill is £66.80 every 6 weeks, in the drive for efficiency perhaps I will cut the milk down to 4 pints a week.

I suppose that I am lucky and have a decent pension and do not have to watch every penny, but tipping milk down the sink makes me annoyed.

otb666

255/600 Happy with that as half way through my month and bought xmas foods. Feel like i am extravagant too @jacko220 as heating on 24/7 at 19 or 20 degrees but I am not going back to how it was when i was growing up I have always worked and now retired I am worth it

Gettingmyshiztogether

Hello all,

Hope everyone is staying warm.

Weekly shop done. £89.27 paid, but then I received a £2.40 refund as the milk I buy was advertised on the shelf label at 10p cheaper. Last week I was charged wrong and so mentioned it this week once it went through incorrectly again and they refunded me for both weeks! 

So a total of £200.91 spent so far this month.

Budget £460. This is for two adults and two teens, who eat as much as the adults! If not more! 🤣

Remaining £259.09 available to spend (but less in I can help it! 🤞👍🤣)

mumtoomany

Two bottles of milk, £3.30. DD1 picked them up, they had gone to town in the 4x4. It's snowy here. I hope we won't need to venture out until it thaws. 

Total for the year to date £2646.35/£2640. Less than three weeks to go.

Hugs, mumtoomany.xx

SausageDogSandwich

We had a Tesco delivery on Saturday, didn’t need a lot but wanted a bottle of jd whilst on offer, unbelievably they charged me for it but it was “missing” From my order. I’ve had a refund for it but can’t get to Tesco to buy a bottle, oh well  So the rest of my shopping that I didn’t need, included a bottle of baileys and 6 different pieces of cheese- as always want to do a diy cheeseboard but always to full Xmas and Boxing Day so said we would have some through December instead, a few smallstocking gifts and some Pepsi max then other stuff we could make meals with. Came to £75.32   

Shouldn’t need anything else this week, need to sort my freezer out to see if I can fit abit more party food in 
£155.28/350

ancientmum

Stocked up at the butchers on Saturday, and also got a chicken with my filled up loyalty card.   That came to just over £40, and with other bits and pieces I've spent £49.57 since the beginning of the month.

goldfinches

One of my washing up gloves suddenly gave way yesterday morning so I bought what purports to be an extra strong pair of Marigold's from Mr T's for £2.90 in the afternoon only to notice the same ones on offer at R*b*rt Dy*s today for £1.84. The upshot of all that is that I bought 4 pairs to put into the cupboard in the hope that they will last out the next year as well as the new washing up brush I went in for spending £10.85.
That makes my new monthly total £31.90/£133 and my average daily spend this month is now £2.65.