October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

A bit late but can I have a target of £100 again for October please. Must go read the new rules - thanks for keeping the thread going and all the hard work you all put in re-organising it.
TF

cw18 wrote: »

If you were freaked by my budget before, then I hope you'll not be a nervous wreck after this post......

When I calculated my figure I took everything I spent in September (currently £118.72) and added to that the value of things I'd used from stock (a further £31.03) -- so a total of £149.75 divided by 30 (days in Sept) and multiplied by 31 (days in October). This gives me £154.75, but doesn't include cereals (hadn't bought), pickles, sauces, gravy granules, hebs/spices, or a few tins hubby has taken without me noting down. So I rounded it to £165

BUT -- I've just realised that over £19 worth of what I bought is still in the cupboards or (mostly) freezer. So that means my sums should be £130.59 / 30 * 31, which gives me £134.95. So if I then add on the extra tenner (and pennies) for the "missing" items.....

MrsMac -- sorry to be a pain -- please can you adjust my budget down to £145 for the month :eek: This won't include anything I buy and haven't touched by the end of October (but items on BOGOF or similar will count in total even if I only open one of the items - else I wouldn't have got the special deal price!)

You are a secret mathemetician! Now I could do it that way but its not for me. At the end of the day if we are doing the challenge month in,month out, it seems enough to just calculate the weekly or monthly spends. I would do well this week if I did it your way as goodness knows what the value of my cupboard foods are! Hundreds at a guess! And Ive used very little of what Ive bought this week.
Oh I like an easy life!
I stocked up this week at Tesco so have lots of store cupboard stuff. Not worked much so no sneaking out to the shops lunchtime so very little to write in my spending diary. I Think its about £80 on food for this week off the top of my head-more than the weeks budget but as its averaged over the month it balances out well. I actually underspent that amount last month so Im happy with that.We had a cheap tea tonight of pasta with homemade bolognaise sauce-no mince-we used some cooking bacon and cheese. Well DD made it so it was extra yummy as she cooked and washed up. Always tastes better when there's no work involved.
Got enough milk bread and veg certainly until Monday or Tuesday so I must stay away from the shops. Got the breadmix for 27p in Tesco and bought 6 of them also got a couple of spongecake mixes-not sure if that was a good is idea but I shall see what I think of them for 23p? or 27p each.
2 1/2 kilo spuds was only 64p thats the value ones. I had a lot of shopping for my money-I do believe price wars are starting again.
Value mushrooms were down to £1.11. No sign of 5p curry (Ive still got 10 jars anyhow)but rice has also come down to about 79p a kilo(value) but Ive still got about 4 kilos from way back! Working tomorrow but no lunch break so I must make sure I don't do detours on my way home. Trouble is-I'm addicted to bargains foodwise and I am feeding an army aren't I???
Oh the value toms in Tesco are 49p for 6 but a much bigger tub with about twice the amount are only 69p so a much better buy. These weren't in the same part as all the other toms tho-they were on an end facing.(the end of the aisle).

Morning all

Well chicken in slow cooker great success, lovely tea last night for very little work. Seven hours on auto- seemed to do the trick! Got enough bits of chicken to do risotto on Sun night and froze half to do something else with later. Then (got idea off slow cooker quick q.s thread) put carcass in slow cooker overnight with juices, celery, onions etc overnight on low and woke up to chicken stock all made this morning .

Off to have breakfast then bargain hunting at NCT Nearly New Sale (am helping out so get first dibs of bargains). Anyone who doesn't know great place for kids clothes toys and equipment. Xmas pressie and winter clothes shopping!

Will let dh make vat of soup with stock, I'll put the bm on now!

See you later
Smetf

angelatgraceland wrote: »

You are a secret mathemetician! Now I could do it that way but its not for me. At the end of the day if we are doing the challenge month in,month out, it seems enough to just calculate the weekly or monthly spends. I would do well this week if I did it your way as goodness knows what the value of my cupboard foods are! Hundreds at a guess! And Ive used very little of what Ive bought this week.

Ah well, but I want to run down my stocks as a lot of what we have in isn't stuff I'd buy any more (too expensive). So if I ran a budget of £130 (plus stock items) now, then in a few months I'd have to increase it considerably. The way I'm doing it now means that the 'from stock' costs should slowly dwindle down to almost negligble, at which point I can change to just what I buy in line with everyone else -- and keep the budget the same, so no major temptation to spend at the start of the month just 'cos I've got an increase

Hi Folks,

Hope everybody is well.

Went for my weekly shop last night and it came to £12.38. Bringing my total for the month to £37.95 out of £60. So I have £22.05 left for the rest of the month. I think I can do it but it will be close.

Money Fritter