December 2008 Grocery Challenge

belfastgirl23

Well another £43.08 gone making a grand total of £125.06 spent so far out of my £200 budget. This is a lot of my extra christmas spending done - we usually supply dessert and cheeseboard at both sets of parents so all the stuff is bought for these. I will need to do a deli spend though which I'm guessing will come in about £30 :eek: - the family are very fond of olives.

also just in case it helps anyone, M&S are giving out vouchers for £5 off a £25 spend on food drink and flowers between 20-24 December. If you can face going in that is! I'm wondering whether I'd be brave enough to go up the day before christmas eve, but that's when I usually do all my christmas baking.

And for those people saying they've given up DON'T DO IT. Instead rebudget and try again. If you give up then you just spend like a mad thing. And I should know

angelatgraceland

Did a shop today and got reduced pork joint and stirfry pork in Co-op. Bought pressies in the way of bassetts on bogof dor the little ones and some goodies in the chemist for pressies which are not out of grocery budget. Cathedral city cheese on bogof at £2.29. Went to Somerfield and value chicken only £2.50 Robinsons drink on bogof for £1.08. Got reduced bread here too-the nice expensive seeded unsliced type for 35p and 38p. Im going out with dd and ds for a meal tonight so youngest dd and dh are staying home. Ive cooked a nice meal for them pf chicken breasts wrapped in bacon,roast pots,green beans,carrots,yorkies and mini spring rolls, and for desert profiteroles. DH has a thing about spring rolls and dd has a thing about profiteroles. Whole lot costs about £6.50 so its a bargain treat.
Profiteroles and spring rolls on offer in Somerfield at 2 for £3.
Forgot my voucher for co-op for £3 off of £30. Well if Id rememberd-I would have got everything in the co-op instead of going to Somerfield.
I may go back tomorrow and buy some stuff-if I do I will be cancelling the Asda order for the 21st though as I won't have room for it. Anyway-spent £13.68 on food in Somerfield(Ive deducted the gifts) and £12.41 in co-op(Ive deducted the gifts) so groceries today of £26.09. Got some new Britney perfume in Boots for £13 too and they also had Old Spice aftershave set for just £4.90-DH still likes that stuff(yuk)so thats about half the normal price of just the bottle.

mrssnowy_2

I agree with belfastgirl23,rebudget and keep going.
Only food I need before Christmas will be F&V and dairy AND I have only spent £169.93.(out of £230)
Pride comes before fall,so I'd better watch out.
mrss

KAAT_LADY

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--gunsand banjos,,,,I have a Tesco breadmaker, i like it but it is not like a panasonic! If i recall correctly it is a restyled Morphy Richards. Not bad for the money though, i paid less than £25 for mine.

yes GaB it does look alike a morphy ,,just got them mixed up sorry

anyway I will not be using it til the end of next week so will let you know then ..and my old one can go freecycle i think

see you later

KAAT x

savingfortravel

JennyBee wrote: »

SFT - I know you don't spend very much anyway, but £4 for the year might be a bit difficult to achieve!

Oh thats funny I meant £4k ....as you may have guessed....
Thanks for the laugh JennyBee!!!!!! SFT

First time I've used a quote in a post...not quite got the hang of it, have I?

Hollysan

Hello everyone,

Woke up really early this morning, don't know why. It was pitch black outside! So I have been totting up my receipts and updated my sig. DD is singing Christmas songs upstairs in bed - so sweet! (She's 6)

Well I have done the big Christmas shops this week; Mr M AND Mr T, how's that for stamina?! We have all the non-fresh stuff now, but getting a bit scary as the budget is running out fast. Also, OH is on holiday from Friday, and he is quite likely to drink all the wine I have bought before we even get to Christmas. I will hide the good stuff. I was going to go to Sainsbury's on Monday, but think I will delay that a week and will try and manage on picking up a few bits in the week.

I have made some things for Christmas and frozen them, but more to do today. Good luck to all of you with the challenge - it really is a challenge this time of the year - especially those who are struggling with redundancy and reduced hours etc. Thinking of you all. Thanks to everyone for their tips and ideas.

Hollysan

dink1

hi Guys!

so far so good, apart from a lettuce and some milk needed next week I think it is done. January will be a lean one tho, my aim is to go from over spending every month to paying for next month's food with what is left from this month's money. A tall order I know but with tips from you lot I am sure I should be able to do it within 4 months. Well that is my goal!
Dink1

angelatgraceland

When I was really short of money I tried an 8 day week. This could be frustrating for those with a strict regime but if you can be flexible it can help. The first week, say you shop on Mon, the next week you shop on tues etc. The weeks money has to last 8 days rather than seven so if you manage it over a period of 7 weeks you then have a weeks money over.
If you are a daily shopper rather than once a week-calculate 1/8 of the weekly budget and only take that out with you. If you therefore have a nsd you can take out 2 days money but the nsd has to come first! With this you really do need some meal planning and if you are working it will mean being very organised. Well-it worked for me when mine were small and I was home all day(working evenings) Suddenly I had this extra weeks money and that is when I started bulkbuying bogofs and special offers which I hadnt been able to afford to buy before. I did make a few sacrifices along the way and there weren't whoopsies at that time worth counting but somehow I did it and longterm it paid off. Its great to see "buy 2 get 3rd free" offers-if you can afford to buy the first two. This is the difference the 8 day week made to me .Some people thought my shopping habits bizzare I suspect but regardless-we were the winners.
If I didnt have an item I would very often replan the menu rather thang out to buy it. Anything special or expensive that I thought may be too tempting I would hide for the planned occasion. Hard work for some but once you get into it-its quite fun!
Thinking of planning-I now have a joint of pork and 2 chickens in the oven so I can sort out some menus for the week and freeze a little too. Ive been using up some of my hm meals from the freezer during the week and havent been tempted to pop over to the co-op on my lunch break-I either went home or took my dinner with me. Hence it saved me approx £9 as Id have spent that for 3 dinners on workdays. Now-£9 is approx 1 days spending for the whole familyso definitely worth resisting such temptation.

gailey_2

Right guys getting really close to budget now.

yesterday went round spar and spent £7 of ebay money on basics like milk weird purple one as was on offer at £1 for 4pints and half price cant belive its not butter at 94p I think.Also broughts some stuff for mince pies some mincemeats mixed fruit and nut and mini bottle of brandy,1 orange for orange zest jaimies recipe skipped the nutmeg as dident have any as hubbys loves mince pies.

so jaimies recipe for those who interested

frozen defrosted block of puff pastry that was already in freezer
robersons jar of mince meat
1 orange zest grated and bit of juice
small bag of mixed nutrs and fruit to make it extra special.
we not really brandy drinkers so just got mini brandy bottle £2.29 as called for splash of brandy.
butter/marg to grease tin
eggs/milk to glaze
iceing sugar to decorate


right step one defrost pastry at room temp for 3hours+
roll out with rolling pin and dust surface with plain flour
use glass to cut out 12 circles
finally got to use my xmas cake cutters bargain poundstetchers for £1.50
cut out 12 stars
I actually manged to make 15 out of mine but could only fit 12 in my cake tins as just space for 12
place circles in muffin tin

get large bowl mix
1jar of mimce meat
mini brandy
grated zest of orange
and a few fresh fruit/nut mix together
all mixed up

then spoon onto tins
place stars shaped pastry on top of each one
beat 1 eggs with milk and brush to glaxe pastry

preheat oven to 190
put on oven for 25mins but do check as puff pastry rises quickly
i time mine with timer on microwave so i dont forget.

Hubby loves his and like i said all ingrediants probably cost me £5 in total but makes 15 but works out at less than 50p each for luxury mince pie problem is mum and sister want me to make them next week too.
The value tupperware set came in handy too to store them.

Today we took kids to farm shop and spent £23 on meat/veg and surpringly few reduced bargains. Also had lengthy chat with butchers about the meat and animal welfare. It was lovley and christmacy and so mant tempting things in there. Took kids to see piggies and big piggy decided to have big shake and splashed mud all over me! Also hubby treated us to hot choc and cake in cafe too.

So budget left another £80 left however hubby insistant on doing iceland tommorow although i think we should just go asda so should we do £40 in each?

Still not decided on turkey and tempted by goose crown from lidls at 12.99 just put off goose as not sure it fit in our oven.

Sylvan

tessie_bear wrote: »

....we had the £10 m and s deal and have used the chicken for 3 meals...and the roasted veg for 2 funny though the pofiterolls (sp ?) only lasted for one pudding take care tess

What is the £10 M&S deal please? I normally just use the shops that have disabled spaces nearby but I have to take DS4 into the hospital on Wednesday and M&S isn't too far so I thought we could have a look.

I only spent £24.75 yesterday (+£2 DS5 took for Monday), thanks to the £18.42 of Co-op dividend vouchers I found lurking in the bedroom. I'll be collecting my £20 voucher from Mr M on Wednesday and if I stick to the £40 spend necessary to use it I will have just about used the whole budget, but I think I can allow myself a little leeway since we have an extra teenager living here this week.

Mr A has a lot of storecupboard stuff on offer at the mo, but the offers all expire at the end of the month. If I made an order, but left it all in a box till next month could I get away with sticking it on January's budget?:p