November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Flat_Eric

I've updated my signature :eek: and feel rather fed up that clearly I am spending far too much ! I am way over my budget! As I have mentioned previously, I attempt the grocery challenge each month but give up / stop counting half way through. This is the first month in many months when I have made a real effort to count every receipt and it makes for sobering reading. Must try harder. Will aim to meal plan properly in December and see if I can make a better attempt at sticking to my budget. I've batched cooked this month so have lovely home cooked meals at the drop of a hat (once defrosted) and don't really understand where all the money has gone ? I need to do a forensic examination of my receipts !

Just out of interest though, my budget covers everything - cat food/alcohol/toiletries/food/fruit etc, I don't see the point in having a cat food budget / alcohol budget / fruit for my slimming world budget etc as that would just get too damn confusing but how much do people allow for alcohol ? Last saturday for example, it would have been lovely to go out for a meal but I did a nice meal at home instead with pudd and wine. So our dinner cost more than normal but it was certainly cheaper than if we had gone out. My bank account looks very sad at the end of the month and clearly my spending on groceries is one reason why!

NickJW

Went to Mr S for some milk last night and ended up getting a bit carried away. They had given me another voucher - this time £2 off a £10 spend and when I saw the reduced items they were too good to turn down. 40p for Salmon instead of £4 and 45p for Thai Fishcakes instead of £2.49. Stocked up on these plus a few staples for the freezer. I'm NEVER going to make space for Christmas! :rotfl:

Still haven't got my bagels yet, and I'm debating whether to just leave it, since I'm getting super close to my target.

I'm another calendar monther so will be here until the 31st :-)

The only way I can think about budgeting for December is to request to be put down for £120 - this won't cover my holiday spends, but will include regular food and Christmas food and drink. Can you please put down £120 for December MrsM?

From January things will be easier, because I've been getting myself very confused how I will be displaying December spends properly!

JayJay14

Hi all,

MrsM I would like to declare at £189.93, a little over but I think I've mixed a few Xmas treats in the shopping so I haven't done too badly.

I'l go for £180 again for December please, thanks to MrsM, Pink and Rosiben for all the hard work.

How's the weather in Germany MrsM - or have we got all the snow this time?

Sunnyday

Hi Peeps :wave:

just managed to catch up and update my siggy.

I have an overspend on the grocery budget but an underspend on the pet food so one cancels out the other IYKWIM.

MrsMcawber i would like to declare at £180.08 for food and £42.99 for the pets please.

I need to find the time to work out the December budget but suspect that it won`t really be much different from this months really.

My December spending time has already started yesterday but i`m pleased to report no spends yet

Peeps keep knocking on my door today, best go and answer it again lol.

Have a good day peeps.
SD

BlimusOreilly

katholicos wrote: »

I'm a calendar month grocery challenge person also :wave:

Me too, so not declaring till then. Had a bit of an expensive 'pop in' to Mr M last night. Spent £17.25 Lots of unecessary pudding and sweet stuff 'whoopsies' and I also bought some Alcoholic ginger beer for the christmas stash (we don't actually buy much booze - will probably only buy a small brandy for cooking/drinking and maybe a cheap version of Amaretto).
Still have to do my last weekly shop on Monday so I may be pushing it budget-wise.
Will go and update sig.

karmachilovething

Shysarah wrote: »

I am a calendar month GC'er too!

Me too! My work pays the "penultimate working day of the month" ! so it depends when the weekends fall!

OK haven't been here for a while - spent £18 at c0-op last Monday, and I have a cold so I have bought lemons and honey today (£5.50) today which I am counting as groceries.

New total: £70.93

pepsi-kins

Hi All,
As you can see by my signature, its not looking good at all! however I spent more than I needed to today, stocking up on a few things, just in case we get snowed in, and I also made a start on getting a few crimbo bits. Went to Mr A bought 3 bottles of wine which is our favourite, £4.48 instead of £8.99 so I was pleased with that, when I checked my receipt they had charged me £6.00 each, luckily I try to remember to check receipts before leaving, so went back got refunded the over charge and a £2 card.

Going to make some rocky road in a bit, there's some biccy's that have been hanging about, neither of us like them, so I thought mix 'em up with some choccy and marshmellow, and they'll get eaten then.

Is it just me, or is anyone else really looking forward to starting a new year,so they can start afresh on the GC front , i'm going to be supa dupa good (DH at long long last has agreed that I can have the new kitchen i've been asking for for about 5 years, next September, as he will have finished college by then, and will have time to do it for me....i'm a very happy bunny)

Take care everyone x

mongmoney

Afternoon All,
So sorry to read about all the loss, I too lost my uncle and a colleague at work this month. Makes me think that we all need to take every opportunity given to us.
My attempt to empty my freezer is going well. I think I'm getting to the point of extreme inventiveness, which can only get worse.
The recent dinner sharing thing with a couple of friends is working well too. I won't have to cook again for another three meetings. This means a meal out once a fortnight with no demand to take anything along. This enabled me to get rid of some of the big stuff out of the freezer too.
I can't declare yet either, two days to go.
Mongy
November 2010 grocery challenge £65-46/£150:T
NSD's 13/15

Moniker

Hippeechiq wrote: »

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.QUOTE]

Another trick is to use the council tax money to add to savings. If like us your council tax is paid over ten months of the year not 12 then the two'free months' money can go into a savings pot - you won't miss it, honest!

Moniker

Moniker

LTS I was just going to post that it's your best since April! And your third best of the year, so well done! :T:T:T I get paid last working day of the month too. But this week we had an email come around from payroll to say that in December we'll recieve the money in our bank account on 23rd. Perhaps they'll do the same for you. Possibly will because it's a school isn't it? The council are very likely to be closed around the end of the year. My problem with being paid early is that it makes January an almost six week month. :eek: Good luck anyway.

Take care,
Spigs[/QUOTE]

I think a lot of places do this - I work for a university and we normally get paid on the last working day of the month but in December it will be 21st. As you say this makes January an awful long month but this is what I save my Nectar points for. The first big shop of January I pay for almost entirely with Nectar points and it makes a big difference!

HTH

Moniker