November 2009 Grocery Challenge

helen_jelly

nykmedia wrote: »

Helenjelly - can you take my name off the weekly bit bottom of your challenger list, please? I think it must have been added there for an odd week at some point, I'm in the annual section.

Hi
Consider it done - it was my fault - I meant to ask you about it one week, you were mentioning a spend for the week so I added you to the weekly list and then saw you were on the monthly list - Whoops:o

Budgets all done

Helen

ajmoney

So far this month I have spent £157.90. Although £300 was obviously an unrealistic challenge this month I am not sure what is a good idea for December yet.
Do you all have OHs/DHs on board with your challenges? So far I am only keeping a running total, when I come to trying to reduce the amount I reckon I will need OH to join in. However he enjoys the fact that we can "just" spend without worrying too much.

SunnyGirl

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi guys, being into damage control mode is helping cut down on small spends but I had to stock up on essential basics like cooking oils, spices, margarine, flour, suet, raisins etc, but I am going to be very brave and declare my November spending as complete. I have plenty of powdered milk and a few cartons of UHT so no excuses about running out, plus there'll only be DS and I from Thursday for the next couple pf weeks as HS will be away on holiday. So, cupboards stocked up with most things barring Christmas dinner, I have a stockpile of baking ingredients and plenty of veggies, sauces and stuff for desserts.

Declaring my total spend to date at £1,201.70 which includes £78.19 spent this month. Budget is still £1200 and I'm hoping to try and not stray too much over that. At a guess, I'd reckon £100 would cover everything I need to see me through to 2010.

Good luck for the rest of the year, folks

Nykmedia Well Done!!

SunnyGirl

ajmoney wrote: »

So far this month I have spent £157.90. Although £300 was obviously an unrealistic challenge this month I am not sure what is a good idea for December yet.
Do you all have OHs/DHs on board with your challenges? So far I am only keeping a running total, when I come to trying to reduce the amount I reckon I will need OH to join in. However he enjoys the fact that we can "just" spend without worrying too much.

Hi & well done on your first month

My husband is on board with it fortunately. He does still have times of madness though and will buy something completely out of the blue - last week he brought home 2 boxes of Mr Kipling cakes and 2 Tesco Angel Cakes even though I do lots of baking :eek: and don't particularly like these, prob why he did it :rolleyes:

Would it work if you suggested a savings account or similar for the money that you manage to save on groceries? You could decide together what you'll spend it on (hopefully a treat!) and then your DH could decide that even though he can buy what he wants he'd be better putting the money into 'X' account for whatever it is.

ajmoney

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Hi & well done on your first month

My husband is on board with it fortunately. He does still have times of madness though and will buy something completely out of the blue - last week he brought home 2 boxes of Mr Kipling cakes and 2 Tesco Angel Cakes even though I do lots of baking :eek: and don't particularly like these, prob why he did it :rolleyes:

Would it work if you suggested a savings account or similar for the money that you manage to save on groceries? You could decide together what you'll spend it on (hopefully a treat!) and then your DH could decide that even though he can buy what he wants he'd be better putting the money into 'X' account for whatever it is.

It sounds like it may be a plan. OH loves his cakes etc too but as we have just started trying to eat healthier he is only getting twitchy at weekends. If I did the shopping it would be a lot easier but OH feels as though he hasn't got control or any say then...he doesn't like making lists of any sort so his shopping would be all impulse buys. However I made a list and met him with it last week with ideas i.e. one meal would be a casserole and we see what we can find to go in it. I will see how best to tackle it but we enjoy eating out so maybe that could be our treat.

Thanks for the suggestion..that is what I came on to say but went off on one, sorry

pammyj74

pammyj74 wrote: »

would love to join although a bit late but i have been keeping track all month
£120

of which i have spent this month £87.20 so far

will have a big read through the thread for more tips etc
i have enough in freezer for rest of month i think, so will just need bread, milk and fruit for rest of next week really.
is there a nsd thread or do i put this here as well (altho I havent kept track of that but will next month)

Spent £2 in £1 shop
spent £5.80 today at morrisons, got the 30p carrots and pots and apples.
bag of bananas and bread and milk for the week.
am hoping that I can use up stuff in the freezer and cupboards for the rest of the week. I have 1kg of pasta that I got from aldi for 99p a few weeks ago and a load of pots for the week too
The fruit bowl is full
I might need to fill up on packed lunch stuff but hopefully not
Total so far then £95

mark55man

hooray - NSD today (+ entertained my team at work today so got a free beer and club sandwich), so that's better than a NSD, as I didn't use anything up either

oligeo

I have kind of given up this month, mainly because I set myself a stupidly low budget, and had no chance of sticking to it.
I'm going to set my December budget at £500
I'm going to do as someone suggested and keep a detailed list of what my money is going on, then hopefully I can better budget in the future.
Sarah

helen_jelly

oligeo wrote: »

I have kind of given up this month, mainly because I set myself a stupidly low budget, and had no chance of sticking to it.
I'm going to set my December budget at £500
I'm going to do as someone suggested and keep a detailed list of what my money is going on, then hopefully I can better budget in the future.
Sarah

Don't be too hard on yourself, I did exactly the same on my first month and the only reason we're coming under this month is because we don't have any money until we get paid on Monday [gulp!]
Writing it down is an excellent way of keeping track and some people list on here what they have bought and how much they have spent, maybe that might work for you. At least you have made a start so be proud of that.

Budgets done.

Have a nice evening everyone
Helen x

freakyogre

I've totally lost track this month, so will try again next month!

I don't think i've spent that much, but I went shopping in Calais at the weekend and the majority of stuff I bought was food, so I should really count that too!

Went to Coop on my way home and got some of the tuna that's on offer and also 2 packs of cheese which is £3 a pack - BOGOF. Also, some Stork to make some pastry tomorrow.

Had to buy a new car battery this morning as well as mine had died, so it's been a bit of an expensive month...and i'm going out for a meal on Friday with work. Eeek!