October 2010 Grocery Challenge

cookie9

As away for a few days so doing my first Nov shop early if that makes sense. Next week we're living off freezer meals. Spend £11.25 as garlic baguettes were BOGOF and was tempted by the half price Haagan Das at the C**p. Got another 2 pint of milk and that with the pint in the freezer should mean no more shopping until next weekend.

Managed to get free ticket to Due Date too so fingers crossed for a cheap week around as Christmas looming and it is expensive as fiance's dad had an accident so having to visit him.

moonpixiewitch

we had a blip where we had spent over 3/4 of the budget and then an emergency cropped up and used the remainder of the food budget to fix one of our vehicles to get to work ! We have been managing to eat really well from the freezer and the cupboards -last night we had chilli lobster and rice (lobsters from jan/feb when they were vastly reduced in Mr A - they have been sitting in the freezer since purchase looking at me! ) . We still seem to have quite a bit of food left , so should make it to the end of the month (payday will be friday) no problem at all :T. Thank you to everyone on the old style boards , we couldnt (and wouldnt ) have done without you !
Next month please put me down for £300
ambitious I know , but we managed it this month and I do feel quite inspired to continue using up what we still have before buying more . With this in mind and the fact I have christmas well under control , I think we can easily do this and have cancelled a scheduled shopping delivery for friday from Mr W (they are the only supermarket who stock a lot of hubbies faves)

rosieben

Giving you plenty of notice Saturday November 27th 2010 will be the next Buy Nothing Day (UK).

Spiggle

JayJay14 wrote: »

We would ove to do this but when you live in a city there are on local farms. We went tot our 'local' farmers market (25 mile round trip) and the egg farmer has stopped selling there as it isn't worth it for him.
So we are stuck with sm eggs now.

Hi JayJay14,

Have you tried a small or local butcher for eggs? We were truly gobsmacked at the difference in price to the sm. And they're free range and so much bigger than the sm equivalent. It might be worth a hunt around?

LannyLee wrote: »

I do this all the time, my DH goes mad, but I honestly cannot resist a whoopsie.

I also used the £10 Milk&M0re voucher, but stocked up on things we've had to cut from our usualy budget like bacon & some really mature cheddar for DH, not bad for next to nothing

I can sort of understand the Borg sm (resistance is futile) managing to persuade us to buy whoopsies we don't need if we're already in the sm doing a list shop. But how can we be persuaded to buy just one whoopsie? :question: The only way I can see that happening is if we've gone into the sm to 'browse'. Never a good idea imho! Mind you, I hate going in them unless absolutely necessary so maybe I'm lucky in that?!?! :think:

Managed my NSD yesterday, yay! But OH did come home with a bag of fruit and veg that had been put in a bin!!!!:eek: So, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, cauli, carrots, all for nothing! :money:

I'll update my sig in a minute for NSD.

I'm off to attack the dust again now and hope by starting a little earlier today I may get a little further than yesterday.

OOOps, nearly forgot. Please put me down for £250 for November MrsMcCawber, thank you. :AI'm upping it by a tenner to allow for food bits for the event but don't intend to buy too much more than normal. This should just cover me for the extra sauces, stuffings, etc. I'll probably stick with the same next month or perhaps increase it by another tenner to cover the free range turkey from the butcher.

This will be my first time through the X**s period on a budget so it will be interesting to see how we get on. We have for many years now not gone mad (I do get amazed by seeing people with overflowing trollies and sometimes even two going through the checkouts) as everything is open and we're not going to be left short of anything. But sometimes the 'fever' can take hold so it will be interesting.

I've already started thinking about 2011 and in January will start with a new annual total (but budget monthly) as I started in March of this year. The annual figure was a guesstimate so I'll break it down in December and see how we fared against it. It's still a learning curve.

I won't be declaring until Friday evening or Saturday morning as the month ends on Friday when I get paid.

Take care peeps and have a good day,
Spigs

Winged_one

Overall spend of €42 this week. €21 in farmer's market (10 on 3 curry spice mixes, 7 on a pumpkin, and 4 on apple juice) and €21 in local small SM (2 seperate trips, but bread, milk, naan bread, coconut milk (x2), lime, cooked meat, cream and natural yoghurt).

Also got a batch of sloes, rosehips, some damsons and a bag of apples (mixture of cookers and eaters) while in MIL's for weekend (I picked most, but she had the apples from the castle next door already). The sloes are already in gin, I am going to attempt rosehip syrup tonight, and I am making freezer space for some cooking apples which I'll stew first.

DD is away this week, so that in itself makes savings. And DH is out tonight, while we are both out tomorrow night. So I have almost no cooking to do. But I have to get my supplies in for builders due next week (so tea, coffee and biscuits!). I made a nasi goreng from freezer bits on Monday, and a curry from scratch (using chicken in freezer) last night - the leftover sauce has been frozen now for another day as it really is tasty and does work well defrosted. I am having a defrosted chorizo potato bake for my dinner today, I think.

This weekend, I will be spending about €100 (I need a few storecupboard staples, and if I spend €93 more in Dunnes, I get €30 extra spending in December), so I don't mind going over this month. Overall, I am still under for the year (I have about €92 spare, based on averaging my budget over the 52 weeks) and I actually have a lot in for the next few months. So I may actually come reasonably on target overall (although we have yet to decide on where to spend Christmas, which would decide whether we need a turkey/goose ourselves, or eat in MILs).

Must remember to go up to plot this week and collect the beans before they go over....


Oh, can you put me down for €450 for November please, Mrs Macawber? I think that is a reasonable aim, and would leave me with about €600 for December to play with (not including my extra vouchers due from most SM's that month).

Diflower

I'm pleased with myself now. I have a bad shoulder/neck/back and it's been playing up this week, so I didn't really fancy driving all the way to where I needed to go.
So I phoned them and we're doing it by post:). Also means I won't get tempted by L1dl or MrS, and can then go to the farm shop on Sunday, by when we'll need more than just eggs. Phew!
Don't think I would even have thought of it without being on here, so thanks again everyone.

We don't go mad for Christmas either, and don't have a very big freezer so have to plan the space.

Ok, our new month won't start till Nov 1st, but can I be put down for the same again, £260 please?

Shysarah

Oooooooo If anyone recalls I mentioned I got some ropey meat from Aldi so rang and complained. This morning I got a voucher for £10!!! :j:j

Am ever so pleased i called, wouldn't have bothered before but I had used it in a big batch cook so am glad I did now.
Have to spend it in one go so can't use it over the month but still £10 in Aldi will get me lots of bits and bobs.:D:D

Will not be counting it into next months money tho as I am hoping to use it to stock up on bits for my Christmas Hamper gifts. Plus I had probably ended up wasting a fair bit this last month having to throw out a big batch cook.

Anyway just wanted to share that with you xx

cookiemum

Yipee - payday at last:j

I'm afraid I caved in and placed an online order last weekend so I am now over budget. We had no staples left in the cupboard, rice,pasta etc. and with the kids being off this week I thought they may need feeding! Please can I declare at £336.83 for October.

I had thought about reducing November budget to take into account my online order but I decided against it on the basis I will try and stock up on a few essential things for Christmas. ie. tins of Chocolates.

Please can I try again for £300 in November.

Well done everybody for October.

mummygems

Can I please try for £350 for November.

Our month has already started as we go payday to payday. November is going to be another 5 week month for us but have so far stocked up on all the nappies, wipes, cheese, meat and loo roll (some of the nappies, loo roll and cheese will go into December as well but will still count it for this month).

Thank you ladies.

cw18

Spiggle wrote: »

I can sort of understand the Borg sm (resistance is futile) managing to persuade us to buy whoopsies we don't need if we're already in the sm doing a list shop. But how can we be persuaded to buy just one whoopsie? :question: The only way I can see that happening is if we've gone into the sm to 'browse'. Never a good idea imho! Mind you, I hate going in them unless absolutely necessary so maybe I'm lucky in that?!?! :think:

But some of us are (un)lucky enough to have a job in a SM, which means that we walk past the Whoopsie sections on our way to work - and on our way home - without having to make a detour, never mind a special trip