October 2009 Grocery Challenge

helen_jelly

PrincessMort wrote: »

Helenjelly, please can you put me down for £180 in November - think I'll come in well under this month (woohoo) but need to stock up next month plus might have MIL&FIL to stay so will need to get extra in, plus a bottle of wine or two...:rolleyes:

Sorry if I'm posting rather a lot at the moment, but I'm really getting into this and its helping me stay motivated. I was telling my mum about the forum tonight and she wants me to show her so she can join I'm recruiting!! x

ps could someone please tell me how I access my signature? cant find it anywhere!

pps welcome underthestairs!

Hi - siggy bit is;

Click on "Quick Links" at the top of the page and there will be a menu pop up and you just click on the siggy bit [can't remember exactly what its called] - yell if you need more help

Helen x

[Deleted User]

Haven't done the GC for a while and spending is creeping back up again so I'd like to rejoin for November. Please put me down for £200 for November. New month starts on Friday for me.

Got my OH on board this time too - he is reading through the forum with great interest right now having never been on this board before.

helen_jelly

Evening everyone

Hello and welcome back to the people returning and hi to the new people

Don't forget to check out the recipes on Page 1 and ask any questions as there are lots of helpful people on here.

budgets done up to and including allie23 - thank you everyone

Helen x

mark55man

little top up today as we had 5 separate things today so got a pre-cooked chicken and some odds and sods (inc cat food) so that's another £18

I think I will make budget, but need to check with OH I haven't missed anything - and we do half Half Term to get through - tend to increase the fruit bill !!

Can I be put down (please) for £600 again next month (1/11 - 30/11)

TheBees

Hi everyone

Not be on here for a few days but still sticking to the budget and menu plan.

We have some exciting news here - on Friday we're going to be rehoming 2 or 3 ex battery hens. :j We've thought about it for a long time and had a phone call out of the blue from a local chap who organises the rehoming. We met him at a BBQ over a year ago and got chatting about chickens! He has 300 to rehome this weekend!!! So this week we've been rushing around organising a coop and run, bark chippings for the ground, food and feeders!!! It's not cheap but hopefully we should get some eggs in the future.:T

Anyway, back to the grocery challenge - I haven't had much time to think about food this week but there's plenty in the freezer and cupboards. Might need some milk soon but hope not to have to go to a supermarket until Monday.

Good luck everyone

oceanspirit

With me running low on budget for the final week of this month, I had a look at what I wanted to buy online to do the price comparisons on the offers before I went to the store. I was pleased I had because there were several items where the pricing information was not clear. Also on the brown rice shelf the cheaper option (which was also the more healthy option) had no price information at all so I was pleased I already knew which one to pick up.

I did extremely well on the whoopsied fruit and veg this evening and the only thing I had to buy at full price was the onions. I also picked up a few things which I needed on the bent tins shelf.

Bargain veg:

2 large heads broccoli 11p each
1 bag organic watercress 19p
2 packs prepared mixed veg 15p each
1 bag organic potatoes 19p
1 pack shitake mushrooms 25p
2 papayas 22p each
7 avocado 12p each
1 bunch salad onions 13p
prepared organic carrots 12p

So, total shop tonight was £12.39 which takes me just 4p over my October budget. I shouldn't need anything else this month but won't declare until I am sure next week.

rosieben

[Deleted User] wrote:

... Got my OH on board this time too - he is reading through the forum with great interest right now having never been on this board before.

:hello: hello mr allie

TheBees wrote: »

... We have some exciting news here - on Friday we're going to be rehoming 2 or 3 ex battery hens. :j ...

Congrats on your expanding family! If I could have chooks this is what I'd do; I went into a battery hen shed once _pale_ I've much happier memories of collecting fresh eggs from our chooks when I was a titch; will we see photos, here or on the keeping chickens thread?

Not bothering with the online order as dsis is taking me to mrm and mrl next week

good luck for the last run home everyone :cool:

Angelfeathers

Julimk wrote: »

Angelfeathers – You can pay for the annual prescription pre-payment certificate by monthly direct debit over 10 months, so just over a tenner a month for the 10 months:

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

Oooh! Thank you! I shall go and get on with that then, tomorrow! :-)

Moniker

Hi everyone

Where has this week gone? I did my Sainsbury's shop this morning and came in under £40 which is good! This included a bottle of wine and some toiletries. We are away again this weekend for my birthday, so I should be able to keep in budget and with just over £40 left in the kitty even I should be able to keep on the straight and narrow till next Thursday/Friday!

Work has been so busy and I am still not shot of my chest infection properly so I have found meal planning and keeping up with the posts impossible this week, sorry! Must try harder!

Good luck everyone for the last week of the month!

Moniker

Keiss_21

Popped into Lidl last night on the way home from seeing my therapist. I even managed to walk round for a bit, but had to abandon DH to finish the shopping and pay for it all. I get really fed up with this ****** back, but I feel I am at last doing something positive about it all.

Still, we managed to spend £21.66 in total, including dog-food, loo rolls, kitchen rolls, bags of fish and a large salami (which does DH & DS2 almost 3 weeks), as well as some fruit, veg and tinned stuff.

We are really doing very well this month, helped by the big shop we did at the end of September (mind you, DS1 took most of that to Uni!). We have only just crept over the £200 mark and have only 9 days left of this month to spend £170!!:j We should only have a few top-ups for milk & veg/fruit for the rest of this month - result! I didn't think DS1 was costing us THAT much extra per month in food! Mind you, DS2 spent 5 days last week in Snowdonia, so again that helped too.

I suppose as we have lost a quarter of our houshold to Uni, I should have reduced our monthly spending from £400 to £300 immediately, but I wanted to see how we got on this month. Next week is half-term, so I will have to make sure DS2 doesn't eat us out of house and home! I will be able to get some HM soup into him on a few days, thus cutting down on the amount of sandwiches etc devoured.

Right off to get more knitting done, I should have my first Xmas pressie finished by Saturday/Sunday (completed in less than a week), then another to knit next week. It keeps me out of trouble at least!