October 2023 Grocery Challenge

GreenFairy

I managed to get into the city centre at the weekend and did a good top up at the Asian supermarket, and a smaller one at tesco. 111.76 in total, and we should have enough noodles and base bits for at least the month. Soy sauce, especially - it's €1.99 for a 150ml bottle, but a litre of the same brand is just over €4, and there's the best part of a years worth in it. 

Kid snacks are killing me at the moment. The two boys are just bottomless pits, and some favourites like yoghurt seem a lot more expensive these days. Getting through 8-10 litres of milk a week as well                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

joedenise

Just a small top up of fruit and veg this morning plus a free bakery item from Lidl (DH chose a sourdough loaf).  A spend of £10.75/£200 leaving £189.25.  Will need to go into our local town tomorrow to Mr Ts as need some more yoghurt and also want to go to the computer shop there.  Only want batteries from there but they are better value than buying in Mr Ts and also like to support a small local shop whenever we can.

Will need to go to the butchers, probably on Friday, as need some sausages but he hadn't got any made when we popped in today.

lianne1984

GreenFairy said:

I managed to get into the city centre at the weekend and did a good top up at the Asian supermarket, and a smaller one at tesco. 111.76 in total, and we should have enough noodles and base bits for at least the month. Soy sauce, especially - it's €1.99 for a 150ml bottle, but a litre of the same brand is just over €4, and there's the best part of a years worth in it. 

Kid snacks are killing me at the moment. The two boys are just bottomless pits, and some favourites like yoghurt seem a lot more expensive these days. Getting through 8-10 litres of milk a week as well                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

I feel you on the kids snacks, I swear I go to bed each night with 'can I have a snack, please?' ringing in my ears!!

thriftwizard

A quick dive down into the city yesterday left me £99.65 worse off, for the monthly non-perishables at L!dls, but this also included most of next week's groceries whilst DD2 & I are away. Then a sudden dash to W8rose (it's hard to make a white wine & tarragon sauce when there isn't any tarragon) added a further £8.65 as I picked up some frozen veg, also with next week in mind. I will leave them some grocery money but not as much as previously; DD1 will spend it all on high-carb, high-additive treats. Whilst the cat's away, eh? I do try not to be obsessive & lecture them about it but I'm clearly failing...

GreenFairy

goldfinches said:

@GreenFairy - I remember both my brothers going through that stage very vividly and think the next thing they did was grew massively in a very short time so don't buy him any new clothes now unless he really can't do without them. My mother used to bemoan unifom that was almost unworn because it had been grown out of so fast.

Yeah, I don't keep a massive number of outfits for him just in general, but there are more and more things now that seem to be too small for him between one wearing and the next! Thankfully I'm not having to worry about replacing school uniform during the year as well (we don't have one) or I'd be having nightmares at the costs. 

GreenFairy

lianne1984 said:                                                                                                              

I feel you on the kids snacks, I swear I go to bed each night with 'can I have a snack, please?' ringing in my ears!!

It's really wild how much they can pack away in little portions, isn't it? Kids are real grazers - funny how things change from our own childhoods. I never remember snacks after school. Maybe a rich tea or a slice of bread and butter if we were falling down with the hunger, but that'd be it. 

JingsMyBucket

Morning folks. I have a few spends to declare. 

£38.55 at the monthly market on Sunday from various stalls. Mutton, pork sausages, greens and tomatoes, as well as several samosas and savory tarts to keep us going for lunches the past couple days. 

£15.75 at M & S afterward for fruit, veg, herbs, a crumble, and compost bags. 

£6.48 then at Savers for foil and waxing strips. The strips were only £3.99 compared to the £14 or £15 at Boots or Superdrug! I'll return later this week for another box and those should last me until February. 

£88.04 for the Tesco delivery this morning. Some of it is easy food because I've been ill since last Wednesday. First vertigo for a few days and now a subsequent sinus / ear infection. I'm just genuinely hoping it doesn't grow into Covid. There have been infections going around these here parts for the past few weeks. 

Lastly, £25.40 for our fruit and veg box delivery along with 2 dozen local eggs. They're good folks and we want to keep them in business. 

£174.22 / £320 spent. £145.78 remaining. 

Yikes. Looks like I blew my wad right at the beginning of the month. I would have just walked to Tesco for some bits instead of doing an order but I'm feeling really poopy and can barely rally. Mr. Jings would help out but he's validly busy as well, prepping for a big event he's running this week. He's starting to feel a tickle in this throat so fingers crossed he staves off anything until the weekend. 

We have enough veg to last us the next few weeks though until we leave on Saturday the 14th for a few days. The freezer is also full of meat and other stuff like gyoza and fish fingers from the shop today. I'll try to reduce the in person shopping to just picking up yoghurt and milk between now and next Saturday.

joedenise

Popped to Mr Ts this morning for a few bits I forgot or couldn't get yesterday!  I hadn't realised we needed both potatoes and onions so needed to get those, also yoghurt as don't like Lidl or Morries and those were the only shops we went to yesterday.  Also needed some Lighter than Light mayo but not paying Hellmann's prices!  Mr Ts own brand is good enough and a lot cheaper (Hellmann's was £2.50 Clubcard price, normal £3.50; Tesco own brand £1 so bought a couple).

Today's grocery spend takes total to £16.89/£200 leaving £183.11.

LadyWithAPlan

GreenFairy said:

lianne1984 said:                                                                                                              

I feel you on the kids snacks, I swear I go to bed each night with 'can I have a snack, please?' ringing in my ears!!

It's really wild how much they can pack away in little portions, isn't it? Kids are real grazers - funny how things change from our own childhoods. I never remember snacks after school. Maybe a rich tea or a slice of bread and butter if we were falling down with the hunger, but that'd be it. 

I remember most days eating a full pack of biscuits before dinner - which i polished off   Of course I do now realise I have a gluten allergy ... argh..

Grocery - £28.53/£200  + £0/74.51 bulk
 My friend sent me a free box for Hello Fr*sh - had to pay £4.99 postage but I added extra box so £10.49  for 4 days of meals for 2 (i am only one though) - arrives Sunday so looking forward to that for a change - will buy extra greens and chicken etc to bulk it out for next week. Only issue is I think the portions look small so I may well be eating my 2 portions as one meal - will try adding a huge plate of greens with each one
Not planning to then continue hello - its then a 10% discount ...  and as I like to cook and batch freeze i cant believe its good value but will try and see - got some tasty recipes coming so - I will have to avoid items with Gluten in but I carefully picked menus and will replace the soya sauce etc.


Bulk I add £50 a month for the bigger bulk items .. £74.51 is now in there plus i have a £10 wait*** voucher  yet to spend I bought to try to get Cashback which does not seem to have tracked ... hmm
L*dl has a competition with a scratchcard each day you shop there in October where you win the cost of your shopping back - so I will be hitting that more. Also as I am now back studying I have my first student discount card in 20+ years and I get 10% off the Co*p (and B*ots) so good to see the savings there .. 70p on Sunday


I do feel I have an empty fridge though - spent last 2 months eating my freezer down to defrost and until Sunday and the hello F*** arrives it feels like I have no real food in - will pop to Mr L today to stock up - got some eggs in and GF crumpets and some greens so omelette for lunch.
I have got 3 portions of HM beetroot soup in freezer though so the freezer will no doubt get bulked out soon with YS etc.

Auti

LadyWithAPlan - always ask if anything off for student discount even if nothing shown. It is surprising how many places don’t have notices but will discount if asked. I had one a few years ago and got money off that I never expected (or access to stuff that normally I could not) - always worth an ask