September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

irishwexford

Regarding the problem of 'chatty threads' on here I found it too time comsuming to read so many. I don,t think it is necessary for me to post every save on here just now and again and if have a particular good day with cash. A weekly report on how things are going is enough. I don,t know if we have a thread for those who want to chat about shopping and other things. I found so much useful information on here which has made me a better shopper and stopped food waste in our house I would hate for that to change but never feel the need to chat about other things.;) Thanks to those of you who spend time keeping all this going.:T

jexysbird

Halfway through and have spent £207 ish of my £300 budget, covering all food, household bits such as cleaners and toiletries. I've been bulk buying on things that I know we use and only buying things that have been on offer. I make all meals from scratch for 4 of us and it saves a lot of money, so at the moment I think I'm doing rather well. It does help that I've had meat left over from bulk buys at Makro, but they will only last so long, so budget will prob be more next month, but will try to stick to the £300.

In response to the chatty thread, this is only my second post on this thread as I feel you don't need to update every day/week. It's great to hear how everyone is doing, but tips and chat can be found in other threads. It takes too long to go through them otherwise. Perhaps a weekly total or halfway through the month update would be best.
:j

angelnikki

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm just going to take a look at the thread now, but to be honest Penny and I feel that we can't win with this one. People are leaving the Grocery Challenge because of the chatty posts and we tried to draw up guidelines that would be acceptable to everyone. We gave everyone the oportunity to object to them when they were first posted and no one did.

We have to have some sort of compromise here and that means the GC stays more or less as it was to please some people with posts that are completely irrelevant to the challenge removed to please others.

I had planned to leave putting the guidelines into start of the thread until the start of next month but I'll look at doing it later today.

Sorry if I sound grumpy, I don't mean to but we've tried to reach a compromise and I'm not sure what else we can do. It's probably something to do with the fact that I haven't had my first coffee of the day yet too.

Pink

Maybe if you delete someones posts it would be helpful to send them a PM too so they are aware that they were deleted and why rather than getting confused about it like SFT did.

I think that everyone agrees with the guidelines :T but there's confusion because we didnt realise that the guidelines were being acted on yet, so letting people know that they are will help.

If you need to, you can use my post no2 to put the guidelines on and I'll move the recipe index to post no 7 if that will help?

You and Penny :A have put a lot of work into trying to reach a compromise on this and we do all really appreciate that :T

Nikki xx

Pink.

angelnikki wrote: »

Maybe if you delete someones posts it would be helpful to send them a PM too so they are aware that they were deleted and why rather than getting confused about it like SFT did.

We will try to do that but I'm afraid sending individual pm s isn't always possible if a number of posts have been removed as they were last night. We just don't have the time I'm afraid. What we can definitely do is post an explanation on the thread to say posts have been removed and why and also a quick reminder of the guidelines. I know it's not ideal but would that be ok with everyone?

I think that everyone agrees with the guidelines :T but there's confusion because we didnt realise that the guidelines were being acted on yet, so letting people know that they are will help. I agree completely and it's probably our fault for not making it clearer. I will add to the start of the thread later to say that the guidelines are in place from today.

If you need to, you can use my post no2 to put the guidelines on and I'll move the recipe index to post no 7 if that will help? Thanks, you're a star, but I'll try to work it so your post with the recipe index doesn't need to be moved.

You and Penny :A have put a lot of work into trying to reach a compromise on this and we do all really appreciate that :T
Nikki xx

Penny and I also appreciate all the GC posters who have tried to work with us on solving this. :A :T

I know that change is difficult sometimes but hopefully we'll all settle into it soon and find a way to make the Grocery Challenge thread acceptable to everyone.

Thanks to you all for your input.

Pink

echelon101

International Foods 60g Fresh Ginger = 13p

Gave up on plain porridge

nickynoo08

Hi everyone good to see your all doing so well this month. My month has gone ever so slightly wrong. Firstly i didn't take into accout that i started this month a wk earlier and secondly that my OH was only working basic hrs- ie hes home more therefore consuming MORE food:mad: . Anyway popped to mr t yesterday with my mum. Took £25 incase they had some bargains to be had or any of there value products they were sold out of when i was last there. I ended up spending £22.30 which was not bad when i think i've now got enough value weetabix, bran flakes and choco pop things to last us till the end of oct if not nov! Also stocked up on there value buns, had never tried them before as i'm not keen on there value bread but they arent too bad for 24p. They're just the right size for little un too. Got more milk to freeze n loads of other stuff too so i should have to go shopping now till oct. I have no reason to go anymore over my budget.
Next thing i need to do is my meal planning and batch cooking. Will do that at the wk end tho when OH is out at work so he cant see all the little extras i chuck in to bulk out all my stuff.
Just a quick question on the subject of lentils. I've never tried them but thinking of using them to bulk out my bolognaise. Can u taste or notice them? My OH aint too fussy but believes that spag bol sholud be basic, he has never noticed grated carrot before tho.

fluffyb

I picked up the lenyils trick from here too and though I haven't tried them in spag bol yet, I did put them in a cottage pie last week.

By the time it was ready, they were completely undetectable unless you have someone who scrutinises every mouthful! :rotfl: and you certainly couldn't taste them at all :T and my family are dead fussy :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

Just popping in to say ...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg.............. why is everything getting so expensive? £10 for a gammon joint? (OK, it's advertised at £5 HALF PRICE but still.... wow! My 2008 budget may be blown to smithereens as I've failed this month because of bulk buying, which leaves me only £169.03 for the rest of the year based on an annual grocery budget of £1098. (3 people x £1 per day each inc. toiletries, cleaning & laundry products).

Fluffybishop, my lot can't tell when their spag bol is made with oats

Herewegoagain

Hiya guys,
Budget going quite well, thanks for all your tips which allow me to do this. Have been out blackberrying today, now in the freezer. Lunch HM macaroni cheese followed by the 20p yogurts (thanks guys) Another NSD today.
I for one miss the family atmosphere here, but understand that I am in the minority so will cope

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Everyone just popped in to report a spend of £3.56. This was for some mushrooms and had to get cat food. Go cat is on offer at MrS 2 boxes for £3.40 if anyones interested. Have a good evening all. Don't forget to watch Martin tonight at 7.30pm It pay's to Watch.;)