November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Chloris

I have set my December budget for £400. I am already worried. I spent £96.42 in Mr M and the C**p. That is a big amount. I am going to have to be clever and really look at getting the most from that.

Good luck to everyone!:beer:

skilly

NickJW wrote: »

Updating a few spends today - £2.78 in Mr T, £5.14 in Mr S, and £4.85 in the local shop - £12.77 in total. Still under budget with a few days to go so happy. It's the best I've done so far in this challenge, and that's even with food still in the fridge, freezer and cupboard! :T

Still need to get some BOGOF bagels from Mr T tomorrow, but I'm hoping that should be it.

Quick question - I've bought some chillis, but I definitely won't use them all before I go away. If they stay in the fridge until the week starting the 13th December will they still be okay? And if not, do they freeze okay?

hi,chilli's will freeze ok i have some in the freeze which i have grown back in the 2009 and they are still ok no need to defrost just chop and put in dish as needed....hope this helps you.

NickJW

skilly wrote: »

hi,chilli's will freeze ok i have some in the freeze which i have grown back in the 2009 and they are still ok no need to defrost just chop and put in dish as needed....hope this helps you.

This does - thank you! I'll freeze any that are leftover

Diflower

Hi, agree about the chillies just chuck them in whole. Also easier to get the seeds out frozen, cut the end off and roll the chilli, they fall out:)

Updated sig, it's looking ok, this date last month it was just over £300 so I'm getting there!
Our nearby L!dl opened yesterday but haven't been yet. Btw Which reported L!idls £2.99 Christmas pudding came top in their blind taste test.

So sorry for all those having a particularly hard time, whether financially or the health of themselves or loved ones.

jintyb

NickJW wrote: »

Quick question - I've bought some chillis, but I definitely won't use them all before I go away. If they stay in the fridge until the week starting the 13th December will they still be okay? And if not, do they freeze okay?

Not sure about freezing them but you can certainly dry them out and use as HM chilli flakes. Just thread them through the middle on a skewer or even just lay them out on a piece of kitchen roll, let them dry till they're all wrinkly, then just flake them and pop in a jar for future use. HTH
Have a great time here in Edin - BTW its cold here but NO SNOW! (yet):rotfl:

de1amo wrote: »

i wish i could get our school chef to shop for us!! she shops at the equivalent of Mr T and we go to Mr Waiter by our bills!!i am a Mr L shopper in the uk with occasional trips into Mr A so definately not Mr Waiter--i agree that their is no quality difference between Mr L and Mr waiter in the uk but i believe you get more variety of products in Mr Waiter eg fresh fish etc---we eat that at least once a week here!

I think you'll find all the big branches of SM's have fish counters now and with their high turnover the majority of their fresh food is very good. I still maintain that the quality of Lid and A£di f& v is the best and I buy my f&v there out of preference.
I personally dont eat a lot of fish, but my Mum does, and she swears by MrA fish and she's fussy IFYSWIM!
Also, your school cook must be buying in bulk if she is catering for a number of people, so that would explain why that would work out cheaper.

Spiggle

LannyLee wrote: »

On that subject where can I get reasonable cat food from, my 2 are fussy & will only eat it from a tin with either gravy or jelly & MrM have stopped doing there 24 tray for £9.50 & they won't east ASD@ supermeat food so it's pointless getting there 24 pack.

Any ideas?

Hi Lanny Lee, does it have to be a tin? My two are very fussy and will only eat gravy food (not even jelly) and yesterday I got 2 x 12 pouches of Wh***as from Mr T for £5. Hope that helps.

dooleysdollymix88 wrote: »

Hi
I know this is a little early but I would like to join in the GC for Dec if thats ok?
First month doing it so will set the budget at £100 (£25 x 4 for me,OH and DS who is only 2). Not adding any money on for christmas meals and treats as we're off to visit my mum, nan and pap. They wouldnt accept any money after driving all the way up if I tried!
Hoping to knock off £5 a week...maybe more but I doubt it! :rotfl:Not when OH sneaks off to buy more food from the shop on a weekly if not daily basis! :mad:
Please add me to the list for next month. Thank you!:)

Hi dooleysdollymix88 and welcome! If you put the budget for December in big red letter/numbers Mrs McCawber :A the angel who keeps the list will see your post and add you to the list. Welcome along and we've all been there with the OH dropping extras in the trolley!!! :mad: Good luck with your challenge.

slbhill wrote: »

Payday today so I am declaring for November - £183.27 spent from a budget of £180. I am happy with that, not going to get annoyed by £3-odd!:beer:

Yesterday's weekly shop was whoopsie heaven! I rarely buy many because most things at my local Tesc0 are only reduced a bit, and it's often "premium" products so even with the reduction they're still more expensive than a standard or value one. Last night, however, 2 packs of sirloin steak at 40p each made me very happy - a steak is a real treat and at that price it would be rude to say no. 2 tubs of chilled beef in gravy (pie filling or stew starter) down from £3.50 to 35p each, and suitable for home freezing, also fell into the trolley, along with 3 boxes of mushrooms at 8p each (2 of which had a couple of days left on the date & looked perfectly fresh!). And 23p for a posh sandwich for today's lunch so I didn't have to make any last night. Fantastic - I guess it was somebody different from usual marking prices last night, I hope they become a regular on Thursday evenings!!! Either that or the machine was stuck on 90% off :beer:

The challenge has definitely helped me feel more in control of my grocery costs, so I'd like to join in next month as well please, with 2 weeks at home over Christmas to add to the level of challenge. As my freezer is (very!) fully stocked I'm going to aim for £160 in December but if there is any big expense on booze then I'm going to exclude that (is that cheating? LOL).

Well done slbhill, :T fantastic results and what stupendous whoopsie bargains! :eek: No not cheating at all. I've kept Christmas chocs and booze in a separate list just so I know what I've spent but I'm not putting it in the GC. Hopefully though, we should be under the annual GC budget set and so I'm hoping that even after adding the Christmas extras to the March to December spend the budget will remain intact, if that makes any sense! :cool:

In fact well done to all those who have already declared. :T Some great results coming through and even if you're over remember the mantra of 'What would I have spent if I wasn't looking?!?'

Well we seem to have really boosted the NSD as I've had a few very long work days and so didn't get to MrT until yesterday. Very pleased with 18 so far but should add a couple more on Sunday and probably Monday. My month ends on Monday and December starts Tuesday with my payday. Tomorrow though will be a spend day as we'll go to the butcher and probbably some bits from the Coop or the remaining expensive greengrocer in our town. Things just aren't the same since St*kes closed.

Ok, here's where it starts getting complicated. Yesterday I spent a total of £75.73 (£91.07 before multibuy savings :eek:). But, of that £18.82 (Baileys £9.24, Roses £5 and 2x Turkish delight £4.58) is on the Christmas list. I didn't have cheese on my list but the cheese bogof this week was for Davi**tow (£3.75) which I quite like and so got two of those but they won't be touched until next month. Also on a 2 for £2 was some new Welsh cheese so I got two of those again for next month. So cheese total for December is £5.75. I also got the Wh***as for the black beauties but as we've only just opened a box of 12 bought before, that is going on December too. Finally I couldn't resist the 12 loo rolls for £4 but have only just opened a similar pack and so they're next month. Therefore I already have a spend of £14.75 in my December sig.

Final 'adjustment' is that they had the Pe**il S&Mighty 52 wash bottle for £6 which is just too cheap to miss! I did restrain myself knowing I had two of the colour wash ones already and only got the one Bio. But that bottle won't be opened until at least January and so my 2011 budget already has a £6 spend against it!

The good thing about these adjustments is that it forced me to prepare the 2011 spreadsheet today. So I'm all prepared. :T

Upshot of all this is I spent £36.16 on food and bits for using/consuming in November and that's what is added to my sig. As I set the budget for December while I was at it, I added up all the monthly budgets this year and readjusted the annual total to an accurate figure. This is updated in the sig too. So still have £18+ to get through to the end of Monday which should be doable provided we're not stupid in the butchers!

Please put me down for £260 for December MrsMcCawber, thank you. :A

Ok I'll stop waffling now but I do want to send hugs to all those that need them. :grouphug: Menolly I can't even begin to think how frustrated you must be. And losingpatience you seem to be coping very well considering your circumstances. Best thoughts to you both. :grouphug:

See you all later and take care,
Spigs

LannyLee

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi Lanny Lee, does it have to be a tin? My two are very fussy and will only eat gravy food (not even jelly) and yesterday I got 2 x 12 pouches of Wh***as from Mr T for £5. Hope that helps.

Hi - I prefer tins as if I get pouches they need about 4 a day (2 cats) & if it's tins I give them 1 1/2 a day so in the long run it works our cheaper IYSWIM, plaus I think that tins are more 'meaty' & the pouches don't seem to fill them up, they really are greedy pigs, but tiny.

When we took Bella to be spayed at 1 year old the vet didn't believe how old she was after she weighed her as she didn't think she was big enough.

Hippeechiq

I think saving £1 per day towards Christmas is a brilliant idea :T but hard to do if you're not working.

For me, it's more a case of saving where I can, when I can.
I have a monthly allowance for Medication, Broadband & £10 Mobile Top up, and if I have a month where I don't have to buy any medicines or a month where I don't top up my phone, that money goes into my Christmas fund.

If I come in under my GC budget, whatever is left goes into my Christmas fund. I've was doing this challenge before I actually started posting on here, and so far have saved £99.99 so far up to the end of October, which at least will help with the food and drink

If I were working though, £1 a day in a tin/jar a day would definitely be the way to go.

Bought some pears and mince pies yesterday, and some milk today, so my total now stands at £253.69, leaving me with £21.31.

It would be doable to come in under budget, but my local £idls have 400g Packs of Rump Steak on offer this weekend for £2.24 :eek: instead of £4.49, so it'd be rude not to get some packs. I've not had steak in a loooonnng time, and I do love it.

I'm just a bit dubious though, as even £4.49 isn't very expensive for steak, Has anyone on here ever tried £idls Steak before? If so, any feedback would be gratefully received

.......I always feel like I'm on my own for the last few days of the GC month, as my months run from the 1st to the last day of the month.....anyone else still here up to and including the 30th?

Long_tall_sally

Mrs McC - declaring at £464.29 for November & could I be put down for £500 for December please.

I am sort of pleased with the £464, definitely one of by better months compared to some of the horrendous ones that I have had but still so much room for improvement. I think the only way that I am going to get it down is reducing the junk, baking more & really stocking up on offers, if they are very good. I have just received today my "Eat well for Less" book from MSE that I was lucky enough to win, so I will looking through that tonight for some more inspiration. I have just chucked out some soup today that I made a few days ago so that isn't very money saving! I hadn't followed a recipe, just chucked things in. The taste of it was ok, if a little too carroty, but it was too thick & reminded of baby puree rather than soup. I managed one bowl of it & just couldn't face any more & finally chucked it today as it was getting quite old.

I have been shopping this morning so have some spends already to add onto my December budget. I got a few whoopsied loaves & packets of rolls this morning in the Co Op. It's funny, we have a new Tesco Express that has just opened in our little town but the carpark of the Co Op was far busier than that of Tesco's where I went afterwards. The Tesco seemed to have very few good offers but the Co Op is always good for whoopsied bread etc.

scotsaver

wssla00 - thinking of you at this sad time.

Hugs to everyone else who needs them for whatever reason.

Well as you can see I've gone over MRSMC please put me down for £290.44 for Nov. I'm afraid we did eat as much as we could out of the Chest freezer but then yesterday and today I got tempted by specials in Sainsbugs and today whoopsies in Lid! so now have freezer restocked with 2 whoopsied free range chickens, enough sausages from Lid! to last into New Year, I love the different flavours they offer, pork and leek, pork and bramley apple etc, packs of whoopsied bacon and also 2 packs of whoopsied streaky bacon which will be used on Xmas day. At least I managed to get the Freezer defrosted before restocking.:o I just can't walk past whoopsies and if it's stuff I normally buy then I don't see anything wrong with it.:o

My December starts tomorrow, please put me down for £400 for December, we have finalised our arrangements, have family staying for a week over Xmas and having a party Xmas Eve so I will need this bigger amount.

Good luck to everyone still to declare and for those who have Snow, hope you keep safe.;)