December 2008 Grocery Challenge

izoomzoom

Well I have tallied up and am at £315 out of my £290 already. Been a bad month in that FIL was very ill and DH has had to fly back home to Africa. Involved lots of shopping etc, but I have kept it all separate, but DH did buy all his fags etc to take with, and I have included £16 worth of bank charges and £15 worth of top-up into grocery as there wasn't really anywhere else to put it.

Although have food in house for a number of days (barring nuff bread / milk) I have not catered for Xmas day and this year it really is **** up. DH gets back Xmas morning and I have to travel 2.5h to airport to fetch him, leaving at 6am (with 3 children).

Am thinking of just buying a gammon and sticking it in the slow cooker, and then doing a few veg when we get home 5/6 hours later .... Hopefully I can get away with all of the above for no more than £25 ????

BTW I do a monthly on-line shop. Used to be £80/ month but this one was £117 so it took half my budget before I even started the month. However, I still have stuff left and will probably be able to last for a few days into next months budget (starting 28th) before I have to do another one (and I was very naughty when I did the order cos I didn't do a meal plan for the month ... but it has worked out alright).

CRANKY40

My total for this week is £33.15, leaving £54.52 for the rest of the month from my £150 budget.

I didn't get a chance to do my top up milk and bread shopping at Netto on Monday to see what it was like as I was indoors with ds who had that flu virus. I used bread and milk out of the freezer instead (usually have some for emergencies).

Next week I will be doing the Asda battle on Tuesday afternoon, as ds and I are both off on Wednesday (his nursery is shut), and I'm not inclined to take a 4 year old shopping the day before Christmas. We don't need much, so I can see it being 15 minutes round the shop, then half an hour waiting to pay....

Nancy888

Well I've done for December and can declare £171.49 out of the £200 I was aiming for - really surprised at that....

Would it be really rash to put the £28.51 in my sealed pot??!! :rolleyes:

Carol x

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Nancy

How about outting the odd £8.51 in your sealed pot and keeping the £20 out "just in case" -then you can add it when you know there are no more bits you need

Nancy888

You're right - that's a far more sensible idea...!!! :rotfl:

That could explain why I have the debt that I do - through rash decisions!!!!

MRSMCAWBER

Nancy888 wrote: »

You're right - that's a far more sensible idea...!!! :rotfl:

That could explain why I have the debt that I do - through rash decisions!!!!

:rotfl: Just had visions of you sat with a knife trying to prize it back out of the pot on xmas eve when some bright spark comes up with a "must have item" for xmas dinner -that you don't have and that they won't eat when you get it -well it is christmas :rotfl:

Well folks -tomorrow is my birthday - So after a trip to the NAAFI to see if there are any "whoopsies" I can shove in the freezer for next month -I think we are going to find a big garden centre I haven't been to :j(more veggie seeds possibly may fall into my little mitts) It was going to be a trip to the xmas market -but we have been to 2 this year ... then tomorrow evening I may really throw caution to the wind and have a chinese takeaway ..all of the above will becoming out of what is left of this months grocery budget as we get paid in a few days ...
Hope everyone has a great xmas...

dink1

Hi Guys,

two nsd's only another 11 to go lol! PLEASE PUT ME DOWN FOR £250 IN JANUARY will declare next week for the december total I hope that I can do January for less that £250 but need to be realistic! Merry Christmas GC'ers dink1

redmel1621

mummy2mygirls - I am the same, I feel as though I am missing out on deals or whoopsies...but then when I actually do the shopping in the store for a few weeks, I find myself spending more because I end up buying things I don't need!!

izoomzoom - Wow you spend £80 on a monthly shop.....my weekly shop is £80ish.
I was thinking of doing an order for £150ish and then keeping £80 aside in cash to top up on milk, fruit and potatoes. I make my own bread and use frozen veg, so don't need any of that each week.Hmmmmm will have to have a look at what i'm buying.

I have updated sig have managed to stay under for this month so far, although still need crisps, cheese and more milk before the end of the month!!

Mel x

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!!!

I am declaring at £45 which allows for a top up loaf of bread and 2 pints of milk which is all we will need. Christmas Eve at OB's parents, Christmas Day at Mum and Dads, Boxing Day at my Uncles. Our Month finishes on the 26th.
Quite pleased that my birthday money covered our GC money this month so the £200 goes straight into Travel account. Managed to aquire funds for Jan/Feb from doing a bit of extra work and hopefully we'll get a couple of M and S vouchers for Christmas for a treat meal or 2.
We've joined the live on £4k challenge, which should be interesting.

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!!

Please could we have a budget of £220 for January-which we hope not to touch!!
SFT

rockie4

*cough, cough, splutter*
I'll have to declare that I haven't a clue how much has been spent on food this month :mad: I've had this awful gastric flu bug for the last 10 days and OH has done the shopping.......and not kept the receipts:rolleyes:

We've been and done our Christmas shop today, all I need now is a bit of fresh veg on Tuesday, I spent £98 today so if I estimate that OH spent £50 I'll declare at £215 for December, slightly over but not bad for a Christmas month:D

3 days to go and I've got cards to write, presents to wrap (still 2 little ones to get), cake to ice, food to prepare, no tree up and the house a tip.......back to work tomorrow :doh: OH has promised to clean the house tomorrow :rotfl: a busy Christmas Eve for me I think!!!

I'll say £150 for January but hope (need!) to come in under that