November 2010 Grocery Challenge

elf06

Well how confusing was that!! My receipts total £80.94 when I totalled them but my sig was already at £90.65 - could I work it out??? I had forgotten about the appr0ved f00ds order and the bbfl order I had so the total is actually at............................ £113.14 phew thought i'd blown it - had best be careful for the next week!!!

NickJW

Hi All!

Still doing well with my challenge - not spent anything since Sunday. I do have an 80p off a £4 spend voucher for Mr S which I need to spend, and I want to stock up on some extra BOGOF NY Bagels for lunches from Mr T (will get 4 bags for £2)...and that will keep me going until January I reckon!

I do find that I'm struggling a bit, because I've got 6 more days cooking days until I go on holiday - my flatmate is cooking for 6 also. I don't want to buy too much because I need to save space for Christmas food, and I also CAN'T buy too much fresh food since it will only be wasted before my holiday.

My meal plan until I go on holiday is as follows:

Thursday - Pork Stir Fry
Friday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Saturday - Beef Paprikash with rice and sour cream
Sunday - Chicken Curry with rice/naan
Monday - Chicken with some frozen roasted vegetables and pasta
Tuesday - Chilli con Carne with rice and sour cream

The other days my flatmate cooks. I then will have one pack of mince, half a pack of frozen spinach, my bagels and half a bag of oven chips left. Plus...if I'm lucky, leftovers from spag bol, chilli and paprikash, so I can defrost something the day I get back.

Sooo...I will need green chillis, coriander, cheese, wholegrain mustard, bay leaves, small tub natural yoghurt, bagels and potentially some things for my bagels for lunches once my ham runs out.

I don't want to jinx myself but I MIGHT do it for once this month.

Next month I'm actually only going to be eating normally at home for 2 weeks. I'm thinking of setting aside a separate Christmas budget and a separate holiday budget, and decreasing the normal budget to £50 for those 2 weeks...does this sound okay, or a bit of a cop out to anyone? I really don't want to be thinking of grocery shopping whilst on holiday :rotfl:

Chloris

NickJW wrote: »

Hi All!

Next month I'm actually only going to be eating normally at home for 2 weeks. I'm thinking of setting aside a separate Christmas budget and a separate holiday budget, and decreasing the normal budget to £50 for those 2 weeks...does this sound okay, or a bit of a cop out to anyone? I really don't want to be thinking of grocery shopping whilst on holiday :rotfl:

I think that sounds perfectly reasonable! Its up to you to make your own rules anyway.

jintyb

rosieben wrote: »

to add to my comment above re how much I spend on christmas grocery, the big saving for me is that I don't buy alcohol as I don't drink and don't party, scary to think how much that cost me in the past!

Re Christmas grocery spends - I am not increasing my weekly budget, but I do have £150 saved on my A$DA card. I will try to buy what I need within my usual weekly shop
It is very easy to get carried away in the SM's at this time of year and lose focus. I was in there yesterday and I could feel myself drawn towards party food, nibbles and various bits of temptation.
In my pre-MSE days I would stock up on all sorts of stuff, only for it to be chucked in January.
THEN I had a serious word with myself - we are going to my sis for the Day itself and Ive made a pud and cake to take. We will buy a large ham which we'll cook for Boxing Day and and also use for sarnies.
I like to have some nice chocs for watching movies over the holidays and also some cheese and biscuits.
The main saving for us is not buying alcohol, neither of us drinks any more and I have enough booze and wine should we have visitors.

I keep reminding myself - its not compulsory to overspend at Christmas!;)
and that the shops are only closed for one day. In the unlikely event of suddenly getting swamped with guests, then all will not be lost!

Hippeechiq

Billie-jo Words are totally inadequate when someone loses a loved one, especially a child, but from one Mother to another, I'm so deeply sorry for your loss hun :grouphug:

scotsaver wrote: »

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

Awww - thank you hun

I've lost my mojo this week, and am feeling very tired and very fuzzy headed, and am finding it difficult to make the simplest of decisions, and I don't really know why.

I actually went into the town today and did non-grocery type shopping for the first time since being made redundant in January, and I can't say I enjoyed it much. Although, I did manage to find Armani Code for my DD for Christmas £10 cheaper in Wilkin$ons (of all places) than any of the other shops I went in, or have looked at online. So I'm well chuffed with that

I've always known Wilkin$ons sell perfume, just didn't expect them to sell it that much cheaper than everywhere else.

On the GC front. Had a NSD yesterday, but spends of £8.32 today in £idl & Icel@nd on Pizzas, 2 blocks of the Vintage Cheddar that £idl have on offer at the mo and two bars of chocolate.

Brings me up to £243.18 and leaves me with £31.82 (7 days @ £4.54) to spend up to and including the 30th

Chloris wrote: »

I don't want to be Mr Mean but I dislike this make your self sick with food, drink and presents mentality. I want to spend time with those I care for so I am happy to entertain, but don't want to go OTT.

I couldn't agree more hun
My GC budget for December will be the regular £275 - any money I spend on Xmas will come out of another budget, but I'm not going mad. That way, I can still keep my eye on the ball of how much I'm spending ordinarily and how much I'm spending on Xmas - or at least, that's the theory

Chloris

Hippeechic thanks for that. I might give myself my normal £350 GC with a Yule pot of £50 to dip into. Or just lump it in together.

Anyway I am declaring for this month:j under budget :j. That was including catering for DD birthday party of 20+ children and a big family meal too.

Will think about next months tonight and post it in red tomorrow. Shiny new budget!

niksyg

Hello!

Have been very very busy so rather late updating my total. Spent £31.24 in Mr T at the weekend....not have about £20 left which should easily see us through so seems like we'll be on budget this month - yaay!

katholicos

rosieben wrote: »

I LOVE cheese too! I used to buy one of those expensive assortments but there was always one I didn't like so now I buy smaller pieces of several different sorts - edam, caerphilly, extra extra strong cheddar that has to be chained to the fridge ditto with biscuits for cheese, I buy just one or two packets of something I like and I know they won't be wasted.


to add to my comment above re how much I spend on christmas grocery, the big saving for me is that I don't buy alcohol as I don't drink and don't party, scary to think how much that cost me in the past!

Cheese is a big weakness of mine. Donkeys years ago i worked on the cheese counter in a delicatessan...we had over 100 cheeses...and i tasted them ALL

Oh my...cheese, how i love thee...

NickJW

Hmmm....

That's made me think a bit. I think I'll put £150 for holiday, £50 for Christmas food (it does include alcohol!), and £100 for the rest of December (I may as well include alcohol totally next month since I can imagine a lot of 'liquid lunches' in the festive season!)
Blimey - £300 for December sounds a lot.
I've never done a Christmas food shop before, but this year I'm doing it with friends, and going back to my parents on the 27th - 30th December. I've got absolutely no idea what sort of spends to expect so I'm doing a bit of a guesstimate...

'Tis the season to be jolly I guess, and January is always a tough month, so I may as well enjoy myself!

At least this way I am watching what I spend, and if I over-do in one area, I can cut back in another.......
Letting my eye off the ball is what got me into a mess into the first place so thanks for keeping this on my mind Hippiechiq.

katholicos

Haven't updated siggy yet but took mum shopping today and i ended up spending £20.12 p in total...£13 something in Morries, then nipped in Aldi on way back home after dropping her off.

The really good thing was that i had a really lovely surprise, when we got to morries my mum gave me a card with £100 of morries stamps in. I said 'i've already had a halogen oven off you and dad for christmas and some nightwear and other stuff'...mum said 'me and your dad want you to have this!'...so we stood debating for 10 minutes...in the end when she said thrust it at me with one of her firm 'no nonsense' looks...i conceded...besides which, i was expecting security to show up any minute and to ask us to 'take it outside'. LOL!

WOW! I am totally overwhelmed by my parents generosity. My flat tyre on the car...was well, flat again this morning when i got up, and mum even gave me £20 to get a re-tread put on. I am so fortunate. I'm going to put the £100 stamps up and then get the bargains after Christmas, at least that is the plan....but we shall see ;-)

Another funny thing.

Today i brought 4 x packs of cathedral city cheese as it is half price at morries at moment (extra, extra mature..take note Rosieben!)....well, when i got home a parcel had been delivered...a cardboard box...inside was a single 400gram block of .....cathedral city!!!... surrounded by an ice pack type thing....I looked at the paperwork and discovered it was from a survey site...they want me to test a new wrapper fastening and to give them feedback....tell you what, there aren't many days when things go my way, but today was definately one of those days, rare though they are!

I was a bit narked at Aldi though, the sliced ham i brought, had a sticker saying half marked price but i paid full price at till (didn;t realise it till i got home), and some frozen fish was in the wrong place in the freezer so worked out £1 more expensive than i thought it was, but i don't suppose i should grumble really after all my good fortune today :-)