December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

kalojac

Can I re-join, its been a while, but need to reign in my spending. We are having xmas lunch for 15 this year, and my son is having a sleep over on 28th so my shopping budget is £500, for 2 adults 3 kids, a huge xmas lunch and a birthday sleepover.

So far I've spent £7.62 at Sainsbury, £32,12 Tesco, £8.56 at the Butcher, £24.44 at corner shops already :eek:. I've written my menu for xmas day and am in the process of booking my online food shop to be delivered on 23rd in the evening.

recovering_spendaholic

Hoping for a NSD today. Had scrambled eggs on toast for "brunch" and am going to use up some leftover chicken with leftover veg and brussels sprout gratin for tea tonight. DD1 is going to her Christmas night out so she won't be in for tea, and DD2 has got a friend round so they will be having pizzas that I got in Sainsburys yesterday - it's a really good meal deal - 2 really good quality 12" pizzas, a bag of salad or garlic bread and a big tub of coleslaw for £5 - the pizzas are £4 each on their own!

Have got a small pork roast out of the freezer for lunch tomorrow, and with the amount of leftover veg I have in the fridge we will be eating that again tomorrow!!

The brussels sprout gratin was lovely - I adapted it from Sophie Grigson's Christmas Kitchen show - I just peeled and halved a bag of sprouts and then cooked them until still crisp IYKWIM. Then I put them in an oven proof dish and poured over a little bit of cream, salt and pepper and topped them with a mix of breadcrumbs and grated cheese and cooked for about 15 minutes in the oven until it was all brown and bubbly. You can also put some chopped bacon in with the sprouts if you want but I didn't bother.

666paw

Have now totted up all receipts and so far have spent 42.03. Am shopping today sometime so will update again later.
Still have a few bit to get for 3 wks time and also need to get the booze so now doubt will get ever nearer to the budget.

666

ShrinkingSavingKaren

Hiyas all been MIA for a fair while, but would like to rein in my spendings for this month and i know this is the easiest and most effective way for me to do it :cool: Can i please be put down for £400 this month please..
this is loads more than usual but i know i have my stepson over the hols, xmas dinner for 10 and probably open house a few other days too, im quite prepared with goodys and booze tho so wont need to get a lot more, and any cash left over will go into jans kitty....

cattysmum

Am very pleased with myself at the moment, have not spent anything this month yet grocery wise so 3 NSDs already this month, I have bought wine from Tescos but it does not come off my grocery budget. May have to go to Mr Ts tomorrow though as I have a load of vouchers burning a hole in my pocket and I want their iced Xmas cake (Im the only one in our house that likes xmas cake so I only get a small one) which at the mo is reduced from £6 to £3 and I have a Tesco MOC for £1 off cakes so a 2 quid xmas cake will do me!!!

PolkaDotsAndLace

Had an NSD on Thursday, quite pleased with that. Off to A*da this afternoon for another big shop which will take a big chunk of the budget, but hopefully after that we'll only need to do a weekly small top up this month. Got £6.35 in A*da vouchers as well which will take a bit off.

Living_proof

I had a late start today due to some last minute work things which needed doing this morning, and I found it a lot more difficult to shop well. I only managed to get to Aldi and Lidl and ran out of time before going to Asda so some items will just have to wait to next week. It was a lot busier mid-morning than my usual 830 slot, no doubt because it's the first weekend of the month and people will be stocking up not only for Christmas, but also for bad weather which is expected next week. I spent £21.50 including hair conditioner which I don't think I have bought for months and months as the last one went on forever. I have a lot of money-off vouchers but don't often buy enough in one store to use them although I may use them for wine for the Christmas and New Year period, as it's easy enough to clock up £40 on that, although it's a separate budget. I have loads of store-cupboard stock now and hope to be able to buy just milk and veg. next Saturday. I still have to buy the turkey breast joint as Lidl had sold out this morning.

mandco

its suprising how quickly all those liitle shops add up apart from nappies the biggest total spend in any one shop this wk was £4.89 yet i've still managed to spend £63.56 so far :eek:
still doing better at only buying what I need popped into mr t yesterday and despite all the offers the only thing i got that wasnt on the list was the longlife milk that came free with the paper :T

Nsd today :j and shouldnt need anything tommorrow if i can make the bread last but seem to be using loads lately.

aiming to keep spends low next wk so i can do a bigger shop the following wk for xmas as i know thats gonna be expensive as hoping get the bulk before the kids break up as it costs soo much more when I end up takiing them with me.

goodluck everyone

[Deleted User]

Hi All. I have had a good day coking using up bits ans bobs already in the house. Have made mousakka, soup and a tomato and mozarella tart using some bells puff pastry for the base. It tastes great and I think form now on will be our subsitute pizza for a sat night - cheaper than a takeaway and much healthier.

Hopefully these will last a few days befor eI need tho think about heading to the shops.

mummyjane

£4 spend today, bought Milk, Cereal bars for kids school snack this week and treated them to a bag of marshmallows which should last the week I am hoping to have a NSD tomorrow, I can't see us needing anything desperately as the freezers and fridge are quite full. Going to do some baking tomorrow for the week plus there's a free Christmas Tree decorating afternoon at a local farm so we're taking the kids there which should be fun (and cheap!)