December 2008 Grocery Challenge

septemberblues

Hi everybody, hope we can all stick to our budgets this Month, December has got to be the worst month for sticking to a food budget!!

Anyway, I have only spent 99p of my £60 so far - and that's because I am broke until the 8th December :eek: . But I have a full freezer and half empty cupboards, plenty to last me.:o Bah humbug

mardatha

Blairweech, I'm the same. I get too tired to cook and eat sweeties or buns or cereal instead. I lose track of shopping & spending and I throw stuff out. I just need some ooomph !

cobbingstones

Quick question....We are a family of two adults and two children. I have near empty cupboards and freezer. Do you think that £100 a week is suitable? This will include nappies etc

Many thanks

MM

lainz

Hello

Can I declare November at £114.86. Over again, but there was goats cheese reduced, so it's tucked away in my freezer. Freezer stocked and cupboards not too bad, so trying to rein in my spending. I'm cooking xmas lunch so have to allow for meat so I'll stick to £100 for December and see if I stay under!!!!!

Flat_Eric

Evening
Went into m&s on my way home and almost £37 of my budget ends up gone in a flash AND on bits I didnt really need. I only went in for their breaded chicken and a desert for a friday treat but ended up buying ham (so expensive :mad:) some rump steak that was on offer and four deserts??!!.

Time to ban myself from the supermarkets - as I said in an earlier post, my fridge, freezer, cupboards etc are fit to bursting so apart from my weekly mr t shop (which I share with someone else which halves the delivery cost:D) where I only really need to buy the basics, spuds, eggs, milk, fresh veg etc, I shall be staying well clear. i always find I go in for one or two things and then this offer and that offer grabs me......

Im a bit worried about how things are going to go what with it being december and all that but as Ive done a big shop already with lots of xmas bits and treats, im hoping its going to work out ok. I had my electricity bill yesteday which I wasnt expecting so this food budget thing needs to work!!!

perrywinkle

perrywinkle

Julimk

I started on Monday, as payday is normally 23rd – was actually paid last Friday, but I didn’t spend anything over the weekend & included the Friday spend in November’s budget.

Popped into Mr S on the way home to get some chicken livers (44p) for pate. We have 3 Mr Ts & none of them sell chicken livers! Mum told me that only Mr S did. Whilst I was in there I picked up a few whoopsies – 50p for a whole mackerel & £1 for 300g trout fillet – both from the fish counter in freezable bags. Also spent £1.75 on 400g bacon & 80p on 300g sausage meat – both the nice ones from the deli counter.

I won’t need anything over the weekend; DD is going to her Dad’s & I have bought some extra milk, which is usually what I run short of (can’t believe how much I get through, but can’t use the water down trick, as I need the calcium).

So my first week has come in at £24.43. Well within budget & still plenty in.

Frugaldom

Good evening to all and welcome to all the new folks

I've just checked my spending diary and I actually have £54.30 for this month if I'm to come in on my annual target.

My cupboards and freezer are all full, as I did a top-up bulk shop as well as normal groceries in November, plus I have already paid for the Christmas turkey and trimmings, so it's back to basics for the remainder of 2008 to see if I can complete my year on £1200 for groceries, toiletries, cleaning & laundry products. The £1 per person per day theory was great (£1098) and could probably have worked, except that I had forgotten to count in all the visitors who came to stay over the period of a year! :rotfl:

If I can stick to £50 in December, I'll be under budget, so bring on the new month

My December budget runs from 1st until 31st.

Sylvan

Hello. May I join in please? I'm hoping we can stick to £350 - provided OH and his sweet tooth don't go too mad in Pesky Tesky during his lunch breaks (It's all the whoopsies that we don't really need but he can't resist...)

Do I need to include the money the boys occasionally take to school instead of (or even as well as!) making packed lunches?

JAMIEDODGER

ooh a lovely new thread:D

You have me down for 270 but can I change it to £300 for december as I have some vouchers I will be using but it means spending out a bit more so I will be stockpiling in december!