December 2011 - Grocery Challenge

debbiedeejay

Need to add another £3.01 for bread, milk and toothpaste! Did try and convince Dd2 that she could use the mouthwash to clean teeth for a day or two but it didn't work - ah well at least it was one of those big pump toothpastes for a £1 from local shop so not too bad I suppose.

Off to update sig.
TTFN

adysmum

Thanks Lemmings, will see if I've done it right :rotfl:

HelenPie

Hello lovely people!

I've not been around for a couple of weeks, what with Christmas and having a week off work (i.e. away from a computer ) before that. Needless to say that I got completely carried away with Christmas and have blown the December budget into outer space! Possible not as bad as I might think - I decided to make hampers as gifts so much of my spend was present money rather than groceries for OH and I. I haven't had the chance to go through receipts and break it all down.

Oh well. This was a trial run for next year anyway so fingers crossed I will learn from my mistakes

I really am not going to have time to read through and catch up, but I hope you're all doing well and had a merry Christmas, those that were celebrating. And a happy new year to you all in case I don't make it back for a while.

H x

Pixie_Fairydust

Afternoon all, hope you all had a fab Christmas and I wish you all health, wealth and happiness for 2012 :T

Well I am declaring £298.56 for December, over budget but better than I thought! and sooooooooo much better than if I hadn't been on here with all you lovely, supportive people! Go us!!!!!

I am going to try for £200 in January, I think I'm being a bit optimistic, but I really have got to make it work. My finances are pants and I really want a hol this summer with my DS!

My good intentions are:

1. Menu plan, I will start with a week at a time and just shop for what I need.
2. Try to keep an inventory of what's in my fridge/freezer/cupboards so I don't keep buying stuff I've already got lurking at the back!

That's enough to try in January!

Have a good day, Pixie

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hiya
I have £8.80 to add spent on sausage rolls and Cornish pasties for lunch with my lovely mum and dad. I have changed my menu plan for tonight to carbonara so I can use up the left over gammon. You wise GC'ers may already know about this website but I was very impressed with https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com You either type what ingredients you have to use up or click on a picture of them and it gives you loads of menu ideas. Hope this helps someone. Xx

quintwins

nsd today i havent been anywhere and won't be now, have enough food for the next few days, just made the kids tea made toast, beans, sausages and scambled egg, and the only thing not reduced/lo was eggs and they were value ones so a quick costing makes it 55p for all 3 of them

minipenny_2

NSD for me today as thanks to the people who replied to my thread re the tins of soup I'm going to make my own sauce for our mince and spaghetti tonight. saving already long may it continue into the new year! Myself and my eldest are away for 4 days next week so i've done the weeks shopping list which I'll pick up tomorrow with just necessities as oh can eat the food in the freezer while i'm away and its a grand total of £11.32!!

Rainy-Days

My final check in for 2011 is the grand total of £13.84 at Lidl!

Very pleased with that, just milk, fruit and veggies really so I had no temptation to go near Sainsbobs!! :T

cattysmum

Hello I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas and new year, I totally lost the plot over xmas with regard to my GC my target was £300, but managed to spend about £375 so was over by £75. Im not too discouraged though as this is the first christmas challenge and have really noticed the fact that I dont have half as much food waste as I normally do. I have frozen lots of left overs and plan to use them in the next few weeks. Many thanks to all the posters on her who keep me encouraged and motivated. I plan to start afresh in January nd hopefully can reduce my spending even more without reducing our standard of living. Happy new year!!!!

PennyGrabber

I've been thinking really hard about my budget for 2012. Because of silly mistakes this year, and less income, and wanting to actually save, my budget is taking a severe hammering, and I have to stick to it if I want to achieve anything else in life! In the past, i think I've just kind of played with the budget and not worried too much if I've gone over, but now it's serious!!

To that end, I have set myself an annual budget of £1680, which works out at £140 per calendar month. I think someone else (sorry, can't remember who) has set the same budget for themselves, and it got me thinking about under- and over-spends, and using bits of budgets for stocking up etc. It made a lot of sense, so that's what I'm doing! To be completely honest, I'm hoping to get it closer to £1200, esp as I'm not hosting Christmas next year, but I don't want to set myself up to fail!!

I'm going to spend a bit of time now listing my most-often cooked meals, and assigning a cost to them. I found this has helped me to keep to budget in the past, as if I have less money, I choose cheaper meals!!!! Of course, when I did this exercise two years ago, things were a LOT cheaper!

Take care all, and my positive for the day today is that I met up with an old school friend I haven't seen for 16 years! Hope you're feeling ok recovering spendaholic. What's your positive for today?!

PG x