November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Hippeechiq

Awww......Don't feel stupid Nick - I was only teasing

XSpender wrote: »

I do split my spends into categories so that I can see where we are spending our money but they do not have amounts/seperate budgets. I split it into food, stuff for baby, dog food, toiletries/cleaning/OTC meds, alcohol and eating out/takeaways. Last month we spent £105.70 on alcohol which is more than £20/week so I will be focussing on reducing that down a bit this month. We also overspent last month on easy/snack food so this month I am doing a more detailed breakdown of our spends to see how much gets spent on different types of food.

I do this too - as you say, it then makes it clear what particular part of your grocery budget is taking the most money

My GC budget is broken down into

BREAD
CEREAL
CHILLED/DAIRY
DESSERTS
DRINKS (be that squash, tea/coffee or beer)
HOUSEHOLD
MEAT/MAIN MEALS
SNACKS
STORE CUPBOARD
TOILETRIES
VEGETABLES

Wine is my vice, but is bought as and when it can be afforded (often it can't) so I don't include it in my challenge.

XSpender wrote: »

I always think 'what gets measured gets done' from my days in management so I detail the spends after each shop so I can see where we are spending too much and adjust my next shop/meal plan accordingly rather than wait until the end of the month to reflect on my spends.

Me too, and I also do the same. I appreciate that it may seem time consuming if you have a busy life, but if done daily, it really doesn't take very long and it's such an efficient way of keeping an eye on what you've spent and what you have left. The system means you don't suddenly realise you've over spent, and if you can see that you're nearing your limit, it really does make you ask yourself, do I really need some of this or that, or do I have enough/can I manage until next month

elf06 - if you click on this link and feed in your postcode, it will give you offers available to you in your nearest local £idl store

Spiggle

elf06 wrote: »

OH AND I FORGOT TO ADD - ITS BEEN SNOWING HERE

Snowing under the rainbow elf06? Strange weather we're having! :rotfl:

Flat_Eric wrote: »

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 ?

Flat Eric we don't include the 'usual' alcohol in the GC. OH drinks a lot more than me on a normal basis and so we have £15 pocket money each per week and we buy what we want in terms of booze out of that. I estimate (because it's his money so don't track it ) he spends the majority of his pm on his beer whereas I may buy a bottle of Dry Martini once a month. So I suppose you could say that in a four week month we spend around £70. Gosh that's really frightening seeing it written down like that! :eek: But I mustn't grumble because it was one hell of a lot more before I started doing the GC and the rule with pm is 'no come backs or complaints as we can spend it however we see fit'.

If we were entertaining friends then a bottle of wine or whatever would be included in the GC btw.

Moniker wrote: »

... 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!

Thats a brilliant idea Moniker, thank you very much. I have around £60 on Nectar and £57 in MrT vouchers. I have been thinking what should I do with them and you have provided the perfect answer. :T Thank you very much it is really appreciated. :A

OK, we didn't go shopping yesterday as our hibernation genes kicked in. We don't have snow in our town just absolutely freezing temperatures. (There is snow in the towns around us though but we have a weird local effect where the land ridges around the town and the sea at the 'front' seem to keep the snow at bay most of the time.) My brother stayed with us last night as well and he treated us to a takeaway so the necessity to shop was very much reduced. OH will go to the butchers tomorrow instead.

Upshot is NSD yesterday and today. :T I will update siggy in a minute.

Oh, Skilly what a fantastic result on your GC. Very well done. :T:T:T

Thanks MrsMcCawber for listing me for December. :T:A

I hope you are all keeping warm and safe in the freezing temperatures. Please don't put yourselves at risk travelling about unless you really have to.

Take care and I will see you all later,
Spigs

Hippeechiq

..........I may have to sulk - as I appear to be the only person in the country who hasn't got/had some snow :'-(

cw18

Hippeechiq wrote: »

..........I may have to sulk - as I appear to be the only person in the country who hasn't got/had some snow :'-(

You're not the only one - nothing here either

And I'm hoping it stays that way for a long time yet (preferably all winter)

It's hard enough for me to get around in it (and I don't actually need to use the car for anything unless there's a family emergency), but I feel really sorry for those it leaves housebound

Plus, from what we experienced with the snows at the start of the year, we'll be hard pushed to get deliveries in at work. This leads to panic buying, and a load of very grouchy customers when we don't have milk and/or bread in. After a couple of days we weren't getting deliveries of 'pre packed' bread in until really late (if at all), so everyone was hammering the bakery bread (and complaining the dates on it aren't as good). But this meant we got through the bread flour a lot faster than had been allowed for, so we were then in a position we couldn't bake anything until deliveries of that made it through

We have one lovely elderly lady who comes to the bakery on a regular basis, and from what she's said she's got an invalid DH at home. I'm pretty certain snow will leave her housebound, and am thinking about giving her my mobile number 'just in case'. Does anyone think I'm nuts to do this? I know she doesn't have any family locally, as she mentioned how lucky I was to have local family (DD brought GDs into the store while I was working when they still lived down this way).

Hippeechiq

I don't want to be snowed in - or anyone else to be snowed in for that matter - but snow lifts the spirits of the inner child in me, and I would love a light covering so that it coats the garden, trees and the rooftops, but not the roads and paths.

If it's going to be this damned cold, lets at least have something pretty to go with it

cw18 wrote: »

We have one lovely elderly lady who comes to the bakery on a regular basis, and from what she's said she's got an invalid DH at home. I'm pretty certain snow will leave her housebound, and am thinking about giving her my mobile number 'just in case'. Does anyone think I'm nuts to do this?

I think that's a lovely thought and would probably give her an immense sense of relief, knowing, that were she to be snowed in, you have offered help. But I also think it depends on how well you feel you know her, and whether or not she might abuse having your number - as in constantly on the phone to you asking for some kind of help.

I don't mean that to come across as harsh (as the written word often can) after all, we'll all be old soon enough, and I have a 78yr old Dad who lives 250 miles away from me, who I would like to think would be offered similar help if he were snowed in. I just mean you should take it into consideration

adelight

Hi all! Got paid yesterday so I'd like to declare £24.72 and 19NSD for november!
I've got £20 for December, another month using up the stocks.
Did a shop yesterday: flour, marge, jam, sprouts, chicken soup, tin toms, frozen spinach and a huge block of filter coffee- £6.58. £2.99 of that was on coffee :eek:
I've still got half a dozen peppers, 3/4 squash, 1/2 aubergine, 1 sweet potato and a few onions & carrots from shops 1-2 weeks ago!

rosieben

cw18 wrote: »

... We have one lovely elderly lady who comes to the bakery on a regular basis, and from what she's said she's got an invalid DH at home. I'm pretty certain snow will leave her housebound, and am thinking about giving her my mobile number 'just in case'. Does anyone think I'm nuts to do this? I know she doesn't have any family locally, as she mentioned how lucky I was to have local family (DD brought GDs into the store while I was working when they still lived down this way).

what a lovely thought Cheryl, I'm sure it would put her mind at rest

rosieben

there's an interesting thread on preparing christmas dinner ahead in case anyone hasn't seen it; Pink will merge it with an older thread on the same subject later

cw18

Hippeechiq wrote: »

I think that's a lovely thought and would probably give her an immense sense of relief, knowing, that were she to be snowed in, you have offered help. But I also think it depends on how well you feel you know her, and whether or not she might abuse having your number - as in constantly on the phone to you asking for some kind of help.

I don't mean that to come across as harsh (as the written word often can) after all, we'll all be old soon enough, and I have a 78yr old Dad who lives 250 miles away from me, who I would like to think would be offered similar help if he were snowed in. I just mean you should take it into consideration

She always asks after my GDs, but doesn't take up much of my time at work. The potential issue with constant phoning is why I'd give her my mobile number rather than my home one - the cost of calling would hopefully put her off abusing it, but if the weather were really bad I could call her straight back to get her list of essentials ('let me grab a pen and paper and call you back' type thing).

Hippeechiq

Aha!! Great thinking Batman! ( I do hope you're old enough to remember the old Batman quips! lol)

In that case, yes, as I said earlier, I think it's a lovely offer to make