November 2008 Grocery Challenge

Sunny_Donny

morning all from a wet and cold doncaster!!! Sunny - NOT!!! but bits of blue sky over the backs so it should be nicer later..... she says in hope as she has the washer going at the mo...
Had Asda delivery last night of £70.68, but only £65.37 is for food/drink. I bought 3 cream throws at £1.97 each to attach to unlined curtains to keep the warmth in a bit more.
Off to town in a bit to Farmfoods for their £1 bottles of milk and to get my hair cut - can't see through the fringe. Will update later when I'm back

catnap53

Having just scraped in under for October (5 weeks) I will keep the same for November 250 please MrsM.

Although I have been doing payday to payday, as it was so late in October I am going to stretch November's to the end of the month, 4 and a half weeks, but effectively 5 as that is the number of (expensive) weekends, (including my birthday), I rarely shop in the week now.

I used to pass both a Tesco extra and Asda on my way home and as DH used to finish work at 3, it was better for me to call in as I was passing, saving making a special trip and being at the right time for whoopsies.

Now he works late, I only pass shops that are closed when I finish, and need to get home to start the evening meal (that he also used to do).

Have been to Sainsbury's, haven't shopped there for years, it is only a small one, and spent 12.91, Cravendale was on offer at 2 for 2.50, Muller corners 4 for 1 pound.

Good luck this month everyone.

Zzzz

Sorry about the font size, changed back to the wrong one after total and can't edit it out now. Oops, yes I can.

[Deleted User]

Just back from Mr T's
and have only spent £2.82 on red lantils and a bag of grated cheese at 1.98 for 500gms.The cheese I thought was very good value as its mild ,so my youngest DGS (4)can digest it, and it works out at one and a quarter poud for less that 2 quid.I wouldn't normally have looked at it but checking the prices by weight has become a bit of a thing for me I'll let you know what its like I do like a jacket spud sometimes for lunch with a bit of grated cheese on top. I bought the lentils as I have a fair bit of mince to use up in the freezer and I thought it will streeetch my 12oz portions to at least a lb with a handful of lentils thrown in.I intend to make some individual lasagnes and maybe some sheppards pies for the freezer next week. I have so much stuff still left in my freezer I am glad that I won't be doing a lot of shopping this month as I really do want to defrost my freezer before Christmas/New Year as the supermarkets usually have some good deals left over to freeze.This helps during Jan/Feb when the months are seemingly longer and the bills bigger ,plus of course I don't get out as much during the frosty times because of my walking disability.Forward planning is the key i think.

nickynoo08

Morning everyone, did my first shop of the month last night. Spent £29.68. Only did a small top up shop as i had little un with me and it was quite late, still should have enough in now to last me. I've decided i'm going to give meal planning a go with what i've got in n the stuff i just bought here's what i've come up with so far....

gnocchi bake - already had gnocchi in bought some mozzarella
pasta bake - suprised i already had all stuff in
mac cheese - again all stuff in
mince n dumplings - all stuff already had
spag bol - bought pasta sauce
chicken dinner - all stuff in
potatoe bake with garlic chicken - all stuff in

writting this list has really shocked me. I thought i had nowt in n i've got loads more i can make on top of list. Just need to convince OH on meal planning now. He's still in the habit of helping himself or popping to garage to buy a ready made sarnie when we've got all stuff in:mad: , he's getting better tho.

KAAT_LADY

GOOD MORNING ALL

Went to Mr As yesterday and spent £29.13 but in that I bought 5 pairs of mens trousers plus a load of shopping The trousers were down to £2 and £4 each. they will make great xmas pressie for DS1
Sugar Puffs were down also 2for £2 or one for £1,85 also got cornflakes ,,,2lots of cheese ,,,muesli.. porridge ,,and pasta so I didnt do bad with that price i dont think

Well off now toupdate siggie
btw made all this this year with the help of the GC and Ol Style and am very grateful
PICKLES
Pick a lily 7x2.5lb jars ,1x4lb jar,1x2lb jar
Mixed Pickle 3 small kilner jars ,,2x1lb jars
Gherkins 2 x1lb jars
Red tomato & Onion Chutney 4x1lb jars
Green tomato chutney 5 x1lb jars plus 1x4lb jar
Tomato Sauce 2x1lb jars
Pickled Onions 2 x1lb jars, ,plus 1x3lb jar
Red Cabbage 4x7lb jars
Hot red cabbage 1x2lb jar
Spicy Apple Chutney 1x1lb jar plus 1xmed kilner jar
Yellow Tomato Chutney !x med kilner jar
Spiced Pickle Onions 1x3lb jar

JAMS
Strawberry Jam 8x1lb jars
Strappleberry Jam 1x1lb jar
Raspberry jam 1x2lb jar
Pineapple Marmalade 1x2lb jar
Pineapple Jam 2x1lb jars

thanks again,,all this and saving money as well who would want more

*BigBird*

Morning GCers Just posted my October total over on the other thread, just squeaked in under budget

My November budget is only a little over 10 hours old, but I’ve already spent over a third of it!:eek: Did my first shop last night (I know that was still technically October for me, but I HATE shopping on a Saturday and going out in the cold last night was preferable to getting up at the crack of dawn to beat the crowds). Anyhoo, I now have a lot of the ingredients we need for this month’s meal plan and also a few bits for Christmas. Also stocked up on a few things that were on offer, like OH’s earl grey teabags, which will probably last well into next year. So although it seems like I’ve spent a lot already, I’m happy with where I am now.

I also have loads of veg to make soups to go in the freezer for my lunches over the coming month, so that will be tomorrow’s task.

Need to do an inventory of the freezers this weekend as I lost the plot a bit last month. Must be more organised with updating it when add or use stuff this month.

If anyone's looking for cheap greetings cards (for people with a sense of humour!), have a look at this
All you need is a printer. (Hope this is not a naughty link, 'tis just a bit of fun

susan946

Sorry not to have been around for a while. Life has been really hectic!!! Have kept up with most of the posts and kept up with the challenge. Yesterday my laptop crashed and has had to go back to Seimens (under guarantee thank goodness). My life is on there, so as I suspect the hard drive has gone, I have lost everything since the last backup.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Mrs M - I don't know my exact spend for October but it is around the £350 I budgeted. I think I shall have to go for that as I have no way of finding my original codings!!!!

Please would you put me down for £350 again for November.

We are off to France again at the end of next week so we shall have no computer as it's the laptop we take with us. I shan't be able to post or read your posts but I shall stay with the budget and be with you in spirit. Can't wait to be back with you all - probably sometime in December.

Good luck to everyone!!!!

izoomzoom

cw18 wrote: »

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......

Okay CW18, thanks for the reply.

We are a family of 5. Boys 7 and 9. DD 1 on Monday.

I don't really have time to look for whoopsies. I work evenings, and that seems to be the time that my local S/Ts have them. I do work in M&S and am able to buy whoopsies there but M&S is so expensive to start with that even with 75% off, I often find them still too expensive. I am also strict with myself in that I only consider 'ingredients' (ie only whole chickens / pieces of fruit - not prepared fruit / made up dishes).

I tend to rely on S for milk bread and run outs, but T for my main shop. I also tend to do an online shop of staples for the month and rely on the market for most fruit and veg, but have discovered that even that is more expensive than SM promotions sometimes.

I use value / sm branded products. The only ones that I can think that we don't we don't like is gravy powder and tea ...

Regarding cleaning, apart from bleach, and my bath cleaner I haven't needed to buy anything for over a year, and even the latter two last 4-5 months each. Hygiene producs, well soap needed and deodorants, buy I usually buy those in wilkinsons. No pets and DD is in cloth nappies.

Children all have packed lunches (and it is a really only sandwich and drink). I am at home with DD and DH takes sandwiches or left overs.

No green fingers here, unfortunately. Did try some tomatoes over the summer but they failed miserably. Probably due to the fact that I didn't water them.:rolleyes:

My cupboards are okay. Mainly ingredients for baking, or cooking. My freezers are quite full. I bulk cook a lot. Typical meal plan for the next 9 days or so is:
pasta with carrots and broccolli
spaghetti bolognaise
hm butternut soup & hm rolls
hamburgers & hm rolls
hm pizza
bbq (about £12 meat) and salad and pot bake, and hm birthday cake
cottage pie
jackets with hm beef stew / beans & cheese for LOs
tuna pasta
and in theory I shouldn't need to get much in, except we go through a lot of fruit, milk and bread.

I suppose I shall just stick with £250, but it really is going to be an all in all. Everything we have to put onto the cc, for whatever reason is going to count. I know the boys have two birthday parties to attend and there are also those incidentals that always seem creep in.

cw18

your budget is really working out much the same as mine then -- I've got three people on £145 so roughly £50 each, and you're on a straight £50 each..... but I'm still not convinced I could do it on as little without all my Whoopsie bargains

Totally with you on the gravy powders (and my tea has to be one of two specific SM brands) -- also got to be a certain brand of brown sauce in this house, but I don't use much of that. My other "luxury" is that I try and stick to the "green" cleaning products -- dog with allergies that get kicked off if he comes into contact with some others, plus they're the only ones I can guarantee won't trigger DH's aczema. (But I have recently started using soap nuts which seem to be doing OK, so hopefully the saving on washing powder will cover the extra on the other cleaners - and I've also recently bought some Stardrops which I have to say I'm impressed with so far).

Can also sympathise on the milk front...... I know young children get through a lot, but why a 17 year-old boy still feels the need to guzzle the stuff beats me!! Though it's even worse when his 19 year-old brother is home on leave -- I reckon he gets through 2-3 pints a day on his own :eek:

Baileys_Babe

Can you put us down for £350 again as I think it will be an expensive month for us. We are including ALL food, visits to coffee shops, meals out, take aways, ice creams, sweets as well as toiletries and cleaning stuff, over the counter medicines & alcohol.