November 2008 Grocery Challenge

donnajt

So far this month:

Week 1 - spends £46.53
Week 2 - spent so far £42.79 = £89.32 (£185.68 to spend)

...fingers crossed!

Penelope_Penguin

keld wrote: »

Our weekly spend is at least £270:eek:, this does not include DDs, childminder etc.

Sorry to ramble on, but I know there must be savings in this £270 cash weekly spend, let alone the rest of our spending, because this seems such a big figure when you look at it as a monthly spend (£1,170):eek: , plus all the DDs and stuff.

Now that this has fallen from the front page of Old Style, I'll add it to the Grocery Challenge. Read the first couple of posts, and you'll get an idea of how to try to cut down on your spends

Penny. x

soulbalm

I had two NSDs this week - if only because I was travelling to London on the train for work, and back. So my colleague and I spent money, but it can all be claimed back. :j

Today, after the joy of the 2 NSDs, I went to the corner shop on the way home, to get a colleague at work a thank you present for helping me out with something today. And I knew it was going to be bad. I ended up spending just over £8 on various things I really didn't need, apart from bread which I really did need. But £8!! That won't happen next month!

The weekend is always my big challenge as I do a big shop at the supermarket, and if I'm not focussed it can go badly awry. I'll compare things at mysupermarket.com before I go, but think it's likely it will be Mr A. And maybe a bit of Lidl.

But I've done my meal plan so all should be well. If I can avoid the crisps and 3 bottles of Cava for £10.

angelatgraceland

Just done my online shop at Asda(oh the marmite is £2) and its being delievered next Wednesday as I really need very little until then. So far its £66.39 but £17 0f that is booze for Xmas-I buy very little booze generally and it wont be counted in the food budget.
Keld-Thinking of spending diaries Ive been doing mine since January-including my holiday at half term! It is absolutely essential I cannot stress the importance of it. When you look through your diary get a red pen and put a star by all of the items you didnt really need-you will be amazed! I include takeaways in my grocery money buy not restaurants as they are only ever special occasions. The last takeaway I had was just 4 bags of chips and while I popped up the road for those I had 4 pieces of fish cooking in the oven. Not sure if Im just tight or clever! I think Ive forgotten how to spend-£15 is a good night out for me!
I wanted to use what I had but really was too tired to cook so this was a suitable option for me.
Made 2 bran flake loaves/cakes last night and more than one has already gone. Also made hm bread which is gone and a fruit jelly. Shame the mandarin segments have tripled in price though!
Asda tinned toms are still 21p online though which is better than most but the tins of sweets are still £5 as oppesed to the 2 for £7 if you go to the store. So I didnt buy the sweets on principle(I will wait until Im passing)and bought the booze instead. I may well trim my order by next week or postpone it though. Asda easypeelers are only about 68p and their value oranges are also good. I do like my supermarket swap feature-it does indeed save me money! Same grocery order in Tesco would have been approx £15 more. Sainsburys £30 more so its still Asda for me.
The money I saved last month on grocery challenge has now gone to buy 2 theatre tickets for dd for Joseph and Elvis on tour and 4 tickets for me for Joseph,Elvis,We will rock you and Riverdance. So this is our reward for keeping watch-and the food bill is still coming down most weeks.
This is the first time I have bought anything special with it but as we have little in the way of holidays its nice to find something special.
I will of course be taking my flask and a bag of crisps with me!
Lately my flask seems to go everywhere with me-even when we were away I only bought one drink out-on a rather cold night. Working all day tomorrow so Im going to thaw out something from my freezer to warm up in the micro.

gilly1964

£6.36 in Mr Ms last night for top ups, mainly fruit and veg.

£51.60 left till the end of this month

All the best
Gilly

Natty68

Eeeeps we only have £120.70 to last us till the end of the month..:( I think this might be a month that we go over..

Tashja

Morning all - should be a no spend day today because I don't have to go out - kids are ill - every cloud, silver lining and all that

There is enough Moussaka for tea tonight for me and DH and there was enough for DH to take some to work for his lunch. Because the kids are ill I have said they can have what they fancy so they will be having Smilies and something from the freezer - nice and easy for me !!!

I might attempt some baking today seeing as all the teas are sorted out Also need to make a start on the beef and kidney stew for tomorrow - slow cooker job I think !!!

T xx

findingmyfeet

morning all,
in for an update. Done two large shops at morrisons so far and a small one at aldi. Spends to date are £166.85 so not bad for half way but still lots to go.Party to do at the end of the month but already bought 2 packs of lager (whilst on offer) and going to make hm quiches,pizzas, bruschetta, garlic breads , pasta salads etc so that will really keep the costs down.
Xmas box is growing all the time too and so are my 2 hampers for the grans. hopefully there will be enough in there by xmas to keep them for about a fortnight (except for fresh stuff). put stuff in like, irish cream, chocs, fancy biscuits then staples like tins of soup, beans , ham , fruit etc. Should help eek out the pensions a bit. Will aslo add xmas cake and hm mince pies just before i deliver them.
Trying to get one of the morrisons £20 vouchers too and also saved 4 x£5 petrol vouchers with them so xmas week my shop spens should be minimal. Is anyone else collecting the vouchers ?
Had 4 nsds this week but feel one coming on today.
see you all soon.

helenm2008

I'm doing better this month I reckon than last, but still looking tight with only £60 left for two weekly shops. I've been throwing the odd thing for Christmas in, so I don't get too badly hit in December. However, my baby is due in the next couple of weeks, so I reckon I might come in under on the GC, but the takeaway budget might get spanked!

Mr T might save the day, as I think the Club Card vouchers are coming out this month.

findingmyfeet - love the hamper idea for the Grans.

Helen

Galaxy863

Good Morning all

Went to Mr T's on Wednesday and spent £52.55 ( £5.99 of this was a bottle of Port for my dad for his birthday though ) so my spend so far is already £112.77. Ovens still not fixed but that should be getting done next week hopefully and then I shouldn't need to spend much more as I've got a freezer full of food waiting for the oven to be sorted!

Was most dissapointed at Mr T's when I went though, all of the things I had seen that were on offer they had ran out of ( I was hoping to stock up on a few things for Christmas ) so I think I'm going to try elsewhere for a while as it's been like this the last few times I've been. What I've also found is some of the things that are on offer online ( and I checked to make sure it wasn't an online only promotion ) were actually full price in the shop when I went to buy it, even though there was still a few days left before the offer expired

Oh well back to Mr A's next time then!