December 2008 Grocery Challenge

Kiwisaver_2

G'day, another newbie here wants to join in the fun. Been setting myself a weekly challenge to cut the grocery bill before I found this site, but since I'm not in the UK it is hard to compare or compete with you guys. Still, I have been making good progress and very proud of my achievement so far: since 1 September 08 I have cut the weekly bill from $175-180 per week to just under $120 most weeks.

So December being a funny month, 1st day of summer for us and the summer holiday season coming up, I am going to really challenge myself to keep the shopping to a minimum. We'll be away from home 23rd December til 2nd January, so I have a shopping free week and a good excuse to run down the stocks before we go away.

So my challenge is $240 for the month

Kia kaha! (Be Strong!) I'm half a day ahead of you guys, so far two days of December gone and not spent a cent. :T

northern_star

Good morning all. Hope everyone's doing ok with their challenges. I came in under budget yesterday (budget = £6.45 per day, spent £5.29) :j.

I've started a spending diary and OH has created a soopa-doopa spreadsheet that tells us which shops are cheapest for the things we buy regularly (easy to tell who's the technophobe and who's the computer whizz in our house then :rolleyes:).

With our combined efforts, we're hoping to stick within the £200 we specified.

Good luck everyone.

ZLS1984

Hi I might have to extend my budget, hopefully if my bed is still there I am going into hospital 2moz.

I will have to have money for the shop and I will need to top up my mobile as well. Add to this you have to pay for the blooming telly so might get a little expensive. I am hoping though to take some food in with me and I have books and stuff to keep my happy so hopefully can bi pass the expensive shop.

[Deleted User]

Hi Chums, well I had to 'borrow' a bit from my £50.00 for December as I had a 18th birthday to sort out at the end of November but I have at the moment £28.74 left to last me till the end of the month, and very little to buy as I'm away for about ten days over the holiday period
Lots of NSD's hopefully .My fridge/freezer is still full, and I don't seem to be making much of a dent in it yet.My cupboards are doing well as well and I have lots of tinned stuff to get through. Still it means that January will be O.K. for foodstufs. Mostly I seem to spend on fresh milk and veggies which I try to buy when they are reduced in price .After all if its going into HM soup it doesn't really matter too much. Nothing to buy until Saturday this week and that will only be fresh milk.:j

Phoolgrrrl

Did first shop of the month last night and only spent £20. Don't need to buy any food for rest of week hopefully Need salmon tho, and the frozen pack in tesco is back up to £10 for 8 bits...may go fresh.
Exams next 2 weeks so may fall off budget then its back to home made soup and rubber chicken.

Galaxy863

Went to Mr A last night with the intention of buying bread and sandwich fillers and ended up spending £47.08 have started buying "Christmas treats" though which I had always intended on doing so not too bad. My oven should be getting fixed in the next couple of days as well ( fingers crossed! ) :j it's been 2 months since it's been working so I hope there's no problems in fixing it... last thing I need is to have to buy a new oven!

So I bought plenty of things I knew needed cooking in an oven as it's supposed to be getting fixed. Think I'm going to go to the butchers today to stock up on meat. Was going to buy stewing steak last night but they only have tiny packs and it was £3.50 per pack, I know I can easily get double the amount for the same price in my butchers.

With winter really starting to set in I'm going to get the slow cooker on the go again and make plenty of nice casseroles and soup, love coming home after work with a nice hearty meal already waiting for you!

laurenjs88

Fingers crossed i'll be alright this month, i did a £60 shop just over a week ago! Although, it looks like xmas may no longer be a big family affair so imight have to cook something up for me and my littlun on xmas day, which means poo im going to have to decorate the house as well... Decorations will come out of GC money too!

findingmyfeet

morning all,
well late at posting as usual, weeks fly by before i reaslise it. Anyway November was good budget was £400 and came in at £382.63. december is going to be hard , nothing much in the freezer, ran it down and defrosted yesterday so now ready for any goodies i can find, dd going on and on at me to get her 'loads of ben n jerries in for xmas treat' , well thats fine for her ( and nice i might add) , but not really for my budget!!! might take pity on her she has been helping with the gc so far so i will at least stretch to one pot, two if im flushed xmas week.
MRS MAC- COULD YOU PLEASE PUT ME IN FOR £400 AGAIN FOR DECEMBER- THANK YOU
aLSO THIS MONTH HOSTING A FAMILY BUFFET FOR AROUND 12 PEOPLE, why do i say yes when asked? I dont really know, this morning feeling like scrooges best buddy but the xmas spirit will be back again shortly when i have done my food plan for the month and decided what we really need, what we would like and what i will actually buy.
Good luck all see you all soon

saffouri

Mrs M please put us down for £220 for December. (I haven't discussed this yet with DH, but figure to add a little bit for Christmas and see how we get on.)

Thanks!

saf

princess_leia_3

Hi all, I have to reduce my sig as I put down £72 which was the total of my shopping last night but then I realised that £18 of that was for presents so I am now standing at just £54 :T

I got some cello cone bags from eBay to make some 'snowman soup' (on the crafty christmas thread) for hampers and will fill other cones with some haribo sweeties and mini toblerone.....so much cheaper than buying a whole box for each person (it will also look nicer I think) so I am really chuffed!

Mr T did however forget my value loaf of bread I keep in freezer for meals like egg on toast etc as kids don't like it with HM bread

I now have most of my christmas stuff sorted, made the stuffing balls, cranberry sauce, pickled onions, puds & cakes. My parents buy the turkey and veg as they come to me and I cook it all So I am hoping to come in under budget this month :rolleyes:
Still need to get some nice cheeses and crackers as I just love that for boxing day tea!
I start back at work tomorrow which will be a shock to the system but I have planned for kids to eat at nursery /school and tomorrows dinner will be in the slow cooker in the morning so ready to eat when we all get in :T never have I been so organised!