November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Spiggle

de1amo wrote: »

i cant get my colours to work to show my challenge in red ... so the total is 175 for my wife to stick to--... she spent 6 pounds of fruit and veg this evening which she informs me can be got for 1 pound at a cheap outlet--my eyes are being opened!!--its no wonder i have a shiney coat and wagging tail in life!!(thats a thing i find odd about this challenge how people dissect their pet food from their groceries when pets are eating breathing members of the family!!)

Hi de1amo,

To change the font colour/size just highlight the relevant text, click the arrow by the side of the 'A' above the text box and select red. Similarly for size have the text selected and click the arrow next to the (probable) '2' (to the left of the 'A') and select the size.

Two carrier bags of top quality fruit and veg for £6 isn't too bad really imho. I suppose it depends on how long it will last.

In terms of pets, we all carry out our challenges as suits each of us best. It's not a competition but a support network. So, for some to separate out the pet food and have a separate budget is what works for them. :cool:

For instance, my two big cats have a special (i.e. expensive) dry food diet but also have wh***as as a treat a few times a week. When I first started this in March the special diet was very much NOT a part of my grocery budget but the wh***as was included. As I have brought our human spends spends down I have gradually included the specialist diet into the totals. Thus my total has not changed much but the amount of it on purely human food has reduced. But I must emphasise that this is what suits me and may not work for others whose methods for feeding and budgetting I fully respect.

On your other question about household composition, I don't have it in my sig as I have a lot of other monitoring data in there and the number of characters is limited. There is only me, OH and the two cats in our home but my GD1 comes to stay once a week. Hope that helps.

Menolly wrote: »

Hi, please can I join in? There's just the two of us and 4 hungry Maine Coon cats and we seriously need to trim the budget down! I didn't join in last month but we spent on average £110 a week - and that was only because I went shopping on my own for two weeks running and brought the bill down to circa £85.00 each time. Bill always seems higher when my husband "helps":rotfl:
I am aiming to bring the spend for the month in at £350
I'd like to get lower, ideally, as there is just too much month in my money.

Welcome Menolly, isn't it always the way that the OH will slip extras in? :mad: Keep up the good work you learned last month and remember you've come to the right place for support, inspiration and hugs when needed. I'm envious of your Maine Coons, lovely. And I have to agree wholeheartedly with there being "too much month in my money"!!! :rotfl:

Sunnyday wrote: »

... I stopped feeding my pets processed pre packed pet food from the supermarket and when funds allow they now have a lot of home made food from other sources. For example i make up batches of pet food in my slowcooker and mix with organic food ordered via the internet from various suppliers and feel that their diet is more healthy. Obviously this is more expensive to do so it can`t be maintained 100% of the time but their diet has vastly improved.

As i now use so many different sources for their food its far easier to keep track of all my outgoings by seperating the spending and monitoring it this way as i`m sure that other people who have changed to this way of budgeting are finding too.

My main budget used to be roughly £200 all in so has increased by approximately £20 by improving my pets diet. It now hovers around £160 for us and £60 for the pets. I do hope that by posting this it has made it easier for you to comprehend. SD

Wow Sunnyday, that's wonderful! Well done you on being so committed and organised. Actually I remember when I was a kid my dear departed Mum always used to be cooking something up for the cats and dog. And it always used to smell good! This was strange as it often had food in it I wouldn't eat then and still don't now like fish, tripe and various other offal! :rotfl:

Ok, my month starts today (I have now put start & finish dates in my spreadsheet rather than just noting first/last spends) and I got muddled a day or so ago as to when I start/finish! So I declared over in October that I managed to come under by £14+ so quite pleased at that. My budget for this month is £250 to allow for a couple of extra bits, e.g. sauces, for yuletide. Thanks for putting me in the list MrsMcCawber :A and for those lovely sounding recipes. I think I may well be persuading OH he has to do the beef and red wine pasta soon, it sounds delish. :drool:

I have amended my sig in two ways. Due to character limitation I've removed the toiletries bit as I believe I've kicked that particular addiction now (and it's saved me a fortune :dance:). The other change is I've allocated the annual amount according to 10 months rather than 12 so I know what the absolute maximum spend for the 10 month period could be. It's certainly not a target though!

For next year I'll analyse my figures for the 10 months and start the sig anew with totals based on 2010 with a slight reduction hopefully.

but that's the future. Today there will be some small spends as OH is getting a couple of bits for GD1 tonight. So first day and first spend, yuk.

Ah well onwards and upwards. Good luck everyone for the month. Kepp posting and reading - we're here for each other and that's what makes this thread the place to be for anyone wanting to reduce and control their spending.

Speak to you later,
Spigs

NickJW

I'm still on my October challenge, and Novembers starts on Monday. Can I please put myself down for £100 again for November.

Hopefully most people will be posting on here now instead, so I can get away with posting my October totals with a bit of secrecy

Spiggle

NickJW wrote: »

I'm still on my October challenge, and Novembers starts on Monday. Can I please put myself down for £100 again for November.

Hopefully most people will be posting on here now instead, so I can get away with posting my October totals with a bit of secrecy

Not quite secret NickJW as I get the instant email notification!!!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Promise I won't tell!

Take care,
Spigs

NickJW

Spiggle wrote: »

Not quite secret NickJW as I get the instant email notification!!!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Promise I won't tell!

Take care,
Spigs

Dammit! :rotfl::rotfl: I'll hold you to that :cool:

triticale

Wow, 3 pages already and I've only just been paid! :eek::T

Can I go down for £100 again this month please? (Only went over by a tiny bit last month..:o)

I have to keep things really tight so I can afford Christmas.

I really enjoyed last month, I made batches and batches of walnut oat cookies and choc orange muffins, hm sausage rolls, pies, hm yorkshire puddings which were fab, pancakes, hm pizzas and wedges, never bought a single chocolate biscuit or savoury snackfood, no ready meals or frozen potato products.

First on my November shopping list is FLOUR! LOADS of it, SR, plain and strong!!:rotfl:

Thank you OS-er's, for motivating and inspiring me with your stories and ideas. :beer:

~moneysavingnovice~

5 weekly shops in my November (the first of which is tonight), so can I have £275 please. Plus £40 for entertainment again.

jintyb

adelight wrote: »

Vegtables from lidl: £3.23
Putting everything in a shoe box and pretending it's my posh veg box: priceless
.

That just made me laugh!:rotfl::rotfl: Thanks for that!!

de1amo wrote: »

would declarations not make more sense if people said how many lived in the household??--sorry i am a newbie here.--i am aiming for 175 pounds for 3 hungry humans!

As long as the declarations make sense to the person posting that's all that matters. Some folks prefer not to announce their personal circumstances to the world!
As has been said, the reason we come on here to post is not only to save money and balance our budgets, but also to support each other in a non judgemental fashion.

Got my weekly shop done and I'm really pleased as with judicial use of Tesc0 coupons and taking advantage of a lot of their offers I got £79.54 worth of shopping for £49.40 - saving of over £30!:j
This includes a 15kg bag of dog food and 8kg of cat food. Trying to stock up before the VAT goes up in Jan.;) The Govt gets enough of my money:rotfl:

Over all I am on budget for Nov so far, Ive three weeks to go as my month ends on the 20th:)

Mollina_Girl

Please can I join this Nov Challenge, I'm a complete newbie to this so can you put me down for £300 and see how it goes. This will include all toiletries and cleaning products as well as goceries.

mumker

Hi all

I'm declaring £236.99 for October GC - under budget and can't believe it, especially considering we had visitors staying for a few days!!!:j

Can you please put me down for £260 for November. I think this month is going to be particularly challenging as I'm desperately trying to stay away from all the lovely Christmas treats that are on offer in the supermarkets at the mo!!! Couldn't resist the buy one get two free offers in Tesco yesterday on pringles and Cadburys fingers.....:D

Good luck to everyone this month x

sharronej

mumker wrote: »

Hi all

I Couldn't resist the buy one get two free offers in Tesco yesterday on pringles and Cadburys fingers.....:D

Good luck to everyone this month x

I agree it is a good offer but only if they survive through until Christmas - which they wouldn't in this house :rotfl: