September 2012 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

Hi All
Declaring at £120 for August. Going to keep my £150 budget for Sept though just in case.

Have gammon joint in the slow cooker today which will hopefully do us over 2 days with veg and potatoes.

GreenFairy

Didn't get to the market yesterday as came down with a bit of a tummy bug on Friday. Still not feeling 100% but at least I was able to have a bit of dinner last night.

Ran out of carrots and spuds last night, started making flapjacks today and realised that I'd used up the golden syrup, so a quick trip to Lidl was needed today. Got a couple of peppers and a pack of choco and caramels for lunches as well. Just squeeking in under budget for the month

Have silly numbers of dinners in freezers and pantry now, so no excuses for next month!

Bluegreen143

Well I'm declaring at £186.86 for September. Not fussed that it's a wee bit over as I was completely guessing at where to stick the target due to our holiday, and anyway £55 of that is a shopping done today which we'll eat most of in October

Today is the first day of OH taking control of the meal planning/grocery budget. Gave him £55 to spend and he went to Mr A in person today (I never do this as it;s miles away and I'd need a taxi to get it back as don't drive - he got it all back on the bus).

He spent £62 but anything over £55 is his own money. Also must admit I was chuckling inside when he 'fessed up that he'd forgotten bin bags and milk (:eek:). I popped out for him and got milk for £1.18 (4 pints) at Mr T garage but he didn't give me enough money for bin bags and didn't have my purse on me. Again doesn't affect my GC total as he paid for it.

When I got back he was busy cooking and it smells fab, he says he has enough for for at least 8 dinners each and is making most of them tonight for freezer, which I am proud of :T he also seemed to be hinted about the fact that the food will last into my week since he bought so much - well he isn't getting his money back, he knows there's only 7 days in the week and it was his choice to buy too much and subsidise my week I realise this sounds a bit harsh but I think it'll help cure him of his chronic overbuying tendency!

Nicki_Sue

Is the October challenge up?? I can't find it anywhere and I will DEFINITELY be needing help next month, it is moving house month

Bluegreen143

Nicki_Sue it is up, top sticky on the OS board - here's a link to page 1 (it's 11 pages in already!).

Honey_Bear

I'm going to 'fess up. My September budget was £146 and I'm ashamed to say I'm settling on a figure of £150.44 with caveats (£31.60 not reported from another budget, spent on a leg of lamb and four meals worth of chippolatas on the day we went to watch the GB cycle race from a tiny butcher in South Brent). I've also spent nearly £88 today against my October budget. (Just my tough luck, my turn to buy the groceries on the last day of the month so I'm allocating it to October.) If I say I'm going to do something I mean to do it, and so far, I haven't managed it and that grieves me. Having said that, we're in a rising market, I've got 11 bags of breadmaking flour, 2 bags of sugar for jam/Xmas and no second purse because I'd cheat and borrow from it.

Thanks to everyone who contributes and see you next month.

I still want to cut my grocery budget and eat well, so although I haven't managed to get to where I want to be, my going forward figure means cutting back, moving forward and progress.

flubberyzing

That's September done with then! I was pleased to come in under-budget but have now made a quite significant dent in my freezer... I think there might be some batch cooking to do in October!

£35.49/£50 was my final total. Now I'm off to the October thread. Well done everyone and good luck in the new month!

Coxy11

Declaring for Sept at £510.36 vs £500 budget Have been emotionally eating for the past week, and not been planning meals which has been my downfall. Sticking with the same budget for October as half term and DD's birthday will impact the budget, so I'd rather not reduce.

I'll be checking this thread until the end of this week, so if anyone wants to post their Oct GC budgets here, please do so. I'll be posting on the Oct thread from today, so happy to pick them up from there otherwise. Thanks peeps :A

Longships

Well September turned into an epic fail on the £180 target I set myself for the month, mainly because of the apg gl!tch at ADSA. Ended up spending around £400 BUT I now have every cupboard, drawer and even the caravan full of stuff and about £80 of vouchers still to spend. I thought about making my target for October £0 but I will still probably use the local shop for milk etc. so have put the months target at £80 - not bad for 5 people + cat!

Well done to everybody who came in below or on target :T:T:T

NickJW

I haven't been able to post much recently, but here are the spends I've had since my last post:

£3 yesterday in the bagel shop on a dozen bagels
£3.35 in Mr S on the 25th Sept
£5.10 in Mr S on the 26th Sept
£1 in Mr S on the 27th Sept
£3.45 in Mr S on the 28th Sept

= £15.90

Bringing the total to £78.42

HOWEVER, I also got a Mr W delivery on Saturday for £85 after using a £15 off £100 voucher. I never spend this money all in one go! Wasn't impressed this time -
> Ordered 2 packs of chicken thighs - received one but charged for 2
> Ordered 2 packs of beef frying steak (for stir frys) - received one but charged for 2.
> Ordered milk - none received, but charged.
> Ordered chicken pies - received ready made mustard mash (?!?), but charged for pies which were £4 more expensive
> Received a lemon - never ordered.

In addition they didn't give me a receipt and said there were no substitutions - gave me their picking list instead.

Called up customer services and am going to receive a refund of £8.83 within the next 7 - 10 working days :eek: Why so long I wonder.

Brings the total to around £77 (could be around £1 less but I'm overestimating)

I shouldn't complain, because my last Mr W delivery was very productive. However, it's the second time now where I haven't received a proper receipt. It could be because of the store it comes from (Beckenham - never been there so I don't know what it's like). I DO like Mr W, but usually go to Finchley Road near work, so maybe I will stop with Mr W deliveries for a while, and just use the store instead.

Anyway - I don't post for a while, then I post for England! :rotfl:

I'm going to include £26.48 of the delivery for this month and include the rest in October to bring me bang on £105/£105