December 2009 Grocery Challenge

cw18

'small' spend of £4.56 in Mr M for me this morning when I went down to get another case of the half-price Stell@ for elder DS!!!

He's currently based in Sweden, so can't go himself - but is flying home for Christmas next Sunday and has asked me to stock up on cheap beer for him. Only agreed on the basis he refunds me for it, which means it's not coming out of my GC budget Currently have 15 of the £1 packs of C@rlsberg they did up to last Sunday and 4 boxes of the Stell@, making a total of 60 bottles and 96 cans :eek: To be fair, he plans to spend a lot of time visiting mates and will take a lot of it around to share with them...... but while he won't drink all of this himself, I'm quite sure he'll still be buying more (bottle of spirits and/or pub visits)

Decided that while I was there I may as well replace the frozen peas and sweetcorn I finished off last night (87p and 77p respectively), and also checked the markdowns. Have just shoe-horned 2 Coley fillets (45p and 69p instead of 91p and £1.23 - plan to try making fish pie a couple of times, instead of the normal 'boil in the bag' we have with rice) and 2 x 500g packs of turkey mince (89p instead of £1.78 per pack) into the freezer - but it was only possible as younger DS finished off a tub of ice-cream last night, and he won't be happy to discover there's now no space for a replacement tub until later in the week :rolleyes2

ellemm

Well, spent another £4 on the festive feast deal from Mr M (OH went for the second one) so freezer now full again as I peeled and prepped all the vegs including par boiling the potatoes - we won't be here to use them so only option really but will certainly help to reduce spending in January.
Also did the same with a load of onions which, again we won't use before we go away.
One joint of pork I will cook for today (and probably do lunches tomorrow) the other in the freezer with one of the trifles and 3 tubs of soup :cool:

Couldn't resist really :rolleyes:

So not much cooking to do today.

skintbint_2

well this weeks been a wash out have spent an extra £30 but dont ask me what on however tomorrow is another day, as another poster stated i would have spent an awful lot more if i hadnt been following this thread - so thanks everybody there may just be money left at the end of the month instead of the other way round, menu planner done for next week and away to throw a couple of chicken fillets in the slow cooker with MrT's 4p curry sauce - will add a couple of more ingredients just to give it substance. my target this week will be £45 (usually £60) so pasta a couple of nights, stovies, homemade soup with apple & peach (cheap MRT'stinned peaches) crumble - must update signature good luck yeverybody and stay warm!:snow_grin

cw18

carolt2 wrote: »

Managed to get to MR M for the £4 festive feast.
Thanks again to CW18 posting about it, if I had not read about it on MSE I would not have known.

You're welcome

They have a newsletter you can sign up to on their website, and details of offers like this will arrive in your Inbox when they get released.

I got my email about this at 8:15am on Thursday morning, but had started work at 8am so didn't see it until I got home. I didn't notice the signs as I dashed across the shop-floor just before 8am (but I wasn't looking for them), and they'd been removed by the time I got my first break due to there not being any more trifles available to allow customers to purchase the deal.

I actually found out about it, about an hour after starting work, as a customer mentioned it to me (she's the Aunty of one of the boys in the pre-school class I volunteer with 2 mornings a week, and she does a lot of the school runs so I know her from there)

carolt2

cw18 wrote: »

They have a newsletter you can sign up to on their website, and details of offers like this will arrive in your Inbox when they get released.

I got my email about this at 8:15am on Thursday morning, but had started work at 8am so didn't see it until I got home.QUOTE]

I did sign up to newsletter a while ago but I never recieved anything about it, will try and sign up again and see if i get anything.

Botany

Just a quick update: spent £36.07 in MrW yesterday, which leaves £121.45 in the pot. All is going to plan so far (fingers crossed!) :rudolf:

poppy-glos

bought snacks for tv last night and dd fave tea ready for today, so more spends yesterday. might be a nsd today if i don't leave the house... this depends on what temptation presents itself...
have made pasta salad ready for lunchboxes tomorrow (as out of bread..)

JayneC

Hi all,

did try to updtae yesterday but somehow got logged out as I was trying to post and so wasn't allowed as I wasnn't logged in!!! Anyhoo couldn't be bothered to tyoe out my post again and knew I would be doing another shop so am here now instead.

Only got £22+ left and have to get to 24th!! Not sure I can do that - well I could if it wasn't Christmas the next day! Think I may have to cheat and dib into next months money to make sure i've got Christmas stuff in.

we're off to visit family on boxing day for a few days so it's literally Christmas day (and associated chocs n snacky stuff - OH will buy alcohol so don't have to include that.)Can go shopping again when I get back. We'll see how it goes, spent more than I planned from sainsbug's yesterday and it's thrown me a bit, that'll teach me to deviate from the list!

I'm doing Nyk's frugal challenge next year so will set a yearly budget for food, so must make sure I'm more organised.

Hope everyone else is doing better,

Jayne x

earthmother

End of week 2 for me - I've now spent £208.40 - leaving £191.60 for the next 3 weeks.

I decided to have an Asda delivery next week after all - I've been able to free up some freezer space so it will save me having to do much more than buy milk during the Christmas week - that'll make a dent in the remaining budget, but I still think I have a good chance this month.

Just got to hit Sainsburys deli for some meats and cheeses a day or two before Christmas and I think that'll be it

AllBuyMyself

I am up to £52.11 now. Please I managed to limit my weekend grocery spending to some fresh fruit and veg, tinned tomatoes and kidney beans and 2 bottles of ribena - £8.24.

£52.11 of £75 target spent - should just about manage to come in on budget if I'm careful.