December 2010 Grocery Challenge

earthmother

Can I go on the list for £300 please.

December is a 5 week month for me, 29th Nov to 2nd Jan, but I already have most christmas food in stock, so I've knocked my normal budget down to allow for that, and am aiming to keep the 'normal' weeks as low as possible - see if I can get away from break-even totals and into 'significantly under' ones.

Managed to start the month with a NSD, which hopefully is a sign of things to come. Spent £17.87 today on a basic bread/milk/fruit run.

I've done the menu plan, and can do about 8 meals from stock, so don't intend to do much more shopping until next week (unless the weather starts looking really dodgy, in which case I'm near a big Mr T on Thursday).

EmptyPurse

First grocery spend today - £17.70 at the butchers. I bought 1lb mince, 1lb casserole steak, enough oxtail to make four portions of oxtail stew and a pork loin steak. Overall I've got enough meat to make 13 meals for myself.

Does that sound reasonable, given that it's not supermarket meat? I was a bit surprised at the cost of the oxtail - over £7 - as I thought it was supposed to be a cheap cut of meat. Can anyone recommend any cheaper cuts?

Picklepud

yippee :jnew month thank rosieben,pink-winged and MRSMC for the new page

Can i be put down for £500 for December? I know this is alot but apart from a bottle of baileys I have no xmas shopping at all as i find if i buy it in little bits before it gets eaten!!!! teenage boy who doesnt think! I also have DM and DD1 back from Uni for 2 weeks in the month so that is 7 adults (kids are all teens and eat like adults) 2 dogs a cat, turtles and fish!

If I can do this it will be fantastic and I will ensure 2011 is more cost effective I am really addicted to this!

Good Luck Everyone!:T

Souk08

Hi, can you put me down for £50 for December please. This is only until I get paid again on Dec 23rd and is for food only for 1 person. Thanks.

katholicos

Many thanks to Pink-Winged, MrsMCawber and Rosieben for all your work and effort this year on the GC threads, i'm sure all of us who use the GC thread to help us manage out grocery spending, very much appreciate all that you do.

MrsSmith93

Please can I join this month at £400 - adding a little extra this month for Christmas goodies. Spent £9.99 of it already!

Thanks

mummy2mygirls

Please can you put me down for £450 this mth please. This is for 2 adults (one pregnant so lots of cravings - well thats my excuse and im sticking to it 4 kiddies. Includs food, all house bits, baby milk and dog food.......
I have a shop for tomorrow of about £80 and NO xmas bits in yet so i hope i can do it.................

MrsRogers

Evening ladies

I gave up in November :( My first terrible month... totally lost the plot:eek:

Not sure how to budget December as have vouchers saved for Xmas Dinner stuff and my parents are giving us a home grown turkey for Xmas

So i think 300 for me

With £54 spent already

adelight

I should have known not to buy custard powder! Why would I suddenly like it after all these years of hating? It's warm, gooey, vanilla, amaretto, all the things I like but together make me gag and now I have a 59p tin of useless useless custard powder.

sharronej

EmptyPurse wrote: »

First grocery spend today - £17.70 at the butchers. I bought 1lb mince, 1lb casserole steak, enough oxtail to make four portions of oxtail stew and a pork loin steak. Overall I've got enough meat to make 13 meals for myself.

Does that sound reasonable, given that it's not supermarket meat? I was a bit surprised at the cost of the oxtail - over £7 - as I thought it was supposed to be a cheap cut of meat. Can anyone recommend any cheaper cuts?

I thought it sounded expensive but I don't have access to a Butchers so perhaps it's the average price there?

Ok so here's my first thought on December budget, one of my childminding parents pays me £170 cash which I think I will put in a separate purse for my grocery food, I've done some extra work for this family which is an extra £50 so I'm going to use that for the Boxing Day Party food and then NPower have written saying they will give me £42 back for unfair policy wording (Or something like that) and I'm going to make that up to £60 for Alcohol. We have £45 in our sealed tin for our Christmas Eve meal and that probably needs making up to £60 and I still have presents to buy - two of the kids (2x£150), DH (£50) Nephews and Nieces (£40) and a couple of the childminding children (£20). ARRGH it's still frightening when you add it up however you want to split it down :rotfl:

So that £170 possibly won't manage it but will try and it'll be simpler to have differant budgets rather than trying to get the food budget to cover a multitude. :rotfl: