December 2008 Grocery Challenge

MRSMCAWBER

Evening all

Just thought I would pop by... I escaped from hospital this afternoon -but have to be back for 8am Monday :rolleyes: ..So I haven't spent any more of the GC budget yet... although I might pop out for some fruit in the morning -if i feel like it ....so I will up date if need be;)
Its been really strange sitting on my bed getting all my meals carried to me:o ... the food has been good (and free ) but Im desperate for plenty of veggies/salad -so I might have to pick up some salad stuff IF I make it out tomorrow ....
I even ended up in a private room with en suite wet room, TV etc :j ....
anyway -I have caught up with the list of budgets ..just 1 more to add...

Ohhh and the meals I made for the freezer are doing their job -Hubby has kept out of the takeaway :T and yesterday he even made cornedbeef hash for me coming home today (much better when its stood)
right I will get off
hope everyone is well

frugalswan

I think I'm going to have to pull out this month. It's been so busy lately that I've not had chance to even keep track of my receipts or spending I'll be back in January, but for now this is me pulling out

*hugs* Best of luck to everyone else taking part though

poffigirl

Hi All

Well my Carrot Cake muffins were lovely! i think I need to get some more air in them next time as they didn't rise much but they were tasty and not too sweet. However, DD1 wasn't sure and was more interested in the cream cheese icing! Does anyone have any tips on how to feed a wilfull, independent, fussy toddler?? I'm actually pulling my hair out at the moment as she will not eat anything that is good for her, the more effort you put into making something, the less likely she is to eat it! Tonight I spent ages making HM chicken nuggets and she wouldn't eat them. TBH I'm finding it really difficult taking care of two Little ones, keeping the house tidy and cooking from scratch. I have come to the conclusion today that it is no use trying to clean in the day and am going to clean the bathroom now - at 7.30 pm! Yippee yippee joy joy!!

Hayley
xxx

kookgekje

Ten days into the challenge and I have spent about a third of the budget. Sounds ok but we still have Christmas to come. I had to spend a fiver on a present for my daughter's teacher (all mums are getting together to buy her some vouchers - £75 worth of vouchers is a pretty good present I think). Makes perfect sense in December, but I had not calculated that one in . My guess is there will be a few more unexpected surprises like that this month. Shame really because I am doing quite well on the food front.

gailey_2

I usually find co-op bit hit and miss it is pricey unless you shop the deals and reductions but has lots of fair trade even their own brand cheapy coffee and sugar which make me feel better.
Our local high street only as smallish convienace style co-op and huge somerfeild its 30mins walk from my house maybe less if I walk!
Somerfeild used to have great reductions but overall expensive and gone to just 25%max reduction and for other personal reasons am avoiding somerfeild!
Luckily our 2 nearest high streets are 45mins walk one has huge co-op, small somerfeild and iceland as well as independant grocers and butchers plus can walk refuse to pay first bristol rip off bus prices the other nearby high street has huge morrisiosn and meduim sized co-op plus lidls and independant grocer.
In addition to these I have large out of town retail park 30mins walk along cyclepath on ring road to newly extended sainsburys and lidls so spoilt for choice really I should do them all!

I know we we will spend max budget this month as its xmas but feel confident in new year I could maybe reduce food expenditure by being better at meal planning.

Julimk

I did my usual top-up shop yesterday & came to a grand total of 91p!

Today was a NSD, mainly due to being called by the school to collect DD who had slipped over in the playground & banged her head. She has an egg sized bump on her forehead but otherwise seems quite lively.

I’ve mostly been managing to avoid doing any grocery shopping at the weekends for the last couple of months – it’s just too packed & no doubt even worse this close to Christmas, so that should be it for week 2.

I already have a separate bank account for the regular bills; I pay in the required amount on payday & the DDs go out over the month. It is an interest bearing current account, so I am earning a little bit of interest too while the money is waiting for the bills to be paid.

This week I have received the card & pin for a third current account that I am going to use for variable expenses, such as groceries & petrol (which is separate). So I will transfer over what is left. I prefer using the debit card, so I can see what has gone where from the statement. Hopefully, keeping this separate will help me keep an eye on it.

Sylvan

Oh dear.:(
I sent DH into Mr T's for the bargain Tilda jasmine rice. They didn't have any so he spent £4.64 on things like muffins and hot cross buns. Whoopsies, but still expensive ones.

Tomorrow we have to spend £40 at Mr M's (4th week of the voucher thingy) and I've been reading the Aldi and Lidl thread and have 2 long lists of stuff I want to try, while we're there (too far to travel normally) so I think it's going to be a big one. There goes the budget.:rolleyes:

crazyhazy

I'm just having a read through to get inspired for joining in properly in jan, I've tried in the past but I always understimate how much we spend so this month I'm doing it properly by keeping a note of everything we spend on food and then I'll know what to set my budget at for jan.

halia

I'm late - oh dear I'm very very late. But here goes. Can you put me down for £200 plus £50 for Xmas extra's.

Spent so far - £51.25 which includes tesco order to restock cupboards. Got DH on board and we've been meal planning and trying to use up ingredients alot more.

Just commited to new mortgage payments (to pay off faster) so on a much tighter budget all round now.

lainz

Went with my mum today to help her spend her £100 Morrisons card she's been saving all year, I was so restrained and my total came to £8.50 and £5 was cat food! It was v traumatic as in both Lidl and Morrisons they have stuff in the aisles and if you're trying to look at something and other people are going up and down the aisles you can't all get past- v frustrating:mad: Only spent £5 something in Lidl as well. Cupboards and freezer are quite full, need to get meat for Christmas dinner and veggies to go with it.

I've decided that next year I'm going to try and do £2 a day for me and £1 a day for the cat! I hope to reduce it as the year progresses, but we'll see!:rolleyes: