December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

Spiggle

dannie wrote: »

... Yesterday I mentioned about gift vouchers meaning Xmas ones. If they are a present and used for groceries should they be excluded from my set December budget? I do not know whether I would be "cheating" upon myself so maybe not? Any thoughts? ...

sproggi wrote: »

... I personally do not include them, my view is that they are not cash, the money did not have to come out of my bank and therefore do not get counted

Sproggi

Hi dannie,

I second what Sproggi said. I never include vouchers, gift cards or any other such amounts as a 'spend'. And if I read your question correctly, these were a gift so that would be a definite no-no for me.

Hope that helps,
Spigs

dannie

Okay thanks Spiggle. I am a bit clearer now.

meg72

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

I had a nagging feeling that I had missed one receipt & found it this morning in the pocket of my jeans so another £20 added. Ho hum!

I used to do this a lot and was then really fed up that I had not done as well as had thought. A tip on here about using a separate purse for food shopping solved this for me. What is left in the purse is what is what I`ve got left, or not if its empty :eek:

mooomin

meg72 wrote: »

I used to do this a lot and was then really fed up that I had not done as well as had thought. A tip on here about using a separate purse for food shopping solved this for me. What is left in the purse is what is what I`ve got left, or not if its empty :eek:

I'm thinking about doing this next year when payday comes. I keep my food money in a separate account and usually use my credit card to pay for food, then transfer the money, but I think that using cash might make me think about it more.....

elantan

the problem with cash though ( for me anyway) tends to be the left overs say i lift a £10 but only spend £8.15 that other £1.85 would possibly get lost, spent, stuck in a drawer, left to squander away in a bag/purse etc ...

with the card it is the exact money that comes off ... what i do do is keep a tally of it , and if it is a luxury that i wanted i would write 2 hours overtime paid for this etc ... if its a luxury i didnt want then its your gonna have to work two hours now to pay for this ... hope that makes sense ... i'm not really known for making sense

tessie_bear

right yesterdays brave talk about getting a grip of the christmas planning has largely gone down the proverbial as ds is ill and has taken to his bed...dh is at work so i confined to base...damn it

i think i will make a list of shops i need to visit and start tomorrow as dh finishes work later...its so annoying when u have loads to do and can...have made another stew as the last one seemed to be well received

off to check on ds (boy/man flu i think) and think about what needs doing

take care tess

quintwins

aww tessie you'll get there in the end just remeber it's only one day this day next week all that will be left is some turkey

i joined the sealed pot challenge to save all my change i find i spend more with cards i do prefer them tho

spent £7.25 in the farm shop on 20kg spuds some gravy and a £1 cookie that wasn't even nice won't make that mistake again

then i spent £2.60 on chippy for me a ds3 to share and 67p on a drink for me

then i spent £4 on a carwash which comes out of this budget aswell because we don't have a car budget other than desil (oh and i put £30 of desil in)

dinner is mince and taties i have soooo much to do i'm gonna have a coffee then get stuck in

tessie_bear

:kisses3: @ quintwins....true... decided to change todays focus from food to present wrapping...have done a few...my mum phoned me to say she has got us a sains bugs christmas making kit for £3 i think it has most of the bits for a christmas cake except butter eggs...might be useful to someone

tess

sistercas

meg72 wrote: »

I used to do this a lot and was then really fed up that I had not done as well as had thought. A tip on here about using a separate purse for food shopping solved this for me. What is left in the purse is what is what I`ve got left, or not if its empty :eek:

thats a really good idea , i think i will adopt this as im always losing receipts , a separate purse would solve it as i could bung it all in there and sort it later

helen_jelly

Hi everyone

I've made a note of Jan budgets and will pop them on when the new thread is up and running

I have also asked Zippy if its possible for Spiggles post to be added to the front of the new challenge - for those who would like to read it again its post number 263 - its very informative and well worth a sit down with a cuppa and a look - especially those who are new to the thread

Well done to all who are achieving their targets and good luck to all who have still got to get to the end of the month

Helen x