November 2010 Grocery Challenge

Long_tall_sally

A NSD day for me today. Normally I would go to the Co op on a Sunday afternoon whoopsie hunting & whilst it is normally worthwhile, especially for bread etc, I just couldn't be bothered today & plus I am so, so close to my budget. However we now have no potatoes & I might just go & get some tomorrow which will put me over target because they are £6 for a huge, huge sack from an old man who sells them from his house. Whilst I could buy a much smaller bag for less & probably stay within target, the huge sack works out far more economical in the long run.

I went through my bakery cupboard last night, gave it a clean & wrote down all the contents. I am going to post it under the store cupboard challenge but it would be fair to say I have enough flour to keep me going for a long, long time! Thing is, I don't bake cakes all that often & I can't remember the last time I got my breadmaker out as I have lost the booklet of recipes that came with it. Some of the bread flour though is BB 11/09 & some of it is BB 3/10 so not sure whether to use it or not although it looks fine, nothing horrible crawling in it or anything! I also have some rice flour with a BB of 8/10.

I also have a tin of Carnation Evaporated milk with a BB of 1/10 that I am not sure whether to use at all or what for. (I also have a tin of condensed milk & a tin of Carnation caramel.)

cookie9

Not too bad - £7.98 on food to get us through the week. We are eating from the freezer this week. Thank heavens for menu planning!

Craftyscholar

Forgot to post yesterday - £15.68 in Mr S. Hopefully now have everything I need for Ch. cake.

amber03

spent £65 in mr t on friday and £7 today. Last couple of shops have bought big items like dishwasher tablets, washing powder and toiletries so hopefully next couple of spends will be low. Have only got £8 left in budget for this month have one week left so may take abit of savvy shopping this week. Think i will do some home baking this week.

jintyb

de1amo wrote: »

i am up to 279 squid in my fact finding trip about our family's shopping budget--its got me thinking about resources we need 'if' we ever retire!! i never realised how much food costs because i have never done a budgeting exercise like this.-My guestimate of 175gbp is looking slightly off beam!

i asked a very odd question about how much more it costs to shop in a place like wait rose compared to li-dles in the uk because i was trying to compare quality against budget in the uk--we eat quite high quality food here and i always shopped in Mr L in the uk!!

I'm not sure about how much more waitro$e v Lid£ is percentage wise, but I shop in Lid£ along with other SM's and dont consider that I am buying substandard quality food. On the contrary,by canny shopping and good choices, I believe we eat well without spending crazy money.
I feel rather offended by your implication that shopping at Lid£ somehow compromises quality and that you should have to spend a lot to eat well.
Just beacause I'm on a budget doesnt mean I eat poorly. I prefer many of their foods over similar in other SM'S particularly their cooked meats, yogurt, cheese and baking ingredients, amongst others. While not food, their kitchen foil and freezer bags are brilliant. Maybe you should check out their website and see how many awards their products have won?
I'm glad you are able to eat high quality food in Turkey, it's a shame it's so expensive for you.

mummygems

Well and truly done over this month argh.

I am going to try a do a weekly shop as and when we need things rather than a big shop on pay day and then smaller shops each week. We have had people over for dinner pretty much every weekend this month which is unusual so am not inviting anyone else now until Christmas Day lol. My month doesnt finish until next Thursday but am planning the meals for December at the moment so I can then write a weekly shopping list based on what we will want/need going by the menu plan. (I do like a good list!).

I have 8 adults and 4 children to feed on christmas day but everyone is thankfully bringing something with them so I wont have to pay for everything but will still need a fair amount of food. Not sure whether to up the grocery budget or list the christmas food seperately. What does everyone else do? There will be food, soft drinks and alcohol to budget for. Decisions decisions.

Thankfully between now and payday I will only need milk and bead which I have some spare change for in my purse.

Craftyscholar

jintyb wrote: »

I feel rather offended by your implication that shopping at Lid£ somehow compromises quality and that you should have to spend a lot to eat well.
I'm glad you are able to eat high quality food in Turkey, it's a shame it's so expensive for you.

My former boss - with two good incomes funding her home - said I should look at the quality of the cars in Lid£ car park.
Besides they can sell packs of sliced sandwich meat without added water something the other SMs seem to find difficult.

katholicos

We ate from the fridge today so another NSD and we used up some leftovers from yesterday too.

Re: the Lid* discussion....some of my (former) wealthiest acquaintences/so called friends shopped in Netto/Lidl/Aldi and would often entertain and have dinner parties for their equally wealthy friends...they would always use Sainsburys shopping bags to do put their shopping in and would never let on where they purchased their food from...as if there was something embarrassing about it. Thankfully i left them all behind when i left my (then) husband.

losingpatience

Well I'm going over budget this month. Spent £46.77 at Mr S on Friday night which was more than I anticipated but I went feeling sorry for myself so probably bought things I wouldn't normally get, and bought some things I didn't need ( picked up parsley instead of coriander ). Then realised I forgot a few things so had to spend a further £8.99 in Mr T yesterday so total spends this weekend £55.76. I can't remember how much money I had left in the grocery budget but I think it was less than that and I have 9 days left to go arghhh!

Thank you all for your kind words and support. What my fiance ( sorry put OH which to me means other half ) has is technically a benign tumor but to be honest no-one who has it understands why as it can spread ( OH's has spread to his lungs ) and can be terminal. He's already had an operation and 5 weeks of radiotherapy but unfortunately this type of tumor is difficult to treat so has returned and is even larger than the orginial tumor they removed. It's called a giant cell tumor which is a destructive bone tumor. As it's not a cancer we don't get any of the support a cancer patient does and we're currently waiting on a decision from the hospital trust to see whether we will get our travel costs reimbursed.

I think the meal on sat night ended up costing £20 BUT alot of that was on spices and things which I'll use again. My sister brought 2 bottles of wine and made the desert and I didn't really have anything in to make a meal for 4. Plus I thought my OH could do with cheering up as we've both had a bit of a rough time of it lately. I know it wasn't very MSE but I think you need to do things like that every now and again.

I don't know what to set my budget at next month. It occured to me that almost every weekend I'm cooking meals for others so I think thats where some of my money dissappears to. We've actually bought very little meat this month in comparison to what we normally do as I'm trying to cut back. I worked out we spent around £380 last month :eek: so even if I am a little over budget this month it's still an improvement

scotsaver

de1amo wrote: »

i asked a very odd question about how much more it costs to shop in a place like wait rose compared to li-dles in the uk because i was trying to compare quality against budget in the uk--we eat quite high quality food here and i always shopped in Mr L in the uk!!

Not entirely sure what you are implying here but I may be on a Budget but I certainly do not compromise on "quality" - I shop in Asd@, Sa!nsbury's, Tesc0, Mr M's and L!dl - I don't have an issue with "quality" from L!dl, I buy Free range eggs from there, free range chicken and British meat and wherever possible British fruit and veg. Their Bread flour I've found to be superior to all others I've tried, prefer their Pate, chorizo, yoghurts - in fact the list is endless, can't think of anything we've tried and not liked.

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Well done to everyone taking part, whether or not you're coming in on budget :T This challenge really is a case of "it's not the winning, it's the taking part" because we would all be spending so much more if we weren't.

Off to update siggy

Hippeechiq - I second that and can I also say it's great having you back.;)

mummygems wrote: »

I have 8 adults and 4 children to feed on christmas day but everyone is thankfully bringing something with them so I wont have to pay for everything but will still need a fair amount of food. Not sure whether to up the grocery budget or list the christmas food seperately. What does everyone else do? There will be food, soft drinks and alcohol to budget for. Decisions decisions.

mummygems - I always increase my Grocery budget for December as we always have extra family stay with us for Christmas and in fact this year we are having a Party on Christmas Eve so even more expense but I will be getting my thinking cap on for that - thinking of asking everyone to bring a "dish" - makes it more interesting and will be full of surprises and an ideal opportunity to swap new recipes - a "win win" situation.;)