November 2024 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Ooops! £56.55 gone west over the last couple of days, £38 of it at the market and the rest on a W8rose raid; I needed a number of items to make the most of a large organic pumpkin that had come my way! So we now have a vat of chilli pumpkin soup and three loaves of pumpkin bread, which is a mildly sweet & spicy cake-like bake full of  goodness (oatmeal, wholemeal spelt, plain flour & gram flour, currants & raisins, spices, sunflower & pumpkin seeds) it's not unlike bara brith to taste, actually, though made quite differently & a bit - drier. I've also made the Christmas pudding, in the slow cooker this time. I also had to replace one or two of the items I would have bought at L!dls if I'd got there; will get down there & be stocking up early next week as W8rose, like Sainsbobs, is rather more expensive!

sarahj1986

Hello all

very late to the challenge this month but I’m starting from yesterday 9th to following 9th December. My husbands pay is changing so the next few weeks are tough going 

Family of 4, this includes nappies, toiletries, household products etc. I’m hoping £75 a week is enough. 

£300

my shopping yesterday was £169.53 big online shop, does include a lot of bulk stuff for the month 

£130.47 left

MissRikkiC

@sarahj1986 if you can get to £300 then my £500 budget is considerably worse than I thought! 

Husband spent a further £16 at Tesco yesterday on bits of stuff for burgers as we had a relative staying over, plus some fruit for the children. I don’t think he actually got much at all, like buns, cheese, bacon and pears! Surely there has to be more than that somewhere. 

I made a large chili on Friday night for 8 of us, used approx 400g pork mince in total and 3 tins of beans, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, so much veg to bulk it out. The whole lot was polished off and all the children (4of them in total) ate it with yogurt flatbreads and rice. Including the flatbreads I made, I worked out that it was still less than £0.90 a portion which I actually thought was a pipe dream these days to make a meal for under £1 per portion! Pleased with that

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all- managed to eat out of the freezer and fridge last week as we wanted to use lots up before our new fridge freezer was delivered. Our old one was really inefficient and constantly iced up with broken drawers. 
I did a large Mr T delivery for today to fill up the new one for the coming week. Spent quite a bit as I've started to buy food to put away for Christmas ( snacks such as crackers, biscuits, frozen savoury snacks, alcohol).  Spent £148.65 but £83 was C!ubcard christmas saver vouchers.

Need to continue to use up some sachets and cupboard bits to reduce spends further this month.   

Pennypincin

I've £17.04 left from last week budget.
I'm putting it into the bulk fund and starting the new weeks budget today.
I also given away some frozen food as I wasn't keen on it, but ended up buying a couple of ready meals as I've really been struggling to cook healthy food and grabbing rubbish, so thought I'd d go with something slightly better.

LadyWithAPlan

Suffolk_lass said:

weenancyinAmerica said:

I may have to buy only comfort food for the next four years. Lots of pain du chocolat from Aldi's. Bacon and cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, chicken salad sandwiches. Lots of it.

You poor thing @weenancyinAmerica. Heartfelt best wishes. Chocolate oranges too maybe? to remind you how useful chocolate teapots are.

I'd think she'd want to avoid orange... but apparently not..
weenancyinAmerica said:

@Suffolk_lass - Added chocolate oranges to my supply list. May have to rethink being a non-drinker. One roommate is already hitting the vodka. I may have to lay in a supply of strong tea

@weenancyinAmerica I'd definitely rethink the need for a decent glass of wine/vodka/tequila - I was due to go on a work trip to the States last Tuesday and could not face it... I was there for the last time the Orange one got in... I saw brilliant female business women actually crying at breakfast.. ;(

DEAL ALERT Morries are doing a 'spend min £40 per week' for 4 of 5 weeks for £15 vouchers extra so I am aiming to spend there instead of other stores - you have to activate first - its week one so far.
  Thanks to one of you (maybe Suffolk lass?) I am now saving my 9580 Morries pts (nearly £10) toward Xmas. It can cover some alcohol at the state of the world..

Does anyone know if Nectar are doing their swap nectar points for double points this year? Was v useful last year as had loads

Grocery spend £22.85 so total £43.74/£200 this month
Despite me telling myself not to pop into Morries  on way back from gym- I did as wanted to carry on my Thai  culinary adventure  with the left over portion of chicken green curry - so wanted some mange tout, oyster mushrooms and snow peas... getting bit bored with Mexican beans or dal

£22.85 later - did include YS stir fry, YS chicken breast and a portion of YS mince - I know I am aiming to defrost freezer but bargain alert I did however not fill up on the normal frozen vegs inc cauli - I did buy something from the freezer I had never heard of - pigeon peas - its a pulse so my adventures into beans continues.
It did need to cook longer than I expected - so I need to experiment..
I grilled the chicken breast to add into the green curry, stirfried the veg and it all came together well

I am DETERMINED to defrost by Thursday - I can always cook the meats/sausages up on the day of defrost as I gather a largely empty freezer takes more energy to keep cold


So far in  11.3 months I have spent on food £2148.37 - this does not include family/gift bday meals or coffees on the run or drinks out or household goods or toiletries.. (ynab data and I started end Nov last year)
£1566.11 on groceries and bulk items
Abroad subsistence for airbnb etc (not meals) £144.54
Abroad meals £136.11
Meal boxes/Takeaway £141.98
Junk   £159.63

PipneyJane

@thriftwizard may I apologise on behalf of my colleagues, seeing as I work for the company that I think does your county’s roads.

@LotsOfTea may I suggest using creamed coconut instead of coconut milk?  It comes in a firm block, keeps forever and, according to the block in my fridge, is 100% coconut, with no additives. To make into coconut milk, break up 100g of creamed coconut and add it to 400ml of boiling water.  Stir until dissolved.  That should give you about 500ml.

I have 3 spends to declare:-  £1.90 spent in L!dl on Saturday (where we collected a free pineapple plus 2 boxes of zip-top freezer bags); £7.26 spent in a different L!dl today on a 1.7kg YS pork loin roast; and £23.86 spent in the branch of MrT’s next door to that L!dl.   I am kicking myself because, today, I forgot to scan my L!dl Plus app before paying, and the guy working the till said he couldn’t scan it afterwards.  (I didn’t miss out on using an offer; it’s just that it’d be useful to have the spend added to our monthly total.)

Items purchased in MrT’s: 750g hash browns £1.90, 700g potato croquettes 2x£1.45, 500g dried gnocchi 4x£1.95, 60ml vanilla extract £1.50, 1kg risotto rice £3.30, YS 1.2kg Duck Crown with a sticky plum & blackberry glaze £6.44.

Talking of L!dl:  if you like L’Occitane’ Shea Butter hand cream, the one in L!dl’s Christmas range is virtually identical.  Same smell; same feel; same absorption rate.  Only discernible difference is that the orifice on the tube is smaller, so that you use less.  Oh, and the price:  £2.49 per 100ml tube, instead of £23 for 150ml.

The above brings our total spend to £100.88/£160.40 leaving £59.52 for the rest of the month.

Meal plans for the next few days.  All breakfasts are cereal based and all lunches are leftovers, unless otherwise stated:

Today:  Chickpea, chorizo, spinach and potato stew (aka “scrummy with a touch of spinach”) served with HM bread
Tuesday:  Nadiya Hussain’s Ham & Cheese Crown (I make a half size), served with frozen peas and (possibly) roast sweet potatoes.
Wednesday:  The YS duck, roasted with potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Thursday:  duck risotto made with leftover duck and HM chicken stock

- Pip

weenancyinAmerica

@LadyWithAPlan - you are right about avoiding last week, especially if you were going to New York or California. My sister says almost everyone at her workplace was crying - for the entire rest of the week. She works in a large legal firm. I've decided to call him by his number (47) as he should have a number and be locked up already anyway. The country will get what it voted for. Luckily I am 77 so I may not have to worry about it too long. I feel for those with children though. And my neighbors with part citizen/part immigrant families. At least the chocolate oranges are chocolate colored and not orange colored!

joedenise

@PipneyJane - thanks for the info re coconut cream - I've got a block in the cupboard (unopened) as wasn't sure how to make it into coconut milk!  I used to use it regularly years ago but not used recently!  Will not be using that up and will keep in the fridge once I've opened it.

Do you think it would work diluting it with double the amount of water to make it into "Light" coconut milk?  It's what I currently do with cans of coconut milk - pour the coconut milk into a jug and add a can of water to it and give it a good stir.  I then freeze it in silicon muffin trays and then once frozen transfer to a plastic bag to use as and when required.

sarahj1986

MissRikkiC said:

@sarahj1986 if you can get to £300 then my £500 budget is considerably worse than I thought! 

Husband spent a further £16 at Tesco yesterday on bits of stuff for burgers as we had a relative staying over, plus some fruit for the children. I don’t think he actually got much at all, like buns, cheese, bacon and pears! Surely there has to be more than that somewhere. 

I made a large chili on Friday night for 8 of us, used approx 400g pork mince in total and 3 tins of beans, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, so much veg to bulk it out. The whole lot was polished off and all the children (4of them in total) ate it with yogurt flatbreads and rice. Including the flatbreads I made, I worked out that it was still less than £0.90 a portion which I actually thought was a pipe dream these days to make a meal for under £1 per portion! Pleased with that

I’m hoping I can, thankfully I’ve got a lot in, freezer is full, I’ve got meat in the fridge, cupboards quite well stocked. My biggest problem is 2 children who eat a lot of fruit! Thankfully they both like the “cheap” fruits like bananas, apples, pears 

£4.74 spent 

needed bread, apples, grapes, apple sauce. 

£125.73 left 

I need to get milk and eggs tomorrow (as we’ve used most of the milk and the last of the eggs today)