December 2010 Grocery Challenge

hitatotatus

Hi. Thx to all for organising this thread - it is certainly making me think about my shopping a bit more and hope to cut my bill this month!

Setting a Dec budget of £380.

EmptyPurse

suzybloo wrote: »

I bought an oxtail and paid around £7 for it too so that seems average - HOWEVER! - I dont know what to do with it, and I am not sure if we would like it - every time I see it in the freezer I feel guilty at wasting so much - maybe I will be brave enough to defrost it and give it a go!

ail

Oxtail needs long, slow cooking - a stew is ideal. If you google 'oxtail stew' you'll find plenty of ideas, but basically it's very similar to making a beef stew. It's really, really tasty and ideal for this sort of weather!

Dharma_Bunny

Hello, I'm going to join you for December with a budget of £250
for one greedy grown-up, one picky toddler and a semi-present beer and chicken eater, to include Christmas dinner for three and other hospitalities.

As there's nearly a foot of snow outside, I'll be starting with at least one NSD.

Picklepud

Hiya

how long does it take to be added to the list? only my second month of doing it and not there yet

Spiggle

Hey all,

Fifth page already and it's only the first!

Many thanks to Pink, :A rosieben :A and MrsMcCawber :A for keeping the thread going. It is a lot of work and you are all fantastic contributing your time to us all. :T Thank you and may I wish you a wonderful Christmas and truly moneysaving New Year. :xmastree: :xmassign: :snow_grin Thanks again. :T

mandco wrote: »

... quick question if you bulk buy or get offers that you know will last more than the current Gc month do you still include the total in this month or split it over the months you benefit from it? last month I brought quite a bit on offer that I know will last at least this month and maybe into jan so would only just have gone over if I hadnt brought them or counted them in the next months challenge if that makes sense
i know everyone does it differently but just wondered what the general choice was.

Mandco I only count it in this month's GC if I start using it this month. In November I bought washing liquid on offer but it won't get opened until at least January so I already have a 2011 spend! The same went for wet cat food and something else I can't remember which will get opened this month hence I have 2 NSD but a spend of £14.75.

katie89 wrote: »

I've been watching last months thread with a lot of interest and would like to join in this months please. I would like to be put down for £100 please, which is very much a guess. ... Thank you (from a secretly very excited newbie).

Welcome katie89! :hello: We all get excited about watching our spends and saving money so don't worry your secret is safe with us!

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?

EmptyPurse we only buy meat from the butcher but haven't bought oxtail this year so not sure about the price of that. Checked with OH (he's off work with bad tummy today) and he thinks mince is around £2.40 per lb and casserole steak around £2.85-95 per lb. No idea on the pork loin I'm afraid. For us, the quality of the meat is far superior from the butcher and is always British, sometimes very local, often free range and or organic. And we make it stretch a long way when we get it. An average meal cost of £1.36 if you make 13 meals from what you have doesn't seem too bad to me but you could make it go even further by adding things like oats or lentils to the mince and casserole steak recipes if you fancy. Hope that helps.

Welcome also to Dee5565, Dontknowanymore, Dharma Bunny and any other newbie I've missed! :hello: Good luck with your challenges. We all here to support each other and it certainly isn't a competition. The people on the thread are wonderfully supportive, inspirational and understanding so don't ever be afraid to ask a question, someone is likely to be able to offer advice. Ooh, and make sure you set your budget according to your own household and monetary needs. Keep posting and reading and over or under we'll get through the month together!

Ok, off to get ready for work I've got a late one tonight so will probably not see you until tomorrow. Take care in these freezing conditions and warming hugs to all who have too much of the white stuff around them. :grouphug:

Take care,
Spigs

Spiggle

Picklepud wrote: »

Hiya

how long does it take to be added to the list? only my second month of doing it and not there yet

Hi Picklepud,

You did post your challenge amount in big red numbers so it could be that MrsMcCawber hasn't been on yet to update. You could do another post just simply saying 'Please list Picklepud for £500 MrsMcCawber' all in big red letters and I'm sure she'll add you as soon as she can. She doesn't log on every day like many of us do by the way. Hope that helps.

All the best,
Spigs

Spiggle

Sorry me again!

I just had an email from AF and they have 6 bottles of slimfast for 99p. I know someone buys this for their daughter (I think) so thought I'd pop back and post it up. Hope it helps someone.]

Spigs

Shysarah

Thanks to Pink, Rosieben and MrsMcCawber for all your hard work running this challenge!!

I have oddly been getting worse with my budgeting since i started this which is about right for me i guess, i never work the normal way lol.

I need to get myself organised and be strict about making a meal plan something which i did for a couple of weeks and then didn't bother with and that could be why the spending has gone a bit awry. I have also had an operation so last month was not normal in terms of my shopping so that must have had an effect too. Plus shopping without a list *slaps wrists*.
I am super stocked with the full-ish freezer, cupboards and fridge now too so I must behave.

As already stated and on the list (thanks folks) this month is a limit of £100 for two reasons, a) its the festive period and b) I am going to take a higher budget so I can begin working down from it too.

Mind you I am snowed in so today will be a grocery NSD for definite!!

Thanks all
Sarah xx

Picklepud

Thanks spigs I will check later just really spurs me on !

Long_tall_sally

Was going to go into town this morning but couldn't get my car to go up the slight hill in my road so abandoned car & walked to the Co Op. Umm, the Co Op is good for whoopsied bread etc but rather expensive for a lot of other things so ended up spending £24 on F & V, marg, bacon, crisps, Beef joint & a few other things. But although I did get carrots I forgot to get some other veg for the rabbits & guinea pig & only got 1 small marg so that won't last us long.

Every thing feels like an effort today but I am trying to motivate myself to do some baking & use up the huge supply of flour that I have.

Welcome to all the newbies.