September 2008 Grocery Challenge. Please read first two posts.

ifonlyitwaseasier

well i can't remember what i've got in my sig i'll have to edit to put my declaration in. EDIT : thats it. £138.88 spent for Sept

have started october already as am going payday to payday, 25th to 24th. spent £26.34 this morning in MrT and used some gift card in m&s but i'm not counting that as without the giftcard i wouldn't have spent anything in there

ioiwe x

Herewegoagain

Hiya all,
I'm going to set myself a personal challenge within the GC one for Oct and attempt to use up as much as poss in the house with little/no shopping:eek: :eek:

This is just so you can all kick me up the *um if I spend tooo much (MRS Mc I will keep the same amount, and try not to spend it:rotfl: :rotfl: )

Good luck to all

HWGA xx

MRSMCAWBER

Herewegoagain wrote: »

Hiya all,
I'm going to set myself a personal challenge within the GC one for Oct and attempt to use up as much as poss in the house with little/no shopping:eek: :eek:

This is just so you can all kick me up the *um if I spend tooo much (MRS Mc I will keep the same amount, and try not to spend it:rotfl: :rotfl: )

Good luck to all

HWGA xx

Im doing the same thing :j ... I literally can't wedge another thing in the freezers :eek: and its not for the want of trying ... This month I have bought very little for the freezer but with the free blackberries n apples and the amazing amount of tomatoes I grew -there is still no room in there
I am hoping to stick to buying

• Milk
• fresh yeast -only 9c for 3 loaves worth;)
• a bit of veg -although I recently got 10 kilo cabbage for €2/£1.60, 10 kilo potatoes €2.49, 10 kilo onions €1.79
• and possibly a bit of fruit..although I have plenty of tinned in the basement "winter store"

So i will keep an eye on you if you keep an eye on me ..My biggest task will be resisting buying more stuff for the winter store

cheerfulness4

Think I declared for September but might be wrong - if so my final amount for September was: £100.40 an annoying £25.40 over spend but at least I got the soap powder for the rest of the year at cheap as chips prices!

My aim for October is £100

Well done all those that stayed within budget! :T

cw18

Right, I'm going to join you all and play along for October if I may.

I'm only including food for myself, my husband and my teenage son for this first month -- no cleaning or personal hygiene items, and no pet food -- but am including the cost (either paid as Whoopsie!/special offer if I know that, or replacement if I don't) of everything I use from my freezers/fridge/cupboards that's already in there.

I've kept track of everything I've spent on food so far in September, and everything I've used for main meals (whether bought or from stock) -- and have just had great fun marrying the two up to see how much I actually used from stock.

The 'used' figures don't actually include herbs/spices, gravy granules or spread used in cooking meals (other than spread used when making a white sauce), nor pickles, chutneys and ketchups. There's also nothing for cereals (didn't buy any, and don't know what I started with to calculate what has been used), and I'm not sure how many tins of things (tuna/salmon/corned beef/fruit) hubby has opened for lunches and snacks as I didn't stock take at the end of last month.

So my job for Tuesday (last day of this month) is to do a 'complete as possible' stock take, so I can then repeat the exercise at the end of October and figure exactly what's been used from the cupboards etc.

My average for September (so far) has come in at £5.08/day, but for 9 days I was also catering for my elder son (home on leave). I've decided not to try adjusting for this before coming up with a figure for next month -- mainly 'cos I can only deduct the cost of his cooked meals with any degree of confidence.

So, my sums have worked like this....

31 days at £5.08/day = £157.48 for October
but I've not included cereals, marmalades, gravy granules and spread (nor the tins etc hubby has opened) in there that could amount to a few quid
so if I round up to £5.50/day the total would be £170.50 for October

So I'm going to roughly split the difference and aim for

£165 for October

I'd ideally like to get to a lower level than that as a regular spend (or to include cleaning/hygiene into this figure) due to a major drop in income, but as recently as the first half of 2006 I could spend at least twice that in a month just on my 'main' grocery shopping, with additional bits then added on by myself and hubby, and then loads of supermarket sandwiches, crisps, sweets and biscuits for me on work days meaning we probably spent about 3 times that :eek:

So I'll be happy if I can stick to this figure next month with enough confidence to drop it down a bit for November

leebarton

I am going to be awkward and not declare until Tuesday as I am running by a calendar month. I think it will be about £400 at the end. Although this is well over I am not too worried as I now know every penny spent.

Next month I would like to have a target of £300 please to include all groceries, toiletries and cleaning products.

I even have the other half throwing lentils in as standard now! :rotfl: :T

taka

Well I failed miserably this month :eek: Its the first time I have done since winter and I really noticed the price rises :mad: September GC spends £145.75 Argh!!!!! £20.75 over budget

Please put me down for £137.60 for October. Thanks!

Anzac_Biscuit

I too have failed miserably in my new food-and-entertainment budget:eek: It's been a disaster month for spending.
I'm declaring at 232.54 for September

Can I please be put down for 200 quid for October - 100 for food (which seemed to work ok) and 100 for other stuff.

I'll be aiming to put any extra funds into paying back the savings I had to raid this month! :T

fallen_angel_shelley

I declaring £156.24p for September.

is the link up for October yet?

MRSMCAWBER

Hi FallenAngel

I think It is starting up tomorrow