November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

rachbc

oops not been keeping track this week but I'm at £230 out of £250 - eeek.

however I did fill the freezer with whoopsied meat at the weekend which will last for next month too and also spent £30 on food for dd's birthdya party so all in all not too bad. With some re jigging the plan I shoudl get to the end of the motnh on budget still...

meg72

Well done Jackie0 Super Super Shop

cattysmum

NSDs x 2 for me up to now this week,Im going to try to resist going shopping until Thursday when I will go to Aldi I have a MOC for £5 off a £30 spend so homefully that will be the last shop of the month, chicken for lunch today possibly in a curry and will do something with leftovers tomorrow, still plenty in the freezer but need to make some space for Christmas freezer stuff next month.

PennyGrabber

I'm really pleased with my efforts over the last week. I have managed to sort out a lot of my cupboard under the stairs, and I can see a square inch of the floor now! Considering it was stacked almost to my height, I'm chuffed! A lot of it has been put into the right place (eg snacks into the snack box in the kitchen that was getting emptied), flour, tea, sugar, pasta etc have all been refilled, which has made a huge gap in the cupboard, and I have finally finished the 4.5kg of tomato ketchup i got from AP ages ago! That was a massive container! I have now, however, discovered about 6kg of pasta in the cupboard, and 4kg of rice, along with 5 boxes of lasagne sheets, 5 boxes (small) of stuffing (have put those into my Christmas box), 8 more cans of tomatoes, 8 tins of tuna, over 100 oxo cubes (the cubes, not boxes of the cubes! from when there was the te$co glitch) and more cupasoups than I can shake a stick at!

I have decided that the soups will need to be gone by March, so they will be my lunches for a while at work.

I have spent the day musing about my life and aims in 2012, and I feel really good about myself at the moment. Going to use up, save, sell, and other stuff, to make myself feel even better! My main resolution, though, will have to be TO KEEP A RECORD!!!

Thanks for letting me rant and get stuff off my chest - I always feel better when I've said (typed) something - it makes it feel more real, and I know that you guys will understand. Thanks friends!

PG x

Rainy-Days

Sainsburys shop came to £42.03. This included the Quality Street tins which are on offer for £4.00 and the Jacobs Cream Cracker large plastic boxes for £4.33. I used a £10.00 Nectar reduction, which brought it down to:-

£32.03

I am buying odds and bobs in now for Christmas, got the trifle sponges and jelly today as well. I will not need to buy the sherry this year for the trifle as there is plenty left over from last year. Allot of the Christmas things outstanding will be fresh items to get such as cheese, cream and milk and of course the turkey. Just the pudding really that is outstanding.

nannygladys

Hello everyone I have had a disasterous month up to now so I am writing it off as an experience to remember to take shopping lists and book to write in with me everywhere I go!!!!

I have been away this month for a week but even that was OS or so I thought but when added up it came to alot more than I thought!!! I have just done a budget on here, as up to now I have been burying my head in the sand but funnily enough I feel better now that I know the extent of my financial affairs , so starting from my next pay day I will be spending my £50.00 per week and writng it all down, At the present I have enough in to live out of the cupboards just need to buy the essentials eg milk and bread. My four week month starts on 2/12/11 so I will post any spends until then and then start again properly 2/12!!!! I have also been thinking about money hence the budget planner and may start a diary when my head feels in a better place as I think it may help me keep on track.

wannabehermit

Wel, time to declare for this month as today is the last day of our month. Spent approx £63 today for the weeks shopping bringing my monthly total to £470.09:j. Which is massively under budget especially as this month had 5 shopping days in it. But we were under the weather for a week so didn't eat that week and last week I didn't do a proper shop as I was all over the place with appointments and the like. But when I have done a proper shop It's averaged at less than £100 with about a tenner top ups brings me under my budget which is great. This month brings my average spend since July down to £517.77 a month which I'm really happy about.

This thread is great because it's really making me think about what I'm spending and checking what is in the freezer . I'm going to set my Nov/Dec budget at £520 again. This gives me £120 a week which I'm comfortable with for now, plus a tenner for this weeks top up and an extra £30 for Christmas & birthday dinners, then will look at knocking it down in the new year.

[Deleted User]

Declaring at £147.36 for November. Please can you put me down for £150 for December. Thanks.

Living_proof

Well done Jackie0! I had to nip into the local Coop today to buy rolls and ham for lunch and bought a couple of whoopsied meats with my vouchers and spend another £3.71 so off to change my signature.

What amazed me was how expensive the Coop is in relation to Lidl and Aldi, etc. A lot of my shop is always veg and fruit and I could only afford 60% of it if I had to shop in the Coop. I feel sorry for people who have to, and hope they sometimes manage to get a lift to other stores where they will get better value.

recovering_spendaholic

Hi Everyone - you all seem to be doing better than me! I truly fell off the wagon last night and spent £86 in Aldi and Tesco:eek: To be fair I bought alot of stuff for my cupcakes (about £50) as I got lots of 3 4 2 baking supplies, cake cases, vanilla extract, icing sugar, butter etc, but I still managed to get other stuff too. Had a £5 off £30 spend in Aldi voucher and a £6 of £40 till spit for Tescos so made a good saving with those.

Last night I made a lovely cheap tea with the current aldi supersix. I chopped an onion and fried it in a little oil and butter and while that was doing I boiled a pack of the salad potatoes and half a white cabbage. When the potatoes and cabbage were done I drained them and then roughly chopped them and threw them in the frying pan with the onions, salt and pepper, and fried it all together. I let it form a golden crust and kept mixing it up until it was all lovely and crispy and we had it with fried egg - it was really really nice and there was loads of the fry up stuff - I reckon it would feed 5 or 6 but the three of us demolished it as it was so nice. It cost about £1.60 for the whole meal which I thought was great.

I spent most of last night making my cupcakes for the local cafe to try out. I made cookies and cream, malteaser, black forest, vanilla and strawberry, lemon, chocolate chunk truffle, cappucino, cherry almond and coffee and walnut. They said they were really nice, but the woman who owns the cafe was a bit worried about the legal implications re: health and hygiene - I have a food hygiene certificate but am not sure about what else I need to do so I rang the council and they said they would ring me back. I am not sure if it will be viable which is a bit disappointing.

Made a huge pan of chicken and veg soup today, which we have just had for tea with bacon sandwich. There is loads left so I will have to freeze it. DD2 brought kids home for tea so I gave them the soup and bacon butties too, and some of the extra cupcakes I had made.

My December budget starts on Monday 28th November so can you please put me down for £450 for December, to take account of Christmas and the couple of meals out I have to go to. If I do it for less I will be [STRIKE]amazed[/STRIKE] really pleased!