December 2006 Grocery Challenge

squeaky

Hi everyone

Just a reminder that I'll be unsticking this thread some time late today - by which time it'll be the featured challenge in our Monthly Challenges sticky.

You can find the challenges via the link in my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Monthly Challenges link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-

the_optimist

Well, here's my 3rd month. Guessed budget of £200 in September and was way over. Budgeted £250 in October and went over by £1.45. Budgeted another £250 for November and went over by £7.68.

I like it, because although I'm slightly over, I'm keeping track on my spending, instead of just spending it.
Budget for December: £250 (that should be interesting, how do I buy all those lovely Christmas sweets???)

empy

Hi, I have been a lurker on os boards for a while now and have finally plucked up the courage to post and join a challange, I am wanting to become debt free and also better at budgting etc, at the moment I think nothing of going into waitrose after picking up ds1 and ds2 from school and spending £20.00 on rubbish:o just because its reduced. so I waste £60 - £80 a week on junk.

I plan to feed 4, 2 adults and 2 children and a cat on £150 pcm, is this possible?
I really want to get control of my finances and stop wasting money.

could I please be pointed in the direction of some meals plans, many thanks


empy

p.s how do I add all that stuff at the bottom of my posts, i.e how much i ve spent,saved etc, sorry not very comp literate despite being a lecturer.

lil_me

Ok, here goes, my first shot at the monthly challenge. I was spending £600 - £700 easy a month on a family of 4 and the dog, no kidding. Luxury convenience foods were my speciality. I am going to try to half that, even if it is Christmas month and I am doing dinner this year (never done before). I think I need this month to be as harsh as possible on me so I can challenge myself.

I have meal planned this week now and know what I need. I did an OS shop last week and did get a few herbs and things with that and have some flour etc left. I have tried a few things, have the corned beef stew made today with left overs there for tomorrow, flapjack and brownies cooling and a cottage pie in freezer. I really need to do this. I am going to use whatever I have left and stop overbuying! Wish me luck! Time to chane our lives!

miggy

Hi everyone,
(Slightly overdone nervous smile)
I'm new on this board... mind if I join you?
I used to be about as OS as they come but I've lost my touch and the food spend has crept up :-(
We have had a bit of heavy year and need to cut back - I reckon I can feed us on £90 p.w. (I know that's a lot but I'm well out of practice) but I need to be accountable.
We have no special needs but are limited as two of us don't eat meat and the other three all have to be careful with dairy to a greater or lesser extent.
I have plenty to use up in the freezer but if I target using up the things I have a lot of, we will be living off soft fruit, chicken stock and couscous. Could be interesting.
Did a big shop today and spent £62.96, including chips as a treat for my son.
I am planning to buy some of next week's ahead as I forgot to take a £4 Tesco voucher valid against a £20 spend, and it runs out soon.
Once I get the hang of this I hope I will spend less - please bear with me till I improve!
I'm looking forward to getting to know people and learning lots!

squeaky

miggy wrote:

I'm new on this board... mind if I join you?

Of course you can

Everybody is very welcome to join in at any time

dunderhead_2

Hello everyone!!!!

Right, here goes!! This is my 3rd post, and the first one my wife knows about! :rolleyes:

Ok, not very good at computers but finally managed to register so I can finally join. My good lady wife and I love reading eveyone's posts - you guys are a great encouragement to us!

Our current financial situation requires us to save as much money as possible! It's going to be tough, and take a long time, but if we receive encouragement and advice from you guys, I'm sure we can do it!

My good lady wife is a student. I earn £25 000 a year. We live in a little old house in Preston, and when she finishes Uni this year, we'll be moving to a house we've just bought in Yorkshire! We still owe money on this house (about £50 000), and owe £150 000 on the Yorkshire house, but we're in a fortunate position as we, strictly speaking, don't have a mortgage! Our 'mortgage' arrangement is with my wonderful mother-in-law, to whom we owe a hell of a lot (and not just financially)!

We also owe for student loans to the tune of approx. £30 000 between us as we both have or will have 2 degrees each!

My wife has been saving money for years, and admittedly, is superb at it. Me, I'm just crap, but getting better since we met. We've actually just begun the process of getting the accrued charges back from my old bank account (thanks Martin! :j :T ). :money:

So, we use coupons and vouchers every time we go shopping, we get reward points on our credit cards (just two), which we manage (well, my wife does) to pay off every month, we budget for everything, and we write down all the money we spend every month, and have been doing since 1st January this year. We're saving up to finish decorating the current house, and for money to pay for an extension on the new house, which we're hopefully going to rent until we move in next summer - that's already in process.

We need to do more!!!!

So we'd like to join the December grocery challenge please!

We are going to attempt a drastic challenge of £50 for the month's groceries, and £100 for eating/nights out - we don't mess about and do things by 'alf oop North! Cupboards, fidge and freezer were all empty, and so far, we've spent £27.71 which serves 23 meals each. We haven't bought any Christmas luxuries, and may not do depending on the money we have left!

We're up for an extreme month. "If it's not hard it's not worth trying." We previously have spent:

in October, food shopping (including meals and nights out) £314.73
November, ditto: £271.43.

This is far too much for 2 (includes a lot of takeaway food ). And we don't have kids yet!!! :eek:

Wish us luck! Any advice would be welcomed!

d

squeaky

If you click on our challenges link you can read back through earlier ones:-

You can find these via my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Monthly Challenges link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-





And then for all sorts of tips on getting started the Old Style way there are lots of threads you can browse here:-

GETTING STARTED

A collection of assorted threads where people have asked "How and where do I start?" There are lots of different answers to browse here.



Good luck

miggy

A quick update partly to get me to think through what I get at the shops today... (please feel free to ignore!)
Well, the patter of tiny feet in the kitchen is the first thing - *not* the kids (two of them are bigger than I am anyway). No, the patter of four tiny feet and the swish of a tail- grrrrrr.
Well, I knew there were mice getting into one cupboard from outdoors, thought I had stopped them (okay, you have permission to laugh) but they got back in. So item 1 on the list has to be expanding foam to fill the bit round the water pipes. At least we only have tins and recycling in there.
This morning we found they had got into what we call the biscuit cupboard (being into healthy living as I am). Now that's another matter. My fault of course as I forgot to shut the door but I'm in the process of cleaning it out and throwing away the odd stray biccie that the kids dropped. Thankfully most of the stuff was secure, but on clearing out the biscuit tins I've found enough sealed packs of crackers and things for school lunches to keep a normal family going for several weeks. Should even feed my eldest for over a week. That's good news for the budget.
(Before you all leap for the 'quote' button - I am baking tonight!)
Now I have to work out a good use for the £20 spend that enables me to use the £4 Tesco voucher - there are a few Christmas Cake ingredients still to get, and I'm going to have a look at the cheapie kettles as our ancient one has developed a fault. Not sure if I'll buy, though.
We still need to buy Sunday dinner so mustn't forget that.
I will have to carry any shopping so whatever else I get must be needed, portable and storeable.
Toothpaste
yazoo (I know - cost - but one way of getting protein into my daughter while she's at school)
bicarb
almonds
hygiene items - have a voucher for extra points on some I would buy anyway
check if there's anything else on my vouchers I can get, but no real freezer space available.
It's getting late so I'd better go and see if any other inspiration strikes while I'm there. I have put a calculator in my pocket for the first time ever (hehe) and I'm packing some used carriers to get the green points back.
Go me!
Anyway I have been kicking myself for losing/forgetting three sets of Tesco vouchers this year - how daft can I get? They are all out of date now :-(
This is partly to make up a bit for that.

kiwi88_2

:T WELCOME TO ALL OUR GROCERY CHALLENGE NEWBIES :T

Once you've started it won't stop and you'll be trawling this site for other hints, tips and challenges :rotfl:

Good luck to all of us, old and new alike :beer: