December 2013 Grocery Challenge

mooomin

mazdaa wrote: »

Hello, I'm new here, how do i join in please ?

Just comment with your budget then update when you spend

You'll need to subscribe to the thread. When you reply, you'll see a box underneath where you're typing with notification type. I do "no email notification" which means my email doesn't get bombarded, but the thread shows up in my User Tools when I log in.

Welcome

Ladyluck1

Is there a January thread yet?
Think in aiming for £120 in jab to include cleaning and baby items

meg72

pinkie_pie wrote: »

Can I join for January please? I'd like my initial monthly budget to be £600, I know this is high but I need to prove I can do that (we vaguely aim for £150/wk but usually go way over) before lowering it!

Welcome, the Jan thread is not up yet so we are carrying on here.You can post your spends and keep a tally in your signature.

mazdaa

There are 2 adults and a very hungry 15 year old and 2 large dogs to feed so i think i will challenge myself to spend no more than £75 per week. I have a freezer full of lamb from my small flock so that will help. Also plenty of frozen fruit picked in the summer.

Fru-gal_2

Almost the end of the month and I shouldn't need any more shops until January. We would have made it about £10 under the 280 budget but DH went out to get milk and a a supermarket pizza for tea when we got back from our holiday and also came back with chocolate, a big pork pie and other snacks. Don't know exactly how much he spent but guessing we are over by about £4. Not too bad for Xmas.

I had a slow cooker for Xmas and just had our first use, parsnip carrot and potato soup. These were left after our Xmas dinner and would otherwise have rotted in the bottom of the fridge. We are wasting less thanks to this challenge.:T

fedupandskint

Hi everyone, I haven't posted all year but I've been dutifully filling in my spending diary and aiming to stick to my annual grocery spend budget.

Budget £1440
Spent £1510.37

Despite going over for the year I'm pleased with how it's gone over the last 12 months.

I hope everyone is well and had a good Christmas. I managed to be quite frugal with the Christmas shopping along with mum using saved up nectar points, vouchers and buying things needed over the year.

I'll be taking part again in 2014 with a budget of £1200, reduced as I attempt some more debt busting. The strings were pulled in tight this year as I achieved done big results paying of debt.

Good luck everyone!

Flat_Eric

I was looking yesterday at my home delivery shops for November/December. There were quite a lot and I know that my overdraft has supplemented my food budget which can't continue.

I'm hoping that January can be use up month - I know I have plenty of meals in my garage freezer that I have from a spat of batch cooking and probably lots of other meals. Will have to meal plan !

helencal80

Can I join for January please? I get paid weekly and my first January payment is on the 31st of December. My budget is £340 for January. I hope to gradually decrease this over the next few months though. Thanks

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

I have pm'd zippy - I too hope all is well

If you want to post your budgets here then I will make a note for when the January thread is up.

NickJW - sorry to hear about your Nan x

Personally I lost my way with the GC during the summer when I was working two jobs and juggling childcare I also had to cash in my second purse to help when DH was off work for six weeks.

The good news is that DH has a new job so things are returning to normal. I will stick with £450 and an additional £20 for the second purse. I also plan to go to A!di once a month for a stock up of tins/dried/snacks. Our ''local" one is 16 mile round trip so need to make it worth my while!

Just sorting out a meal plan for the next couple of weeks. This definitely helps the budget.

Sorry for the long post

Happy new year to you all
Coxy
_party_

XSpender

Hello all

I lost the plot in November and didn't count my spends at all in December but am back on track for January.

We are having a super frugal month as have loads in the freezer and stores so I am aiming for £130 from today up to and including 31st Jan. This will be the lowest budget I have ever attempted but DH is on board, we are going booze free for the month and have lots of meat and staples in as well as left over treats from Christmas.

I will be spending today as we are out of fruit, sliced bread and yogurts. I have a variety of minimum spend coupons for M&S, sains and Mr t but i am going to go to sains, use £2.50 of n3ctar points and keep my spends to a minimum and wont hit the threshold for any of the vouchers.

Meal plan has been done for the next 2 weeks and a rough outline for the 2 weeks after that.

Nick - I am so sorry to hear about your Nan.