October 2026 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

@mandco, I second what @joedenise has said.

Roasting a whole duck is relatively easy, too. Rub the skin with salt, and !!!!!! it everywhere you can see visible fat. That’ll ensure it renders out of the bird and that the skin gets nice and crisp. At 200C, roast it breast-side up for 40 minutes per kilo. Depending on the size of your roasting pan, you may find it useful to drain the fat out of the pan, part way through.

Gressingham have a free recipe book, which you may find useful.

HTH

-Pip

Changeyourlife25

Can I please up my budget to £500?

£433.56/£500

ouch, I have to, have to, have to stop going to the shops, so much of this is lil corner shop trips for forgotten things or snacks/energy drinks.

I’m still under the £450 goal but with 2 weeks left I thought I’d add extra, try rein myself in.

🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Soontobeoap

I have finally got around to adding up all of October receipts. Can't believe that I am at £152.45 already. However I have gone on a diet and so have bought a few different things including gluten free bread when I usually only have wraps As I am going for something on toast a couple of times this week rather than a huge meal it had to be done! Also have bought a bulk buy of curry sauce and legs of lamb whilst both are an offer as well as a 6. Pk of beans. More stock in than normal so hopefully it will all work out.

mandco

thanks for the duck tips I picked up some of duck breasts on offer in Aldi to try

had a rather spendy weekend

Tesco £89.89 - £7.10 was Xmas stock
Homebargains -£34.37 - £6.15 Xmas stock
Asda £24
Morrisons- can’t find the receipt but think it was around £25
Aldi a whooping £104.52 but that did include 2x duck @ £5,40 & £28.73 on Xmas items including 2x frozen turkey joint, a Black Forest roulade and ingredients for making/decorating Xmas cake
£277.78 to add Regular gc £241.95 / Xmas £42.99 £786.72/£825.

Still need to pick up a few bits from Sainsbury’s later so I’m definitely going to be over again this month as there are still 11 days to go but I have brought some bulk buys & my Xmas stock spend is nearly double what I’d budgeted so while I’m leaving them in for now there is a bit of wiggle room if I adjust those costs.

K9sandFelines

Some spends to report

£2 owed to DD1 who got me some dried Laila chickpeas from S@insburys

I spent £3.81 in HB on pomegranates,oat barista and YS nectarines (forgot I had the frozen peaches in freezer). They were going to be cooked and blended so didn't really matter that they are frozen. I've found a new dish requiring them from Ottolenghi;which was delicious and so simple.

Yesterday, I spent £1.80 at the Co-0p on two green bags and teabags.

Today I've scheduled some food to come later from Uber €ats - all fruit and veg. And because I didn't need it immediately, I got an extra £1.50 off.

So, I've got £7.61 to add plus £8.57, for the Uber €ats

So, £16.18

Edited : £1.20 refund as the bananas were oos, and I didn't see the update to select a substitution.

RedRose61

Another trip to Aldo to pick up milk, fresh fruit and vegetables and some other bits and bobs. It’s turning into a very spendy month! I spent £23.97 and only have £64.77 to last to the end of the month.
Definitely going over this month, but going to aim for it to not be massive!

Finstickle

a few to report from me.

the weekly shop was Lidl this week which I managed for £58.53 including a couple of nice pies for DD & I which will do two nice dinners each. Lidl do some really nice veggie pies which I've always enjoyed so that will be next Sunday's dinner for us. I also stocked up on their sweet chilli marinated tofu as it is so ridiculously good! I don't normally buy the pre-marinated stuff but this is so goo d i ate a whole block for dinner the other night - although that won't help my budget!!

and then just a couple of little stops, £2.58 for tonic water and £1.50 for I can't remember.

Current total:

£319.72/£350

£30 to get to the 28th - as long as I restrain myself it should be doable!

K9sandFelines

I have booked a delivery for tomorrow from S@insburys. I think I did ok as there was a money off voucher; and so even though I paid more, I got extra products than if id gone in-store. Also, it's throwing it down here and I can't manage that distance all the time anymore.

However, I confess I said I'd never go back to Just€at, but I actually had some account credit. So I will take full advantage of claiming that back plus the up to £10 off voucher.

I'm not adding the total yet incase of any missing items.

ancientmum

it's halfway through my grocery month and have spent £74, this includes some tissues and deodorant that were on offer, and ingredients for green tomato chutney. I've not made this before but have about 1kg that I cleared off the bushes last weekend and it seems a shame to waste them. The DS's will have a jar each as part of their Christmas presents.

My bank says. that I have £66 left, as there was a small surplus in September so should be ok for the next two weeks before I get paid. i want to get a bulk order of meat from the butcher next month so I'm eating whatever is in the freezer to make some space.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, I sent my DD to the shops the other day for the few bits I needed, I wasn't specific enough though and she found the most expensive yoghurts MrT stock 😁 of course. However she enjoyed driving there and back (she passed her test last week!) so I will be more specific next time and get her to go because she does stick to the list whereas I'm a nightmare and find myself down candle aisles and toiletries a lot 🙃🫣. So anyway a £9.15 spend (which should have probably been around a fiver without those yoghurts lol)

I'm going to whisper this part, so as not to jinx myself, *I'm doing very well on my budget and have two hundred quid left and only ten days left of October*

Hey @Greying_Pilgrim ! I felt like if I returned to the GC I might behave a bit and get my food bill down which has become our biggest spend aside from the mortgage!! 🤗

Total spends for October to date- £299.41/500