November 2008 Grocery Challenge

findingmyfeet

hi all,
not posted much in october but still been trying and failing this last month. Declaring october at £366.78. Overspend but been buying foodstuff for two xmas hampers for my gran and mil, got about a third of what i need for them.

MRS MC CAN YOU PUT ME DOWN FOR £400 FOR NOVEMBER PLEASE.

Heavy month this time. five week month, collecting more stuff for xmas box and hampers plus doing a family party at home for an 18th birthday, just hope i can come in close have to watch all those little pennies closely.
good luck all, will catch up on posts shortly.

christmas lunch around here is a small turkey crown and a piece of pork loin. New years day we have a leg of lamb.

queen_of_string

£200 again for me please I will continue to use any surplus at the month end to do stockpiling (over £35 last month). Only change is this month I will be including takeaways, too tempting to get one and "cheat" the GC budget ( only cheating myself really).

izoomzoom

Hiya, have been away for about 6 months, and although I have kept quite a tight rein on things, I don't know for sure how much we are spending, and being about £500 down on income this month (DH was sick for two weeks) things are very tight, and I have no money left over for food. Though I don't want to add to the cc, we have to eat.:mad:

This time last year we were spending about £200/month, but by May it seemed to have crept up to £250/month. Can anyone give me an indication if £250 is still a realistic figure ??? Based on whatever replies I get, I may change the budget, but in the meantime MrsMC can you put us down for £250 for November. Many thanks

cw18

izoomzoom - whether or not £250 is realistic depends on a lot of things.

How many people is it for (I'm feeding 3)

Do you have time to go hunting Whoopsie items (assuming you live in an area where this pays off -- which I do)

Do have large supermarkets in easy reach, or do you have to rely on corner shops that tend to be more expensive (I have 2 within a fews mins of home, and another - cheaper - one I will walk the 3.5 mile round trip for as long as it's not chucking it down. We also have 2 of the chain 'discount' stores between the local shops and the one further away)

Do you use the high end labels (I'm down to only a couple we won't give up)

Are you including cleaning and hygiene products, or pet food, or nappies (I'm hoping to include the former into the same level of budget in November as I set October excluding them, but pet food is a totally seperate budget and will stay that way - and no need for the last as my "baby" is 17 now )

Do either of you buy lunches at work (the only one here out for any lunches is DS on some of his college days, and he's paying for those from his EMA - this also means I can budget for 2 or 3 snack meals less a week for him than for DH or myself)

Do you have any 'grow your own' produce to eek it out (I don't, apart from some cooking apples from my Dad)

Do have have full freezers and cuboards you can base meals around -- and will you be counting what you buy or what you use (I'm counting what I use, as some things I bulk buy for 2 or 3 months at a time when they're on special offer)

I set a budget of £145 for October, and whilst I still need to do a final reckoning I'm fairly confident I'm well under budget - so I'm also going to see how it held up if I'd included the cleaning and hygiene items we used !!!



I've seen people with higher budgets, and I've seen people with lower budgets -- it really is all down to personal choice and circumstances

But if £250 is less than you think you've spent in the last couple of months, then I'd say "go for it"...... and best of luck

If you feel you need to look at reducing it later, then do so in baby steps

It's taken me just over 2 years to get down from about £120-£150 a week to the £145 a month I'm now allowing myself -- but up until 2 years ago I rarely had chance to check the markdowns which I've found make a huuuuuge difference to my bill......

kj*daisy

I'm going for £300 again, includes takeaways and meals out. Got DD's birthday party to do out of that amount this month as well!

sashanut

Hi all
Have not been around much this week due to have a little job that took me out every day round our local area - hopefully I will get paid for it soon; although I don't know how much!!!
Due to this I was able to visit the small MrTs near us & found a bargain I think in the freezer aisle. Don't know if it will be in your branch, but they had 1.5kg bags of free-flow frozen lamb mince (not value) for £1.22 a bag. It said on the shelf edge 'clearance' so it may be a product they are not stocking any more. I haven't used it before but at that price couldn't turn it down. Lamb recipes anyone??

Also noticed that lots of folk had beer in their trolleys - they were selling 15 x 440ml cans of Stella Artois lager for £5 (£6.50 off it said) limited to 2 per customer. Well, we bought 2 lots as it will come in handy for Christmas & DDs18th bday just after.....not sure if it is on offer in every Mr Ts but worth knowing about I think.

applemella

well...budget completely went out of the window in Oct.I managed to trap a finger on my right hand in a door at work which resulted in a lacerated and broken finger and have been unable to use my hand much and yes am right handed!
This meant loads of stick in the oven stuff which works out so expensive.
Fortunately stitches are now out so I am able to peel veg again now as long as I watch I don't catch my finger.
Hoping to get back on track this month.
Wanted to second the use of soya mince to stretch beef mince. Have tried both oats and lentils and my fussy lot would not eat it.They didn't notice the soya mince and actually wanted seconds of the lasagne I made with a bulked out bolgnaise mix.

JAMIEDODGER

Im in for this month:) Please put me down for £200. My month is 1st-30th November and will include all groceries, snacks, sweeties, pet feed, toiletries and cleaning products!

Have spent more than ive wanted to lately on these things, not a huge amount but i have noticed it creeping up. Would really love to be able to put all money saved (if i come in under budget) in my ISA. This is more of an incentive for me that way.

Good luck everyone:D

Barneysmom

Gosh, I was only away for 2 days!! :rotfl:

Mrs M can you opuit me down for £180 this month please, I've got DH's birthday next week and he needs a treat.

princess_leia_3

In an effort to stick to my GC budget easier I am getting one of those pre-paid cashplus cards, I will transfer over my budget and then we can only use that for groceries. At the moment, we are using money from here there and everywhere and its so hard to see how much we have left
I will have to keep a £10 back in my purse to use in the local greengrocers etc but I can use a compartment to keep that separate!
Need to pop out for some F&V and milk later and helping out to do some gardening at the school this afternoon!