October 2025 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

JingsMyBucket said:

Thanks @Suffolk_lass for that suggestion. I saw soda crystals in Saver yesterday actually. Maybe a soaking combination of Dettol laundry cleanser and soda crystals may shift the funk. 🎶🎵 😂

I use them to wash my towels and my bee suit (beekeeper). It's a great pre-wash soak in cold and at 60c it's a brilliant stain remover for propolis

K9sandFelines

Suffolk_lass said:

Maybe tag the meal planning thread in your signature @K9sandFelines - there are several; what are you having for dinner? Reverse Meal Planning (in my sig) which is all about using what we have in, without shopping for missing ingredients and others.

I've added it now, thanks 👍🏻

Maybe that's why no-one is posting, as they prefer the other threads. I don't have time personally to look at daily posts to find a meal I'm interested in
 So for me, a week or more works better.

Suffolk_lass

K9sandFelines said:

Suffolk_lass said:

Maybe tag the meal planning thread in your signature @K9sandFelines - there are several; what are you having for dinner? Reverse Meal Planning (in my sig) which is all about using what we have in, without shopping for missing ingredients and others.

I've added it now, thanks 👍🏻

Maybe that's why no-one is posting, as they prefer the other threads. I don't have time personally to look at daily posts to find a meal I'm interested in
 So for me, a week or more works better.

You are always welcome on the one in my signature, if the other one goes quiet, a few pop in occasionally and then we go for a bit with nothing. Now our hols are out of the way, I am trying to use what I have in (vast stores) rather than shop, so substituting from ingredients I have is the way to go to make space and keep costs down, along with vast vats of batch cooking and freeze some.

SausageDogSandwich

I am currently on £33/400.
Spending has mostly been on fruit and veg and a budgens magic bag. I now have enough in the house for two more evening meals and tomorrow’s packed lunches. I am going to get a small shop today to last the weekend, hopefully I don’t waste all the hard work of this month 

Nelliegrace

I have had some of my wooden clothes pegs for over 45 years and an aunt’s dolly pegs were even older. They got left out in the rain just long enough to get mildewed, so I have replaced them with good wooden storm pegs from Tesco, £2 for 24.


We had a browse round the superstore offers for loyalty card holders, broccoli 69p, celery 69p, a large butternut squash £1, and a pork loin joint at £5 a kilo £9.72. It is a long narrow joint, neatly tied with string, and I shall cut it into four smaller Sunday roasts, at £2.43 each, to freeze. 

Groceries £12.10

Total spend £63.13 of £155.

Soontobeoap

Big shop done at Aldi. Came in at £46.00. signature has been updated.

thriftwizard

Sigh! I'm going to have to admit that I've tried to cut the budget too far, too quickly, and ask to put it back up to  

£500 

as we've already gained a few extra mouths for this weekend, & next weekend the whole clan plus OH's twin brother are descending! And in all innocence I started accumulating the festive stocks this morning, but I'm taking that out of another "bucket" which I pay into all year. But stocks are now reasonably high & should carry us through for a while, as I spent £101.48 at L1dls this morning. Eeeek...

And of course, DD2 & I have started redecorating, as DD1 & DS3 have now officially left home on a semi-permanent basis, so walls in two rooms have been stripped, uncovering so many different problems it's hard to know where to start to make it look acceptable again! And people need to sleep in these rooms, including babies & dogs, next weekend... aaargh!

dollypeeps

I’ve spent 12.97 this week at Lidl and Tesco taking me over budget.
Im trying for £90 per week. I’m getting better at it lol and finding it really useful to track my spending. I’ve been doing it for a few months so hopefully coming up in 2026 I’ll have a really good idea of where I over spend.
I have a ‘bulk fund’ but that’s just using savings about 2x a year where I stock up on mostly cleaning, some personal care and teabags etc.
i like the idea of transferring any surplus ( I wish) from weekly shop to bulk fund so that’s something I will looking at. …possibly opening another account/envelope just for that.

£105.66 / £90 (bank account) £10 cash in purse 

Blackcats

Another Lidl shop yesterday which came to £65.00.  We got a free doughnut which we shared with a cuppa last night.  I cut it into 4 to ensure fairly even distribution of jam 😃.  Also got a free shower gel and chose a big bag of spuds as our free vegetable.  We divided up meats and we now have 2 chicken breasts, 3 giant sausages, 1/2 pack of mince and 1/2 pack of meatballs in the freezer.
i made fridge bottom minestrone soup last night which was very tasty and served it with 2 leftover pizza slices.  

Really trying hard to be resourceful this month.

£200 left.  £66.66 per week.  Reminder to myself that this is a maximum spend and not a target to aim for!

LotsOfTea

I'm up to £157.70/£300 spent for the month now but I'm stocked up for visitors over the weekend and hopefully I've got everything covered and haven't forgotten some vital ingredient.