October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

cookinmummy · 29 September 2008 at 2:30PM

Mrs M can you please put me down for £250 this month?

I have stopped tallying September's as I think I was £62 over in the end!:o Not a good month!

Determined to be good this month and money is tighter as we approach Christmas and holidays etc.:rolleyes:

tirlittan · 29 September 2008 at 2:37PM

Oh my god I feel embarrased to be here

. Single person maybe once a week cooking for bf ( and then having breakfast and dinner at least once a week at his) and I was wondering if I could manage with £100 for food,toiletries and household stuff for the coming month. And then I see people wanting to spend that on 2 people + pets...or less for families of 4/5. I think I have a lot to learn of frugal living. Well, will certainly inspire me to do my utmost best to keep to my target and NOT going over it. It's a long month though... I have loads of lentils and beans though so if I keep using them, making some soups etc, surely I can keep under my target. I'll promise to try my best.

mumzyof2 · 29 September 2008 at 2:37PM

Spent about £2.30 in hampsons today. Not good for 1st day of month and already eating out!

Pengwern16 · 29 September 2008 at 2:58PM

As I'm no longer living on my own, and cooking for 2 people, please put me down for £100 for all groceries which includes breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.
I will keep a record of what I actually spend from Wednesday onwards, as I may be way out!
Wish me luck
x

princess_leia_3 · 29 September 2008 at 3:42PM

Woo hoo :j a shiny new thread, I have my first Mr T delivery coming later so will change sig then but I am gonna go for £250 this month please, I have loads in so it should be easy :rolleyes:
I did put my meal plan on the thread the other day but I might just have a looksie at the ones on here that do the whole month as I think that will work better for me

leebarton · 29 September 2008 at 3:45PM

I have done a meal plan for the month, and I struggled to spend £50 at Mr T to use a voucher! I am hoping to come in well under my £300 target as I bought a Tefal Actifry for £117 inc del. It arrived this morning so hubby and I had egg and chips for lunch. It was amazing because you cook frozen chips without any oil at all! When deciding whether to buy it or not (big outlay of money for gadget!) we thought about the fact that we would spend £15 on a Saturday night at the chippy every week. It won't take long to pay for itself.

I am looking forward to October to see how much better we can do with the challenge.

angelatgraceland · 29 September 2008 at 4:09PM

katiejones wrote: »

thanks for this thread i need it lol. can i be put down for £250. This is for a family of five. But do i include all toiletries etc as well (nappies, wipes etc) just so i have it clear in my head. thankyou

Hi Katie. Not sure if you are new to the thread-if its your first GC or not? Well if it is, I wouldn't cut it down too low. I also dont know ages of your family but Im guessing maybe you have 3 little ones? Personally I wouldnt include the nappies, wipes etc but its really up to you how you do this-we all have our own ways on here. Nappies and wipes arent too easy to cut back on as they are so necessary. Is this a 5 week month for you? Better to allow too much at first and then cut back otherwise you get left with a sense of failure. Try to make your own babyfood and so forth-though you may already do that. Keep to own brands for the the baby stuff unless its a special offer. Try to stock up on bogofs. Good luck!

donnajt wrote: »

and probably really dump q - do you cube the corn beef or bung it in whole?

Just in case you are in a hurry-I would either slice it or cube it. The fat in the corned beef will melt into the mixture anyway so it's not that important which way you do it.

Ive just used up my blackberries from last year and a couple of cooking apples from the tree along with some wholemeal flour and oats for the crumble. Also have a bread and butter pudding in the oven so Ive used up the remnants of loaves left in the breadbin.
Was hoping to have the chicken kievs tonight but one is missing! On questioning DH on the phone at work he microwaved it to a burnt crisp yesterday while I popped out! What a darn waste! Anyway Ive now found some breaded chicken in the freezer to make up for the missing portion so I can now mealplan for today and tomorrow anyway.
Chicken kiev,mashed potatoes and baked beans tonight.
Pork chop,mashed pots and green beans/or broad beans tomorrow with the deserts which are now in the oven. I dare not plan much further ahead as one or other of them is sure to destroy the plans.
Maybe a vege lasgne for Weds-we shall see!

katiejones · 29 September 2008 at 4:22PM

angelatgraceland wrote: »

Hi Katie. Not sure if you are new to the thread-if its your first GC or not? Well if it is, I wouldn't cut it down too low. I also dont know ages of your family but Im guessing maybe you have 3 little ones? Personally I wouldnt include the nappies, wipes etc but its really up to you how you do this-we all have our own ways on here. Nappies and wipes arent too easy to cut back on as they are so necessary. Is this a 5 week month for you? Better to allow too much at first and then cut back otherwise you get left with a sense of failure. Try to make your own babyfood and so forth-though you may already do that. Keep to own brands for the the baby stuff unless its a special offer. Try to stock up on bogofs. Good luck!

quote]

thanks for all your help - i usually have £60 pw for the shopping -yes its a five weeker for us so have only dropped want i usually spend by a tenner a week. (hopefully can squirell (sp) that away for christmas) No not three little ones - 15yrs old, 6yrs old and a 2yr old they all eat the same meals. Have started to do weekly menus and that seems to help, but any tips always gratefully recieved. Again thankyou

SuziQ · 29 September 2008 at 4:26PM

Sorry I didn't fill my spends out in September,have been unwell and also hectic getting my daughter off to Uni. Buying stuff for her to take I found it impossible to work out what I was actually spending for this challenge.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.........!

Starting again for Oct,but now she has left am going to drop my target to £160.(This is for me,2 children 1 of whom eats like an adult,and 2 greedy cats!)I know it's not a mega drop,but as she has virtually nothing to live on I still need to be getting food for her,and whilst I try to do the bogof-one for her,one for us!-there's lots of stuff I get for her which is not usually on an offer. I am going to be ultra-careful writing every single penny down Oct as I did when I first started the grocery challenge,as I know that it really did make a difference.

So,please put me down for

£160 for October,thankyou!

wendywitch · 29 September 2008 at 4:51PM

I've been away so long now doing other things but I'm back now

Put me down for £250 hopefully it won't be that much though

I'll never get around to reading all the September posts I've missed so I'll start on this one and delete Septembers from my list.

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October 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

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