October 2009 Grocery Challenge

TheBees

Evening everyone

Went to get our chickens today from the rescue chap. We brought two home with us as we felt that three would be too cramped in the space available and so far all is well. "Maggie" produced and egg within a couple hours of moving in!:j

Regarding the budget I made a fatal mistake and took DS and DD shopping on Friday afternoon. Probably spent £10 more than I would have done on my own and subsequently £10 over budget with still a few days to go. :mad: DS wanted a water melon, mango and pineapple! But he does need to eat more fruit so can't complain really.

Have a good weekend.

huxley

Hi all just popped on to update signature I am over budget at the month hasn't ended yet! But think I would of managed if it hadnt been such a rotten month had a couple of unplanned takeaways but as in the past 2 weeks we have had vandals damage the fence, mil rushed into hospital and a week of hospital visits hence the takeaways a couple of nights just too tired, but thankfully she is now home and on the road to recovery, also cooker socket sparking out and central heating pump packing up I am not going to stress out about being over budget;) I'll keep track of the spending and mark this month down as an experience!:p

mumto2monkeys_2

PLEASE CAN I BE PUT DOWN FOR £250 FOR NOVEMBER.

I'm going to try my hardest. It's a super busy month with a lot of overtime - every night and every weekend. So, it's going to be really tough. I've only got a regular freezer, because if I had a larger one I would make a tonne of meals whilst I'm on holiday this week and freeze them all. Something to aim for when the debt goes down, along with my breadmaker!

On a plus, I found Lidl and got a trolley full of staples for £63. I'm pretty chuffed.

I've got a few more stock cupboard bits to get, then hopefully I'll be down to milk, bread and veg shops for the rest of the month. The fact that it's nearly 5 weeks is going to make it even harder to stick to.

I will not fail before I begin! Thinking positive!

slowandsteady_2

Aw thanks for the congrats message on my new job, im excited but apprehensive as i dont yet know what area i will be working in, just thats its medical division, they have a lot of staff nurse vacancies and are allocating successful applicants accordingly, taking experience into account i suppose (got job via application and interview at an open day at the Trust for RGNs)

Also i offer my apologies for using the word fail! I was feeling annoyed with myself and you are all correct, had i not had the GC on my mind and MSE on my mind i would still be mindlessly frittering money away and eating ready meals so thats an improvement in itself, ready meals do not come through the front door anymore!

In the past few months of OS and MSE, I have learnt to budget; cook better; make gorgous stock and then gorgous soup; make the most of my slow cooker; learn how to batch cook; learn about portion control, making things go further and leftovers, the list could go on, so a great big THANKYOU!

I love the site, and i will not use the f%il word again i promise!

I will be back on GC too in nov when i know how many pennies i have after payday, keeps me from going too far wrong!

Miss-spent_2

First shop of November budget today. Went to Asda and was shocked how suddenly everything seems expensive. They have lots of offers but seem to reduce the amount you get. I was going to buy two punnets of strawberries for £3 but one punnet had only 6 strawberries in, that's 25p a strawberry!
Anyway I spent £70.96 which included quite a lot on non grocery items such as three sets of newspapers and a casserole dish. I am away for a few days next week and when I come back I intend to use up all the stuff left in the house. I have roughly mapped out meals unti 13th nov with what I have plus some fresh bits. So can I put down £170 for Nov which will allow me another £100

BigMummaF

I'm pretty sure I've some spends to go onto the total so when I oik out the receipts I'll add 'em on.
The 'f@il' debate is a tricky one isn't it but I've surprised myself since keeping a spreadsheet of my spends. MrT value butter has been up & down in price like a lift in a car park, whilst--on first glance--various supermarket value middle bacon rashers appear to be identical. On closer inspection, the three types I have in the fridge are 500g, 475g & 450g but exactly the same price :eek:
We are also good at NOT blaming the stores & the way the price increases every time you walk thru the door. Let's be real here folks; it's not an odd penny here or thrupence there anymore :mad: Twenty items increased by 5p each would still put a £1 on your receipt

PrincessMort

TheBees wrote: »

Evening everyone

Went to get our chickens today from the rescue chap. We brought two home with us as we felt that three would be too cramped in the space available and so far all is well. "Maggie" produced and egg within a couple hours of moving in!:j

Congratulations on your new family! :j

nykmedia wrote: »

From my £1.76 smoked ham hough I got a large pot of stock that made enough soup for 9 bowls. From the ham I removed from the bone I got a full size ham & egg flan/quiche plus a cheese & ham pie. .

Wow...proper OS impressive! Can you tell me where you get a ham hough (supermarket? butcher?) and is that what you ask for?

We are doing well trying to eke things out until the end of the month...only 5 days to go :rolleyes: I made tuna fishcakes yesterday which were rather nice, plus a batch of weetabix brownies - I didn't have any chocolate chips in though so ended up chopping up a few after eights and making 'mint choc chip brownies'...slightly wierd but they went down ok

Going to a friend's for dinner tonight so wont need to make anything, and have got meals pretty much planned out for mon-thurs next week, so hopefully will make it!

Keiss_21

PrincessMort wrote: »

Wow...proper OS impressive! Can you tell me where you get a ham hough (supermarket? butcher?) and is that what you ask for?

Princess M, I find this side of the border it is called hock, either gammon or ham. I often get mine from our wonderful local butcher, or at the butchers in Mr M. I usually get two and boil them both, making lots of stock (if it is smoked, I change the first lot of water once it has reached boiling, then replenish with cold water - this will stop the stock being so salty). Then use it as nykmedia suggests. Freezing some slices to have another day too.

Hope this helps.

Another complete NSD yesterday. :j

I hoped to manage one today too, though DH is talking about doing the last top-up-of-the-month today. I was going to take DS2 into town tomorrow to help me, but I have had a c**p weekend so far and may not be well enough to shop tomorrow. We'll see how I feel this afternoon.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

M

Ninno820

October didn't go too badly for me - just £39 over - and the freezer is still full so can you put me down for another £160 for November and I will do my est.
I agree with the posts re failure - just think what we would have spent if we hadn't been so careful - this is the first month in the past year that I have had money left over at the end of the month.

brokemedic

Just spent £22.97 for my weekly shopping - this includes lunches at uni. I haven't come to a final amount for October as I think I will need to buy some milk so I will post my final amount later. However, I would like to budget

£125 for November!!