August 2023 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

Evening all. @goldfinches enjoy those strawberries, especially if they're the highlight of your day/week right now.

@Florenceem thanks for the recommendation for compost bags at Savers. I picked up a roll today. @joedenise I missed your earlier rec for Sainsbury's. Thanks for that but we don't have one in town. Just Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, M & S and Morrisons here. According to my SIL, Tesco blocked Sainsbury's from setting up shop in our town. The grocery drama!

@elsiepac I hear you about not having the oomph for meal planning right now. I'm under some stress and don't feel like making the effort. That's led to two takeout meals today and eating fries twice. Bleah. Time to save money, calories, and guilt by prepping food this week. 
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I've got a couple small spends to declare. £17.45 yesterday at M & S on milk, a big tray of strawberries, 3 for £8 deli deal, yoghurt, bananas, and tangerines. £1.78 at Savers today for a box of Cooks matches and the food compost bags. The matches were hidden away on a lower shelf and were only 59p compared to £1.09 at Tesco. I bought them almost as a memory aid even though I didn't need them immediately. To remind me "I last bought them at Savers", if you know what I mean. I didn't trust myself to remember they were buried down behind other items. 

£79.77 / £400.00 spent. £339.46 remaining

We're slightly over our budget for the week but I'm feeling okay about it. I submitted a roughly £105 Tesco order tonight that'll arrive on Thursday morning. Mr. Jings wanted a lot of pickled and fermented items and I was restocking items that are much cheaper at Tesco than Morrisons or that Morrisons don't have right now. Ex: toilet paper, paper towels, olive oil, Dettol laundry cleaner, etc. Those alone cost ≈ £40 of the order. None of that was actual meat like chicken, beef, pork, etc! Totally nuts how prices have increased.

joedenise

@JingsMyBucket - it's nothing unusual for Tesco to block other stores opening in the area.  Where I live they tried to block an Aldi but that got built anyway and has since been extended!  Aldi wanted to build a new one but further away from Tesco and they blocked that one.  Lidl are now wanting to build a store near where Aldi wanted their new store and Tesco again tried to block it.  The last I heard the local Council have now given Lidl the go ahead to build a store.  Looking forward to that as I have to travel in the opposite direction when I want to go to Lidl and it's a right pain so I try to only go that way when I want Sainsbury as well as that's where that is!

Picked up a TGTG back from Morrisons last night (cost didn't come from grocery challenge as DH has some money in his PayPal account so we used that).  Not a bad bag as quite a lot of fruit plus a small bag of new potatoes, a single carrot, a single red onion and a bunch of the biggest red spring onions I've ever seen!  So big there's only 3 in the bunch!  DH also got to have some chocolate muffins and a pack of doughnuts (I don't eat sweet stuff like that!).

goldfinches

@JingsMyBucket - thanks for the boost and yes I agree that prices are eyewatering nowadays and I've found my inner sense of what things cost hasn't adjusted yet so I'm always horrified by the total at the till.
@elsiepac - sorry to hear your get up and go has got up and gone away. I think you're quite right to keep clinging on until it decides to rejoin you so wishing you good luck with that from here.
@Auti - that sounds very difficult to co-ordinate and I agree about pack sizes which never seem to be sold to be convenient for customers! My parents always used to complain that nothing was sold in six packs when I was growing up so clearly things haven't changed since the 70s.
@peony40 - welcome to this very friendly thread and good luck with your budgeting.

I have been shopping for bakery ingredients as one of the members of my walking group can't now eat very sweet snacks so having had a browse round Diabetes UK recipes I needed a few bits. I spent £7.60 on mixed peel, glace cherries, stevia tablets and an apple which makes my new Baking Budget total £13.00/£25. Once I've made the recipe I've chosen I'll report back probably later on this morning, meanwhile best wishes to all, goldfinches.

SausageDogSandwich

Did a small shop for milk and cucumber the other day plus the big shop finally yesterday as could put it off no longer. Husband is back at work now so hoping for no more grocery shopping until his day off next week. Total so far £123.45/450

lilly81

Poop has really hit the fan this month!
I've ended up using the food bank 😳
Good news is I've picked up a regular OLIO collect for Thursdays and this weekend I have collections for the community fridge.
I told a friend how bad things are and that I have used the food bank, the next day she invited us to soft play 🤦
No money means no money 🤷🏼‍♀️

JingsMyBucket

@goldfinches I’m going to bake this Orange Almond Cardamom Loaf Cake for a brunch this weekend: https://kumquatblog.com/grain-free-orange-almond-cardamom-loaf-cake/

I’ll be skipping the glaze because I don’t like glazed but if you did the same the sugar content would greatly reduce by about 75%. 

JingsMyBucket

@lilly81 I’m so sorry you’re experiencing hardship right now. Fingers crossed you can get access to other benefits like UC. Also try locals churches as well? Seems like M & S, Tesco and other stores in my town donate the excess food to a couple community centers or churches who then distribute food every night to people. No referrals needed. 

Soontobeoap

@lilly81. Its really hard when life gets tough. We struggled through in the 80's.i remember going into work and asking for recipes to make with sausage meat and minced meat which were the cheapest meats around then. I batch cooked and did the best I could with a tiny freezer whilst my DH worked days and I worked nights. He also had a job in a bar at the weekends. We hardly saw each other. What I am trying to say is times do get better. Just hang in there 

peony40

Small spend of £2.31 for some milk from the milkman.  New balance of £79.99 to last two weeks.

goldfinches

@lilly81 - sorry to hear you're having such a difficult time and that your friend is oblivious. The Boost Your Income Board might be helpful right now, kudos to you for keeping on going. Best wishes, goldfinches.

I said I'd report back on the Diabetes UK recipe I'd chosen once my walking group had tasted the results, I'm sorry to say that there was a universal thumbs down for spiced apple polenta bites which was rather discouraging. They just weren't nice enough for anyone to want to eat more than one so I'll keep looking for better alternatives.

@JingsMyBucket - thankyou for the link to that very interesting website which I shall be browsing later on this evening.