September 2023 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

@Soontobeoap - so very glad to hear your good news, what a relief it must be for you both.

@Florenceem - I'm so sorry to hear of your worries and have everything crossed for you to get good news soon.

Yesterday I was remarkably and very laudably restrained in a shop that specialises in whole foods etc. and only spent £4.09 on some organic stock cubes as well as spending £2.79 from the Baking Budget on condensed coconut milk. Pride goes before a fall! Today I seem to have gone completely bonkers in Sains and spent a massive £48.57 on 2x caramel peanuts, olive oil, yoghurt, baked beans, 2x tinned tomatoes, half a dozen eggs, a gas cylinder for my sodastream, walnuts, grana padano, 4 x aubergines, garlic, physalis, parsley, olives and basil. Admittedly the gas cylinder and the olive oil together came to £23.75 but I'm still horrified at how much I managed to spend despite sticking to my list and buying grana padano rather than parmesan and a smaller amount of walnuts and olives and so on. The checkout assistant gaily printed off a money off voucher for my next shop but I really don't find that much consolation.

Anyway I've now completely bust my budget for this month as my new total is £139.58/£120 and my average daily spend is a horrifying £9.30.
The Baking Budget new spend is £12.89/£20.

selloptape

Oh Soontobeoap that's great news. I hope Mr Florenceem's test results come back with a good result too 🤞

Today was a NSD but mainly due to being too tired to face shopping after a long week at work so just ended up grazing on any beige food I could find - snacks, cereal and oven chips. Definitely need to meal plan easier meals for the end of the week to try and stave off the snacking.

Halfway through the month and am at £210.02/£440 so spends have sneaked up a little since last week but still hopping to come in on budget. If I do I'm going to reward myself by reducing the budget for October by £10 - which strangely feels motivating

Hope all have lovely weekends x

weenancyinAmerica

@Soontobeoap - Wonderful news for your family.
@Florenceem - Hugs and prayers you have the same good news.

Soontobeoap

@florenceem, No MrS, is not anemic. Blood was found in a test after him experiencing unusual bowel habit. I hope Mr F has good news soon.

£20.89 spent at Aldi today. On basic needs. Apart from a pack of ham I have not bought any meat! I empathise with those who are struggling with their budgets this month. I am convinced prices are still rising. Also this month is sooo long! Dh needed cake to take to bowls final weekend so I rummaged in baking cupboard and came up with a fruit cake. No extra spends needed for that one! Phew!

It is looking more and more like I will bust my budget. 😕

joedenise

A top up shop for mainly fruit and veg.  Bought some chillies, peppers and red onions to go with loads of the tomatoes from the garden to make a couple of bags of tomato and chilli sauce which will get frozen for later use.  Total spend of about £14 today taking total for month to £52.48, leaving £209.09 for rest of the month.  It's certainly helping using up some of the freezer contents this month and also making room for the bags of tomato sauces which I'm making!

I've only got 3 plants - a beef, a salad and a cherry and they are all still producing a lot of fruits!  I've given loads away to the neighbours and made several bags of passatta to freeze and going to use another 500g to make the chilli and tomato sauce to freeze.  This won't really make much inroad into the tomato mountain!  We seem to be having tomatoes for nearly every meal at the moment!

Edit:  The recipe was actually for 450g of tomatoes but I doubled up to 900g so quite a lot of tomatoes now been used to make the tomato and chilli sauce.  It says to add stock to it but I actually don't think it needs it so just going to freeze in batches as is.  Can always add some stock when I using it if necessary.  Not much point in freezing a watery sauce only to need to boil it off when I come to actually use it!  It definitely has a bit of a chilli kick to it!

Florenceem

Soontobeoap - because Mr F had a blood test that showed low red blood cell count - he had to do a stool test.
Did they find a cause for the blood found?
That is a long time to be worried.
Dr said that they will investigate bottom area first - I expect a Colonoscopy and then if nothing found go on to an Endoscopy.
Mr F has no stomach discomfort to indicate a stomach ulcer.

thriftwizard

£83.57 added IRO this weekend's combined butcher, supermarket & market spends. Just over £90 left for next weekend & any top-up shops needed - tight but essentially do-able, especially as it's just emerged that DS3 will be off again next weekend, meaning we can go veg-heavy for that last week & eat up some of the fish in the freezer!

There are still plenty of beans & courgettes coming in from the allotment, and I've just made a batch of raspberry jam from my "feral" raspberries, which are threatening to take over my entire plot, plus some left-over crab apple extract for pectin. Kale & leeks are also producing well & looking as if they'll go on through the winter, but I've had to harvest most of my few tiny squashes as the parent plants have just - curled up & died. There are still tomatoes in the garden & greenhouse, and some tomatillos ripening up, as well as apples & kiwis. Ds2, DDiL & DGS just popped in on half-an-hour's notice, & we were able to surprise them with a splendid chocolate cake whipped up by DD2 from things in the cupboard & finished with whipped cream & ganache by DD, and send them off with a jar of raspberry jam & a big bag of green beans from the allotment. I know various well-meaning people think my way of shopping & storing stuff is daft & takes up far too much time & space, but to be able to turn out a cake like that at the drop of a hat, without having to rush to the supermarket, is worth suffering the odd pointed remark...

Thevalueofless

Mid month update, total so far £143.46

Ticking along okay I think as halfway through the month and just under halfway through budget. However, I am aware I haven't added much to the stores shelves of late so will need to make sure I drop a few bits into the trolley each time shopping as £25 of monthly budget intended for that to give us a no/very low spend month at the end of the year. Freezers getting very full, mainly with green beans and I have been water bath canning tomatoes to store shelf stable (because the freezers are full of afore mentioned beans) and still harvesting lots of other seasonal crops. Am feeling very fortunate to have the allotment as without it I would never be able to keep to the budget that I have for food. 

Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

TVOL

PipneyJane

Soontobeoap said:

Today has been a great relief. Since May DH has been having treatment, biopsys and ops to discover if he has cancer of the colon. Today we have discovered that there is nothing sinister. I would like to thank @elsiepac for this thread which has kept me going. You have all kept me interested in something that I had some control over whilst all around me was falling apart.

Another £6.55 spent in Aldi today on icecream, peas, shampoo and conditioner. 

Good news!  I am so pleased for you both.  You must be very relieved.

- Pip

thriftwizard

@Soontobeoap, adding my relief for you, and @Florenceem, hoping Mr. F's result is equally positive.

Wanting to add, though, for anyone who reads this who may not have had the best result in this scenario, I'm living proof (so far!) that there's an awful lot they can do nowadays...