October 2011 Grocery Challenge

poppy-glos

nsd for me today. entertaining myself tonight having a go at lorraine pasquel's pan d'epi, if it comes out any good i will post the recipe on here

good luck all, i'm overbudget already but going to try damage limitation over half term

iwanttogoonholiday

ive gone over already - think next month i will set it at 200 as an much more realistic target for me - learn alot though from doing it this month even if i did fail!

666paw

Another spend today.
Asda 21.46 but that should be it for the week and also decided to eat out, kebab & chippie 8.80.

Total spends so far 32.87.

666

Ches

This challenge has been a real eyeopener. As my signature shows I have £100 per week for everything. Food/toiletries/clothes/meeting friends etc. Out of that is my money target for this challenge and I think it was a reasonable amount. I thought £170 for groceries, £160 of my credit card (which I have done) and £70 for the rest would be fine but its not worked out that well. The spends on 'other things' went haywire so I have been supplementing from the grocery purse to cover. Added to this I save £2 coins and I have had 11 this month to put in the tin so all a bit of a muddle really. For instance today I met a friend and it was my turn to pay for lunch. A sandwich with side salad and tea each was over £12 which had to come out of the grocery budget because there wasn't anything left in the other purse. Tell me, is it best to lump it all together and count it all as groceries? What do you all do?

njk1012

Heads up on Daz wash powder at Mr A.

I have been tracking the price of wash powder/liquid for a while (how sad am I?) But nipped into Mr A today for the roll back wine and they had a huge pallet of Daz wash powder near the entrance at £4 for 42 washes which makes it the cheapest of the bigger names for a while.

Think I'm going to nip in tomorrow and get 2-3 more packs, my OH is really picky about having named wash powder, I would be happy with home made washing goop!

ixia

Updating this week so far I spent ££26.87.

went to Ald! after work yesterday to make use of the £5 off £30 coupon from the paper. I spent £26.87 on groceries I got quite a few bits from there but I will still have to go to another supermarket.

I need some quorn stuff for my veggies and butter etc.

I am really pleases as I have £162.30 left for the month. I am going to go back and check I have posted everything as it seems like I haven't spent that much this month although I have been trying to avoid going to shops and making do with what I have.

wannabehermit

:wave:Hi there, I'd like to join if I may?

I've just reset my budget that I have for shopping as I was spending way over each month and over the last 3 months have averaged at over £530 a month. My budget was £100 a week (£433.33 a month), so a big difference :eek:. I'd like to get it down to under £500 a month but I'm going to start at £520 starting tomorrow. My month runs from 23rd of the month as that is when DH is paid. He was paid yesterday what with 23rd being a Sunday and I've already moved the £520 into a different account. So I'm just wondering with my month starting at an odd time I really should wait for a Nov thread shouldn't I? Or do I just post here until that one starts?

Pixie_Fairydust

Morning all you lovely people......:)

Well I'm going to give it a go for Nov (Oct 25th - Nov 25th)........ I did try earlier in the year but family probs meant I just couldn't keep on top of things!

Anyway, am going to try for £250 for Nov, just me, my DS & 2 fat cats, DD and BF moved out and OH won't be for much longer, I will be whole again! 2012 should be a better year :j

My budget will include food, toiletries, household stuff and cat food, so fingers crossed.

I must try and do a menu plan and stick to it, I often forget to factor in 'special treats' and end up at our little shop for things twice the price!

Have a great weekend

Pixie

jpscloud

Oh dear. I've exceeded the budget again - had a shopping relapse again last night, and bought another load of treat stuff. It's becoming very clear where my bad spending habits and bad eating habits coincide - it's high time I recognised my habits for what they are and doing the GC is my first baby step into making some changes.

Good changes already made and keeping up: Trading down to basic/value/smartprice on all food items, including most treats. Not falling for "low fat/low sugar but more expensive" tricks any more - have the cheaper food, but try to include more vegetables/pulses. Never get takeaways any more, buy supermarket stuff and make them at home. No longer buying ready meals.

Things I need to work on include the "I deserve a treat" Friday feeling which leads to overspending/overeating/hoarding treat foods.

helen_jelly

Morning all

Welcome and Hi to the new people

I've made a note of the new targets popping up - done to here

I need to update my siggy - we lost the internet for a week and after several phone calls and threatening to leave the problem is now resolved [fingers crossed]

Helen x