November 2023 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

It's a week until OH is paid and we are still on top of the grocery budget, I might even have some cash to take forward into next month.  

@LadyWithAPlan, I love your signature, it's really inspiring.  I also choose to be frugal to support life changing goals, namely early(ish) retirement.  I am in the middle of my journey and it's a slog and, honestly I feel like I've lost a bit of focus and motivation so seeing your signature has helped reinvigorate my plans    I will check out you diary.

otb666

455/600 a week left as i go from 23rd to 23rd should come in under budget. We now to a monthly shop at supermarket and muslefood for meat once a month  and use farm shop for fruit and veg weekly

Florenceem

Been awol and very frugal. Will finish the 4 weeks pension shopping money well under budget.

joedenise

Popped out to get more fruit yesterday so now spent £61.63/£200 leaving £138.37 for the 2nd half of the month.

DH has just booked us a week's break on the Isle of Wight which will take care of the last week so only next week's shopping to worry about.  Anything left will be for shopping while we're away!

Wraithlady

LadyWithAPlan said:

Last time the lamb was v good the other 3 were a bit whatever.. The Chermoula spice thing is something I need to try cooking myself. Do they sell it as such?

Apparently Seasoned Pioneers do a Chermoula Spice Mix

goldfinches

Wraithlady said:

LadyWithAPlan said:

Last time the lamb was v good the other 3 were a bit whatever.. The Chermoula spice thing is something I need to try cooking myself. Do they sell it as such?

Apparently Seasoned Pioneers do a Chermoula Spice Mix

Belazu make one too, I've seen it on the shelf at my local Waitrose.

Just popping by to list the money spent over the last few days. I can claim two NSDs this Monday and Tuesday which all helps.
Then on Sunday I spent £6.10 at Mr T's on crisps, pistachio nuts, plantain chips and a treat sandwich. Yesterday I spent £10.75 at Sains on baked beans, kitchen roll, loo rolls and paper hankies and the baking budget spent £5.20 on caster sugar and pectin. I also spent £6.50 at M*rks on mushrooms, cheese, 2x rolls plus a free Sparks offer of a loaf of sliced bread. Then today I spent £7.22 at a Chinese supermarket to buy vegan fish sauce, 2x sesame seeds and lao gan ma black bean chilli sauce. 

That makes my new total £80.77/£170 and my average daily spend is £5.04.
The Baking Budget new total is £15.95 which is £5.31 per Wednesday.

I spotted some really nice looking aubergines in M*rks yesterday and have all the other ingredients for this recipe apart from the parsley so am planning to try making it this weekend. It's a shame it doesn't need sage as that's the only current crop apart from weeds in my new allotment, if anyone has a good use for lots of purple sage let me know.

LadyWithAPlan

[Deleted User] said:

It's a week until OH is paid and we are still on top of the grocery budget, I might even have some cash to take forward into next month.  

@LadyWithAPlan, I love your signature, it's really inspiring.  I also choose to be frugal to support life changing goals, namely early(ish) retirement.  I am in the middle of my journey and it's a slog and, honestly I feel like I've lost a bit of focus and motivation so seeing your signature has helped reinvigorate my plans    I will check out you diary.

Glad to be of motivational help  - well done on having excess from Nov grocery   
Be warned my diary is getting long and wieldy ...and very winding..  In the last 3 months I have covered my new found love of LED face masks, my accidental States vacation, my  faux fur heated throw and being dumped by TEXT  late at night after a few month relationship by a 'man ' in his 50s... 

Yes the journey to being frugal, not spending too much, paying down debts, saving for the big purchases including early retirement (!) is definitely long and you need mini celebrations along the way on hitting mini targets..

Grocery Spending - finally went for a shop after my 2 weeks away.
 £131.13/£150  grocery    + £2.25/100bulk 

£14.05 inc £2.25 tamari soy sauce (bulk) 
After college 8.30pm ish  I  then went to their local  massive T*sco to get some food in for week including a half price chicken breast joint and chicken escalopes half price plus loads YS stir fry veg..
Also YS houmous, passata  and mexican spice 

GF soy sauce also clubca*d reduced  - maybe I will go back and get some more as I use it a lot and £2.75 is a good price for GF..

The only things I didnt buy that wasnt reduced  was
 some asafoetida ( a spice I have been trying to get for ages £1 )
- a bag as for once I  forgot an extra bag,
2 x nuts (1.5 packs already eaten!)
some kale. 

I am on the hunt for mustard powder eg Colema** but cant find anywhere - I need the dry powder as its for the fabulous GF Leo* chicken nuggets recipe. Even the big t*sco didnt have any

Not a NSD so still stuck on 3/13 for Nov

joedenise

@LadyWithAPlan - I'd keep looking in Tesco for the mustard powder as that's where I buy mine.  I actually bought a tin last week.  They seem to have stopped doing the large tin but a small tin is better than nothing.

2Scratters

@LadyWithAPlan Morrisons do 2 sizes of the brilliant Colemans.

We have had a couple of NSD I need to get back to marking them up. 


2 Scratters xx

Blackcats

Thank you for the reminder about yoghurt to cool down very spicy food @suffolklass.  I made a raita using up the knobby end of a cucumber (tut tut to anyone sniggering about knobby ends).  In fact the madras wasn't too hot on this occasion but best to be prepared.
@LadyWithAPlan - I'm sure these subscription services with introductory discounts catch a lot of people out.  I have kept the recipe cards though as we did enjoy the meals.  I haven't costed out making it from your own ingredients but I'm confident it will be cheaper than even a heavily discounted box. Lessons learned I suppose 🤦‍♀️

We went to lidls yesterday and although we strayed away from our list we did a good stock up and I've updated our meal plan for the next week.  We also shop for household basics like kitchen towel, dishwasher tablets etc for my dad so we have now got a few freebies from the app - a cleaning product, yoghurt or dessert and bakery items so we will pick those up next week.

I'm feeling moderately confident about coming in under budget this month.  I've said it publicly now so I'd better make it happen.

balance remaining for November £131.35