November 2008 Grocery Challenge

Galaxy863

Well I've completely blown the budget this month after spending £75.73 in Mr A on Saturday so have spent a whopping £213.52 this month

£20 of the £75.73 was on beer for the OH and I managed to get some ys chicken breasts and chicken legs ( I'll only buy free range chicken and its been months since I've bought any cos it's just too damn expensive! ) so I can't wait to have chicken for a change ( how sad is that )

So over budget again, this time by 63.52 :eek: Problem is I was buying things for the christmas hampers I'm doing and also bought birthday presents which I have a seperate budget for but I just put the total amount for the spends on my spreadsheet without taking this in to consideration and now can't find the receipts :mad:

Part of the problem is my oven STILL isn't fixed ( It's been 7 weeks now! ) a friend keeps saying he'll get his mate to fix it which will save us £100 in repair costs but he's just always busy and I have no idea when it'll get sorted. I hope its soon or I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and pay someone else to do it, I can't cope much longer without my oven!

So I'm declaring at £213.52 for November, I definitely won't need anything else and want to set a budget of £250 for December please to include all the extra's I'll be buying over Christmas

rosieben

Congratulations, prophecy_grrl, another GC baby!! :j

I went shopping today for the first time in weeks and I spent a lot of money ......... but in my defence, my cupboards were bare of basics, and I also bought a few chrimbo extras. I'm over budget by about £20 now but I'll declare my final total next week, as I have a feeling I may spend a bit more between now and then

I've ordered my turkey crown for next week, and also stocked up with some meat for the next month or so, there'll only be f&v and milk to buy for the next few weeks. famous last words...........

SarahLou22

Hi Blondy - just to say that I am in a similar situation as you too -no excuses about kids etc, just spending more money than necessary on food each week!!
My main weakness is "popping in" to the supermarket accross the road...before i know it i've spend far too much!

I keep meaning to spend saturday cooking etc etc, but end up making things that always need something else to go with it...or not being bothered at all...

Things I have managed to do that are starting to make a dent into things include:-
1.

SarahLou22

oops, pressed the wrong button! lol!

try again....

1. Keep all reciepts for a week and take a look at it at the end - scary how much rubbish we bought wthout realising it (eg single bars of choc that slipped in!)

2. Self exclusion from the supermarket during the week

3. Enouraging the OH to help out with cooking (amazing how unfussy he becomes once he knows what is involved!)

4. Buying a few "essentials" in bulk at a cash & carry/ bigger supermarket with value brands (eg pasta, soft drinks dog food etc)

5. Internet shopping - the running total scares me!

Hope these help,
Sarah
xx

wannabe_sybil

I am also struggling to get the bills down - there is me, dear heart, my little boy and evil cat. I am at the moment getting towards @ £75 per week, but struggling.

One thing that has really helped me is using mysupermarket.com and shopping on line. It really helps me to see the totals, and also I get suggestions about how to reduce the total with substitutes.

Hope this helps.

basmic

wannabe_sybil wrote: »

One thing that has really helped me is using mysupermarket.com and shopping on line. It really helps me to see the totals, and also I get suggestions about how to reduce the total with substitutes.

Hope this helps.

That's a good site that, just a shame Morrisons isn't on there.

savingfortravel

We would like to declare at £40.61 out of £200.
We have tried really hard this month and are really pleased as GC money has come out of money I saved in Scotland over Half Term, so we haven't really touched any of our £200 pot. All proceeds are going towards Central America Summer 2009..yes its back on..long story.
Soon my birthday so I've asked for M and S vouchers so I can buy some delicious food for Christmas and hopefully save a bit more GC money for my trip.
I know its strange that I keep to the total of £50 per week each month when our spending is so low but otherwise what we do save will end up in a ISA or something too sensisble and if we are going to meal plan, batch cook, bargain hunt, coupon use etc... our savings has to go on fun. I still dream of toucans.
Mrs M, Please put us down for £200 for December please.
SFT

Penelope_Penguin

blondy24 wrote: »

Hello,

Not sure if I have posted this on the correct section.

Here is my situation I currently live with my OH and our two dogs. We are currently spending on average £100 a week on food for just us two and then about £15 for the dogs including a bone each per week. I think that this is a lot of money and at the mo we are struggling with paying bills. Has anyone got any good ideas to reduce our food costs, or any good recipes that are tasty but cheap and reasonably quick. I would love to spend less on food every week - we have reduced the cost of pet food as now buy them supermarket own dog tins, but we go through 4 a day as they are both large dogs. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

You've had some great suggestions here :T I'll add this thread to the Grocery Challenge, where you can get more information and support on keeping your grocery spending to limits you can afford.

Penny. x

brummiebabe

Well....have gone over again - and have also lost track of my exact total - think it's around £400 (target was £360)

Never mind....December challenge starts tomorrow.....please put me down for £400

JennyBee_2

SFT - you really are quite inspiring! Very glad to hear that you're still going ahead with the big trip Is the picture of the toucan still on your fridge?

Well we broke into our December budget last night with a massive shop which covers (I think!) every non perishable item/cleaning stuff/toiletries that we need for the next two months plus some extras. £133.50 in total so a trip to the butchers on Friday should see us sorted for the month. Having looked through the receipt last night I realised that we'd been overcharged on some ready meals. Not something that we would normally buy but may come in handy for something quick and simple during/after the baby is born to stop us getting a takeaway. Just went for the 5 for £4 deal in Mr A but noticed we'd been charged 98p for 4 of them and £2.28 for the fifth! Also was charged full price on some baby powder that had been reduced, so trotted back in with my receipt after work today to get a refund. I know it was only £3.20 in total but still, that was our money, not theirs!!! To cut a long story short, they basically told me that I'd picked up something completely different that wasn't included in the offer and when I protested that it was something that neither I nor my husband liked, I was told that it was an "easy mistake to make" in a very condescending manner. I was then escorted back to customer services to get my £1 refund from the baby powder whilst the nasty one made sure that I didn't still try to get my other £2.20!!! I went back out to the car and just cried!!! I don't like being called a liar so I have now penned a strongly worded letter to them to that effect. How ***** rude!! I was not amused.

Anyway, other than that an uneventful day!! Hope you're all doing well and looking forward to the December challenge