November 2023 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

@Soontobeoap - I'd love to see what you're making so please post a link to some photos for us to admire.
@diminua - your new freezer sounds very exciting, have a recommend for a delicious no-churn lemon ice cream, lots of Nigella's no-churn ice cream recipes and a suggestion to trawl your local charity shops for ice trays which is where I found most of mine.

I treated myself to a couple of croissants from Sainsby's yesterday which cost £2 and then spent £5.40 today on 3x tofu which was on offer at a low price and could be frozen. Then I spent £4.20 at M*rks on 4x milk and 1kg of yoghurt and the baking budget spent £6.75 on CC priced vegan chocolate bars and dark chocolate chips at Mr T's.
That makes my new total £50.20/£170 and my average daily spend is now £4.56.
My baking budget spend now stands at £10.75/£25 which is an average of £5.37 per Wednesday.

Suffolk_lass

Soontobeoap said:

£27.00 spent in Aldi today. Should last us the week. Lots of no spend days as I am busy with christmas crafting. 

I saw the snakes and ladders duvet cover on the page I have bookmarked to link to - that looks fabulous @Soontobeoap. Over here (we are beekeepers) I have just made up half a dozen gift bags of homemade beeswax dipped firelighters, which will go in the made in our village sale next month. My table will be honey and wax products but I shall donate these. I will make some fudge and shortbread closer to the day too but the craft bits are done for that day (tealights, tapers and candle rolling kits). I may yet make furniture polish and wood block restorer but only if I have time.

Soontobeoap

Oh @suffolk_lass, you are clever. Would love pics. Especially interested in the candle rolling kits. I am making for community club christmas fair. It is non profit making and provides so many ativities for the whole of the Island. What to charge is the hardest bit I find.

@goldfinches all my makes are on the mse crafting  forum (I will bust my stash and make pretty things) its been a good year for using up bits as my craft lodge/shed is leaking badly and a lot of it would have been ruined. 😊 I have inckuded pics of a few bits on here. Hope 5hats Ok @elsiepac.i will remove if not. 

Suffolk_lass

I've sent you a message @Soontobeoap. I'll see what I can do re photos

joedenise

Ordered a Morrisons TGTG bag last night so another £3.09 spent taking my total so far to £41.43/£200 leaving £158.57.   Any left over at the end of the month will go into the Bulk Fund which will pay for Christmas meat as well as any regular bulk buys although shouldn't be many of those next month as think I am pretty well stocked up now.

Some lovely crafted stuff @Suffolk_lass and @Soontobeoap.

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

How is your month going?  With us, it feels like we’ve been to the shops multiple times with (almost) nothing to show for it.  I’ve just tallied up the month and we’re at 

£80.09/£140 leaving £59.91 for the rest of the month

I won’t bore you with all the details.  Suffice to say that the above includes a “big shop” at L!dl on Friday evening, where we spent £38.98 plus a trip to the nearby Sainsbugs (£5.51 spent) for the things we couldn’t find (including 4 cans of sweetcorn).  Is it just me or has the price of tinned sweetcorn doubled?  I’d swear that we used to average 35p/can, but in L!dl on Friday, the same can was 79p, while we picked up its cheaper brethren for 65p in Sainsbugs.

I need to some serious meal planning for this week, in order to bring things back on track.  It probably doesn’t help that we had an absolute disaster last weekend:  my slow cooker died.  I set it up with a lamb stew, we went out for the day, came home and it hadn’t cooked.  The lights were on, but it didn’t heat up.

- Pip

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane said:

Good afternoon All

How is your month going?  With us, it feels like we’ve been to the shops multiple times with (almost) nothing to show for it.  I’ve just tallied up the month and we’re at 

£80.09/£140 leaving £59.91 for the rest of the month

I won’t bore you with all the details.  Suffice to say that the above includes a “big shop” at L!dl on Friday evening, where we spent £38.98 plus a trip to the nearby Sainsbugs (£5.51 spent) for the things we couldn’t find (including 4 cans of sweetcorn).  Is it just me or has the price of tinned sweetcorn doubled?  I’d swear that we used to average 35p/can, but in L!dl on Friday, the same can was 79p, while we picked up its cheaper brethren for 65p in Sainsbugs.

I need to some serious meal planning for this week, in order to bring things back on track.  It probably doesn’t help that we had an absolute disaster last weekend:  my slow cooker died.  I set it up with a lamb stew, we went out for the day, came home and it hadn’t cooked.  The lights were on, but it didn’t heat up.

- Pip

I've switched to buying the frozen stuff now for when it is being added to other things £1.75/kilo it is fine. I only use the cans for when it stands alone (ao not completely given up on it!

joedenise

That's a shame about your SC @PipneyJane.  I would definitely replace mine if it stops working, after all they are relatively cheap to buy but also to use.  Have to say I always make sure mine has actually started heating up before I leave home particularly if I'm going to be out all day.  I'm sure you managed to find something in the freezer/cupboards so you didn't have to resort to a takeaway!!!

Soontobeoap

Thankyou @suffolk_lass. I have recieved message. Very helpful. I might look into this for next year. I run a craft group too.

Another NSD for me. Took shepherda pie out of freezer for tonight. Have slowly been toppung the meat with left over mash until it is covered! 🤣

JingsMyBucket

Hey all, just a quick check in before I catch up on the thread. We’ve spent £163.36 at various places. Most of that was a big £140 Tesco order at the beginning of the month that had double lots of stock up items. Ex: toilet paper, laundry stuff, olive oil, etc took up about £50 of the order. 

Has anybody noticed a strawberry shortage near you? Tesco didn’t have them for our order and I couldn’t find them at M & S the past couple weeks either. I finally asked someone in M & S on late Friday morning when I stopped in again on the hope of getting some. She told they’ve been getting really short and delayed orders. They’ve had them but such low quantities and they’re being snapped up soon after store opening, by 8:45am! 

Anyway, I’ll likely do a small run to Tesco for strawberries, yoghurt and a couple other items either tomorrow or Tuesday. 

£163.36 / £425.00 spent. £261.64 remaining. 

I need to start working out a Thanksgiving dinner menu for later this month. Another American couple is going to cohost with us and we’re inviting Scottish friends and family to join in the feast. I’m in charge of the menu and need to get cracking. I’m thinking to allocate about £75 from our part of the budget to contribute but we’ll ask others to contribute dishes too. 

Have a lovely Sunday evening everyone!