November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

sproggi

recovering spendaholic - Just wanted to send you a big hug x

Sproggi

Big_Alf

Seething that Im still not getting up early enough to get the bus. 6 quid spent on taxis only three days into the challenge :mad:

Traffic was that bad last night that I did walk the 3.5 miles home and beat the bus in the process. Will try and do this as much as poss before the weather gets too bad.

Havent had to spend anything on food yet, just a bottle of juice and a packet of cigarettes so far (1st pack bought since saturday compared to 20 a day normally). Still another nights worth of leftovers to re-hash with some veg and home made noodles.

Apart from the taxi situation I am really happy with how my first challenge is going. Hope I can continue it!

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Hi everyone put me down for £200 hopefully not too small or great a figure. I will need to do some NSD's to stop myself spending.
I need to kickstart restoring my awful feet and getting my little !!!! over to Scotland!!:money::beer:

Savvy_sewing

Gosh 8 pages on my laptop already!
I am hoping to stick to the same budget as last month. Although I didnt manage to keep complete track of it.
Life is a bit hectic, so although I am not always posting I try to catch up with it.
Good luck everyone. I think I need some this end, to remember to keep tabs on my spends better. Next year I hope things will be easier. I had a nightmare with money going up, down and missing this year. Oh well still keep trying.
I did work out in my diary that I could save £9,000 a year if I actually kept to a budget properly!!!! Thats more then half of my income nearer 2/3rds of it!! Eek, how have I started to spend so much outside of my budgets? I was always good at keeping to a budget when my kids were home, now there is only DGD and I, I am still spending on the kids and they are in thier 20's!!
Oh well back to food budgets. Start small and aim big!!

notsogrumpymum

morning, i get paid on the 4th of this month (every 4 weeks) so officially i will be starting then. i have a nice big batch of tomato sauce in the slow cooker which in turn will be turned into1 lasagna,1 chilli,1 pizza sauce, minstrone soup (for work lunches next week)& a touch left over to add to some fajitas instead of salsa. hoping to go shopping later on Friday evening approx 7:30-8pm to see if i can bag any of those whoopsies i keep on reading about. not sure if himself will be so pleased to going shopping so late but tough. ' recovering spendaholic' i'm sorry to read of your troubles i hope things will be a bit better for you today

rising_from_the_ashes

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I am in such a bad mood! I had got plenty of stuff in food wise but DD1 (20) flatly refused to eat anything that I had saying it was all rank, which is rich given that she doesn't like anything hm but would eat rubbish all day..

Anyway DD2 and I had leftover hm cottage pie and beans and DD1 went on and on and on and on about not having anything nice - not even anything for sandwiches as we only had wholemeal bread. I can't describe how stressful it was and in the end I gave in and went to the little Tesco round the corner and bought crisps, crusty bread rolls, butter, a quiche, a tin of tuna, bottle of Pepsi max and an Aunt Bessies Apple pie to make her tea. It cost me £9 and I could cry because I now only have about £4 left to last until the weekend. I know I should have ignored her but sometimes it is so hard when she goes on the way she does. She really resents that I don't have the money I used to (got divorced and made redundant a couple years ago from well paid job and have worked self employed on much lower pay since the recession/credit crunch) and is constantly going on about how much money her friend's parents give them.

Anyway sorry to rant on but I don't have anyone else to tell and I feel really upset. Off to update signature...

Ohhhhh myyyyyyy that's awful ..... big ((((hugs))))

I must say I'm in agreement with the others.

I would never have dreamt of saying anything like that to DM - we ate what was put in front of us and were grateful for it (maybe sit her in front of the TV when the ads are on for raising funds for the starving kids in Africa and it might make her appreciate that she has enough to eat a bit more).

At 20 she is old enough to understand that things might be tight and do her best not to make things even more difficult. If she wants to eat "junk" then she's more than capable of buying it herself!

Spiggle

Recovering spendaholic so sorry for your woes, girls can be so cruel at times as I know. I have to echo some of the other comments though about your DD1's age and really she should be buying carp for herself and cooking for herself if she doesn't want what's on offer. Sending you hugs and positive thoughts.

Take care,
Spigs

quintwins

Mooloo wrote: »

I did work out in my diary that I could save £9,000 a year if I actually kept to a budget properly!!!! Thats more then half of my income nearer 2/3rds of it!! Eek, how have I started to spend so much outside of my budgets? I was always good at keeping to a budget when my kids were home, now there is only DGD and I, I am still spending on the kids and they are in thier 20's!!
Oh well back to food budgets. Start small and aim big!!

if you look up the right hand side at the bottom of the page you'll see the budget planner in a wee box it's fab and thinks of everything that you might miss, also it will save your budget so it won't matter if you lose your book and is easy to edit aswell, and at the end it tells you how much you should be able to save a month/year


nsd today i made some bread last night so bananas and jam sandwichs for breakfast (i don't think homemade bread toasts aswell) i have some leftover mash so i'm gonna mix it with beans and top with cheese and bake for lunch and serve with coctail sausages for lunch, dinner is gammon, we love gammon i'm cooking 2 wee ones so there will be some left for sandwichs even tho it prob won't last til the morning, running low on milk now and only have one yogurt left but i really need to get my head round the fact we don't need these things (ok we maybe do need milk) but rather just want them

kixxie

recovering spendaholic:

I'm so sorry for what you are going through. Sad to say, I was a bit like that when I was younger. Having to do things on my own no matter how bad it got taught me my lesson. The School of Hard Knocks does work! After learning through my own mistakes we have a strict rule in our home as soon as solid foods are started. I won't make something I know the kids hate. In turn, they eat was is served or miss the meal. Simples...and effective, lol!

I've had to change my plan this month. After looking closely at finances I found we have £610 in bills over the next 2 weeks and our total money in is £660. I may still be okay as our housing benefit is being re-assessed. So I'm just winging it and keeping track. So far I've done pretty good with only spending £2 that was unplanned for drinks while in town. Then Farm Foods for £13.60. Saved 20p on the milk. It's supposed to be 2 for £1.80 but at the register they are discounting 40p so they ring up at £1.60. So total spend so far £15.60/£400. I'm off to go shopping again after sorting the kitchen. I'll get my sig sorted as soon as I have time!

helen_jelly

RS - big hugs hun - its all been said by others, she's old enough now to be looking after herself, at that age I'd got a mortgage etc, give her a hug and tell her to buy her own treats and that you'll do a meal and if she doesn't want it then tough!! Was she hormonal or is that how she always react?? Tough love needed me thinks - sorry if anything I've said offendsive, just looking out for you hun

Helen x

PS I've made a note of all the budgets and will update later
Welcome to all the new people

Helen