November 2023 Grocery Challenge

CRANKY40

£320 for November please

Another one here who has taken their eye of the ball. I can't fit anything else in the freezer now so it's fairly important that we eat what we have in. When my dh was alive he worked away so I always had enough food in so that if I was ill or my son was ill then I could still feed us if I wasn't able to leave the house. 

The House Troll is now almost 19 and he has helpfully pointed out that he could walk to the shop if he had to. It's become a sort of edible security blanket for me now though so my mindset has to change as well as my spending. We have a cat who stays mostly indoors so £15 a week of grocery spends is for cat food and litter (she does go for an occasional waddle down the garden but she's getting old now and prefers to be indoors, especially when it's cold out). The cat part of the budget is not negotiable.

I've also started reading ingredients labels and I'm not happy about some of the additives - when did all this junk creep/slither into the food chain? I'd like to get back to eating food with fewer additives which is another reason why some of the freezer stash needs to go (and won't be replaced like for like).  I have a decent supply of baking ingredients too so it will be interesting to see if I can spend less than the allocated £80 per week. 

Soontobeoap

Checked online today for offers on our usual buys. Flora pro active buttery was 2 for £6.00 in Asda. (a saving of £3.00) my favourite cereal was £2.00 a box so I bought 4. (£5.00 saved on the usual price.) We picked them up whilst we were in that area anyway. I never pay full price for these items. Certain things are always on offer in different shops and I only treat myself to special cereals etc if they are on offer. We also bought bisto so £17.00 spent so far. 

PurpleJay

Hi, can I join you please for November? I really need to get back on track. My budget is £400. 

Our household is me, my 17 yo and our dog. We both take packed lunches so it includes all our meals except the very occasional meal out. We have one planned this month. Dog treats are included but not her main food which is ordered and budgeted for separately. Toiletries and cleaning products are included. We also have a doorstep (oat) milk delivery which is included. 

I have been finding it increasingly difficult to keep the Tesco shop under £100 without needing to do top-up shops and things like some toiletries, cleaning products and the milk delivery are extra to that. I am going to track my spending this month which always helps.   

Soontobeoap

@PurpleJay welcome. I was doing a tesco delivery order every week and tried doing it fortnightly. It worked for me and now I am down to one main supermarket shop a month and the rest from Aldi.

Good luck with it all. I hope that you find what works for you. 

MissRikkiC

I too have noticed that there is more and more ingredients in foods I’ve ever heard of, nor could I find in my kitchen pretty much rendering them UPFs despite the fact I cook from scratch! I’ve been reading Ultra processed people and that’s got me thinking too. 

We’ve managed to keep at £400 for a while but it did creep up for the summer to £425 so I have brought this back down for October. That feeds 2 adults and 2 children under 4. It includes everything except my sons dietary milk including dairy free cheese, spread, etc. I too don’t know know how we spend that given my 3 year old only eats pasta 🙄

Florenceem

Can I be put down for £100 again please.

diminua

Hi Elsiepac

Could you put me down for £200 as usual please?

thank you

wishus

First spend of the month £2.34. Leaves me £197.66

I have some leftover rice and I defrosted some mince and mozzarella so I'm going to try arrancini and meatballs with linguine. 

I had to buy some chopped tomatoes and while I was in the shop I thought I would grab some Professor Peppy for my work locker, save me from vending machine temptations.

lianne1984

Helloooo... I'm back in with £250 for November!
Thank you! Good luck all!

Verulamium_Vixen

Hi @elsiepac

Can you please put me down for £680 this month please

That's for 3 adults, two 16 year old and a cat as well as assorted wild animals

Jo x