December 2024 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

After a somewhat hectic week, I'm dashing in to record a fairly massive weekly spend of £135.10. Much of this is just "catching up" after our dash to south-west Wales, and it doesn't include festive supplies, which are saved-for all year in a separate account. So I'd have just under £100 left for next week's shop, which should suffice; there's no market, which means what I do have to buy will be more expensive & not as fresh or nice, but there will also be lots of leftovers! In other news, one of The Girls has come back into lay already, so I won't have to buy eggs again soon!

diminua

Went into town in search of Christmas presents. In the last 24 hours I have done Selfridges and John Lewis (after work yesterday) and Notting Hill and Portobello Rd. Did manage to get to the far end of the latter just as the bread stall was closing and selling everything off at £2, which wasn't bad. Also got a half bottle of red and some mince pies on the way home, so definitely in holiday mode even though I'm working Monday and half of Tuesday. 

Inclusive of those things and also milk and tomatoes and lunches - £148.65 spent. 

Nelliegrace

We stopped at Waitrose on the way home yesterday, mainly for a free coffee. £4.90 for milk and pears.

We had our free hot drinks at the garden centre, and decided to stop at Aldi instead of going early tomorrow.
We got almost everything on the list, 8p sprouts, broccoli, carrots, and parsnips, a large chicken for £4.79, milk, cream, brandy butter, mincemeat, fruit, and (30% off) salmon for dinner today. £22.45 spent.

We went across to Sainsbury’s for 15p potatoes but picked up a similar bag of Maris Pipers by mistake, the red cabbage and white cabbage were 15p. I found the turkey leg mince 750g at £3.50 with the loyalty card, that has been divided into 5 meal portions for the two of us, and frozen. £5.70 spent. 

The extra vegetables are unwrapped and will keep well in the garage, as we have some left from last week.

Budget £155, £138.33 spent, £16.67 left.

Suffolk_lass

I had to brave the SM on Saturday as we had run out of cards to send to local friends & neighbours, and three local shops had run out! So, armed with my list, off I went. I could not believe how quiet the roads were, and as I approached the SM I could see lots of parking spaces. Mid-morning on the Saturday before Christmas and I wandered round and got everything except cranberry sauce and walnuts that were on my list. It was relatively stress-free, and lots of staff available. Definitely the best Christmas supermarket shop I have ever had. I spent £23.21, mostly on fruit and veg and on checking when I got home, I had an extra bag of sprouts on the receipt (but I can bear the extra 10p cost!). I bought cream, milk and a couple of ready made desserts, but mostly, our Christmas is a homemade, cooked from scratch sort of day, and the big spend will be the butcher's, at 06.30 tomorrow, which is my booked slot.

Just the house to decorate today... have a good one everyone

TravelCrystal

Morning all
A few things to declare 
Luckily didn’t spend too much on our two nights away, just had to pay £22 for our lunch on the first day.
Spent .49 on an M and S YS loaf
£45.15 in Lidl’s on everything else for the big day and beyond to the end of December and just scraped in on budget.
Sprouts and shallots were 8p so had two of each. I find if I peel the sprouts they keep in the fridge for 2 weeks in a Tupperware type container. No parsnips so will be doing cheesy leeks instead and Parmesan parsnips can wait for New Year. 

Managed to spend enough to get some free frozen chips, I expect they will come in handy at some point.
Discounted milk, mushrooms and bread.
Bought a few goodies to go with our fizz before lunch on Christmas Day.
I am making gammon in the slow cooker tomorrow covered in cola. Hopefully it will taste nice 😊
Frozen peas and onions for quickness 
Tins of baked beans and tomatoes, cereal and various cheese related biscuits.

So total for December just within budget of 
£597.50/£600

Whilst I mentioned earlier in the year I would be going from July for my year, I have decided it would be much easier to go by the calendar year. 

So, drum roll, I can report total spend this year 2024 of £4780.68

I had originally set myself £5000 target so I am within my own budget. 

However I have reset that to £4000 for 2025 so fingers, toes and everything else crossed. 

Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to everyone.
Catch you all in 2025 🎅🎄

T.C

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone,  

Just returned from the final big shop of the month.  When l had to wonder the length of the car park just to get a trolley l knew it was going to be one of "those days 🙄". 

But pleased to have got most of my list and the things they didn't have l can live without.   

New totals £516.59 / £550  £33.41 remaining  for the inevitable bits and pieces.  Really chuffed with that 😊 must be -£200 vs last year.  

Freezer and fridge are at capacity and following other MSE advice I've removed all the packaging and made my own £1.80 lidl box and put it in the garage.  

LotsOfTea

I had a big delivery on Saturday and have collected the meat from the butcher today as well as getting a couple of boxes of chocs to take to people who we are visiting over the Xmas period but I'm pretty sure I'm done now. The fridge is really full so I need to sort it out a bit and stack things a bit better and I'm going to try and make a couple of pots of soup tomorrow to chuck in the freezer for easy lunches in the lethargic aftermath of all the fun. 

I'm up to £431.66/£500 and we shouldn't need much more now until Jan. 

elsiepac

Terrifyingly the first GC of 2025 is now live!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

Apologies if I’ve missed anything momentous - I’m a bit behind.  @thriftwizard congratulations on your new granddaughter.

I have two shops to declare:  £9.35 in Sainsbugs last Wednesday (mainly on Yeo Valley Yoghurts) and £32.88 in L!dl today.  Yes, it was insane to go to a supermarket today but  I ventured into L!dl because I was desperate for eggs and oranges.  Bought a few things for the freezer or to keep in the fridge for later this month (e.g. another salmon en croute, and a cheese-and-chorizo bake). 

After L!dl, I made the mistake of dropping into Sainsbugs for some Christmas Cards, since we’d run out and still needed to do some to give to neighbours.  (Different budget.). It was heaving!  All tills had huge queues.  There was no queue at Customer Services, BUT they were only allowing you to purchase items there if you bought a lottery ticket or cigarettes.  Rather than queue for hours,  I “paid the poor tax” and bought a lottery ticket along with my packet of Christmas cards.  

I also went to the Butcher, to collect our 6.5kg Christmas Goose.   We will be visiting family over Christmas and there’s no room in the freezer - my backup goose is in there - so I’ve stuffed it with chestnut stuffing and am roasting it for dinner tonight.   4 hours in a low-ish oven (170C fan).  I ordered it two months ago and it cost £152.75.  I also  bought a packet of 8 pigs in blankets, pre-prepared by the butcher.  I’ve never cooked them before but will add them to the roast potatoes with about half an hour to go,.

The above brings our December GC Spend to £110.75/£160, leaving £49.27 for the rest of the month.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone.

- Pip

Soontobeoap

We are staying in an apartment near to family and friends for Christmas. Have decided to count  in holiday costs for this one and not add to holiday fund. (Trying to save for renovations and maybe holidays). We have had a couple of evenings alone but not eaten out.Decided to buy microwave meals and had bread and jam one evening.we are being fed so well at other people's houses that there seems no point in paying a lot for a pub meal at Christmas time.

Popped to Sainsburys on way home from DDs and spent £22.88 on bread, crisps bread, cleaning wipes ( DD is having house extended and drive is really mucky.needed them to clean shoes!). Also bought a couple of nice desserts  and some loo rolls. Big shop still to declare on 28th when we get home which I am going to split between Dec and Jan.