November 2025 Grocery Challenge

LiveSimply

@PipneyJane and @JingsMyBucket thank you both!

So, another question for people. When you talk about “Christmas food” or “Christmas budget” what are you talking about? I will have Christmas Day with another adult, and won’t be hosting any large meals, so my Christmas food will be nicer things, but not a vast amount of food, basically a bit more, slightly more expensive, and some extras eg chocolate. And maybe three days over Christmas and one day over the New Year, and the rest of the time budgeting and eating will be fairly normal. This will be the first Christmas I’ve been checking on my spending, my usual method is “buy what you like and watch it slowly and gently go off” which I’m aiming to change this year 🥴. 

So what is included in your Christmas budget? A few days like mine? Huge feasts for lots of family? Or some paring down to counter all the excess and ‘gluttony’?

PipneyJane

JingsMyBucket said:

@LiveSimply and @ancientmum I've got both your figures in the list now. Welcome back LiveSimply! 

@PipneyJane it's not too early to mention Christmas. I've been roving the different stores available to me to see if the meat sales are starting soon. I was jealous of @Soontobeoap and @carboot_karaoke's 50% off Sainsbury chickens as we don't have a Sainsbury near us. I do have a 50% off lamb shoulder coming from Tesco next week though. I'll likely make a pilgrimage to Farm Foods and Aldi this weekend to check out options too. 

Your annual goose has me curious though. Every year you mention it, I keep wondering if I should venture into the process of cooking a fatty goose or not.. I've done a whole duck before but not a goose. I think it may be too much work for me at this point but I'm still salivating-ly curious. 🙂

The technique is similar to cooking a duck, @JingsMyBucket.  Most important thing is to have two roasting pans, for safety’s sake when handling the bird and the hot fat.  My technique:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Stab the goose with a fork multiple times, aiming at the fattiest spots. Rub salt all over.
3. Stuff it if you want. (I make a chestnut stuffing: combine an orange, an egg, a packet of chestnut puree, 4 slices of bread, a small onion and a clove of garlic in the food processor, then stuff into the bird.)
4. Place the bird in a roasting pan, together with a cup of water, cover the roasting pan with foil and roast for 30 minutes per kilo, plus 30 minutes to finish it off.
5. After an hour, swap the bird to the other roasting pan and return to the oven.  Meanwhile, allow the fat to cool slightly in the first roasting pan and then carefully pour it into a large heat proof bowl.  Save the fat for later.
6. After half an hour repeat step 5.
7. Meanwhile prepare your potatoes for roasting.  (My inner Australian says “and pumpkin, and garlic and onions.)
8. After another half an hour, check how much fat is in the bottom of your roasting pan and repeat step 5 if necessary. 
9. Add your roasties to the pan and return it to the oven.  If you’ve repeated step 5 for a 3rd time, you may need to add some of the fat in order to baste your roasties.  Baste the roasties every 20 minutes or so, until cooking time is over.  
10. Carve and serve.

Set the drained fat aside to cool and then refrigerate it until set.  Once set, turn it out into another heat-proof bowl, scraping it off the jellied gravy/stock at the bottom.  (Save that for stock.). Poor a kettle full of of boiling water over the fat - to wash it - and allow it to cool and refrigerate it to set.  Finally, lift the fat off and deposit it into a large saucepan (preferably one with a spout).  Heat gently to melt, pour into suitable containers, allow to cool and then freeze/store in the fridge.  (I use recycled soup containers.). Use the fat a tablespoon or two at a time for cooking.

HTH.

- Pip

joedenise

@LiveSimply - with what you have said about Christmas I would just set a budget for the "nice things" you want to buy in addition to your normal budget.  If in future you're hosting Christmas then of course you would need to budget for the extra food for the additional number of people.

I won't be at home over Christmas so haven't added anything extra to my budget for December.

LotsOfTea

I had to buy a couple of top-up bits yesterday : a cucumber, bananas, garlic, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coriander and a bottle of water as I stupidly forgot to take my water bottle to work. I spent £7.84 in total. 

I've got lots to use up in the stores so I'm aiming to just buy a few fresh bits over the next couple of weeks to save a big chunk of the budget for catering for a party at the end of the month. 

£86.66/£300

thriftwizard

@LiveSimply, I put £100 per month into a specific Christmas account, to pay for both presents and festive supplies; we are a large family & I'm from a large family too, and whilst we're all quite frugal/imaginative/creative on the present front, and I do a lot of preserving/home-cooking, they do love a good get-together & the celebrations will go on for at least 12 days! In fact they'll probably start when DS3's term ends (uni lecturer) and continue until he goes back, with the odd day off to draw breath.

So I actually spent a little of the festive budget (£28.25) on some Germanic bits from L!dls this morning whilst doing the standard monthly non-perishables run, which came to £92.91. (That said, that figure also includes much more butter than usual; cake & puddings yet to make) That leaves me £207.32 for the rest of November's budget. Hoping I can carry some forward into December, as it's a 5-week month!

K9sandFelines

CoffeeSonata said:

Any lunch ideas that could be made in batch or mostly prepped for a few days at a time,  for someone who does not really like sandwiches, and has about 20 minutes to eat it which includes being able to heat up anything needed and eat welcome.

  (Partner does eat sandwiches, just maybe once a week max. Likes wraps a little more though. Things like rice/fried rice/noodles currently work reasonably well too but still need more interesting  ideas! )

I don't know if anybody has answered with this same reply, but with regard to lunches will he eat jacket potatoes, quiche or  anything like a pasty or sausage roll? Homemade pot noodles?

carboot_karaoke

@LiveSimply I think like others have said your budget will be individual to you.

We are quite a large family of six with most of us at home for nearly two weeks over the Xmas period. My MIL always cooks, (enough for several meals). 

My extra spends come from everyone snacking /eating at home, and buying joints of meat while there half price and alcohol while its on offer.

Also, each member of the family gets to have a dinner and pudding of there choice during Xmas week. This could be anything from steak and chips to chicken and mushroom pie. The cost of ingredient's plus the extras mentioned above add about £200 to my regular bill. I don't mind though l doubt we would get one meal out for that. 

weenancyinAmerica

@LotsOfTea - has the water where you work been tested and found to be bad to drink? Or do you not have access to water there? I have never understood why my roommates won't drink our water but will drink the water bottled here.

diminua

I was away last week (Italy with family) so although there was pizza and gorgonzola and wine, that's all holiday budget. Have spent £33.49 since getting back. Almost all on the usual things - coffee, eggs, bread, milk, tomatoes etc. Will pop in the zero waste store on the way home tomorrow for some store cupboard bits (nuts, raisins, pulses), and hopefully a market at the weekend for fruit and veg.  

JingsMyBucket

£10.50 spent at Iceland by Mr. Jings on the way home. We decided to get some 3 for £10 dishes instead of ordering fast food delivery. He also picked up a couple packets of ramen for later in the week that we can doctor with protein and vegetables. 

£49.70 / £70 Week 2 budget spent. 

£20.30 remaining until Nov 14. 

£177.37 budget and £70 bulk budget remaining.