December 2009 Grocery Challenge

skintbint_2

thought i'd better update too! had a few things to get yesterday but still on target for my £60p/wk spend (£260 a month)- only by pence though, could really be doing with bread but will make a couple of irish soda bread- tastes better anyway and i'll pop in a couple of banana loafs while the ovens on! have done my menu planner for next week and should get by with a spend of about £30 (i hope)but that includes things for lunch boxes, and loo roll, (am loving the daisy loo roll in mrT's, 9 rolls for £1.99 and not like the other cheap stuff that disintegrates),
have a good day all and thanks for keeping me focused as i couldnt bear the thought of posting an overspend!

Changingme

First shop of month £86.93, have brought mince pies,chocs,chocolate log,wrapping paper and cards so have finally made start on christmas.:xmastree:

Long_tall_sally

Found yesterdays co-op receipt so have updated spends so far plus also my budget which I realised I had stated as £420 when I had said it would be £450 to allow for xmas bits. After dinner today will have no veg or potatoes left so another shop will soon be needed! (Very disorgainsed really considering that I went to both Sainsburys and the Co-op yesterday!) Might pop to the Co-op later as they often food good reductions on a Sunday afternoon.

Flat_Eric

Have just returned from a walk to the local metro supermarket. spent £16.42 (£13.42 from grocery budget) so will update signature shortly. almost forgot what I went in for (unsalted butter) to make banana loaf and found myself wandering round finding stuff to buy although I was as restrained as I could be although a tin of roses (£5) and some pain au choc (99 pence) found my way into the basket. spend also includes bubble bath for xmas gift (separate budget)

busy afternoon ahead. if the weather clears up, hope to venture out to the garage to itemise contents of freezer. other plans include to make a banana loaf (using up manky bananas). also making home made beef madras curry and chick pea curry for tea tonight. yum.

cw18

Been a bit lax about updating my spreadsheet this week, but have just added all spends since 1st (happily not as much as I thought it could be, but that's mainly 'cos the £15 spent on beer from Mr M isn't included - the money will come back from elder DS when he gets home on leave on 20th )

Budget to end of today is £24.92, and I've spent £18.35 (including £5.33 on Whoopsies worth £17.54). This has included :-

9 boxes of mince pies from Mr M (B1G2F, so only paid for 3)
2 'rolls' of sausagemeat (we always have this with chips on Christmas Eve - so I grabbed from Whoopsie today. Only 40p/roll saving, but still a saving )
a large pork joint from Mr M (half price offer), which has joined the beef I got last month in the freezer. We're going to be eating really well when elder DS is home, as each joint will do at least 2 meals :T

Also got some Whoopsied cakes (including Donuts on Friday, which were a celebratory treat due to getting my first pay cheque in just over 12 months )

And loads and loads of Whoopsied breads in a multitude of 'flavours'. Most of these were from the in-store bakers (where I work), and I treat them as a 'product sampling' exercise - may only have been in the job 4 weeks, but it's still embarrassing when asked by a customer what a product is like and I have to admit to never having tried

There's a few other bits in there, but that covers the majority of my spending so far this month.


Still tempted to use up the corn-fed chicken breasts I have in the freezer for Christmas Day, rather than buying a turkey. Will see how funds are holding up closer to the time, but seems a good way of freeing up some freezer space (rather than squeezing everything up for the left-over turkey to go in) and also freeing up a large chunk of my budget for other goodies instead (ie. better quality cold meats for sandwiches, rather than the value ham from Mr T we normally use)


Off to take my GDs to the children's Christmas Party organised by work very shortly, so will try and catch up from where I left off (post #118!!!) this evening.....

highland_fling_2

Good afternoon everyone,

well went on my first shopping trip of the month yesterday. Visited L***s.
Total came to £24+ but did not manage to buy eggs for planned baking. They only had barn eggs and I refuse to buy those, so baking put on hold as I couldn't be bothered calling in to any other shops by that time (5.30 and I was shattered).

Off now to make Sunday lunch using up food from freezer. Will create another little bit of space to freeze baking (when I eventually get around to doing it).

Toonie

Ok I have a lot of catching up to do, my computer has died and so I've been MIA for a bit, unfortunetly, my spreadsheet with all my info for the GC may or may not have disappeared as well. For the moment though I'm working to the plan of having around £150 this month as due to current finances that's all we have to spend, including Christmas food. My annual budget was well under target and from memory stands somewhere around the £1650 mark. So, this next month I shall just be working a new spreadsheet on my sisters old laptop which she has given to me as an early Christmas present to replace my computer.

GC wise we have spent around £20 so far this month, but that includes a lot of RTC items which I got in Sainsburys the other day (TTD cocktail sausages, sausagemeat and chicken all over 80% reduced) and lots of other meat reduced too. My local Sainsburys have also started stocking British Pork and Lamb in the basics range. I got some stewing lamb which was only £3 for 1kg and made a stew yesterday with some tomato puree, herbs and spices and had it with fresh bread and carrots and it was lovely. It cost around £1.50 for two huge portions, plus leftover gravy which will be nice mopped up with bread today. Right now I have some soup cooking (tin tomatoes, half a swede, two carrots, 1 onion, 1 small tin tomato puree and some vegetable stock) which will make four large portions for round 25p/portion.

winterfrost

Hello!

Only spent £1 today on some dry catfood so not bad at all.

I was just wondering, how do you factor in bulk-buying things on special into your budget? For example, today I noticed that my shampoo and conditioner were on half price so bought 3 bottles of each, even though I don't need any yet, and yesterday I bought 4 boxes of Whiskas instead of 1. Altogether this means I spent £14 that I wouldn't otherwise have done, but still have saved in the long run... Should I allow myself an extra £14 on this week's budget, or try to squeeze everything else down?

JayneC

Quick update,

Went to Mr T for a 'few bits' and ended up spending £32.15!!

Had loads of coupons for points and so bought those items before the coupons run out (is stuff I will use - didn't buy the heat magazine I have a coupon for;)) which bumped up the total. Need to do a proper 'stocktake' now and make sure I can keep within budget. Am going to do a meal plan for xmas too as I usually just end up buying stuff for the sake of it - chocs and crisps and snacky things!! Why do we do it?!
Off to update sig... then may bake some rock buns

Ansoff

Hi

I have spent £14.37 yersterday at Mr T.

nsd today, yippee:j