November 2009 Grocery Challenge

Jevvers

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

Same here! Spent another £40 today :eek: but it's my first GC too and just realising what we're spending has been such a revelation!

skilly

morning all,spent 5 hours yesterday doing a inventory of the whole kitchen!.well what a eye opener, i do not need to buy any brown sauce for the whole of 2010!! or pasta.before i started on the kitchen i was going to go shopping but not now. i am going to try useing some of this stuff up .

scotsaver

Morning everyone - logged on to update my total with yesterday's spends, only got to last out until Thursday and shouldn't need to buy anything before then but will wait to declare on the last day just in case.:o

Just got to think what to set December at because I've got family coming to stay and will have more family and friends visiting in between so I know I will spend more than normal - thinking of setting my GC at the normal level and then any extras I need to buy will come out of a different Budget - what does everyone else do/think.

Dinner last night was a Chicken pie using leftovers from Sunday's roast, also made some soup which was just what we need with this horrible weather. Forecast for today is another wet and windy day.

Dinner tonight is a new recipe I've not used before from a cookbook I picked up in a Charity shop, Chinese Pork balls with a sweet and sour sauce and I will serve it with some noodles - the Pork mince was already in the Freezer and had noodles in the cupboard so the only outlay was for the tinned pineapple.;) If the recipe is a success and the family like it then I will post it tomorrow.

As a side issue, I watched Delia being interviewed on Paul O'Grady last night, does anyone have her new book "Delia's Happy Christmas" and if so is it worth buying? I'm a real Delia fan but already have her Xmas cookbook and wonder whether this one is different - I did notice when Paul O'Grady was holding the book it looks twice the thickness of the one I have so I guess there must be something new in it. Will have a search around on the internet for some reviews but thought I would ask here first as I know some of you are as mad about cookbooks as I am.:p

Sorry for long post - have a good day everyone.:D

dazzle21

Hello, we popped to Mr T yesterday, and have now blown the budget, but i'm declaring for November at £269 as we have enough everything (except maybe milk but if we need that i will add it to December!). I need to start getting inventive with my cooking as we have got stuck in a rut with our favourites which are begining to get a bit tedious :rolleyes: Now to avoid 'popping to the supermarket'! Hope everyone is ok!
Scotsaver - if your receipe works tonight could you post it? We love sweet and sour! x

kezlou

Hi all,
how is everyone?

Sorry haven't been just been so busy with everything. Well so far i have spent a whopping £135.32 this month, but got loads of reduced food in Mr S so hopefully won't have to do any shopping for a while. She says confidently :rolleyes:, the boys and OH have eaten a kilo of cheese in the past week alone, me thinks i need a cow lol

Got a freezer full of food so were slowly plowing our way through it, managed to clear two whole draws of various food so they empty now. thing was some of the stuff had been they sonce last years but just been used. so maybe if i'm good might only spent £6 next week on cheese, ham, milk and fruit.

right off to fugure out what were doing and sorting the house out yet again.

SunnyGirl

This weeks Super 6 at Aldi are here if it helps anyone. I am definitely going to get 2 lots each of the melon & pears

thisismoneysaving

Good Morning!
I had a great weekly shop last night in Tesc0s. Only £36 which included 36 tins of Winal0t for the pooch (which I haven't included in the Grocery Budget).

So around £18.60 on food, including a LOT of freezer food;
whoopsies
diced steak(£1.60)
diced turkey(£0.40) x 2
diced lamb(£0.60)
4 finest burgers(£1.90)
diced onion(£0.20) x 3
in store offers
2 huge cathedral city cheeses - the black packet (bogo £4-ish)
a veggie lasange (£1) - not v OS, but good for an emergency!

PLUS whoopsied bread, samosas, half a cooked chicken(£0.65!!!) butternut squash, potatoes and parsnips.

As well as the rest of my weekly shop, milk, ham etc etc.

I'm feeling quite impressed with myself right now, TBH.
Oh, I cooked some lamb last night in the SC for tonights dinner, which smells AMAZING!

I'm looking forward to starting December now

Long_tall_sally

Hello again.
I have £53 left till next Tuesday out of my budget of £470 that I had set myself for the month of November. I need some veg plus some gluten free cereal and biscuits for DS who has Coeliac disease but not much else really so I actually feel quite excited that i might even come in under my target! I am feeling quite pleased with myself because I have managed to reduce the amount I've spent for the last few months but then tbh I was spending an awful lot before. Crazy really because we couldn't really afford it and yet it just kept happening every month because there wasn't much thought or effort put into the food shopping. Would really like a holiday abroad next year which I haven't been able to afford for years so I am on a mission now.
I's like to properly join for December if I can please, just trying to decide for what amount because whilst I do want to keep reducing the spend amount, there is obviously the extra bits for xmas to get. On the other hand, if I don't even try & aim for a reduced amount, then it will be unlikely that i will ever achieve it, iyswim! What are other people doing?

XSpender

[QUOTE=scotsaver;27179737]As a side issue, I watched Delia being interviewed on Paul O'Grady last night, does anyone have her new book "Delia's Happy Christmas" and if so is it worth buying? I'm a real Delia fan but already have her Xmas cookbook and wonder whether this one is different - I did notice when Paul O'Grady was holding the book it looks twice the thickness of the one I have so I guess there must be something new in it. Will have a search around on the internet for some reviews but thought I would ask here first as I know some of you are as mad about cookbooks as I am.:p

QUOTE]

I have bought this book with some birthday money. Half price at WH Sm1ths. I don't have her other Christmas book but she does say that some fo the recipes like Christmas cake and mincemeat have been around for years. I have her veggie collection and there is a duplication of a couple of recipes from there. If I was having more than three meat eaters and one veggie for Christmas dinner I would definately be using some of the recipes.:drool:

SunnyGirl

Thisismoneysaving Well done Some great whoopsies there too!

Long Tall Sally Well done as well I think that we've all been shocked at how much stuff we bought before GC That's why it's so brilliant it really concentrates the mind!

I've managed to get through to today before I've had to buy milk which I'm really pleased about as I last went into a supermarket last Weds I bought 10 x 6 pint bottles and 14 loaves of bread and put them in my Mum's chest freezer. She has kindly dropped one or two of each off as she's passed the house :T:A It has really stopped the nipping out for milk & bread syndrome.

DS2 made me laugh last night. He is studying businesses in his Business Studies GCSE and was telling me that the big supermarkets aren't 'really nice, friendly people like they show on the tv adverts' but BIG corporations who are out to make money - and lots of it :rotfl: I said that although I was laughing at his revelation I was pleased that he'd learnt this lesson long before I did :rolleyes::D

Shopping again tomorrow for the last time this month. It's gone so quickly. For December I'm only going to addsome extra bits on as it's a 5 week month for me and I end up with so much extra food year after year. I'll obviously be doing a Christmas lunch (on Christmas Eve), a buffett on Christmas Day and a big chilli in the slow cooker on Boxing Day. I am determined not to get sucked into buying all the nuts, chocolate, sugared almonds etc that I usually do as nobody eats them after a few days :mad: