December 2024 Grocery Challenge

diminua

I can't remember when I last posted but I have spent £126.67 this month. That does include a bottle of baileys (the supermarkets seem to be having some sort of race to the bottom on the price of Baileys if you have a loyalty card) and a half bottle of wine and some stilton as well as other more normal groceries - so not at all bad. 

carboot_karaoke

Morning everyone 

Another two spends to declare £45.05 on fuel, should cover extra journeys over the festive period and into January.  

I also popped into Lidl and spent £27.40 on, toilet roll,  a large block of cheese and a joint of pork shoulder accounted for most of the cost. Also couldn't resist there 8p veg, although I'd already brought alot of 15p veg from Tesco on Wednesday.  

Does anyone have any tips for making vegetables last longer? I did think l could make soup and freeze. Just wondered what others do. 

New totals £445.69 / £ 550  just over £100 left 

JingsMyBucket

Morning! We’re in the home stretch now the holidays. What are folks having for their holiday menus? My SIL is making a turkey crown and a beef sirloin roast as the main events. 

I have two spends from yesterday to declare. £4.13 from the Middle Eastern shop for plantains and a box of ramen. 

£50.50 spent at M & S yesterday for a lot more groceries that I expected to buy. £9.00 of that was for a 1L bottle of olive oil. This is a change from our usual £16.00 bottle of olive oil from Tesco so I wanted to try it for some savings. The rest was 2 punnets of YS strawberries, clementines, bananas, garlic, 2 types of tomatoes, arugula, YS asparagus, string beans, red chillies, parsley, 12 eggs, coconut milk, 2 tubs of Greek yoghurt, some fruit yoghurt, wraps, a slab of madeira cake, and their 3 for £8 deal for a quiche and various cold cuts. 

£180.46 / £400.00 spent. £219.54 remaining. 

We were supposed to visit Aldi today to get in buying before the Tesco change window closes this evening but it’s raining  and absolutely awful this morning. We’ve moved the trip to tomorrow morning and will adjust the Tesco order this evening based on what we’re supposed to get at Aldi tomorrow. 

I’ll try to contain the Aldi shop to about £25 – £30 which will cover a lot of yoghurt, Christmas breakfast items and maybe some cheap pieces of meat. The Tesco order is at roughly £120 and it includes several sets of meat but also basics like toilet paper and toothpaste. 

JingsMyBucket

@carboot_karaoke we have a really cold closet/cupboard in our house and that's where I'm going to store the potatoes and carrots in paper bags. I'll remove them from the store plastic bags/wrapping, let them dry out a bit for a couple hours then transfer them to paper bags. 

I'm planning to get the 15p Tesco veg as well in my order and skipping the 8p Aldi veg for now. We don't drive so it would be Mr. Jings lugging it all home from Aldi in his cargo bike. I think for the 32p difference, I'm willing to let the Tesco delivery driver do the work and preserve Mr. Jings' lower back. 

carboot_karaoke

Haha l think that's 32p well spent 🤣 @JingsMyBucket

My MIL cooks all the meats,  lamb, beef, chicken , pork sometimes we've also had duck and salmon. But rarely turkey.

Apart from food shopping any top tips for keeping the spending low this year?
I'm avoiding the shops in person and online (l always get carried away 🙄). Planning a few walks with friends and a flask of hot chocolate . We've booked reduced price cinema tickets (will bring snacks from home) and currently debating setting up the hot tub we brought during covid but haven't used since energy prices shot up a couple of years ago. 

I know I'll have to make an extra one off payment to my energy provider but I think it could be money well spent . 

Nelliegrace

DH went to a bowls club buffet, quiz and bingo evening. One less meal to cook! Their table came second in the quiz, winning a bottle of wine each, and he won a box of cheeses and a box of biscuits for cheese. Very happy! I shall freeze some and cross cheese of the shopping list for a month.

Isn’t it about time that Baileys went out of fashion?
Ingredients, Water, Cream, Sugar, Alcohol, Maltodextrin, Milk protein, Flavoring, Irish whiskey, Color: E150b, Emulsifier: E471, and Acidity regulator: E331.

“When listed in food and drink ingredients, alcohol is usually referring to ethyl alcohol, which is safe for human consumption and is also known as food grade alcohol.”

I have a couple of bottles of mead from my beekeeping friend, maturing in the back of the pantry. That is worth drinking.

http://www.pedigreeapis.org/biblio/artcl/FAmead53en.html

Suffolk_lass

I've just written my list for Christmas food shopping. Apart from the butcher (06.30 on 24th - so I don't have to store the turkey in my fridge) and where I will get any cheese, sausagemeat, chipolatas and bacon - my list is one food shop, and will be about £30. I have £10 in vouchers for there. Right! Mince pies to make now!

LotsOfTea

I've spent another £43.06 over a couple of small shops over the last week for various bits and bobs to keep us going including olive oil and some cold pressed rapeseed oil as DH prefers it for cooking the roasties and since he's on Xmas dinner duty that's fine by me. 

I have a big shop due to arrive tomorrow with normal food and Xmas treats and an order to pick up from the butcher on Monday which will be paid for on collection so although my total is looking good for now it'll jump up massively in the next few days. That said, after that's all bought we shouldn't need much until the end of the month so I should come in under my very generous budget for this month. 

We'll be feasting on cola-cooked ham for the 2 meat eaters and aubergine-wrapped nut roast for me with lots of veg for all. Perfect for us. 

£183.35/£500

Soontobeoap

Hello folks I have been missing for soo long.i got out of my routine before end of November.Went quite a bit over but not too worried as I bought lots of half price meat joints to help in 2025. I  didn't make a budget for Dec until today.we have finally headed to mainland to be entertained by our children and I have time to think. It's no excuse really but my phone stopped working properly and after 2 sentences I kept losing everything! Very frustrating. I finally gave in to a new phone thinking it was going to cost me much more and have ended up getting the first month £15.00 cheaper and the rest is £3.00 cheaper a month! Can't believe I waited this long!🤣

Have set my budget in signature.dont worry about it @elsiepac I just want to check totals against other years so you don't need to record.

Just been to Sainsburys for provisions for our stay. The shelves were quite bare and they were restocking as fast as they could.8.o.clock seems like a good time to go if you fancy a quiet shop though. We just bought breakfasts and drinks really as visiting friends and family most of the time. Will update after I have removed last minute gifts from receipt.

JingsMyBucket

Good to see you back @Soontobeoap. Your travails of grocery shopping with your husband have been missed. 😂🙂