November 2010 Grocery Challenge

recovering_spendaholic

Have finally sorted out a DMP and am now determined to get a handle on my out of control grocery spending. Can you put me down for £375 for November please? I a couple of spend and save vouchers (£12 off £60) which will help so I am hoping to get some of the stuff for my Christmas home-made food presents - I make bags of cookies and stuff for colleagues and friends. My first shop will be tomorrow as I have just got paid and there isn't that much in.

kahunababy

Hello, been following last months thread and was wondering if I could join please? This will also be my first challenge and I hope to come in at £350. Really it would only be £300 however I want to give myself an extra £50 as I have started picking up bits for Christmas. The budget is for myself, my 2 DS and my DH. Not forgetting my beautiful snake (we are stocked up on frozen mice but might need some bedding before the month is out).
I done my first weekly shop of the month tonight, (today was pay day), we already meal plan and have a fair bit in the freezer. As I am trying to run it down this month in preparation for Christmas the shop for the week came in at £47.38. I now I will have to go get some more fruit and veg through the week but that shouldn't come in at too much so fingers crossed I will be able to come in under budget!

Flat_Eric

slbhill wrote: »

Did my last October shop last night, so my first GC month (November) starts today :-)

I was paying more attention at MrT's over the last few weeks, and was reminded again how misleading a lot of the special offers are. Last week I nearly but not quite bought a pumpkin when they were priced at 75p each. It might have even been 50p each. Last night with Halloween just about here & the store full of kiddies in fancy dress begging their parents for toffee apples et al, there are huge "special offer" signs - 2 pumpkins for £3! :mad: So they're twice the price, and it's a good deal. They are experts in marketing, I'll give them that! Sorry, just needed to rant!

It's surprisingly easy to be taken in by an apparently good offer like this - there are only so many prices I can carry in my head. Any tips for it? Or does it just come naturally once you've been doing the GC for a while?? Maybe I should carry a printout of my prices spreadsheet at all times, but it seems a bit over the top!

On the plus side I was proud of myself when I narrowly avoided buying some BOGOF chocolate orange :A. It would have been a bargain - but only until I pig the lot in one night :rotfl:

I think the trick is to go back to basics. Take stock of what you already have, meal plan, and shop accordingly. Its very easy to be seduced by all the offers but unless its something you need/want then leave it on the shelf. If its an item such as coffee/tea/beans on offer and its a good offer then in my opinion its worth stocking up but on fresh fruit and veg, particularly for items that are £1.99 each / 2 for £3 then only buy one if one is all you need? Why line their pockets ? 2 for £3 might seem a good deal but it goes sour when one doesn't get eaten and gets binned. Then you have spent £3 for one fruit?!

Food prices seem to be rising weekly and oh how it irritates me how the metro style supermarkets charge more than if you visited the larger store.

I have an idea of how much I am willing to pay for something and if the price falls foul of that then I refuse to part with my cash. Supermarkets may think they can charge what they like so unless we vote with our feet / our wallets then they are not going to take notice.

We have become too reliant on supermarkets. They are not our friend!

Mollina_Girl

Good morning everyone, I hope everyone is well.

MRSMCAWBER - I am going to make your recipe for one pot beef and red wine pasta tonight, and later in the week, I thought I would try the spanish rice with chicken and chorizo as they sound really good.

Do you think any leftovers would freeze:question:

Mollina_Girl

Flat_Eric wrote: »

I think the trick is to go back to basics. Take stock of what you already have, meal plan, and shop accordingly. Its very easy to be seduced by all the offers but unless its something you need/want then leave it on the shelf. If its an item such as coffee/tea/beans on offer and its a good offer then in my opinion its worth stocking up but on fresh fruit and veg, particularly for items that are £1.99 each / 2 for £3 then only buy one if one is all you need? Why line their pockets ? 2 for £3 might seem a good deal but it goes sour when one doesn't get eaten and gets binned. Then you have spent £3 for one fruit?!

Food prices seem to be rising weekly and oh how it irritates me how the metro style supermarkets charge more than if you visited the larger store.

I have an idea of how much I am willing to pay for something and if the price falls foul of that then I refuse to part with my cash. Supermarkets may thing they can charge what they like so unless we vote with our feet / our wallets then they are not going to take notice.

We have become too reliant on supermarkets. They are not our friend!

Hear Hear Flat Eric, I couldn't agree more!!

TizerCat

OK doing the grocery challenge in ernest this month. :money:

Have checked my cupboards and planned a menu for the week and then put my shopping list on .mysupermarket. to try and get it under my £25 budget. Am also starting SW (not going can't afford the fees:eek: but have the books from before) this week so included this in my plan.

The website really helped and I swapped a few things that saved me a couple of £££. I wouldn't have done this in the shop as get a bit harrassed in $sd$. Only 1 thing was a different price...eggs had gone up 20p over night :eek:

was a bit naughty a bought loo roll and bread that wasn't on my list but thanks to DS's staff card getting me 10% off I still came in under my £25, only £22.83:)

Just have to go and dig the veggies up for the week from the lottie!

Have to say that looking at some GC's this month my £100 for the month looks very lavish!!! Am tempted to buy a bigger freezer so I can do more batch cooking.

Good luck to everyone for their Nov Grocery challenge :beer:

XSpender

Went to Mr M last night and spent a total of £60.29 including the £5 voucher I had. We got some good deals on DH favourite beer which he hasn't had in ages as it has gone up so much, buy 1 get 2 free pizza, bread and dog food. I have enough dog food in now for 3 and a half weeks.

Did not buy any fruit as will go to F&V shop Monday to get what we need as this will keep me out of a supermarket and stop me buying extra stuff we don't need as things are a bit tight this month.

I thought we were doing quite well until I looked at the total and see I have spent nearly £100:eek:

skilly

Flat_Eric wrote: »

I think the trick is to go back to basics. Take stock of what you already have, meal plan, and shop accordingly. Its very easy to be seduced by all the offers but unless its something you need/want then leave it on the shelf. If its an item such as coffee/tea/beans on offer and its a good offer then in my opinion its worth stocking up but on fresh fruit and veg, particularly for items that are £1.99 each / 2 for £3 then only buy one if one is all you need? Why line their pockets ? 2 for £3 might seem a good deal but it goes sour when one doesn't get eaten and gets binned. Then you have spent £3 for one fruit?!

Food prices seem to be rising weekly and oh how it irritates me how the metro style supermarkets charge more than if you visited the larger store.
I have an idea of how much I am willing to pay for something and if the price falls foul of that then I refuse to part with my cash. Supermarkets may think they can charge what they like so unless we vote with our feet / our wallets then they are not going to take notice.

We have become too reliant on supermarkets. They are not our friend!

i think you are right about this so this month i am going to try only to buy food as and when it runs out ,so i can run down some of the food that is just sitting here (this will make my oh happy)

franby64

Morning everybody

I haven't managed to read the thread yet but Mrs M, please could you put me down for £500 for November.

I've decided to try A*el&Cole veg boxes and these come on Monday round here so I'm going to make Monday delivery day from now on. I'll have a fornightly A*da/T*sco delivery and a weekly box.

For my budget I'm going to say £100 for every Monday in the month so my November is going to be a 5 week month!

I'm currently struggling to write a 2 week meal plan (I always end up rearranging them too but they're a good starting point) as I'm trying to use more veg and less processed kiddy food and slowly(!) change over to more organic stuff.

So I know I've upped my budget a bit and I've taken out toiletries - this is now food, cleaning and laundry only, and we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, sorry to waffle, I think I just fancy a change from my normal way of shopping/eating tbh - the challenge is to do it without spending too much more money - we're going to be eating a lot of soup! Oh and last month's shocking overspend will come out of this budget as well!

Good luck everybody for November.

Eta : Forgot to thank Pink, Mrs M and Rosieben for running the thread! Many thanks.

Earthmother - that is where I am trying to go. More natural stuff but not too much more money.

adelight - I like your veg box! - I might be doing that in a few weeks time!

sofababe

As I managed to come in under my £130 budget for October (£109.89) I'm going to try for £120 for November.
I've just placed an order with Mr A for £89.37, which covers just about everything so I'm hopeful:D