October 2025 Grocery Challenge

leftatthetrafficlights

Spent quite a bit this week as I decided that as we're doing well this month I'd buy some 'bulk buy' stuff from our monthly budget along with normal stuff. I got 6 tins of coffee, 1 litre of olive oil, 500ml of date and fig balsamic vinegar, 4x sample sizes of flavoured vinegars, 2kg of stock powder, a large papaya, limes, rocket, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, black grapes, apples and a variety of other stuff for dh including a few large jars of his favourite coffee for work (he's lost the receipts and can't remember everything he bought 🤦‍♀️) plus snacks and drinks for the last couple of days while he's been away. My new budget starts on 7th November so I should be okay 🤞

£302.12/£350

TravelCrystal

Just done my last shopping for October as I have a busy few days ahead thought I would get it out of the way.
Bargains to be had in Lidl. Firstly going in to bulk and adding in to my annual food total was 8 bottles of wine for £40.41. They were having a clearance, hope they are nice 🤭
Food shopping came to £42.87
I was able to grab a free cranberry sauce and conditioner as I reached my £150 spend.
Seeing as how I was late morning shopping-managed to get discounted rolls and muffins.
Also fruit and veg, pate, milk, butter, reduced price on a large (according to them) meat pie, mayo, biscuits, frozen fruit and peas. Coffee, bacon, pickle, gravy granules, Tom puree, toothpaste, cream, apple sauce and baked beans. 

Total spend for October £182.65/£200

Have a great weekend all
T.C

mandco

£50 in Sainsbury’s this included 4 of the 1/2 £2.67 price chickens which amazingly that actually had in stock - 2 in the freezer 1 for a roast Sunday and the other I’m going to prep for various meals. 

£53.37/£258 

JingsMyBucket

Hi folks, the November 2025 thread is up here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6635362/november-2025-grocery-challenge

I'm still waiting on someone to pin it for us. @elsiepac and I have been discussing behind the scenes and she's alright with me taking over the GC starting in November. 

thriftwizard

So - that's a huge thank you to @elsiepac for years of sterling service and a welcome to the control room to you, @JingsMyBucket, then?! More power to your elbow!

Slithering in to mention that I actually spent £29 at the market this morning as there were a number of "irresistible" bargains to snap up, e.g. 6 large sweet potatoes for £1, all slightly damaged but will be used up tonight or tomorrow. 2 large pineapples for £1; half of one will be eaten as is in yogurt, the rest will be in the dehydrator this evening. (We dry a lot of fruit - apples, mangoes, pineapple etc. - when cheap, and eat them as snacks through the winter.) And a large white pumpkin for £4 to carve with DGS next Friday; there'll be pumpkin & pepper soup to eat and lots of other gentle All-Hallows-Eve activities as DS2 & DDiL are adamant he's not going trick-or-treating. DD2 has promised to make a pumpkin pie too, but that won't be ready until the Sunday at the earliest as the butterscotchy flavour takes a while to develop. I have grown a respectable pumpkin, but it's not ripe yet. So I spent a little more than I'd hoped but I'm ok with that. And that's a wrap for October...

diminua

Canteen lunch - aubergine parmigiana and chips and fizzy drink - £7.50
Shopping: tub of yogurt, flatbreads, black olives, can of stout and toilet rolls: £10.10. 
£27.95 left. 

Nelliegrace

Grocery shop at Asda for a change, after checking prices on Trolley.



I bought YS lamb chops x4 (300g) £3.20.
Milk 4 pints x3 still at £1.65, malt vinegar 35p, jumbo porridge oats 1kg £1.29, mixed dried fruit 1kg £3.09, basic sultanas 500g £1.05, Brazil nuts 150g x2 at £2.51,
Marmite 250g £2.88, (12p cheaper for the special edition pink label jar of the same size,) tinned chickpeas peas 47p, white mushrooms £1.29, 2 courgettes £1.07, broccoli 79p, small potatoes 1kg 85p, pears 99p, small bananas 88p, grapes £1.37, clementines 99p.

£30.52 spent.

So undignified on my hands and knees to read the labels on the bottom shelf, and to find the last kilo of dried mixed fruit. The basic range mixed dried fruit seems to have been withdrawn at Asda and Aldi. 

Total Spend, £133.78 out of £155.

I cooked the tiny lamb chops over root vegetables, onion, celery and barley, in a pot roast so they didn't shrivel to nothing. We had them with small potatoes, steamed carrots, parsnip, broccoli, cauliflower, courgette, red cabbage and gravy.  The pot roast vegetables will make several hot dinners with some tinned mixed beans added for protein. 

I baked a large apple pie, an apple turnover with the pastry trimmings, an apple and sultana bara brith, and rock cakes while the oven was on. 

PipneyJane

Good morning all

Nelliegrace said:

Grocery shop at Asda for a change.
…..

So undignified on my hands and knees to read the labels on the bottom shelf, and to find the last kilo of dried mixed fruit. The basic range mixed dried fruit seems to have been withdrawn at Asda and Aldi. 

@Nelliegrace I appreciate your frustration.  Lots of unglamorous staples seem to be missing from the shelves these days.  On Friday, I went into Sainsbugs in search of dried black-eyed beans.  None.  They also didn’t have any dried kidney beans or butter beans.  I even asked a shop assistant if they’d been moved from the usual slot.  “No madam.  Dried beans are always in Aisle 48.”

What they did have on a shelf abutting the aisle* were so many 500g bags of dried brown lentils that they’d marked them down to less than half price!  48p for 500g when they’re normally sold at £2 in a kilo bag. And the BBF dates were in 2028.  Knowing that I had at least 2kg unopened in the pantry, I only purchased 6 of the 500g bags.  

(My DH wanted to know why I didn’t buy more,,but that’s over a year’s supply.  We primarily eat whole lentils in summer, when I make a French lentil salad and serve it with fish.  I will admit that it is tempting to buy a few more of the 500g when we pick up the paper today, but I have to be logical - how quickly will we use them? - and not greedy.)

£7.44 spent in Sainsbugs on the above plus 8 bananas (£1), 0.4kg loose mushrooms (1.06), 

I also went to L!dl on Friday - not my usual branch - hoping to pick up some YS pizzas to have for supper yesterday, after the football.  First time, ever, I did not see one YS pie, pizza or quiche!  What I did find was a shower curtain, to replace our hair-dye-stained one (£2.49).  In the end, I bought 2 pizzas, paying full price at £3.99 each, a couple of bags of cashew nuts (2x£1.99), some soluble vitamin c (2x£1.19) and a packet of paracetamol (35p).  £17.18 spent.

The above brings our total spend to £194.60/£211 leaving £16.40 for the rest of the month.

- Pip




* One of my mottos is “Shop with your eyes, not out of habit”.  MrT and Sainsbugs typically have dried pulses, fruit and nuts in multiple places, at different prices, usually cheapest in the “ethnic aisle”.  You have to check all the places to ensure that you’re getting the best price.  Even tinned tomatoes can appear in two different aisles, at different prices for essentially the same item.

diminua

Went to the zero waste place in Putney again. Brown and wild rice mix, bran flakes, kidney beans (seem smaller than usual but they do have them) and a storage jar £8.50.
Also some drinks with my Dad - £14.50. He's 70 tomorrow, which feels weird. I'm used to thinking of him as a young dad (he was 17 when I was born), but I guess we're neither of us young any more.  

dollypeeps

Sorry will have to bow out of this thread for the moment.
mum has broken her (other) hip so we are currently the hospital visits etc.
glad that I have quite a few of my own ‘ready meals ‘ in the freezer.
still tracking my spends by keeping receipts, noting in diary etc 
hopefully I can be a fully functional contributor in the coming months.
i will keep it Bookmarked for a read between appts etc.