November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

Cat501

JIL wrote: »

Spiggle that post is very thought provoking, sensible and very very helpful, maybe there could be a link in the index for it?

I second that, it was a great post:):)

LittleMai

SO, just came back from a weekend in London visiting my boyfriend (£40 in petrol!), and as much as I love to see him, it is never a cheap weekend, (now its his turn to come up and see me next time!)

Friday: £13.24 - few bits and bobs from Mr. T.

Saturday: £6.50 in car parking (not strictly a grocery but I include it in my budget), £26 lunch for us at Westfield (why does he have to live so close to the new westfield?!?)

Sunday: NSD, whoop!

Monday: £2 bus to work, £4.50 on sweeties for trick or treaters - although only had 4 groups of kids, so I've got a lot of sweets left over now. Going to have to cycle to work for the rest of the month, which I usually do, but I felt lazy this morning.

Grand total from the first 4 days of my budget is a frightening £93.24! :mad:

Im going to have to survive on my freezer for the rest of the month and use my remaining £6.76 wisely!

I hope everyone else is doing better than me!

Cheapskate

Hi everyone - please can I re-join?

Zippychick, would you put me down for £400 for November? Thank you x.

ETA: Oops, should have read further - sorry, helenjelly! Please will you add me?

I'm trying various challenges from now until Christmas (at least), including this one, not chucking out food, using new SC as much as possible, making as many Christmas presents from things I already have, as our income is struggling to keep up with ever-increasing costs of everything! :eek:

I'm going to do a food stocktake tonight and plan what meals I can to start with - I've got so behind with all sorts the last few months, fed up all round, so all this will give me back my MSE momentum!

Love your post, too, spiggle, lots of useful tips that will help me!

A xo

debbiedeejay

Evening everyone.

Finished of the "half"shop I did on Friday in Mr Mozzies but this time in aldi. Did have DD2 with me who was actually pretty helpful although it did take me a bit of convinicing for her to try the aldi cola rather than the branded stuff she noramlly has - but she says she is willing to give it a go.

Anyway total shop came to £24.65 - teens happy as now as shop included pop,juice,noodles,one packet of biscuits(yes that was all I was going to get and stuck to it), mini waffles in fact all the carp teens love. Well am not too worried as at this moment learning how to produce a spreadsheet for a menu planner & freezer store and I know I have at least one main meal a day in the cupboards and freezer for November.

Just out of interest how many "Trick or Treaters" did everyone get? I downsized this year and had out a bag of lollies,some aldis choccy bar things and a few sweetie shop sweeties - had 12 of them over the evening and must admit all were dressed up and all very polite too - not bad considering I just live past a big spooky church and most kids tend to avoid coming past it.

Anyway have a handful of lollies left and enough choccy bars for a treat with a cuppa tonight and then one each for pack lunches this week.
Total Halloween spend this year has been £3.47 not bad as in past it has been so much more what with costumes, decorations etc plus pumpkins (oh did only one pumpkin carving and counted that as GC this month as making soup later).

Mind you my DD2 &3 have informed me they want a Halloween party next year at home - hmmmm must admit it would be frightfully fun but it will have to be frightfully frugal if I said they could.:)

JayJay14

I bought what I thought was enough goodies for tonight, but I think DS snook a few during the week:D

The last three groups of kids didn't get any but they were very good about it. One of them did offer to take my dog instead (a large, very noisy German Shepherd who doesn't like strangers at all:rotfl:) so there was a lot of good humour out there tonight.

GC for Oct went a bit over budget, so will be starting afresh tomorrow.

rachelww1

Hi. Can I rejoin please with a budget of £400 for a 5 week month. This is for me, DH, DS7, DS13 every 2 weeks, a large dog and a cat. Will include all spends at the sm. I've really gone off the rails with the food shop over the last few months, especially since joining SW, when the shopping seemed to rocket to over £120 a week :eek:

1st shop of Nov was on Saturday, and spent £82.83. I have got into the habit of taking out the cash we need for the week, but unfortnately I've then been topping that up with debit card spends when I run out of cash, and that can't go on.

Twiceblessed

Hello everyone. Can i please be put down for £200.00 for November. Think its going to be a tough one as have really run down the freezer and the cupboards

Have been truly shocked at how much of my food budget goes on junk and little treats. On the plus side have a carrier bag full of sweets from a succesful evening trick or treating so that will hopefully keep temptation at bay

recovering_spendaholic

Haven't been online for a few days and have just caught up with the thread. Great post Spiggle - really made me think!!

Well I have had a bad few days spending wise - I got paid and went a bit mad, after weeks of enforced frugality. I bought a Dominos which cost £37:o - to be fair there were 6of us as my sister was here and also DD2 had two friends and there was DD1 and me - it was okay but I have to say not that nice and certainly NOT worth all that money. But... Anyway I also have developed this addiction to going to the supermarket(s) to look for reduced stuff and it is getting beyond a joke. So far this month, including my Dominos spend I have spent £103 and I am only a week in:eek: I also bought a Microwave and hairdryer, both of which we did need so...

I urgently need to do an inventory and see what I can make for meals so that I can stay in budget this month.

I made a cottage pie with parsnip and potato mash topping and we had it tonight and it really wasn't very nice. I think I had put too much salt in and it seemed to not taste of much else. No-one ate much of it and there are at least 3 portions left so I am not sure what to do with it. I will have to try and get it down me for lunches for the rest of the week with some frozen peas or something to make it a bit more palatable.

Thanks to my splurge I am now back to enforced frugality for the rest of the month - serves me right!

Off to update my signature. Hope everyone is doing better than me!

money_saving_hedgehog

Please sign me up for £250 this month. I would like to do just £200 but dont think this is very realistic given ME, DH, DD X2 and DS not fogetting DD's boyfriend that spends most of his time at ours.

MissOrganised1972

Please could you sign me up for £150 for November please?

Off to catch up on the thread now

Thank you and good luck