November 2012 Grocery Challenge

pamsdish

Couple of minor spends P.O. with parcel, but thats it ,hoping I will come in well under budget this month,using store and freezer items.

Billie-jo

Just fruit & veg got today costing £9.73
Having roast chicken tomorrow with cauli, broccoli, carrots and sweetcorn and will make stock with the carcass once its finished. May make a crumble as well as have some apple in freezer.
Just remembered I wanted parsnips but forgot them, never mind they were not essential and its far to cold and wet to contemplate going back out for them.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone and keep the purse strings tight if possible.

Bluegreen143

Small spends to report - £3.22 on orange juice, potato scones, lorne sausage and a beef tomato by OH in preparation for a fry-up today, and £1.02 by me on a tine of baked beans, a YS pear (19p) and YS fresh coriander (9p). Really annoyed as the coriander was to bung in last night's veg fajitas and I forgot and left it out, so probably will get wasted

This month has been tough to stick to but the reason I'm struggling is because of the dinner party we had last week for OH's brother and sisters (spend £25 on shopping for it as well as using stuff we had in). At the time, OH wanted to get the stuff out of his own money but I didn't want to cheat so used the GC money. Wish I hadn't now! He still wants to do his week of meal planning and shopping even though there isn't much money left for it and says he's happy to buy more out of his own money because we used GC money for the dinner party.

It feels like cheating when he buys extra out of his own money so I think we will stick with the system for this month and December and then review for the new year. It does allow him to splurge on treats without me being annoyed but then really I'm not feeding us for £210 if he's buying extra to subsidise it. Maybe instead of him doing a week a month I will set aside some money each week for him to spend as he likes. Decisions decisions...

EDIT just worked it out and OH has £48 to spend on this week's shopping which is fine, the normal budget is £55 for him so not too far under and he shouldn't have to buy much himself (if he does it will be because he wants treats lol). If it wasn't for the dinner party we'd be well under so I now feel really happy

GreenFairy

Just under €15 from the grocery budget on caster sugar, ketchup, marmalade, baked beans, tortillas, rakeloads of red peppers (for making chilli jam) and a teeny Christmas pudding for the holiday box. Peppers were on special - 3 for €4 and instead of two per pack there were three. Still can't work out how red peppers are so much more costly than any other colour - it's the first time I've seen them on offer in ages.

Also picked up a bottle of pink cava and tubes of buttons and minstrels out of the Christmas present pot, and a couple of bits of stationery for uni. Not sure what drove me to hit the supermarket mid morning on a Saturday, but I won't be doing it again in a hurry - the crowds were crazy!

Need2bthrifty

I’m rounding up my November spends came in just under budget by the grand sum of 0.23p. :j :T :j

See y’all over in the December thread.

NickJW

Well - went to Mr T and go exactly what I needed - spent £2.56, and won't be spending any money tomorrow so I'm declaring £104.36/£79

Well over I know, but I did underestimate my spend for November, and it did include food for entertaining one weekend so I am still pleased.

I'll keep reading this thread, but I'll see you all in December when I'm back from my break.

Bobarella

Im not sure if I am posting in the right place? But I was very pleased today to go to the supermarket and find yellow labelled items including cooked chicken thighs, pork chops, bread, and peppers all for a fraction of the original cost. Just one of the thighs (there are about 8 in the pack) was enough for my 4yr olds dinner, mixed with pasta, pesto and peas. I have made dough to do pizzas for myself and husbands dinner, and again will use some of the chicken as a topping. A good money saving day then?

angelatgraceland

Coxy11 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Went to C00p before the afternoon school run to get some veg. They had packs of sugar snap peas and mini corn reduced to 75p from £1.50 so I got 4 packs as 7 of us for dinner tonight. Only 3 were put through at the reduced price. Plus picked up two packs of rtc pork belly rashers, again, both went through at full price as some numpty who works there just stuck the reduced sticker in a random place rather than over the original barcode. So :mad: as overcharged by about £4 odd. We are away this weekend so won't be able to pop back :mad:

Was going to leave DNephew the money for a takeaway tomorrow night when we are away, but instead bought him a nice pizza from C00p as more :money:. Plus I've spent a small fortune on him this week with coffee/cake/lunches out plus a trip to London today. He is off home on Sunday (and back to reality )

Coxy

Keep the packaging-give it a clean and keep your receipt then return for your refund when you can! You could always pop all of the packets in the freezer so they dont get smelly.

Sue14

Went to A1d1 today, with only £12.44 of the budget money left, and I was determined to only get essentials so I wouldn't go over. Using the calculator on my phone I added it up as I went round, and it came to £11.41 so I have a total of £1.03 left, which will do us for milk if we need any more before the end of the month, as we shouldn't need anything else.

I had a little panic earlier this evening, when I found a receipt from Mr T's for £6.44 which I hadn't added to my list, so I thought I'd gone over, but it turned out that although I hadn't added it to the list, I had added the amount to the total, phew, lol!

forever_saving

I have just updated my signature. I hadn't done that for a little while.
After last weekends shopping i put £10 in cash in my purse for anything i needed during the week. I was pleased that i only spent £4.34 of it. That is unheard of for me. I am doing the same for this week. It's a case of having to if i want to stay under budget.
Did the weekend shop yesterday and spent £5.45 in one shop and £27.90 in another. Thursday will be my last day and then i will go on for the December challenge. Total is now at £348.74.
Well done to everyone else.