December 2022 Grocery Challenge

ps86edi

We went to see Santa and his reindeers yesterday with the little one. I like this one better than the one we went to last year. She got a box of chocolates instead of plastic toys, which were barely played with. It was our first time seeing a reindeer and a princess carriage merry-go-round, a super big lollypop, and a box of chips later we went shopping. it was not the Sainsbury's we'd usually go to, but it was good and fairly quick for smart shop and self-checkout.
We spent- £24.44 here and then the husband took a solo trip to get some bulk items. That came to - £19.54.

Of these bulk spend was- £28.71/£100 and December spend until now comes to- £17.77/£100.

While this might look relatively small, we have two big meal kit boxes coming this month, all with at least 50% discount. They might not be the most frugal way to eat, but they keep us in fresh food and meat (which I, being a vegetarian, cannot judge for its quality). We'll get the first box next Saturday and the next one on the 22nd, which will happily tide us over until the next month (or so I hope).

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here!

Gettingmyshiztogether

Another £10.44 spent 🙈

DD told me today that she has q practical food tech lesson tomorrow so I needed to nip out for ingredients 🙄 whislt there i grabbed some Wraps, mushrooms and fajita mix for tea, and then some orange hot chocolate for Christmas treats (was reduced to £1.60!)

Cross my total has gone up so much already 🤣

£95.66/£460 

Now to rein things back in! 

Soontobeoap

Just taken a trip down memory lane! back in the 80's when our children were just starting school times were really tough for us. We had fixed our mortgage rate at 12 and a half % because interest rates were shooting up and we couldnt afford to pay more. We were both working 2 jobs  and managing our own childcare. Forgive my ramblings. This does have relevance to grocery challenge.

Today I set about making as many meals as I could with some minced beef and other basic ingredients! Mince and sausages were the cheapest meat available on 1986 and I would go into work begging for recipe ideas to make our money go further.. Anyway i thought it might help someone if I shared my ideas today so here goes. 

Shopping list :-
3 onions.                              36p
3 carrots.                              21p
2 pks tesco pastry.         £1.30
1 small baking potato.        15P
2 X750g  beef mince.     £8.58
Half pk lacto free 
Cathedral city cheese     £1.08
I small swede.                       34p
1 tin tesco beans.                 45p
3 rashers bacon.              £1.00

Total.                                £13.47

I also used gravy left over from todays lunch, flour for rolling out, some bottled tomatoe sauce, a bit of marmite, a few peas, a few left over baked beans, some frozen tomatoe sauce that I  made with our own tomatoes from freezer 3 tspns gravy granules, a mix pf random potatoes from stores and some seasoning. 

For 2 people made :-

 3 x shepherds pies
1x savoury mince to have with rice
   
Imdividual portions made :-

6 x beef/bacon, cheeseburger puff (really hope we like this, new recipe)
1x mince and bean baked potato filling
6 x puff pastry pastys
And i have enough filling to make 6 more. I will make my own short crust pastry with store cupboard ingredients tomorrow for those..

I make that 27 meals for just over £14.00 if i add a bit on for margarine and lard in pastry tomorrow and i will be sneaking some veggies into DH without him knowing.

Made lasagna last week or that would have been on the menu too.

I am very pleased with my batch cook afternoon and would love to hear some of your ideas too. 😊

MissRikkiC

I love these type of posts @Soontobeoap
I remember a really good butter bean stew that I had listed at the front some years ago (about 9!) and it those that remind me how fortunate I am to know how/have learnt/have been taught to cook! 

We’ve had a few more spends, halls sweets and paracetamol for my DH with man flu and some festive treats to make him feel better. Plus a few bits from YS, a chicken escalope (double portion) for 94p and a 10oz steak for £1.56. 

Other than that I haven’t been to the shops however have been making sure I set reminders for TGTG bags (I got 1 which will do us for spuds until way into January) and also our local olio collection times this weekend. We have had 2 big hauls from Olio as well so was well worth it. Will need a good food prep day Tuesday when my eldest is in nursery to ensure we get it all in the freezer etc but my plan of getting as much in as I can now (spending the least) to hopefully help us throughout January seems to be working well. 

I think I’ll need milk by Tuesday though! 

Palmtreesandcustardcreams

Popped into Morrisons earlier as I was intrigued about their cheap cuts of meat.  I’ve bought some beef shin and also some beef bones.  I’m thinking either a beef and ale stew or goulash.  Any tips for cooking these?!! 

£15.97 spent today 

£24.12 / £350 spent in total

£325.88 left 

VickyV

Hi all! 
Been very much absent for a long time (mainly due to a new “spendthrift” fella being a very bad influence - I’m sorting him (and me) out gradually! 🤣) but really want to get back on top of my life/finances. Would love to join the December grocery challenge please! As it’s Christmas, and I have some meat in the freezer already, I’m going to allow myself…

£400 for December.

Have already had a couple of spends in my two favourite German Discount supermarkets of:

£72.40/£400

But hopefully don’t need anything much for the rest of the week! 

Thanks,

VickyV x

herebeme

Sigh.  Went past Budgens after work and bought ice-cream. £3.50 gone up in cream and chocolate loveliness….I could make 6 lunches for that with a traybake. I could easily have blown £15+ despite having a fridge full of food, only knowing I was gonna be writing in this thread reigned me in. Starting to see the unplanned buying of stuff I hadn’t really noticed before. Sigh. 

Total now £62.07/£150

mumtoomany

Went into Aldi while in town for the dentist. Claimed money back in Aldi, and bought bacon, tomatoes and onions. Spent minus £2.53. Total for the year now stands at £2643.05.
Hugs, mumtoomany.xx

thriftwizard

Sigh - an unanticipated trip to the supermarket, as we'd just about run out of instant coffee, so £31.89 spent, taking my total to £206.63. I "did" the weekly dairy shop whilst there, bought 4 refill packs of S/O coffee (not quite the cheapest, but nearly) plus some of the fresh stuff (onions, mushrooms, beansprouts, a green pepper, plums & grapes) that I seem to need to keep my (damaged) digestion ticking over nicely. They'd have been cheaper down at L!dls but it would have cost me about £5 to get there & back! Plus a few things that OH "needs" for his monthly trip into the office tomorrow, and that's £30+ gone. Couldn't help noticing that the beansprouts, which were 55p just a few weeks ago, are now 75p, having hovered at 65p for a little while. Must get my jam-jar & seeds out...