October 2011 Grocery Challenge

Long_tall_sally

Absolutely terrible month. Can't believe how much I went over target by. Need to do something very good for November to try & reign the spends back. I know we say "we don't fail" & think of how much worse it would be if you weren't keeping track etc but honestly don't think it can be much worse than this!

ChasingButterflies

Hi everyone,

Well, £10 spent at the coop (and I am annoyed as there was a ticket on the shelf that said there was a multi buy but it mustn't have gone through... handily I wasn't offered the receipt and tbh I didn't have time to question it) So anyway, I managed to feed the kids very expensive rice (microwave stuff) naan bread with leftover curry I had frozen. Horrible night roadworks, which meant a massive diversion - DH working away, halloween parties, homework and tired baby - wish I had bought some chocolate while I was there!

Bit worried about meeting target, although I have £2 odd brand match coupon and £3 luncheon voucher so hopefully that will cover the mozzerella pearls and cherry toms to make eyeball pasta on Monday. Milk and fruit may also be an issue. I will try

sproggi

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Absolutely terrible month. Can't believe how much I went over target by. Need to do something very good for November to try & reign the spends back. I know we say "we don't fail" & think of how much worse it would be if you weren't keeping track etc but honestly don't think it can be much worse than this!

Look at your recorded spends for this time last year and look how much better you have done this year! :T
You have spent nearly £900 LESS this year than the same time last year and I think that is fantastic :j

I managed to spend £21.59 today restocking milk, fruit, tinned spaghetti (on offer 2x4 tins for £3) etc. Hopefully that will see me through until Tuesday now, but don't want to speak too soon:)

Sproggi

helen_jelly

Morning all

I'm declaring at £277, I'm very pleased with this as I have had big overspends for the last 2 months so to come in under budget is "well good"

Budgets done to here

Please remember - we don't fail, we look, learn and move on

Have a good day everyone

Helen x

ChasingButterflies

helen_jelly wrote: »

Please remember - we don't fail, we look, learn and move on

Thanks, that is so true... I have been sitting here thinking why I am finding this so hard. I thought it would be easy I (generally) always cook from scratch, freeze leftovers (or meat etc that will go out of date before I can use it) but I am really struggling to keep within what I thought was a generous target.

I occured to me this morning when I finished one of the 4 pinters of milk that I bought yesterday at 4.30pm :eek: So far this month I must have spent around £51 on milk alone - that is 1/8 of my budget!

I think in November I am going to need to break down where my spends are i.e. dairy/fruit and veg etc and see where/if I can cut back/downgrade to make my target workable.

westlothianlass

HI all just added up the last of my receipts and managed to just stay under so very pleased. It's taking a bit of time but I feel we are slowly coming to grips with what we buy x
hugs to all

Pixie_Fairydust

SallyHat -Thanks for that I will have a go at a simple spreadsheet to start with and take it from there.

Pixie

Islandmaid

:j:beer::T October budget completed and IM UNDER:j:beer::T by £52.68!!!! So happy:D

I will stick to £400 for November but that will include Christmas goodies.

Thank you SO much for all your support xxxxx

busylizzie76

Well did pretty well this month (just as well as absolutely no money) - I declare an October spend of £126.89 which is only £1.89 over budget.

Please put me down for the same £125 for November.

Thanks to all

Spiggle

Hello All,

You are really too quick for me these days, I must be feeling my age or something!

I hope I haven't missed important news and that everyone is doing ok.

Nothing really to report here, just life progressing. I've had some big spends so far this month on home insurance and the like. I want to get two new tyres on the car tomorrow so it's in fine fettle for going back to work next week whatever the weather brings. Talking of which isn't it weird? I've got spring flowers out including primroses, my ceanothus (californian lilac) is flowering which is hugely worrying with frost on its way and one of my rowan trees is putting out new growth from all its tips. It's just all out of kilter.

We bought a few bits today which have been added to the sig as has a double purchase of cat food earlier in October which pushed the total up a lot (£58.99) but will last a couple of months. Getting close to the budget but only some nibbles for tomorrow nights halloween booze up to buy tomorrow and my month should be finished. I will wait until Monday to declare though, just in case.

Well done to all those coming close to or under budget. :T I know it gets said a lot but that's because it's true - just think what you would have spent if you weren't watching the pennies. And if you've gone over, don't beat yourself up. Look at where you spent the money and try to make a little change next month so that you don't do the same again. It really is a learning curve but nobody says how long, short, steep or shallow that curve is - only you dictate that.

If you really can't see what went wrong, have you gort a soending diary going yet? Have you done a proper stocktake? Do you browse in supermarkets or other shops? There really are far nicer places to spend our hard earned time! Hope that helps a little bit.

No matter what, keep up the great work, keep your purses shut and your lists stuck to your hands.

Take care,
Spigs

PS Helen I'm on £250 for November please and thank you.