December 2008 Grocery Challenge

ifonlyitwaseasier

hello all!

so i've broken into this months budget in a big way, spent £24.68 + coupons in MrT and £32.78 in MrM, but only £12.88 of MrM is mine, they have persil liqugel for £1.99 and as thats cheaper than MrT's own i have got myself some and my mum requested a few! (read as 10!!!)

managed to get ham hocks in MrM's as well and they are only £1.49 each, and each of them is over a kilo in weight so next weekend i have some soup making to do, should have done it today but i need to rearrange the freezers to fit in the extra.

managed to get OH some beer in MrT but the vouchers (and his discount!) covered that so technically the beer was free

i'm going to have a go at MrsM's cobbler recipe later and i bet it tastes scrummy!!

take care and cya later!!

ioiwe x

little_miss_thrifty

Hi All, I would really like to join this month.
I am aiming for a budget of £300 for the 4 of us this month.
We are fairly stocked up, I just want to stop buying items that end up getting left, like too many yogurts or clementines!
We are getting treated to dinner tonight and got given a bag full of potatoes last week so any little saving will help.

I think I will search through all the recipes later as i want to do a meal plan also.

Good luck everyone and many thanks in advance x

highland_fling_2

hi everyone,
would like to aim for £150 for my first ever official GC. Don't know if this is realistic but have looked at receipts for last six months and have come up with this guesstimation. Pay day is really middle of the month but feel it will suit me better to work from 1st of month. Planning to investigate the links and wonderful recipes others have posted. Really appreciate all the help.
wish me luck

brummiebabe

Well...did fail last month but still have lots of household supplies eg washing powder, DW tablets etc which will take me through december:j

Did an online shop at Sainsburys (1st time) - free delivery over £100, so ordered nappies etc to take me upto £101:rotfl: . Forgot some bits & pieces as I'm so used to them all being on my 'favourites' at Tesco - so did have to pop to the shop aswell:mad: - total spend for week 1 was £107.63. Not TOO bad but am looking forward to the fact that a new Aldi has opened locally - am going to pop there on Tuesday afternoon to get what I can - then do a small supermarket shiop for the rest on Wednesday!!

bestpud

Ok, please would you put me down for a total spend of £350 this month?

That's for 2 adults, a 16 year old (she counts as an adult really doesn't she?) and a 7 year old, plus dog and cat. It includes all food (inc take aways etc) and all household products and toiletries etc. It also includes the Christmas shop, as we don't really buy much extra tbh!

Although, we have loads of cereal for dd(7) from the play/Nestle dvd offer, loads of shampoo/shower gel/bubble bath/hand wash from an Avon offer and loads of washing tablets/fabric conditioner from the Madagascar puppets offer!

Plus, I have quite a bit of meat and veg so will be looking to see what I can do with it in a minute to make it go further! Await my daft questions to come elsewhere on this board!

I have to say doing this last month was pretty revealing for me and I wish I'd caught on earlier! But never mind; better late than never...

So that's me, and good luck everbody!

nickynoo08

Hiya everyone,
I've just done a list for when i go to mr t's after work and i WILL stick to it. Comes to about £40ish but hopng to bag a few bargains while i'm there. I'm hoping this shop will last us till 15th not including milk - it should last us till then according to my meal planning list but we'll see. I'm also going to include any take away money in my budget this month (i dont normally) and last month i worked out we spent close to £75 just on take aways:eek:, thats nearly as bad as i used to be:o. I'm hoping by including them in my grocery budget it will make me think twice about ordering in, plus i'm on a diet now too so that 'should' help.
I'll update sig when i get back later.

jackiegibbo

PLEASE PUT ME DOWN FOR £220 FOR DECEMBER

Hollysan

Hello and a big welcome to all the newbies.
Well I have just done my big online shop with Tesco for the month but I have to say that I have not done much planning towards Christmas yet because it has been a busy time with work and family stuff, visitors etc. But I am intending to remedy that this weekend. I need to write lots of lists - unbought Christmas presents ( I have bought and wrapped a few), Christmas card list, festive food list, seed order for my veggie garden (deadline is 13th December!), shopping lists for various outings between now and Christmas.

I suppose I'd better get on with it. Really looking forward to Christmas this year. :snow_laug We went for a low-stress version last year and it meant that I enjoyed it much more and noone else noticed the difference. If I can only get organised and do some cooking for the freezer I'm sure this year will be good as well.

Mrs M, I posted this on the November thread, but just in case, please put me down for £400 for December.

Hollysan

MRSMCAWBER

Afternoon all

Hope everyone one is all revved up the last one of the year

Had a nip to the NAAFI earlier.. got my butter whoopsed so it was worth it just for that - its the tesco organic one and is €2.69 a pack :eek: -which I WON'T even consider paying...so I grab all I can when they whoops it

so today I got :-

1. 9 packs butter @ 50c :T
2. bag parsnips 50c
3. 2X3 litre milk @€1

so spent €7 there and then we nipped to jibi... hubby grabbed a crate of beer (not GC money)..and I got a swede for €1.29... and somehow even though the beer went on the conveyor belt and then passed to hubby who stood there holding it -they didn't charge hubby for his beer -which has made his day -and when we take the crate back -they will refund the deposits -so they actually will have paid hubby €3.90 to drink 20 x 0.5 litre bottles of beer :rotfl:

We have a huge pan of cornedbeef hash on the go -having it later with dumplings mmmmmm and the rest will get turned into pie/s ...:D

Well my mum and brother won't be here before xmas..if they can make it at all (DB being made redundant so not sure what date he will finish) -they won't be here until the 27th dec... so its a nice quiet xmas for me n hubby and then even if they do come I will be in Januarys budget by then :T - so me n hubby can do as planned -eat lots of stuff I have made recently and put in the freezer and just have to buy a couple of fillet steaks for beef wellington on xmas day :j
That, teamed with being in hospital for about 5 days -should really keep the spending down :T :rotfl:

Ifonly -hope you like the cobbler -I always worry folks will make my "concoctions" and not like them

right I will get off and get something done -have a great weekend all

taka

:santa2: Can I be put down for £146.20 for December please? I've decided to switch from payday -payday to calendar month so its going to be a long "month" this month - 34 days! :eek:

I'm hosting Xmas this year but everyone brings a course so it shouldn't be too scary on the GC front. I'm more scared my flat won't be decluttered in time. :eek: I'm hoping to keep the spends on food for this month low and stock up the store cupboard/freezer a bit for 2009 as I'm planning to drop the amount I spend from the new year. My parents have helped by going off on holiday and giving me all their unwanted veg. It was absolutely loads (more than I buy in a fortnight :eek: ) so that should keep me going for a while

:xmastree: