December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

kippers

I've got approx £30 left (just had a quick add up) but i've just been on mysupermarket and i've got another £24 to come off this when i next go shopping = 2x semi skimmed 4 pints milk, toilet rolls, 15 eggs, 4 x lactofree milk, 4 x lactofree cheese (for my dd2 who is lactose intolerant).

Yesterday i went to Leicester market to buy a lettuce and a cucumber as much to my annoyance i'd forgot to pick some of my winter lettuce leaves from my allotment. I've got to say i avoid the market usually as i've had bad food that doesn't last long from there before....however i got a decent iceburg lettuce for 40p and a very good cucumber for 50p...what a bargin...and the man that sold it to me didn't have a fowl mouth and a fag in his mouth and was a very nice chap with his young son helping who said please and thankyou...i may try and find this stall again on a saturday if i need the odd thing, as they have restored my faith in the market.

Anyway, things going ok here food wise. Me and my dh had a chat yesterday about our food budget. At the moment i get all food & groceries from my £300 p/m budget but i also get all my allotment things and pull unexpected birthday presents, meals out and anything else i can possibly get out of the budget eg this month i've paid out £50 for a food processor from ebay. Therefore we have decided to set up separate budgets for everything from this payday so we can see what we do actually spend on food & toiletries:j. Not sure yet what budget i will now have for GC starting from 24th Dec...we still need to work out the budgets.

Veg wise, we are really pleased. I have 3 allotments and we kept a spreadsheet this year to see whether it did actually pay to have all 3 allotments. Everytime i harvested any veg i weighed it and then i checked on the Tesco website to see how much it would have cost me if id bought the value equivalent on that day and recorded it on my spreadsheet (even though i grow organically i don't buy organic veg as we can't afford it).....drum roll.....upto today it's £1441.08...but that doesn't include the khol rabi's, gherkins or patty pans which we had loads of but i couldn't find them on the shopping websites...our outgoings do need tobe taken off this figure for manure, compost, seeds etc but these expenses are minimal, i think we can safely say the allotment pays.:)

Anyway....HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THE LOVELY PEOPLE THAT POST ON HERE:xmastree::xmassign::snow_grin:santa2::snow_laug:xmassmile:rudolf:

tigerfeet2006

rosieben wrote: »

like the sound of that one, tigerfeet, its in the index :T

Thanks Rosie. My DH who is not a great chicken fan absolutely loved it. I think thighs give it that extra bit of flavour as well.

dannie

Hi folks,

Just more milk purchased. No seasonal food shopping required so still aiming to stay within set budget.

mooomin

I'm sitting at £31.08/£200 for my latest challenge (Lasts me until I get paid again on 20th January :eek:)

pepsi-kins

Hi All,
Gone slightly over budget for the year, but not too bad. I've been thinking of all the useful things i've learnt on here in the past 12 months, and how it has made a real difference, so by putting this into practice for the next 12 months, I should do well on the GC front (as long as food prices don't go crazy!). I've discovered Lidl fruit and veg during the latter part of the year - really impressed with quality and price of this. Just because something has a whoopsie label on it doesn't mean I need it. I'm now buying dried pulses etc rather than tins, which work out cheaper and as theres only two of use I can portion control better. I now do lots more veggie options, which has saved us lots and given us a wider variety of food, which is always good.

Enough of my ramblings, have a good week everyone.

Spiggle

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

Hi everyone
I know I've never posted on this thread before - I intend to join in with the grocery challenge for next month. I need to get below £50 a week - have been regularly spending £80+.
But I'm so excited I had to share somewhere. Did my weekly grocery shop with a list, which I stuck to and spent £36.47. I'm absolutely thrilled because I don't think I need to do much else this week, and it gives me real motivation to get on and do more to money save.
Sorry to just barge in on the thread but I'm so excited.

Congratulations wannabee_in_credit! :T

We'll look forward to you joining us in January and please do post on here at any time you want, you are most welcome.

We have to go to a sm today _pale_:( and I'm really not looking forward to it!!!!! I'll post later the damage.

See you all then,
Spigs

rosieben

I've just added Spiced Christmas Muffins to the front page index, another good one from Softstuff on the tough thread


well done wannabe!

LittleMissHappy_2

:wave: Hi everyone

I haven't posted much recently as I have lost count of what I have spent However apart from yesterday (which I do remember) every time I have shopped for food I have used my bank card so I will look online today and tot up the damage. I don't think it is too bad *crosses fingers*

quintwins

morning all, i'm also over budget for the year but i blame dtd because there was one month at the start of the year i was at £330 rather than £200 because i kept going to tesco i'm not bothered as i'm gonna try use everything up in jan/feb

nsd today off to mil for lunch, all i need this week is a sack of spuds and some milk might get some more bread as i clear room in the freezer so i don't have to go shopping in the week before new years when shops are mental.
i've decided i won't be stocking up in boots this year, i'm going to be regifting a few bits, i have enough mens smelly sets for next year due to stacking superdrug codes, i'll go and look when it's 75% off but i'm gonna plow all my money into my savings as theres been some fab deals this last week or 2 that will likely be around next year, so i can acually avoid the shops but i refuse to pay filling station price bread, our local farm shop does 90p milk so thats not too bad, if i'm really stuck i can make my own bread

Pixie_Fairydust

Absolutely furious :mad:

To cut a long story short, A$da are holding £90 of my money as I had to cancel an online shop.

And to add insult to injury, they are holding it for 10 days :eek: at this time of the year, its going to make budgeting even tighter!

Aparently there is nothing I can do, its company policy and in the small print on line!

This has left a really bad taste, I'm considering cancelling my on-line order for the 22nd Dec and just going one evening after work.

I think next year I will have a separate purse with my grocery money in it and give on-line a miss.

Sorry to ramble, but am so cross.

Hope you are all having a great Sunday, I've had a few spends and updated my signature, I think I might make it this month :T but Jan is a 5 week month so more belt tightening.

Pixie