December 2008 Grocery Challenge

Barneysmom

I just noticed why I was struggling so much! I was still on October's budget and we're now in December :rotfl:
So I haven't a clue how I coped in November, must've made my £180. for October last for 2 months!!!!!!!!
Yeehah!!
Ah well, no point being daft unless you show it eh!!

I'll change my sig later so you can all have a laugh at the fool I am

mummy2mygirls

i have had a few problems with mrT, they once when i had ordered £170 requested it from my bank account 4 times!!! so i had no money what so ever and lucky it cleared back into the account before any bills etc came out!! customer services were not that helpfull or bothered about it but they refunded me £10 for the inconvienence!!!
Also they have turned up a hr later then the delivery time i ask for!! no refund or even a sorry!!!! Always have things out of the stock and normally something i have got as part of a deal!
Any wya i went to Aldi today got some of there veg and a few other bits about £5 in there
and also about £25 in tesco so not to bad for a week shop!! made a meal plan and didnt get to many 'extras' around the shop....

will go and update sig in a bit with exact amounts.

kookgekje

DH decided to come with me to Mr A over the weekend despite my desperate pleas that it wasn't necessary. And the result? £9 worth of chocolate :mad: . Not good for the budget or the waistline :rolleyes: . Now that it's sitting in the cupboard, I know I'll eat it. I have severe lack of willpower when it comes to chocolate and the only solution for me is not buying it in the first place. I think I might be giving some of it away to my DD's ballet teacher as a Christmas pressie. As long as I don't eat it all before that .

I have done a mealplan for the first time this week. Let's see if I can stick to it because it makes the shopping much easier. This way I'm less likely to come home with all kinds of stuff I don't need or do last-minute dashes to the shops for stuff I forgot.

Sunny_Donny

Hi
I use Mr A for food orders every month. Have had substituted wine once, but because it was the brand up from what I had ordered - for the same price I was very happy. For the last 2 deliveries I have had phone calls from driver checking it would be ok to call as I was the first drop off and on the last he was 1/2 hr early - well impressed. I don't order fruit and veg - I pop to Lidl as I like to look at them before buying. Usually do £50 minimum ordre and work my way through the BOGOFFS to see what is there first before doing normal shop.

Sylvan

kookgekje wrote: »

D I have severe lack of willpower when it comes to chocolate and the only solution for me is not buying it in the first place. I think I might be giving some of it away to my DD's ballet teacher as a Christmas pressie. As long as I don't eat it all before that .

Why don't you wrap it, ready to give? That might make you think twice about eating it.

I was quite impressed with DH today. He went to Mr T's for milk and cheese and the only extras he bought were 2 packs of RTC chocolatines @ 75peach.

CRANKY40

Well I went to the Co op on my way home today (bypassing Tesco Metro where I drew out my budget cash for the week from the machine outside).

The bread was 20p dearer than Asda, the milk was also more expensive for semi skimmed, but I usually buy the longer lasting Cravendale, so for my budget it worked out about the same. There were also far fewer money spending distractions than in Asda or Tesco.

I spent £5.04 in there as they had 12 cans of diet coke for £2.75. I was planning to spend £4.80 in Asda for just slightly more cans later in the week, so decided I may as well just have 12. Out of my £60 budget for the month so far, I have exactly £28 left to do my weekly shop on Wednesday. If I stick to my list I should be alright.

Next Monday I plan to try Netto for my Monday bread and milk top up. I have realised that I have Netto, Tesco Metro and the Co op all on my way home. Goodness only knows why I have been driving out of my way to Asda......

I will still be doing my weekly shopping at Asda.

poffigirl

Hi All

Jut checking with an update on how I'm spending. i went to lidls yesterday for a few bits and spent £17.76 and so have spend £127.09 so far tis month so it doesn't look like I'm doing too well. Half the problem was that most of the fruit and veg we got from the market the other day was off and so I had to go and get some more :mad: Not happy! I must check next time when they get their delieveries as the first time I went there everything was fine. Also, a couple of bars of chocolate and 4 chocolate muffins accidently fell into my trolley in lidls, but that couldn't be helped!

I still think I'm doing quite well though, and compared to how we were spending we're doing fantastically! DH has completely got on board with the grocery challenge and has stopped eating willy nilly out of the fridge, and a a result has already started losing weight. The thing is, I'm cooking everything from sratch, and even though we're having proper pudding which we never had before, we're both losing weight! I think its because we're either having roast dinners or homemade oven chips and not eating between meals, also we haven't had a takeaway in ages.
we're both really exited about the money we'r saving. When DH got paid in the middle of November we were £1k overdrawn, I looked at our balance on Sunday and we were £70 in credit with all bills paid. DH gets paid on Thursday so we're determined not to spend from the account now. We went searching round the house, in our pockets and down the sofa, we even opened a jar full of coppers. Do you know how much money we found? £76!!!!!! That will more than cover shopping and deisel until Thursday - so it looks like we would have paid off our overdraft in one month - admittedly its a 3 week month for us but still - isn't that fantastic!!!! :beer::j

Sylvan

Congratulations poffigirl. That's excellent news. :j

angelatgraceland

Well I like Asda deliveries because they are the best value and because the subs dont cost a penny more! Im always onto a winner with them-dissapointed when there are no subs! Also handy to have their card and their points and free delivery if you can order enough. I just hope I have enough room to store the stuff on my next delivery! I dont know what £100 worth of food looks like!
No spend day today apart from pet food which isnt in my budget, but 2009 will be different as Im literally going to do the "cash in a purse" thing and also include many more things so the budget will be much much more. Doesnt matter tho as I now know exactly how its spent. May look into the £4k per year board but not sure what it includes. Dunno yet-pondering on all of that.
Have to finish of my spending spreadsheet and work out my budget-something I couldnt haveworked out very acc urately a year ago. I just have no urge to spend though-the lust I used to have for "stuff" has gone! Yippee. Next Xmas me and my 2 eldest are hoping to volunteer for some charitgy for the homeless or something and not to focus on Christmas much. I suggested it and they want to join in so as theyu are both "adults" it should work out. That will also be moneysaving and may also curb their spending in the future.

cw18

angelatgraceland wrote: »

May look into the £4k per year board but not sure what it includes. Dunno yet-pondering on all of that.

It can include whatever you want it to include, and lots of people have different budgets (to suit lifestyle / income / family size)

There are a couple/few of us doing it "all in" for 2009 (I'm currently trying to make my expenses fit into an £8k budget), while others are sticking with the budget only covering living expenses outside of mortage/rent, water rates etc.