October 2009 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Well having declared for September I am pleased that I squeeked in just under budget at just £4.20. I think I have set myself a do-able budget of £120.00 and hopefully will get through o.k. Last month I had £120.00, but used about 40 quid on petrol This month its only going to be for food and dire essentials.I have sorted a separate amount in my accounts for my petrol. Have got into the hang now of getting my fruit & veg from Aldis it really is excellant value.Iceland for my 4 pints of milk at a pound.and saisburys for meat ,mainly because their meat if so delicious and worth the little bit extra that you pay.Mt T has several bits and pieces that I like but I am quite canny when I'm in there and padlock my purse so I don't get too tempted.Plus I only buy what's on the list and nothing else as I want to run down the cupboards and freezer so they are almost empy for Christmas than try to snaffle some half decent whoopsies on Chistmas Eve or Boxing day.
I made my DD laugh today I said I wanted to get a valet for my car inside and out as it hadn't been done in a couple of months .So we went to our local shop and I smiled nicely and said 'Can I have a pensioners wash please, 'Yes my dear no problem' was the reply Its normally £10 inside and out and they do a brilliant clean. But pensioners rates meant I got it for £7.50 'Oh Mother ,what are you like you would get a deal from the devil himself to save a shilling' and why not' money is money, and I see no reason to chuck it away unnecessarily.Paid for our lunch today, and a sticky bun as well.Its amazing what you can get away with if you smile nicely and use a place regularly
I think with a budget that's too tight you will be miserable and probably fail but set a sensible taget and you can't help but succeed.We are all starting afresh so good luck to you all

angela30

hello im new at this, can i join from october 1st? my aim is £140. have done all my inventory lol,,and there is 5 of us.:j
am really looking forword to this october i love this time of year and its been made all the better by joining the grocery challenge.
i think i should be able to stay within budget if i dont send the hubbie shopping.. why is it men can never stick to the shopping list and always comes back with things that are not needed... or is that just me..lol

good luck to everyone

Janae

Hi
Have already spent £85.28 of £365 budget - seems to be a pattern having high spending at the beginning of the month. Also had a disaster when making a huge batch of smoothie the other day. The base was not on the jug properly so all the contents fell out when I lifted it up. Probably about £3 wasted :eek:.
Need to ask OH to get a few items today :eek::eek: as he has my car while his is being mended. Must give him strict instructions not to buy anything else. Then grocery shopping planned for my day off on Thursday - will post any bargains.

Good luck to all for this new month.

kj x

highland_fling_2

Good morning everyone,

thanks to HelenJelly and friends for getting new thread up and running. Hope Mrs McC is doing o.k. in hosp.

Well went to Costco on Sunday and I was remarkably restrained. Only bought lamb mince, pork fillet steaks and mushrooms. Have split meat into portions and froze and sliced mushrooms, split into portions and froze them also.

Wont officially start this month until the 1st but these buys will be counted in October budget.

Have a good day everyone.

Hazel673

Gonna give this a try again. Tried in January but went so so wrong so trying again all fresh now. Not actually starting October till October but just did big online shop yesterday that will be october food so thougth i'd do it now. Please can you put me down for £300 for October. Don't know how realistic that is but time will tell. So my online shop yesterday will be in that but not the milk and coffee and sneaky sausage roll i just bought now cos its still September!!! :rotfl:

Good luck everyboday!!! x

Eltee12

......... £450 ...... apologies for September - dunno what happened, lost the plot totally

My October starts tomorrow.

good luck everyone

[Deleted User]

New month, newly filled purse, only have to get loo rolls and mushrooms today .More than enough stuff indoors to last me this week.

jackieglasgow

Hi everyone, can I please rejoin for October, which is starting from today for me, so it's a five week month, really, and includes my DS's 10th birthday, haven't decided yet if I will do a seperate budget for him, so can I please pledge £175 for this month - thats £35 p/w for me OH and 2 x DS's. Don't know how do-able this is, but my OH may possibly going away for work (hurray, at last, some work) at the end of next week, so may have to change it about a bit.

Thanks, Jackie.

GemmaBuckle

Hi all - I'm ever-so-slightly excited to be going into my second month of Grocery challenging (is that a word?). Last month I came in about £5 under budget and I think I could do better again, but I'll be sticking with my target of £150 as we're starting to get a few bits for christmas too.
My main challenge for this month is to find cheaper sources of food for the animals. I have a labrador, 4 rabbits and 31 birds, so between them they munch a fair amount of food! it comes from a different budget than our normal groceries at the moment, but eventually I'd like to add them together and I don't want to up the grocery budget too much!
Happy saving everybody!
Gemma

mothershipton

please put me down for £250 in october we still have full cupboards but i have two very hungry children. Will be looking at the recipes for filling snacks for them as anything snacky i buy goes so quickly. Im rapidly turning into my mother who used to refuse to buy things cos we only ate them!!