November 2009 Grocery Challenge

Moniker

Hi guys

Sorry I have been awol - just too much going on here at the moment! Am declaring for November at £289.30. This is £4-30 over which I can live with - given all the disruption of the past couple of weeks it's not too bad. If I hadn't shaved £5 off last month's total I would have been 70p under!

I won't be joing you for the December challenge as too busy with DD2's wedding and Christmas and visiting DD1 in Germany. But I will keep a running total and catch up with you all in January.

Hope everyone has a good month and a blessed and peaceful Christmas when it comes.

Moniker

Pink.

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that the December Grocery Challenge is up and running here I will 'unstick' this thread later but please feel free to keep posting in it if your new month hasn't started yet.

Many thanks as always, to rosieben and helen jelly for all their help with the thread. :A Good luck to everyone who is taking part this month. :T

Pink

annie123

Declearing £255 for November
Very happy as £25 under, but only because I'm stuck indoors not well!

Off to ponder final thoughts for decembers one....

mrssnowy_2

Seriously fed up with November,stupid spending and I really don't know where I am with my money. Been spending on presents and paid for a midweek break,taking it 2nd week in December.
Need to sort out the presents to take up with us before we go there.
However I will declare at £190,which is only just over and I do have quite a few bits towards Christmas-ham,cake,pud,potatoes(!)
Sorry bit backwards with posting,
declaring £190,please put me down for £180 for December.

Keep saving one and all,you are all doing so well.

mrss

franby64

Hi all.

Spent £13.18 today - obviously the fact that I am already overbudget has not sunk in! It was all necessary stuff though except for some Ben and Jerry's cookiedough ice-cream which the Co-op are selling half price at the moment - I've spent the rest of the day trying to resist it! Nearly succeeded!

I'm going to see it through to the bitter end and declare on Monday night but could you put me down for another £450 for December please.

Puddleglum

Hi everyone,

time to declare for Nov at £129.88. nearly £10 over budget, but I think that it is pretty good really. The budget was set at £40 pw for three weeks as a reaction to having spent too much during a family crisis in the first two weeks of Nov (thank goodness for a credit card when you really need it!) TBH I knew when I set the budget that I would not be able to keep it.

So onwards to Dec. This is a really tough one as we still do not know how many people will be visiting over Christmas and for how long. Even the most enlightened guests will probably bring wine or chocolate with them rather than a sack of porridge oats.:snow_laug

Helen Jelly please could you put me down for £325 for December.

That is £45 per week plus a £100 rebate which I am hoping to get on my National Insurance stamps and will cover all food and drink for however many people as turn up.

meanmarie

Declaring at €230.07 for November, €30.07 overbudget....not happy at all, will have to start leaving OH at home when I shop!!

Marie

carolt2

Hi folks,
Would like to declare for this month at £112.23 :j:j.
First time we have ever been under by a significant amount.
Will amend signature and add amount to running total.

See you all in december.

cw18

Bought 2 loaves of sliced bread from Mr M last night, which official took me over my monthly budget. Could have gone to A!di and bought just one for 47p (if they had any left, as I didn't finish work until 6pm) which would have left me pennies under, but I have freezer space for the second and with my staff discount the two loaves were just 90p (so cheaper per loaf, and no walk in the wrong direction to home - albeit only a couple of mins further away)

But I've been shopping again today - oops!

We have a new (opened 8 days ago) B+M where our C00p used to be, so pottered around there this morning. Managed to spend £1.16 on 2 packs of puff pastry mix (19p each) which I plan to use in an attempt at h/m mince pies tomorrow, and 2 packs of Tuna Neapolitan sauce mix (DS isn't a fan of tuna but will eat this without too many complaints - and I still have 'several' tins of tuna in my cupboards :rolleyes2 )

Then I nipped down to Mr M to check final clearance in the half-hour before closing time (also needed/wanted a couple of fresh bits). Picked up :-

2x 1kg bag carrots @ 30p each (will dice, blanche and freeze these tomorrow)
400g loose mushrooms @ 99p (need some for first attempt at h/m pizza tomorrow, but may have a few left to slice and freeze)
1x cooked chicken from deli @ 99p (reduced from £3.79), some of which will be used tomorrow lunch on.....
2x petit parisienne (bread sticks) @ 9p each (reduced from 49p each special offer price, normally 69p each)

also got :-

5x pick 'n' mix rolls for 9p the lot (reduced from 25p each or offer of 5 for £1)
1x 400g granary loaf @ 19p (reduced from 67p)
1x Organic double cream @ 9p (reduced from 89p) to be used with h/m mince pies tomorrow
and (my treat for tonight)
pack of 2 fresh cream puff pastry mince pies @ 35p (reduced from £1.29)

after staff discount this little lot cost me £3.13

Ok, so I didn't strictly need all the bread products, but I work in the in-store bakery (just finished 3rd week) and had already decided to grab things from the section when I see them for pennies - as a kind of 'getting to know your products' exercise

So I'm now £5.08 over my monthly budget, but not worried as I'm still £14.12 under my 'year to date' budget to the end of this month. It could be worse though, as I've saved 45p (staff discount) and used a £10 gift card in Mr T (reward from a survey site) this month

I'm not going to set my December GC budget until Monday night as I'm going to include any 'year to date' underspend on top of what I had allocated for the month..... then the challenge is to not go over budget during December as that will mean I end the year over budget, which is something I really don't want to do!!

Going to re-do my freezer stock-take tomorrow (spreadsheet hopefully isn't far off, though I'm sure I've taken out some slices of bread and a couple of bagels that I've not knocked off, plus put in a few snacks for over Christmas I've not booked in!). I'm then going to get my meal plan for December sorted, basing it around freezer contents as much as possible (to try and hold down December spends, and also to give me a 'fresh start' for the New Year). I definitely have a lot more space in them than I had at this time last month, but it's currently scattered between all the drawers - so I plan to try and repack to get all the space together, and then do some batch cooking so as many meals as possible in December are pre-made. I think this will be worth doing as I've been told I'll end up working a lot of extra hours in the run-up to Christmas (especially the week before, when no-one is allowed to take holiday either), and it's already starting as I've done an extra 7.5 hours over 2 days this week (to cover holidays and sickness)

I was planning on buying a large chicken or small turkey for Christmas Day (hopefully covered, or at least subsidised, by my Sealed Pot money which is due to be counted up on Tuesday - and consists of all coins under 10p that have arrived in my purse this year). But I've remembered tonight I have 6 corn-fed chicken breasts that have been 'lurking' in my freezer for quite a while, and (as I'm only cooking for 3 of us) I'm thinking I might cook those instead. That way we can have one each on Christmas Day and use the others for the traditional meat butties on Boxing Day and 27th This will free up my sealed pot money for proper treats over the festive period outside of the GC budget (or to buy myself a 'pressie' once the sales start )

Botany

Hello all, and welcome to the new people!

I spent another 10.38 today, meaning that I am now £41.29 over budget. I wonder if I should declare now but I'll hold on until Monday 30th as I'm more than capable to spend some more... :cool: