November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

his_missus

Recovering spendaholic - that is an amazing shop! :T

Since hitting and going over my budget, I haven't, not too surprisingly, bought much more food. There isn't really any room in the freezer/cupboards. But I have been buying the odd bit of fresh stuff - milk, yoghurts etc.. - here and there. Hoping I don't need to buy much more for the next 13 days though will need to buy catfood next week and will probably treat us to some wine over the weekend too. If I can keep my grocery spend to under £310, I'll be happy. May need to reconsider my monthly target, perhaps I was too ambitious for a beginner. BUT I do feel we've spent less since I started this challenge so that's a bonus:)

PaddyPaws

Aaarrrrgggghhhh! I was doing sooooo well this month but think I've blown it now. My CostC0 shop (I'd budgeted roughly £50) came in at £88.82 :eek: and then I spent £7.85 in Mr T so that leaves me £17.14 to last until the end of the month (2 weeks) - ouch!

In my defense the freezer is pretty well stocked up so we probably only need milk, fruit and veg and cat/dog food so hopefully I won't go over budget, but I was hoping to have a bit spare this month to buy a few bits towards christmas.

Hey-ho! onwards and upwards, best update my signature and check the meal plan to make sure i don't need anything extra

PP

hollieinbloom

Whenever i go to Tesco at around 5pm (terribly busy time to go i know but my daughter is 2 and has a 7pm bedtime and my OH is the driver so I can't get there on my own) and they are always pricing up the reduced items. There is always a flock of people and i stand to the back just scanning to see if there is anything worth getting, but i feel scared to just barge through and look like everyone else does. Is it just me or it as scary as i think it is?

Today i've got £14 in coupons and vouchers a few free things to pick up, so i'm looking forward to updating!. I've done so well this month and managed to get so much stuff for free! nearly ALL presents i've bought so far for xmas were free! tesco vouchers doubled up paid for my daughters toys, Loreal compliments £10 voucher got my dads present and a £20 amazon voucher i got through Dooyoo got my OH's book and some other bits and bobs! i've spent around £9........happy i found this site when i did!!! x

wannabehermit

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

The weirdest thing happened to me in Tesco last night. I went along at about 9.30 to see if there were any reduced bargains and there were none - not a single thing reduced! Anyway I got dog food and walnuts and gnocchi (which I had gone in for anyway) and when I got to the tills they were just wheeling up loads of cages of stuff which they announced over the tannoy would be 90% off. It was a bit of a rugby scrum but very good natured as there weren't really all that many people in the store and I managed to get the following for £6:

2 trays of 4 pork chops
2 packs (900g) of lean mince
2 whole pork fillet tenderloins
tray of 9 chicken thighs
tray of 5 chicken thigh fillets
finest pizza
finest goats cheese and red onion flatbread
2 packs of 12 croissants
2 packs of pain au chocolate
pack of crumpets
2 white loaves
pack of finest scones
pack of pulled chicken
finest pea and smoked haddock risotto
finest pea and mint mash
finest king prawn curry with pilau rice
finest tempura prawns
scotch egg
8 lots of chicken and stuffing sandwiches
3 bacon and leek quiches
just cook chicken with cheese and bacon
just cook chilli con carne
large tray of barbecue wings
southern fried chicken goujons
large piece of sirloin steak
2 chocolate eclairs
tub of mini blueberry muffins
2 finest chocolate sundaes (DD and I ate them when I got in!)

The multi buy discounts were coming off at full price so it made it even cheaper!!

There was so much more there but I knew I couldn't fit any more in my freezer so had to leave it. I rang my friend and she came down and got a load of stuff too!! The only thing was that you had to take the stuff through only one till as none of it was price marked so there was a bit of a wait to pay but hey ho!
When I got home I had to take most of the stuff out of the boxes and bag it before freezing and my freezer is absolutely full to bursting! I think that I probably have enough food to last until Christmas, only needing to buy milk and fresh veg/salad and eggs.
Off to update my signature!!

OMG!!!:eek: I need to start going shopping at 9.30 at night instead of in the morning. But we're usually in bed by that time . I take it these are non-24 hour stores that have all these massive reductions? I've never seen anything whoopsied in any of ours except for tat that no-one would want to buy anyway or is reduced by just a matter of pence.

I've not been able to do a proper shop this week as I've had appointments galore that have left me with no time whatsoever, but me & DH were ill last week plus ds2 had a migraine so we didn't eat much food so we've been able to use that and are just getting bits when we can. Today I've spent £15.18 in L!dl plus some bits for Christmas.

quintwins

even if my tesco had those reductions i'd never fit them in my freezer so would be wasted on me but well done

i'm gettings so bad at sticking to my meal plans i think it's because i'm using stuff up rather than buying it special aslong as were fed i don't really care, tonights tea is a chippy tea a local chippy has 3 chips and 3 chicken goujons for £10 which is plenty for the 5 of us, i think i must be coming down with something i'm dead on my feet this past few days dispite having plenty of sleep and even going to bed at half 8 one night i really hope i'm not cause it's my kids birthday next week, busy day of lots of running today so i def deserve a chippy

Cat501

I'm afraid I've gone completely off the rails in my first month of trying..:(:(:(

Had a party last weekend and a school reunion thing the next night... bought a little food, lots of drinks (those sambuca shots seemed like such a good idea at the time), party takeaways, hangover takeaways.....in short I have no idea where I am! Don't think I've gone over budget yet but I've really lost count so it looks like I'll be trying again....in January to be on the safe side:o:o

tessie_bear

sending a virtual hug to quintwins....do your best its hard sometimes to stay on the bandwagon (or i find anyway:cool:)
hope u are more chipper soonest
tess

his_missus

Cat501 wrote: »

I'm afraid I've gone completely off the rails in my first month of trying..:(:(:(

Had a party last weekend and a school reunion thing the next night... bought a little food, lots of drinks (those sambuca shots seemed like such a good idea at the time), party takeaways, hangover takeaways.....in short I have no idea where I am! Don't think I've gone over budget yet but I've really lost count so it looks like I'll be trying again....in January to be on the safe side:o:o

Don't worry, I'm new to this too and went over my budget on the 11th. :doh: Still trying to find what suits me best, you'll get there :cheesy:

meanmarie

Spent another €14.46 yesterday, bringing my total spent so far for November to €148.69, leaving me €2.79 per day for the rest of the month...don't know why I do that daily thing, its no help.

Marie

bestill

£32.05 spent at Tesco/Aldi, taking totoa; to £218.22. I'm loving this challenge, definately making me think twice about spending. Tonights tea will be left over bacon & veg with tomato & olive bulgar wheat from Approved Foods.