October 2026 Grocery Challenge

TravelCrystal

Sorry to hear about your eye issues @JingsMyBucket. Hope you feel better soon and on the mend. Our eyesight is so important.
Thanks for the heads up @Suffolk_lass regarding eking out the vanilla. We don’t keep many spirits so we will see. The vanilla bean paste has arrived today c/o Ocado.

Thanks also to @PipneyJane regarding the vanilla bean. I have one in both my castor sugar and granulated always. Only use the granulated when I make some bread recipes and the odd visitor who has sugar in their hot drink.
The shopping arrived with several Christmas items, namely one standard cake (going to the neighbours for safe keeping) and one bar as I can’t resist iced fruit cake 😋Also C pudding going to neighbour but I would be fairly safe without eating that early. His reward will be a slice of each. And a bottle of fizz.

Other things in my delivery which covers 3 weeks supply are eggs, milk, fruit and veg, pizza for lunch, a loaf of bread, a rarity, rolls, panini’s, scouring cloths, fennel seeds and paprika which were from the east end brand to top up. £1.05 and 95p respectively. Mushrooms, mango chutney, potatoes, biscuits and quiche’s. £88.42 spent

Total so far this month of £358.45

Have a good rest of the day all

Quiche and salad for our tea tonight

T.C

LotsOfTea

We had to top up on pretty much everything today so I spent £67.56 in Aldi and another £14.25 in Sainsbury on things we couldn't get elsewhere. One of those was leaf tea which is getting increasingly difficult to find if you don't want fancy varieties but just normal tea.

We're pretty much set up for the next week now apart from needing to buy a baguette at the weekend as we've promised to make a cheese fondue for DS as he's never had one and thinks it looks fun. I'll have to dig out the fondue set from the back of the cupboard and check we've still got some meths from our old camping stove before we got a gas bottle adapter. I've only just thought of that and it didn't cross my mind when I was blithely promising him fondue 😬

I'm up to £138.47/£300 now which I'm happy with for where we're at in the month.

debtfreewannabe321

Hi all, we've had a few shops this week. Really need to get back into doing one shop as we end up picking up more than what we need. But we've noticed fruit isn't lasting very long and some of the veg so we do tend to split our shops now into two a week. But it invariably ends up costing more..also a couple of mini corner shop visits when me or DD have felt down and snacks were needed 🙈🫣.

Anyway I've added them all up.

This week we've spent £131.99 (I think I need to check with DH he hasn't spent any money from his account that I need to add to this.)

So total spends for October so far are £290.26/500

I was hoping it would be less at this point by around £50-60 but it is what it is. I've tried to do bulk cooking so our freezer is full. We've got plenty in our fridge and cupboards so maybe we can eek this out for a while yet with no big shops. I've also made my own laundry detergent which is working well and didn't cost anything. And instead of eating out when hungry we did come home and make lunches. So we've made small savings here and there.

Suffolk_lass

Yes, @debtfreewannabe321, having a freezer week is my go-to when I am in danger of busting my budget. Having swapped the meat into my commercial upright freezer since relocating it into the cart lodge, alongside the chest freezer, I can see what I have, with Mr Sl's much loved orange and lemonade ice lollies (a simple lunch dessert with no fat!) on one shelf with a pack or two of ice cream, and different meats and fish on a shelf each. Meanwhile the chest freezer is stuffed with bags of prepped homegrown produce to keep costs down over winter, and nutritious, organic veg and fruit we know all about, because we grew or foraged it.

It's why I pay extra to have my milk delivered. It removes the temptation of shopping for snacks when I just went for milk - I do indulge in snacks with the occasional visit to the massive warehouse C&C when I go with my friend who is a member. I just don't need that many snacks. The downside is that a big tin of peanuts seems to be seen as a personal challenge by Mr Sl, who consumes moderately massive quantities of snacks when I am in bed, or as now, away, leaving him at home.

I may have to indulge in a variety of winter squashes though - as they are in the shops where mine are in the compost bin. Planted and withered, struggled or just did not fruit properly this year. I do have two massive squashes, one of which is going in a large vat of soup for the village bonfire night.

carboot_karaoke

Morning all,

Another two spends to declare l walked around Lidl with my list and calculator l spent £40.34 so l could use the £5 off a £40 coupon bringing the bill down to £35.34. Then l spent another £51.37 at Tesco.

The shopping consisted of fruit, veg, salad, meat, and several tinned items because, l had a 20% off voucher at Tesco's. The bill was higher then normal because we are having friends for dinner on the weekend so l brought the ingredients for chilli & rice, served with sour cream, grated cheese and tortilla chips (just the avocado to pick up for guacamole) and apple crumble with custard or ice cream x 12 people.

New Totals

Grocery Budget £231.71 / £400

Bulk Fund £33.82 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 265.53 / £450

debtfreewannabe321

@Suffolk_lass The downside is that a big tin of peanuts seems to be seen as a personal challenge by Mr Sl, 

🤣🤣🤣 My DD is the same with crisps. I'm afraid I'm the same with chocolate and DH is the same with biscuits. There's no hope for us here 🙈. And the weeks I say right, no snacks at all, we always cave and go to the local shop! 🙈

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs

I did the shop today in Leedle - didn't spot you there @debtfreewannabe321 ! 😁I too had a £5 voucher to use - but I struggled to meet the £40 spend. I either go massively over, or massively under ☹️ but by some fluke today I managed to spend just over £40 so received the discount.

An app voucher masked the rise in price of tea bags (they were on app offer last week, so I guess that's why they're more expensive this week), but I didn't notice any other price rises (nor falls) on anything else that I purchased. I did use 3 or 4 of my 15% vouchers, and although one of the vouchers this week was for an item I bought for the Harvest Festival FB donation, Leedle do seem a little better at giving one or two vouchers for things I routinely buy. The issue with Leedle is that those things are often OOS so I can't use the voucher anyway. The only thing that i spotted that has now ruled itself out of my budget was pineapple rings. I know it's a big tin, but £1.89 is too much. Co-incidentally I opened my last tin of pineapple today - my kiddo better savour those chunks in their packed lunch! 😁

It was a pretty routine shop, with a couple of things earmarked for 'self-catering' on our holiday. The only thing I noticed today, that I've not seen before (and it may just be down to not routinely in that area of the shop), was a 1L carton of evaporated milk. I was buying the tins ('tis tattie soup season! 🥰), and noticed the carton. I don't use evap milk enough to purchase the carton - but I'm not sure I've seen it before? It's supposed to be good for 2 days after opening, according to the pack.

£34.34 to add to the grocery budget line, and 85p to the non-food line.

Greying X

TravelCrystal

@Greying_Pilgrim, I’ve bought big tins of fruit before and put what I don’t need immediately in the freezer

T.C

joedenise

@Greying_Pilgrim - I would think that the evap could be frozen in useable quantities. I freeze coconut milk in silicon muffin pans - each holds about 100ml and once frozen I just add them to a freezer bag and can take out what I need. Rather than buying Light coconut milk I just buy the normal and pour into a jug and add a can of water to it and mix thoroughly so get 800ml of Light coconut milk for the price of a 400ml can of full fat. Would think you could do the same with evaporated milk to use like normal milk.

Greying_Pilgrim

Ooooh, thanks @joedenise - I never gave that a thought. I mean, for my purposes (soup mostly, or maybe slo-cooker pasta sauce), a can is normally enough, but the carton may well be an option. I already freeze coconut milk, so it'd be very similar, I agree. mmm, I shall give that a consideration, and a try, I think. Thanks for posting.

@TravelCrystal - we usually use an opened tin of fruit in a timely fashion, so I don't know if I'd bother freezing it. I was just amazed at the cost. The pineapple chunks (smaller can - and possibly less fruit when drained etc) was £1.29 (I think), - the rings just seemed so much more costly. There must be a reason, failed harvest or something, but it's just something that has gone off my shopping list for the time being.

Greying X