November 2008 Grocery Challenge

russetred

I'm declaring £388.34 for October, must remember when its a 5 week month and up my total.Still only £48.34 over for the other week. so not too bad.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Everyone just popping in to update figures.
Mrs Mc could you put me down for £180 for November. Going to lower by another £10. October spends have finalised at £175.35 so under budget. Good luck to everyone else.

katie2407

well yesterday was pay day for me so started for nov
went into morrisons was looking for wicker baskets for both DIL xmas hamper
go some nice baby carrots reduced down to 25p, cabbage down to 9p with milk, coffee and a few other thing total came to £5.38 .
tomorrow I will check cupboards and freezers to see what is in there then mealplan for the next 2 week then write a list of things I need or go online and order

Hollysan

Hello everyone, and good luck to you all in November.

Mrs M, please put me down for £350 for November, please.

Mumolulu, we are veggie and eat a lot of red lentils. They are the ones which disappear and therefore very useful. We use them for soups and sauces. eg veggie spag bol - make exactly the same as with meat, but fry off onion and garlic, then add VERY finely chopped mushroom (average packet) and a handful of red lentils, then toms, some water and herbs. Cook it all down and add more water if necessary. If you have a splash of red wine that's good too. I also keep carrots, onions and celery as the basis for minestrone, meals with pasta, cous cous and rice. They all keep well and you will never run out of options!

We have a GIGANTIC credit card bill to pay this month :eek: due to having to buy clothes (yes, you do run out eventually!) shoes and two mistakes by the credit card co. Don't ask. So it will be hand to mouth in November, and we must do better than last month...

Hollysan

Swishy_bell

Decided to do a cash budget this month as it's my fisat go at the grocery challange. Going to take £200 cash out tonight so we can see exactly how mcuh we have spent. We did this earlier in the year but for everything we spent just getting an amount out each week and only spending that but found we were really bad when it came to things like clothes so went over all the time. Hoping as this is more specific it will work better. Find it really hard to keep track of how much we spend on money as dh and me share all our money and do equal amounts of shopping, means no one person is keeping track on what we have spent so you end up thinking you have spent half as much!
Anyone else find this? any other suggestions as to how to address it. dont really want to have to sit down every night and dicuss what we spent money on each day, not terribly romantic in our precious ds free time!

rosieben

Swishy_bell wrote: »

... any other suggestions as to how to address it. dont really want to have to sit down every night and dicuss what we spent money on each day, not terribly romantic in our precious ds free time!

I don't think its possible to get control of spending without checking receipts or spends book to see exactly where your money goes. I keep all my receipts and once a month I tot up and check what I've been spending on (all spends, not just GC).. It doesn't take that long really, and you can add as much or as little detail as you want to.

It's a real eye opener, I promise you!

Most people have separate budgets for clothes, entertaining, pets, booze, whatever suits them. For the GC, you'll be separating your grocery spending from everything else presumably? I include all food, toiletries, cleaning in my GC budget HTH

PurpleSkies

Just declared in the October thread. After having a terrible month with lots of extra spends (for party, etc) I'm going to try my hardest to come in under budget in November!

It was only really my last shop that pushed me over the edge when I went in to pick up some cereal and spent a fortune but did get a 24 pk of roll for 10p! So they're in the freezer at the mo and will hopefully last me a good long while!

Also on the hunt for some cheap, filling meals to keep me warm during this horrible weather we're getting just now. So if anyone has any recommendations I'd be glad to hear them!

Scenic_Route

Hello!

can you put me down for £150 for November please?


cheers

SR

cazzab_2

Hi - could you put me down for £200 please for my first attempt?

Free_in_Three

Hi

This will be my first go at the challenge. Please put me down for £280 for food, tolietires, take aways etc for me, the OH and 2 dogs.

Ususally spend £300 plus but starting IVA this month so want to spend as little as possible.

Good luck everyone