September 2026 Grocery Challenge

weenancyinAmerica

I'm always amazed at how well our shoppers are doing. I'm supposed to be buying food just for me - but several people are being fed by my shopping. I need to sit down and work out a plan for the month, but prices keep going up so fast. I won't have a car for my next shop, so I am looking into having the first shop of the month delivered and then trying the small shops by bus. Just need to figure those other people in (3 of them).

JingsMyBucket

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82133110#Comment_82133110

What are you planning with the pork dripping @dollypeeps? Do tell, please.

dollypeeps

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82133786#Comment_82133786

@JingsMyBucket It’s what I cook my roasts in, so tomorrow it will be for roast chicken and roastie potatoes. Mind you I may just need to have a little spread on a slice of thick bread and butter. The brown jelly is rather 😋 😂

Soontobeoap

@ jingsmybucket to be fair I bought 1kg of 12% fat beef and 1 kg of lean pork and cooked them all together.

JingsMyBucket

@Soontobeoap oh that's definitely a fair starting point though but like I said, I'm always impressed by your stretching abilities. 🙂

@dollypeeps do you mean your roast potatoes or even your roasted chicken you're slathering in pork dripping? I'm nosy because now I'm having holiday cooking ideas…

thriftwizard

@weenancyinAmerica, I see you! I never quite know how many I'm feeding at the weekends (and we're always feeding one extra for free) and it does make budgeting, and life in general, less predictable & more of a challenge. More power to your elbow, as we say!

I'm panicking a bit now; was called up for grandparenting duties yesterday, as dgd2 was too poorly for nursery after a really nasty tummy bug, so missed our weekly street market & have had to replenish the larder from the local shops & supermarket. So what would normally have set me back around £70-80 has actually cost me £109.08 - eeek! So now I have just over £60 per week left. This is actually entirely do-able, if not easy, as long as a) the family don't all descend en masse on either of the remaining weekends, which isn't that likely, and b) I can keep OH's cravings for UPFs under control - sadly also not very likely. However he does have a heart review coming up so I can try to use that to influence him. Luckily there's loads of produce I can make into HM temptations to keep his mind off sausage rolls, lavish pizzas & the like, but he's still a bit stuck in the "it says it's low fat" headspace.

dollypeeps

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82134035#Comment_82134035

@JingsMyBucket I put the tub of dripping in my roasting tin/tray. I then stuff the chicken and with the jelly part of the dripping, I rub it over the chicken itself. Put foil over the top or put the lid on, depending on which I tin I use.

Once the dripping has melted, likely 1/2 hour or so, then I add the peeled, raw potatoes to the tin making sure they’re well coated in the melted dripping. Again after about 1/2 hour, I take the tin back out and turn the spuds making sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the tin. Take the foil/lid off for the last 20 mins to crisp the skin.

HTH

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon everyone,

My apologies @JingsMyBucket for being incredibly late joining the thread this month. Although l haven't been on the forum l have kept all my receipts. So far this month l have spent £199.29, this incudes £33.49 on bulk items such as, toiletries and 3 x coffee while it was half price and also earned me extra Tesco clubcard points.

Grocery Budget £165.80 / £400

Bulk Fund £33.49 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 199.29 / £450

Greying_Pilgrim

£1.19 added to my grocery expenditure. I bought a bag of the seabr00k sweetcorn flavoured crisps from the home of bargains yesterday. I'm guilty of being moved by advertising, having read an article about their re-introduction. There was one pack left, so I thought we would try them. They are quite 'sweet', and if you think about it, you can tell it is sweetcorn flavour. Don't think I'll make a habit of buying them, but worth a try. The other things I bought yesterday were non-food and therefore from a different budget.

We did go to T3sco's today, to use the second £2 off a £20 spend voucher we have, but it was to buy clothing, so again, doesn't count in my grocery budget. We have 'restocked' the clothing items now, so I may have a think about if I can make next weeks grocery purchases work from t3scos. My offers from Sainsbugs and even Leedle, are somewhat underwhelming, so it may be the week to swap stores.

Because we were late in from an appointment last night, I used 2 of the pizzas i had bought under the c0op pizza/icecream deal for £5. The margherita pizzas are 'ok' (I've eaten worse cheese and tommie pizzas), but I wasn't particularly impressed with the spinach and ricotta pizza. Not awful, but not memorable either.

Greying X

Soontobeoap

£14 15 added today. Just for basics + a 6 bag of crisps.