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Hello Forumites! However well-intentioned, for the safety of other users we ask that you refrain from seeking or offering medical advice. This includes recommendations for medicines, procedures or over-the-counter remedies. Posts or threads found to be in breach of this rule will be removed.October 2024 Grocery Challenge
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carboot_karaoke said:Evening all,
..
Like @LadyWithAPlan I'm embarking on a heathy eating journey. I'm seriously lacking in energy, motivation and all my clothes particularly around my waist are uncomfortably tightIf l don't do something soon it will be 2025 and even harder. But like you said healthy food costs ££. Thankfully I've got quite a lot of YS meat in the freezer to get me started. Ive never heard of the 4 hour body method I'll be googling later
DON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff. Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest5 -
October budget: Put me down for £400 on groceries and £180 for coffee/lunch/takeout spends please?We are already on £104.98/£400 as we had a Mr T order today - so we wont need anything in for a week now hopefully
£54.67 on coffee/lunch/takeout this week. I'm off work next week and so wont be spending anything on this area unless we have a takeout, but unlikely as we'll be able to cook a lot of stuff from the freezer.4 -
Small trip to the village shop for bits came in at £8.67 - a little annoyed at myself for this one but the money is spent.
Weekly grocery shop came in at a respectable £50.94 which I’m pleased about - eating down the freezer to defrost it and going through the cupboards to use up all the random stuff I bought in a fit of ‘I’m going to be self sufficient and organised and amazing’
total sitting at £59.61/£400 at the end of my first week in October. Pleased with that
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time7 -
@LadyWithAPlan - when using dried beans, you may find them more digestible if, after soaking, you freeze them overnight before cooking. It breaks down the cell walls. It should also cut down the cooking time. I don’t bother defrosting the frozen beans; I just peal them out of the (recycled) bread bag in which I froze them, dump them into my pressure cooker, pour over boiling water from the kettle and pressure cook as normal. (NB: I always cook at least 500g of dried beans in a batch, freezing cooked beans in 450g-500g tubs, which is the equivalent of two tins. When I make a chilli, I’d normally use two tins-worth.)
I have two shops to declare from Wednesday: £64.95 in MrT’s and £13.18 in C0stc0. I don’t get to our big, local MrT’s very often these days because of traffic issues - it’s perfectly horrible to get in and out - so this shop was primarily to stock up on items we can’t/don’t buy elsewhere, e.g. their 1.5L quad-strength Orange & Mango Squash for £2.10, and Australian TimTams at the Clubcard price of £2/packet. (TimTams are the best chocolate biscuits ever but it’s been years since they were regularly available in British supermarkets.)
Since C0stc0 is almost opposite MrT’s, I popped in to stock up on their own-brand dark chocolate coated dried mango (£10.99 per 580g bag), together with a discounted box of 50 0ats0 Simple porridge sachets for DH to take to work for his breakfast (£6.49 instead of £8.79). The mango and the oats were purchased by the Bulk Fund, but since it was late in the afternoon, I couldn’t resist buying one of their Chicken Enchilada bakes for dinner. Hence the GC spend of £13.18.The above brings our October GC spend to £78.13/£180, leaving £101.87 for the rest of the month.
- Pip"Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.'
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it - that’s what gets results!
2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge 66 coupons - 25.5 spent.
4 - Thermal Socks from L!dl
4 - 1 pair "combinations" (Merino wool thermal top & leggings)
6 - Ukraine Forever Tartan Ruana wrap
8 - 4 x 100g/450m skeins 3-ply dark green Wool Local yarn
1.5 - sports bra
2 - 100g/220m DK Toft yarn7 -
missymoo81 said:Hi, I hope you don’t mind my posting on here, I’m hoping to join this month, but I have a quick question I hope one of you lovely people will know. Does Lidl still do the potato sacks? They used to be about £2.49 for 7.5kg last year but I haven’t been in for ages but am going to start shopping there again next month and I’m trying to budget and wondered if anyone knew?
Thanks so much
Missy
I've done my big shop for the month now, but already DH had to go back as no cat litter for our old indoor Stealth cat. He got the celery I forgot and also picked up two steaks that we will have today, with home-grown veg and then a crumble to use up the opened (bottled) jars of fruit that came home from holiday with us.
I will tip over 75% of our £3000 budget this month, when the weekly milk bill and the month's big river subscription items arrive, and at least one top-up of fruit and milk, but last month's absence means our annual budget looks a bit more achievable now; £2214.24 spent to date.
This month, I plan to move things around to defrost two freezers so will set up one-week bags of meat so we use up some of the mountain in the freezer. I can also make sure my list is up to date!Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here5 -
Evening all,
Just a couple of small spends to declare £4.92 at Asda on squash and potatoes and £1.88 on cauliflower and rocket at Lidl.
Hopefully no more spending until Wednesday
New total is £248.44/£650
MFW
Opening Mortgage Balance 16/06/2024 - £99569.04 term remaining 80 months (Feb 2031)
Current Balance £39,440
MFW 2025 #31 £23,560 / £28,000 OP
MFIT - T7 £23,560 OP
0%CC May 2027- £2,400
Grocery Challenge
Jan £387.89 / Feb £ 355.67 / Mar £418.63 / Apr £478.37 / May £426.52 / June £376.18
The final countdown to June 2026 - Page 4 — MoneySavingExpert Forum4 -
I've lost the plot this week and have lost track of the spending on food.
I will start again tomorrow though.
I'm still trying to run the freezer down.
I will also need to do an online delivery, mainly for tinned, heavy or awkward items to restock the cupboards.Decluttering campaign 2023
2 🏅🏅 +1 ⭐️ +1🌟 awarded later in year
Decluttering campaign 2024
2 🏅🏅 + 1⭐4 -
Evening all. A small annoying spend to report of £2.39 in a local convenience store for a 6 pack of eggs.
I planned to make the almond flour chocolate banana bread today but only had one egg left and walked to the egg machine about 10 min away. It was all out of stock and I asked inside the attached petrol station if they had any and the attendant said she’d sold the last of her eggs this morning too. So I ended up calling the above mentioned convenience store regarding stock before walking over there. Success!
Anyway, I made muffins from the recipe and gave half to some friends for their housewarming party this evening. They gladly took them off me and the wife declared them reserved for breakfast tomorrow. The husband sampled one anyway and highly approved. 🙂
Here’s the recipe if anyone wants it. https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/healthy-chocolate-banana-bread/
We have 4 eggs for the next couple days. I’ll return to the egg machine on Tuesday to get 30 eggs.
£115.72 / £325.00 spent. £209.28 remaining
5 -
@Suffolk_lass which open jars of fruit are you using? Are they whole fruit or more like jams? I’m just wondering if I could repurpose some strawberry jam / preserves into a crumble but probably not. Maybe if I add some old apples to the mix?4
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PipneyJane said:@LadyWithAPlan - when using dried beans, you may find them more digestible if, after soaking, you freeze them overnight before cooking. It breaks down the cell walls. It should also cut down the cooking time. I don’t bother defrosting the frozen beans; I just peal them out of the (recycled) bread bag in which I froze them, dump them into my pressure cooker, pour over boiling water from the kettle and pressure cook as normal. (NB: I always cook at least 500g of dried beans in a batch, freezing cooked beans in 450g-500g tubs, which is the equivalent of two tins. When I make a chilli, I’d normally use two tins-worth.)
...
- Pip
I am managing to get tins from Morries/Aldi at 49p-55p and my fav el paso refried 2 for £3 which I then add more beans in. I am just soaking red lentils - i know they dont need soaking but again I get more gassy if even they are dried (sorry for the lack of feminine language)
I need to hunt out some more beans recipes as I am eating them daily - i have with avocado, coriander, salsa, lime,hot sauce (love Cholula`) and some protein and loads veg.
Grocery £57 so far and £4.90 junk
3 x £1.59 - just gone up from £1.,50 5 L still water - I live in London so this for the coffee machine/kettle and drinking
My freezer is jammed packed with YS protein - added 2kg YS chicken breast apportioned out and some YS ostrich gf meatballs
I do need to buy some dried beans to try this freezer experiment ...
DON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff. Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest4
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