September 2010 Grocery Challenge

NickJW

Just found out on the grapevine that another 20 people (20% of my company's workforce) will be losing their jobs where I work! I know it's not very MSE but I did go to a leaving party tonight and spent £10 on drinks - will update signature. I could have spent more but I wasn't in the partying mood to be honest.

I'll try my hardest to stick to the budget, but if things go wrong at work I will probably just update my signature for my benefit instead of properly posting as much. I won't want to be a downer for everyone and it will be unfair to bring the positive atmosphere down - it is one of the best things about this challenge

Hopefully I'll be okay, so it won't come to that, but you never know.

Hope everyone has a good weekend...

welshkaz

Another £59 for me mrA online shop but have been good 2 extra overtime shifts and 2 NSD to add on.

[Deleted User]

Wow aren't we all doing well on here this month.I have been reading how well we are at picking up the bargains and its terrific that we have all become so eagle-eyed.talking to various friends it seems that the recession is hitting a lot of people, not just the employed either, and with the price of food rising almost daily I have found that lots of my friends who used to think I was a bit strange because I watched the prices so much now have come around to thinking I'm not quite as silly as they thought.One lady I know said that she had bought some whoopsied stuff for the first time ever and was asking me if I thought it was o.k. to freeze it as it's best before date was today.I told her that best before doesn't mean you will die the next day from eating it .My aim is to convert the world (or at least some of my friends) to thinking more sensibly about food buying and to cut down on wasteage

Jevvers

laloopi wrote: »

I've decided to start using Amy Dacyczyn's pantry principle to get our grocery bills down.

Ooh wossat? I like the sound of a pantry principle! Hope your little one gets better soon and chin up about the nsds - they are difficult to achieve but I'm sure you'll manage some.

Herbyme

Nick, sorry to hear things are grim at work. Please don't feel you have to protect us from that, this thread is all about support and we can only support each other if we share that kind of stuff. But of course it's up to you what you want to share.

How was your bread toddles? I made pizza dough in mine, my kids say it's better than any restaurant, bless them! It's still a bit of a sweat to get them flat thin and round, but worth it for such high praise!

btw how do you all get all these Mr T vouchers?! have tried twice to get a clubcard but so far nothing. Not a fan tho as they seem to be taking over the world, but I'll take whatver they're giving away...

ChocClare

Jevvers wrote: »

Ooh wossat? I like the sound of a pantry principle!

There is a brilliant book called The Tightwad Gazette in which Amy D explains how she and her husband and can't remember how many million kids (possibly 4 or 5 to be fair) lived on as little as possible. She looked into menu planning as a way to save money, but found that it was much better if she went and looked to see what was on special offer, and based her shopping around that. Similarly, she realised that offers are seasonal - if you shop online regularly, you'll soon realise that eg Olay Total Effects is reduced to £9.99 (used to go to half price, sob) every x number of weeks - so you ONLY buy it then. Same with food - you end up trying to avoid paying full price for anything (practically) because you shop to stock your pantry, not to meal plan. This is the pantry principle and there are probably far more coherent explanations about it... er.... here for example and here.

ETA - she had six kids. Not a million. But she and her husband brought up six children just on his salary by means of her cunning frugal ways because she watched a programme when she was first married which said no family can survive on less than two incomes and no family can afford to raise more than 2 children, and she said, I'll show you. Go Amy! You show 'em girl!

Herbyme

ChocClare, I like the idea! I just worry that (a) I don't have space to store all that stuff and )b) I get thro stuff faster if I have lavish stocks of it. Pathetic but true.

Hippeechiq

NickJW wrote: »

Just found out on the grapevine that another 20 people (20% of my company's workforce) will be losing their jobs where I work! I know it's not very MSE but I did go to a leaving party tonight and spent £10 on drinks - will update signature. I could have spent more but I wasn't in the partying mood to be honest.

I'll try my hardest to stick to the budget, but if things go wrong at work I will probably just update my signature for my benefit instead of properly posting as much. I won't want to be a downer for everyone and it will be unfair to bring the positive atmosphere down - it is one of the best things about this challenge

Hopefully I'll be okay, so it won't come to that, but you never know.

Hope everyone has a good weekend...

Lets hope it doesn't come to that, we'll all be rooting for you

carolinerunner wrote: »

btw how do you all get all these Mr T vouchers?! have tried twice to get a clubcard but so far nothing. Not a fan tho as they seem to be taking over the world, but I'll take whatver they're giving away...

Yeah - I'd like to know that too carolinerunner I'd also like to know why the Te$co near me never has any whoopsies that are more than a few pence off the original price :mad: it drives me mad that everyone seems to be able to pick up such fabulous baragains except me

claire1234 If you click the "thank you" button at the bottom of each post, when you return to the thread you can see where you last read up to by when you last thanked someone......not strictly what the thank you button is for of course, but it's what a lot of folk do.

Spiggle Are hubbys bloods ok? Or have you not had the results yet?

The apple which was the only thing I planned to buy today, turned into milk & ice cream too totalling £3.55, but in my defence it should mean I have a NSD tomorrow

Also found a receipt I forgot to add to Wednesdays purchases of £3.10 bringing total spend so far to £148.79

We're a 1/3 of the way through the month today so I'm £57.12 over a third of my budget :whistle:

kerrypn

Sometimes I wonder if the whoopsies are reduced depending on the person doing it-my local co op sometimes has really really good whoopsies and other times its like you say just a few pennies-Im sure its when a certain person is on they are really reduced properly

suzybloo

Hello folks,
our local shops never seem to have any great deals on their whoopsie stuff either! Havent bought any shopping this week so far but will need bread, milk, and other fresh stuff but will keep to a budget of £20.00 for that. did think about starting to get milk delivered again, as hubby wont drink frozen milk, as its the only thing I have to go to the shop to get during the week, but will have to look at the cost first.
can anyone give me any idea on the cost?

thanks,
Suzy