October 2025 Grocery Challenge

mandco

Spends totalling £55.34 to add this does include £7.99 at macdonalds for the kids & some bits for Halloween which brings me to £234.38/258 hopefully that should be it now till November 

Guess not + £6.69 for some over priced allergy eye drops at the pharmacy- ds woke up with a really swollen eye que trip to the pharmacist who seems to think it’s an allergy??    £241.07/£258

Nelliegrace

Thank you @carboot_karaoke It is just 1940s rationbook cooking to use seasonal vegetables to stretch the meagre meat ration. The pot roast vegetables had the taste of the lamb dripping.
The cake uses one egg and no fat and I used just 3 ounces of sugar and a few less sultanas because I added an apple, so I had an enough for the rock cakes. The apple pie didn’t need any sugar.
We have a lot of apples.

Last grocery shop of the month at Aldi.
We remembered to take the pot of used batteries for recycling. 


Milk 2x4 pints, evap for our porridge, butter/ rapeseed oil spread, small pears x2 bags, a swede, and sweetheart cabbage, on Super 6 offer, sweet potatoes, parsips and carrots, basic oranges 2 bags, and small bananas. They were out of double cream again. 

£13.31 spent.

Total Spend, £147.09 out of £155

I have made a large pot of blitzed soup with parsnips, red lentils, onion, celery and chicken stock with bouillon powder. 

PipneyJane

@JingsMyBucket just a thought: how about you add your Sparks card to your husband’s phone’s wallet?  That way he can use it whenever he purchases something at M&S and you consolidate your points.

We do this, whenever a shop doesn’t allow you to have a “joint points account”  (unlike MrT’s Clubcard, which does allow you to combine cards).   Both my DH and I have my Sparks card in our Apple wallets, together with his Nectar card, my C0-0p card, my B00ts card, etc.  For L!dl, DH is logged in on both our phones.  By doing this, we can maximise the points, offers and kickbacks available.

I have a small shop to declare.  DH popped into L!dl on Monday and purchased 2 small YS pies, which we had for dinner last night.  £2.80 spent.

This brings our total to £197.40/£211 leaving £13.60 for the rest of the month.

I’m not declaring yet, but I really don’t think I’ll be buying anything before payday on Friday. 

- Pip

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon everyone,

I have another October spend to declare totalling £19.68. This was entirely last minute entertaining ingredients like avocado, hummus, olives, salad, ice cream, apple pie.

My eldest did also manage to get me 4 of the Sainsbury chickens but said l didn't need to pay🥰

I'm declaring... 

New totals 

Grocery Budget £336.98 / £400
Bulk Fund £44.12/ £50
Grocery Challenge £381.10/ £450

Very happy with this surprise result, keep thinking I've forgotten something 🤣. See you all on the November thread. 

K9sandFelines

A few spends from the past week ...
Toilet rolls £5.20
Tesco shop £4.24
Aldi £7.12
Aldi £6.24
Waitrose £8.90

Changeyourlife25

£501.27 / £400

Sorry I haven’t been here guys, I’ve completely lost track of everything this month! 

Over the budget already (mostly unpreparedness and going back to the shop for sweets and Redbull 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️)

I’ll get back to it next month, I’m going to change to a cash budget only, it’ll be harder but hopefully will motivate me more to be better planned. 

Nelliegrace

DH went to into Asda when he went for petrol and he bought, cream £1.68, grapes £1.67, fresh figs £1.88, and plain scones £1.64.
£6.87 spent.


Total Spend, £153.96 out of £155. 

PipneyJane

Well done, @carboot_karaoke !

It’s payday and I have no further spends to declare.  I will be heading to L!dl and Sainsbugs this afternoon, but that’ll be after I withdraw November’s GC money from the bank.

I’m declaring at £197.40/£211 with £13.60 to roll into November.

- Pip

PS:  @elsiepac thank you for all your hard work running this thread over the years.  It is/was much appreciated.

leftatthetrafficlights

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to @elsiepac for running this thread for so long - it made an enormous difference to me when I first started on the boards and has been so helpful for so many years. I genuinely don't think that I would have been able to get such good control of my finances in the hard times had it not been for this thread so a heartfelt thanks for all your hard work @elsiepac!! 

Soontobeoap

Well said @leftatthetrafficlights. I tried to say that earlier but didn't do it as well as you. @Elsiepac when I found this thread We were retired with only my DHs private pension to live on and were eating into our savings. By saving on food we were able to keep our savings and can now enjoy life more. I know that I wouldn't have been able to do it without your support and keeping us all going so thank you so much. 🙂