October 2013 Grocery Challenge

Soworried

Well i ended up having to go out for shampoo, my total spend then came to £15.31:eek: I have updated my signature. I did get a chicken and a full joint of pork and some salmon for this though:o

I'm hoping to get through to Thursday with just a small spend on veg and milk.

2childmum

It's great to see how people have done over this month - I bet even those that have gone over their budgets have still spent far less than they would have done and it's encouraging for a newbie like me to see how everyone else is doing, so thanks for sharing!

I spent £43.63 in Mr M yesterday - actually I also bought sherry for the Christmas cake (although there will be loads over - what a shame, it looks like I may have to drink it!) but I'm taking that our of Christmas money. I would have been even closer to my £40 aim but I spotted a large pack of loo rolls which worked out at much cheaper per roll than the pack I had picked up so I bought that instead _-enough to last us through next month too. I thought the fruit and veg seemed much cheaper than the stuff I had seen in Mr T earlier in the week. I now have my £10 off voucher for next week, and I saw a pile of toys near the door - I want to buy a couple of things for the Toy Service at church - so I may investigate those next week to make up the £40 so that won't come off of the grocery shop. The next question will be - do I count the £10 off as £10 off groceries or £10 off Christmas stuff!

I have already decided to find a Christmas Cake recipe next year that doesn't include alcohol. I could buy a cake for less than the cost of the alcohol alone, and as nobody really eats it that much it does seem like a waste of money - but the year I didn't make one it just didn't seem right and my mum insisted on buying a not very nice one anyway, so I've gone back to making them!

I still have another whole week of October to go - it feels a bit like everyone is leaving this thread and moving over to November. Will i be left all alone, or are others still here?

Bookworm42

2childmum you're not alone! I've made October a 5 week month so November won't start until 4th for me.
Spends since last time:
£1.45 in Mr T on Wednesday
£4.40 on Thursday
£4.13 today.
I bought stuff (drinks & snacks) for DH & DS to take away this weekend and decided not to include in GC as I wouldn't have bought otherwise. I don't have an entertainment/going out budget yet (GC is my first step to budgeting) but would have used that.
Only me to cater for until Sunday evening so shouldn't need to buy very much.
Happy budgeting to those of us left in October.

Shortie

Lol I'll be here to the end of the month 2childmum x

lynnejk

physicsgirl wrote: »

Feeling quite down about how much was spent, with nothing much in the way of food to show for it

Do pillows come out of your grocery budget ? Don't feel down as you're doing so well and the extra spending was in a good cause. I feel the same about taking DH shopping and rather go on my own so try to time it so he can just pick me up after he finishes work :rotfl:

2childmum wrote: »

I still have another whole week of October to go - it feels a bit like everyone is leaving this thread and moving over to November. Will i be left all alone, or are others still here?

I'm still here and sticking until the 31st as my months are monthly so as to speak - beginning to end

I went to town when it eventually stopped raining but only bought socks !!! These come out of personal budget so another NSD for me - I actually thought about Mr T and decided NO

Had a great dinner today. Left over stuffed pork loin (from freezer), left over cauli and leeks from yesterday made into cauli/leek cheese, left over pots made into potato cakes with fresh carrots and frozen peas mmmmm.

Well done everyone finished under budget and good luck to the rest of us still trying for October
L.

K9sandFelines

2childmum wrote: »

It's great to see how people have done over this month - I bet even those that have gone over their budgets have still spent far less than they would have done and it's encouraging for a newbie like me to see how everyone else is doing, so thanks for sharing!

I spent £43.63 in Mr M yesterday - actually I also bought sherry for the Christmas cake (although there will be loads over - what a shame, it looks like I may have to drink it!) but I'm taking that our of Christmas money. I would have been even closer to my £40 aim but I spotted a large pack of loo rolls which worked out at much cheaper per roll than the pack I had picked up so I bought that instead _-enough to last us through next month too. I thought the fruit and veg seemed much cheaper than the stuff I had seen in Mr T earlier in the week. I now have my £10 off voucher for next week, and I saw a pile of toys near the door - I want to buy a couple of things for the Toy Service at church - so I may investigate those next week to make up the £40 so that won't come off of the grocery shop. The next question will be - do I count the £10 off as £10 off groceries or £10 off Christmas stuff!

I have already decided to find a Christmas Cake recipe next year that doesn't include alcohol. I could buy a cake for less than the cost of the alcohol alone, and as nobody really eats it that much it does seem like a waste of money - but the year I didn't make one it just didn't seem right and my mum insisted on buying a not very nice one anyway, so I've gone back to making them!

I still have another whole week of October to go - it feels a bit like everyone is leaving this thread and moving over to November. Will i be left all alone, or are others still here?

I'll still be here.
Nsd today. Been in work most of the day (split shift)

MummyBobble

My DD (16 next week, how did that happen!) is fab. She bought 8 packs of smartprice noodles in Asd* yesterday and noticed that they went through at 20p each when the shelf ticket said 15p. Off she went to customer services and she came away with a 5p a pack refund and a £2 gift card so she was effectively given the noodles for free and another 80p on top :j She is such a little superstar! I suspect that she will not have the problems I do with spending...

robberbutton

It was payday yesterday, so my food spend total for 25/9-24/10 is £332. Which was £118 under my budget of £450. :eek: :j That was for 2 adults and 4 children age 8 and under.

Can't quite believe it (and possibly have got numbers wrong somewhere!) but I did make a few changes this month:
1) cancelled the fruit and veg box, swapped to buying a few organic bits from the supermarket instead (using the clean 15/dirty dozen lists).
2) menu planned and only bought what we needed for those exact dinners, rather than just stock up on everything I'm running low of in the pantry.
3) tried a few budget recipes from A girl called Jack, including more vegetarian ones than we would normally eat, so def. spent less on meat this month.

V chuffed

Ladyluck1

Thinking I'm going to go over budget BUT I am going to do some slow cooker freezer meals ready for November as I'm due on the 3rd.
Going to be looking out for some YS meat the next few days to pop in freezer bags with the rest of a meals ingredients so that DH can just put it all in the slow cooker

meg72

robberbutton wrote: »

It was payday yesterday, so my food spend total for 25/9-24/10 is £332. Which was £118 under my budget of £450. :eek: :j That was for 2 adults and 4 children age 8 and under.

Can't quite believe it (and possibly have got numbers wrong somewhere!) but I did make a few changes this month:
1) cancelled the fruit and veg box, swapped to buying a few organic bits from the supermarket instead (using the clean 15/dirty dozen lists).
2) menu planned and only bought what we needed for those exact dinners, rather than just stock up on everything I'm running low of in the pantry.
3) tried a few budget recipes from A girl called Jack, including more vegetarian ones than we would normally eat, so def. spent less on meat this month.

V chuffed

Great result, you have reduced your budget by a quarter.