May 2014 Grocery Challenge

Taranaman

Not been a great month. Exiting the month at £372.19 and a bare cupboard except for alcohol, which accounts for most of the overspend.

All set for birthdays and graduations now so will enter June with renewed vigour and glass half full...

...off to update sig

...hic
:beer:

cw18

Just added my spends from Saturday, Sunday and today to my spreadsheet, and I've now officially blown my budget by £1.98 with 4 days still to go !!!

However I'm not surprised by this. I was working to two-thirds the budget I'd meant to give myself for this month (which means I short-changed myself by £81), took my youngest GDs away from a long weekend (which meant food for a 2 year-old I hadn't added anything to the budget for), had OH's niece for a night which meant an extra (albeit small) mouth to feed for evening meal and breakfast, and DS1 changed shifts which means I've had to provide an extra 4 main meals for him so far with another 3 unscheduled still to go.

And the straws that broke the camel's back (or should that be budget) were 2 reduced to clear whole stuffed pheasants from A1di (£5, which I plan to cook a week on Saturday) and a £26.80 order from a company that sells spice packs with recipes and have a sale on at the moment. Not the sort of thing I normally go for, but I'm fed up of churning out the same old meals and it appears DS1 is getting just as fed up of being given them. Unfortunately I find it hard to experiment (especially when it means buying things I've never used/had before) and DS1 is an even fussier eater than I am (turned his nose up at one I thought he'd like last week just because it had black beans in it, and totally ignored half another because he could see the lentils). None of these purchases will actually be used in May, but I always charge things to the month in which I purchase them..

Frizzle_2

Another NSD today.
Just had ds1 at home today and he helped with some jobs. Then a party followed by a sleepover.
Planning to get the boys hairs cut tomorrow and will finally do my weekly shop on Thursday! So won't get another NSD for a few days at least!

GettingOrganised

Well over my budget so far and expect to have to get a few bits before the end of the month. My niece and nephew stayed over the weekend, so that didn't do my budget any favours. I had done a meal plan for about 10 days which would have just about been on my very modest £30 leftover, but I ran out of pretty much all basics too.

I think I need to give myself a more manageable budget for next month and try to cut down a little bit at a time.

I've still picked up lots of good habits, especially not wasting food. I went to put the bin out the other day and realised we'd only filled one bin bag in two weeks - this is half as many as usual.

Downsizing__for_sanity

Elsiepac,
Cheers for that. I don't think I even knew her real name, but she worked so hard on it that I felt a tiny bit protective of her!

DFS

bmma

spends £239.83/£250.00p
nsd's = 7

PennyGrabber

Evening all!

Nsd as expected today. Children came home just before dinner, which was lovely, except that I hadn't planned on feeding them, and my dinner had already defrosted from the freezer! So, we ate separately, but never mind.

Will be another nsd tomorrow, as we're out with a friend for most of the day. I'll buy the children an icecream, but that's from my pocket money, so not gc related. We'll be having sausages in some form or other for dinner as they need using up.

Night!

PG x

Ps - you're right about the support network; it's ace on here!

lynnejk

Taranaman wrote: »

Not been a great month. Exiting the month at £372.19 and a bare cupboard except for alcohol, which accounts for most of the overspend.

All set for birthdays and graduations now so will enter June with renewed vigour and glass half full...

...off to update sig

...hic
:beer:

It's better a glass half-full than half-empty eh I'm sure you'll find yourself back on track this month with a bit of effort eh.


I had a bit of a spend-day today but found loads of bargains and as have a bit left in the budget thought it worth buying. Sooo - Morrys = £16.06. £land = £1. MnS = £6.00. £Stretch = £4.58 (2 x Nescafe @ £2.29) and Home Bags £5.56. Total spent = £33.20 most of which was offers and YS :T


Just need milk for rest of week.


Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday
Lx

x_raphael_xx

OH went shopping without me yesterday (I was working late) she's spent £21.64, so leaving us with £3.36 for the rest of the week. Not had chance to look thru and meal plan yet, hopefully it will last us the week.

Crowdpleaser

More spends on milk and veg. Roll on monday for the new month! X