November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

recovering_spendaholic

This is my last day of the November challenge, and it will be an enforced NSD!!

Compbunny- thanks for asking about my cupcakes. They turned out really nice but the woman in the place didn't want to pay my price - I was offering them at the bare miniumum that I could make a profit at but she wanted them at 40p each which I just can't do for those sort of fancy cakes. I rang the local authority business advisor and he said that now that I have had my kitchen inspection done I can sell at fayres and car boots (if they allow food) and that would be much better as I would get all the profit and I could probably sell them for £1 or £1.25 each. I'll have to see.....

lunch today is soup and bacon butties, dinner will be chicken breast for DD1 and chilli for DD2 and I.

Looking forward to the December challenge - previous years I had spent wildly over Christmas but this year I am determined not to - if I had been more sensible in the past I wouldn't be in this position now!!!

Not really GC but defo MSE - I bought a beautiful Next leather large sofa on ebay last week for £80!!! It is nearly new and still in the catalogue for almost £1000 - that is my bargain of the year! The woman was moving house and obviously had loads of money and just wanted rid of the sofa!! Can't believe my luck as my old one was in a right state.

Living_proof

Well done RS! I had not thought of looking on Ebay for furniture, but I will early next year.

I am declaring at £63.23 as my shopping month is over. This is not as great as it looks as OH insisted on buying some provisions as I had paid for the few days away in an hotel, but on the whole I have been really good at being thrifty in the last couple of months. I have plenty of home-made ready meals in supply and hope to be able to get by on these for the next couple of weeks, so that I have room in the freezer for the odd bargain at Christmas. I am away to consider what would be a realistic budget for December, but I don't think it will really be much more than usual as we eat well, even if on a limited budget.

I was in Town briefly this morning and it looked very busy around Morrisons and Tesco, so I guess people are starting to seriously stock up now for the festivities. Call it Bah! Humbug! but I still think we go way over the score, even in a recession!

WelshWoofer

Just reporting in my last shop of the month and declaring a total of £113 from a budget of £150 - well under target this month :j
Not quite sure how I've managed it but I did do a couple of shops at Aldi and the greengrocers rather than Mr T's and used a £10 giftcard too.
Either way I'm very pleased as its a tightish month for me and every few quid counts.

I've joined the December thread so will see you all over there!

tigerfeet2006

Well £30 lighter on the hair cuts DC1 has had a Justin Beiber cut and looks quite cool. Though he not overly keen on looking so like JB as he is " The worst singer. Ever!"

Spent £20 in MrT's, which should be the last shop.

Recovering spendthrift, excellent bargain

russetred

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Redrusset, did you really knock over a deer and then butcher it for your freezer, kudos to you. I certainly couldn't have done it. You are a true money saver. <hmm! Wonders how that would go down as one of the top tips Martin is looking for for the TV program>

I didnt knock it down someone in front of me did and took off sharpish! Look away now for the squeamish... Me and MrR dragged it away from the road then with the one knife we carry in the car,( in hope of this situation), we skinned the back legs and half way up the back. We took off the back legs and I then deboned and butchered them for the freezer at home .I'm not trained in butchery but I have a degree in biology so had a good idea of the internal structure and followed my instinct. Definately only for the strong stomached.:cool:

Islandmaid

Hi all,

Well, I,ve had a count up of all my receipts so far and am under budget, still a week to go, so will have to be careful.

I did buy a good few things towards Christmas, a couple of bottles of booze and wine, and sweets and treats to store away:D all out of Novembers budget.

Could I please stick to £400 for December - with what i,ve bought already I should be okay.

Hope everyones well xx

Doom_and_Gloom

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

Budget - £110
Spent - £150.26
Left - £-40.26

Add another £1.81 after a shop in co-op. Partner needed milk and bought bread for cheese toasties as home made bread doesn't fit in the sandwich toaster .

Budget - £110
Spent - £152.07
Left - £-42.07

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi Doom and Gloom,

That's NOT a fail! You are now stocked to levels that you feel comfortable with and have prepped for winter. In view of the need to fill your freezer and cupboards your budget was problaby too low, so don't think of it as a failure in any way to be safeguarding for your family.

I know it isn't really a fail, just kind of :eek: at the amount of money . We do have a nice stock now which we needed to do. We can't be without a good stock as when the bad weather does hit we won't easily be able to get food - although we have a co-op less than half a mile away it isn't very big and is the only real store for people to go so I have a feeling it will get stipped (sp?) with bad weather.
Yes the budget was too low . We didn't just do a stock up for us as we also did a bulk food buy for the chinchillas (couldn't pass up such a good price).
I really hope we don't spend any more this month though. £152.07 is quite a lot for 2 people and 2 chinchillas. If we do spend more I'm really hoping we don't go over £155 :eek:.

freakyogre

68p on bread rolls yesterday.

£4.23 in Lidl today on clementines (which are lovely), Branston beans, 2 x tinned tomatoes, 3 x bags of crisps and cotton buds.

I think i'll go to Tesco before I start work tomorrow and get some more of the Muller corners on the 12 for £3 offer before it finishes. They seemed to have changed the yogurt from how I remember it years ago and they're really nice now

tigerfeet2006

Well I doff my cap to you, I certainly couldn't have done it. I'm very faint hearted but well done you and all that lovely fresh free meat.

quintwins

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Well I doff my cap to you, I certainly couldn't have done it. I'm very faint hearted but well done you and all that lovely fresh free meat.

my hubby shoots i'm very squmish(sp) so i don't get involved much, but he will be doing his dear stalking lisence in the near future, his uncle has his and hasn't bought meat in years, he has venision (which is very lean) shoots duck and phesant, fishes, and they get reject chickens from a local farmer who supplies a big factory they feed them up for a week or 2 then they have about 100 chickens granted they need a big freezer,one day we will hopefully be the same

we're still sick so hubby took the kids and himself for mcd's i kept the sick child here (diferent one that before) i've yet to get a total i'm sure it wasn't cheap