October 2023 Grocery Challenge

LotsOfTea

First spend of the month yesterday was £2.58 on a bunch of bananas and a huge bag of chilli flakes from the world food aisle. I'm trying to limit spending at the start of the month so I've got plenty left for half term at the end. 🤞

I've got half a tub of double cream left in the fridge from last weekend which I'm hoping is still near enough in date to use with some mushrooms and garlic to make a pasta sauce for fancy-schmancy Friday night tea. Yum!

£2.58/£250

thara1996

I’m cutting down also. I have plenty of food in the pantry in order to suffice. 

thriftwizard

£46.35 added for a supermarket & market raid; I'm leaving OH & DD1 £50 for next week, which they really shouldn't need much of, but I'm willing to bet it'll all be spent! But I'll add in whatever they have spent when I get back. The freezer's stuffed with frozen 2- or 3-portion leftovers and there are plenty of spuds, fruit, veg, rice, other grains & pasta; there's actually plenty of stuff still at the allotment too. (Leeks, various leaves, still a few beans, and tons of raspberries.) Also I will leave them half a big ham joint, which we had for tea last night, and the other half will come to Wales with DD2 & I. If they need bread, there's flour, yeast, salt, butter & water and an ancient Panny to do all the work. But knowing them, Greg's (sausage rolls) & the chippy will see most of the cash...

I'm not going to count our  (as in DD2 & I's) food spends into the normal grocery budget; as food & fuel are our only costs, house- & pet-sitting makes it a pretty cheap holiday! Also DS1 & DDiL will have left us plenty too. But I do want to have a little play with her Ninja and see if potentially one could save us some money this winter, when there will only be 3 of us here for most of the time, as DD1 & her BF are off travelling - oooh, we won't know ourselves!

selloptape

Sneaking into the new thread with a target of £440

Thank you for the thread - hope all are okay

So far spent £36.06

Started off well last month but ended up going away at the end of September, completely lost track of spends and not sure where I ended up so just hoping to make it to the end of October knowing what I've spent 🤞🤦‍♀️ x

goldfinches

@LadyWithAPlan - yes I do think the sodastream is worthwhile because I much prefer to drink sparkling water rather than still and I find that if I buy a value size plastic bottle it loses its sparkle before I've finished drinking it. I don't use any flavours because they don't appeal to me so it only costs me a replacement cylinder a month which I get from Sains for £13 if I trade in the empty cylinder at the same time. I drink at least one 750ml bottle a day, more when it's hot and of course I'm not buying more single use plastic too.

I have managed to stay away from the food shops today so am claiming a NSD.

smudgybunny

Huge shopping trip spending £150 leaving balance at £150/£400 for October needed a sit down after that! Got enough baking stuff for the month as I bake for 2 groups I volunteer with twice a week. Also washing powder, toothpaste, body lotion, deodorant at the local plastic free shop, birthday dinner for 6 and food for guests for Sunday lunch tomorrow. As well as food for the week. Could be worse as we don’t eat meat. Got lots of fruit and veg at our local market and have made a vat of soup and another of roasted vegetable tomato Sauce for the freezer. Planning for a much more frugal shop next week! 

joedenise

Another small top up spend for more fruit!  Just over £4.  Total spend to date is now £21.17 leaving £178.83.  I'm pleased with that as a first week's spend.  It really helps using up HM ready meals from the freezer.  There are lots of meals planned for the rest of this month coming from the freezer including tonight's spag bol and tomorrow's chicken!

PipneyJane

Soontobeoap said:

DH has just been for a top up shop from Aldi for family coming at weekend. He didnt get receipt or register qhat the codt was. 🤯! My best guess is £20.00! As I use these figures to see if I am getting any better at this year on years this is not helpful!

Someone suggested adding a little porridge oats to mince to make it go further. I have just done this and it tastes delicious. No difference apart from the fact that with a few added veg it will make an extra meal for two!

Have just checked and my email was definitely registered when I joined Tesco app. No email for me. 😕

Be careful when you add the oats, @Soontobeoap.  I find they cause everything to stick and catch on the bottom of the pan.  Admittedly, my main cooking pot is 20 years old, well used, and probably the enamel is scratched on the bottom, but it never ever caught until I tried adding oats to my mince dishes earlier this year.  (It’s cast iron.)

I have two shops to declare for October:  £12.06 in Sainsbugs on Wednesday and £20.77 in L!dl yesterday.  The Sainsbugs spend included 3 tubs of Yeo Valley yoghurt and a packet of toilet paper that I probably didn’t need to buy at that time but I was taking advantage of their free half-hour parking when I went to the bank in our local market town, and realised that I didn’t note what time I entered the car park so, rather than pay for parking, I went shopping to get the free parking voucher.  You need to spend £10.  Also, I used the hand-held widget to get £1.30 off on the toilet paper.

I popped to L!dl yesterday, because we needed milk.  Not certain now when we’re going on holiday next week - we were meant to leave today - because DH tested positive on Thursday for Covid, as did the friend staying with us.  I’m consistently negative (tested Thursday and again this morning), but I did wear a filter mask in the shop.   I bought a few other things, including eggs and onions.  Till price was £34.27, but the Meat Fund reimbursed £13.50 for a large gammon roast (£6.69) and the Three Fish Roast I cooked for dinner last night (£6.99).  Just as well that I did join the challenge this month.

Anyway, the above brings our spend to £32.83/£140 leaving £107.17 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

Soontobeoap

Thanks @PipneyJane mine did stick a little but I caught it in time and transferred it to pyrex which didnt stick so I got away with it. I only added a tablespoon full of oats to 500g of mince.

Another £4.80 spent today on wraps and veg in Asda. Stopped off there after a lovely beach walk because I had researched that I could get jordans cereal and cathedral city lactose free cheese at a reduced price. There was no cheese and the cereal was only reduced on one flavour! I consoled myself that we hadnt driven out of our way to buy these bargains but it is frustrating and I am out of cheese now until I can find it reduced elsewhere. 🤷‍♀️

LadyWithAPlan

goldfinches said:

@LadyWithAPlan - yes I do think the sodastream is worthwhile because I much prefer to drink sparkling water rather than still and I find that if I buy a value size plastic bottle it loses its sparkle before I've finished drinking it. I don't use any flavours because they don't appeal to me so it only costs me a replacement cylinder a month which I get from Sains for £13 if I trade in the empty cylinder at the same time. I drink at least one 750ml bottle a day, more when it's hot and of course I'm not buying more single use plastic too.

I have managed to stay away from the food shops today so am claiming a NSD.

Tx -  I also prefer sparkling - looking online you get a free machine with the yearly water subscription £149 so may look to do that.

@Soontobeoap your beach walk sounds great at least in this warmth

Grocery spend £30.22 so now £58.75/£200 + £0/£74.51 bulk
Finally went shopping for food £21.01 mr L - largely greens, some pork, mayo etc and a £3.99 Chicken poke bowl which was surprisingly tasty - Mr L now has a sushi and poke bowl section!!  i didnt have the sauce as it had  Gluten in  - I wouldnt normally buy that stuff but I was in a hurry to eat something quick and then meet a friend
Plus I met a friend  by Waitr** and they had some reduced food (some for my now empty freezer!)  £14.62 but one was a sparkling flav water drink which goes into my treats and entertainment ... I didnt feel like drinking as I was out last night and was a bit sluggish today  ..plus £2.98 locally for some sparkling water and some crisps...

Hello Fre&sh is arriving tomorrow my first one - got a trial so 4 meals for 2 for £10.49 but I got the extra veg for health reasons and it will stretch out the food.  - quite excited 

I do need to get bulk w/m powder, fabric conditioner and such - but with the Mr L daily win your shop competition I will get it from there.