October 2023 Grocery Challenge

mumtoomany

OH was asking for mince pies. Aldi only have the iced ones, £1.39 for six!!! So I only bought one pack. I did but mixed fruit, lemon juice, and suet, ( from tesco). Will be making some mincemeat, Then some pies. Also picked up milk, bacon and squash. Total spent, £12.67. Total to date now,  £1566.86/£1860. £303.14 left for the rest of 2023. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

LadyWithAPlan

£159/£200  grocery    + £17.50/74.51 bulk
I had an abroad work trip last week - I get some money towards food there - but instead of cafes etc  I went to the local Lidl (In Europe) to stock up my apartment fridge - easier I am GF-  but not counting it as it was paid for by my work - so I am under.
Its useful to keep track of this spending - I have in my head I have hardly spent anything cos of travel  but I have actually spent still £159 excluding my European lidl  37 euros shop. I did bring home some amazing dijon mayo they do - I always buy it when I am there but first time I bought any home with me.

I am also away at family this week for a few days but I did do a catch up shop Sat at MR L  before leaving so I have eggs, some chops, frozen veg and fruit in the fridge/freezer  for my return  plus loads of passata, brown rice etc.  I am travelling so much at present and an empty fridge when I get home from a long trip is annoying. I only just did a defrost and it took me months as I had so much stuff in there including items without labels .... guess the food stuff. However now it looks empty and sad apart from  HM beetroot soup and a pork mince bean stew thing I made - so I can enjoy the autumnal nights and cooking to fill it up. The pressure cooker will be getting a real work out for the next 6 months.

I do probably have another trip abroad next week so I was going to do the next week of Hell+ Fresh+ as I have £10 off. However I may have to delay that . I certainly will not be doing HF without the voucher  - expensive but I will try one more week - mainly for the new recipes. 2/4 in the last  free box were just ok - a chicken thigh, bean, rice thing and a greek pork mince thing that was underwhelming, 1 dish was good and 1 chermoula spice dish was great - the last 2 I will re-cook definitely.  

Hope everyone is keeping warm and safe in the storms

goldfinches

I cycled to a branch of Lidl today with a list to see if I could get everything there without having to go elsewhere and the verdict was yes I could, so that was encouraging.
I bought a munchkin pumpkin, butternut squash, frozen sweetcorn, salted and unsalted butter, red cabbage, goat's cheese, 2 x radishes, lemons, mixed peppers and mushrooms for £14.45 which was good value I thought.
I roasted the mushrooms with garlic and onions for dinner tonight and they were delicious.
On looking at the receipt it's blue and light resistant and recyclable among other virtues so that seems a worthwhile change too.

That makes my new total £99.74/£170 and my average daily spend is £4.53.

Soontobeoap

Thank you to all of you who did a little ouch on my behalf when you saw my shopping bill for this weekend. Fortunately all is not lost as the weekend progressed it fitted in better for me to make sandwiches rather than chicken and baked potatoes. Only one chicken got cooked and I spread the ham over 2 days. There is enough chicken left to make 2, possibly 4 individual chicken pies if I add the ham pieces that I have in the freezer. I have plenty of jacket potatoes to eat with the coleslaw, that was barely used, cheese or beans. I have a hole chicken left to freeze and plenty of salad. I bought 24 sausages as a standby that didnt get used as well so i am hopeful that I can cut Novembers budget to help compensate.

Suffolk_lass

I've got a running list on Morries web-site. It helps me with food purchasing and meal planning and I have taken to removing items as I pick them up in-store, or click and collecting. I also hope to liberate 3x2L ice cream containers full of roasted squash, with which to make soup for the Village revolutionary celebrations next weekend. I am so looking forward to the space in the freezer. I plan to cook a meal the day after the Village event, to celebrate DH's birthday. I think there will be 6 of us, but I might invite a seventh. This will necessitate a bit of shopping, but it will be allocated to the treats and entertainment tab as we would normally go out. DH suggested he would rather I cook, as he prefers my cooking 

thriftwizard

Just added £125 for my assorted spends over the weekend - butcher, baker, market & supermarket - it's a bit of a fudged figure as I've just basically added what's come out of the bank account & the amount of cash that's no longer in my possession, but it'll have to do as my receipts got wet! And that leaves me with a little less than £70 to last 'til payday next Tuesday; tight, but do-able. We had two extra mouths to feed over the weekend, but there's nothing in the diary for the rest of the month now.

Pennypincin

Around £16 spent on odds and sods again and not much to show for it.
I came in £10 under last week, which has been put into the bulk fund.
I'm so annoyed that I've not been able to write a list and do a proper shop and I keep doing little shops, I!is have been on half term and didnt make the most of the food pantry last Tuesday.
I may have to tomorrow, and will need to try land shop smarter and not keep shopping as I do.
The prices are ridiculous I've noticed, especially in my local Tesco for reductions as they only go down by 50℅.

LotsOfTea

I had a big shop delivered today which came to £140.19 but it did include stuff for cake making, a party tea for a family birthday and Halloween treats alongside all the normal stuff.  I'll still need cheese though as they didn't deliver it. On the plus side I'm still under budget for the month so it's just the hassle of going out to get it.

I did some batch cooking to use up the old stuff and some freezer stocks before the shopping arrived so I've also got a cabbage, chickpea, green bean and coconut curry; a sweet potato & peanut curry; veggie Bolognese, veg and tofu Thai green curry and cheese sauce. Ready for the week!

Currently at £224.31/£250

Suffolk_lass

Ooh! @goldfinches, you are famous, with the picture of your dish covered in cheesy dumplings!

joedenise

Back from today's shopping trip.  I did quite a bit of bulk shopping but that comes from a different burget.  The grocery spends now stand at £122.40/£200 leaving £77.60 with only one week to go it's looking like there may well be some left to move into the holiday pot!  We now have 3 booked for next year - 2 All Inclusive and a long motorhome trip which has been carried over from this year due to both DH and I having numerous hospital appointments/ops when we were supposed to be away so the money for that is already budgeted for and one of the AI holidays is paid for and also some spending money budgeted in case we decide to do any trips or go out for meals while we're there.  The 2nd AI the deposit has been paid and most of the final payment saved so really pleasing to have some left from the GC to go towards that.

Found a pack of dried soya beans in the drawer the other day so have soaked them and now making a soya bean and coconut curry which will be reheated for dinner tomorrow night - I always think curries taste better the day after!