October 2014 Grocery Challenge

Caterina

White rabbits and good morning to all.

£300 for us again this month, it should be fairly easy because there are no cat food expenses, we are well stocked on tins and dry goods and we have discussed and agreed an entertainment budget separately.

So that if a takeaway slips in it needn't be counted, or the odd bottle of beer or wine. Not planning to have an extravagant takeaway and booze spree but the men in my family are better behaved with the rest of the budget if they are given the odd controlled extravagance!

£100 for the month should see us through one pizza meal, one takeaway, a couple of cinema outings, a few beers and the odd cup of coffee while out and about, in principle. In practice, if I use the 2 for 1 tastecard, drink coffee free in w8rose, buy beer in L1dl and cook our own rice for the ONE takeaway, I should get under budget. See how it goes. I would be interested to hear if others have a separate entertainment budget too, and how it operates.

Today is stock up day so it will see a fair dent in the total, I expect. Update later.

Happy October!

maria3104

Oct 2014 Grocery Challange
New grandchild due today so will have lots of visitors from different areas of UK.
Want to get back to £43 a week, but suspect impossible so please put me down for £200

Soworried

I'll be in again please. Our budget will be £200 from the 3rd until the 31st for 2 adults and 2 teens.

We have had a use it up month this month so we have spent very little but we also have very little left. No meat at all and only a few bits of fish.
I'm hoping for some good L&dl weekend offers during the month to re-stock

russetred

The last couple of days have been quite productive as I decided to inventory my homemade preserves cupboard. I ditched some elderly tickled pears, yes I do mean tickled, and a small batch of forgotten marmalade 2010 that had gone a bit funny. This gave me some room so I made a fruity plum chutney with some stubborn plums that refused to soften in the fruit bowl and 2 bottles of haw-sin sauce. This one is a new recipe to me but it is so piquant I really like it. I have a large marrow cubed and salted ready to make a batch of Indian marrow and onion chutney later on today. Most of my preserves are put into small pots and made up into baskets for gifts at Christmas. Always seems to be really appreciated.

dingdongsaving

NSD here today and tomorrow. Will be filling up with diesel and getting veggies for the party & some party poppers on Friday with the grocery shop ready for ds's party on Saturday.

Hope everyone's having a good start to the month. xx

bmma

starting October's GC on the 6th
still plenty of food in cupboards and freezer :money:
£20.00p per week (food only)

physicsgirl

Caterina wrote: »

I would be interested to hear if others have a separate entertainment budget too, and how it operates.

We have a separate entertainment budget for cinema tickets (although we make popcorn and take it along with us, along with a drink, and that comes out of the groceries budget), but takeaways come from groceries, while eating out comes from savings (as it's usually to celebrate something or treat ourselves).

Buying alcohol in the supermarket comes from groceries budget, unless I'm buying a lot for people coming round in which case it's counted under entertainment.

If we have a coffee out it's usually Waitrose, or John Lewis (once a month) or Nero's (every Tuesday with O2) i.e. free so don't need to worry about where that money comes from!

If OH or I go to the pub with people from work it comes from our own personal money, if we go together just us, it comes out of groceries and if we both go with friends it comes out of entertainment. Nice and simples... Or not! But it makes sense in my head! It's mainly divvied up by how frequently it happens and why it's happening (i.e. is it a regular occurrence or a special occasion?)

Coxy11

Sorry folks I've been away to Budapest - lovely city


Budgets updated to here


Welcome/welcome back to:
dingdongsaving, keggsy, happy35, SammyJ, apocryphal, franby64, NewlyFrugalMumof3, 1of3, LINKYPIE2009, smiling-, Happygreen and gemmylou86


Good luck all.


DH spent £109 on food whilst I was away. This comprised of 3 main meals plus snacks and beer. I honestly give up.....He was "really surprised" when he got to the checkout.


Going to have to work hard to get back on track now. Wish me luck lol!


Coxy

Caterina

Thank you physicsgirl, it makes a lot of sense. I think that if I buy beer and wine in L1dl I shall treat it as grocery budget but if the men want a beer when there is none in and they have to go to the expensive corner shop they will have to fork out themselves!

Re. takeaways I am ok to keep them as entertainment (they usually work out very cheap because we boil our own rice and get only vegetarian stuff) as I am already running a takeaway pot, where a bit of change goes now and then, I shall remind the men to add to the pot once in a while, or no takeaway, that will spur them on.

Meals out, deff., entertainment budget, I agree. And obvs. cinema too, but I tend to go only on Weds because of Orange Wed, e.g. tonight.

What is Tuesday Nero free coffee? I use O2, is that one of their offers? I don't have a smartphone but can get a code on IPad hopefully. Mostly I am not bothered because w8rose or j lewis fulfil the need for drinks out, it is mostly DH who gets the coffee cravings sometimes when we are out.

Which takes me to my first day of GC. Very satisfactory shopping in W8Rose, using quick-check machine so I came over budget only by 44p, had to spend £40 to use £10 off, only got things that I cannot get in other cheaper shops, bought a lot of special offer stuff that we needed, discounts using their card, or stickered. Even got a £5 cyclamen in a pretty grey ceramic pot, reduced down to £1.79, saving me from buying fresh flowers (my cheering up indulgence) for a few weeks.

As I used a 2% cashback card to pay, it has surely offset the 44p over the £30 planned. I am going to do this in round figures, rounding up or down depending on how the shopping goes. For example, £30.44 spent today but 2% back via cashcard, that would mean £29.83, will call it £30 for simplicity. Updating the sig now.

Have a good day.

smiling_saver

Last night I had a good rummage through the weekly ads from the supermarkets here and a look in the freezer and fridge.
Fiance isn't one for cooking much so his pantry is basically whatever I put there last time he's forgotten about.
So I have put together a meal plan ...

Last night... chicken stroganoff & egg noodles
Tonight... leftovers (i had to portion this out in the kitchen to make sure there was leftovers)
Thursday... pineapple salsa chicken tacos & tortilla
Friday... leftovers
Making soda bread as my treat for our shopping trip friday evening.
Saturday... Beef pot roast in slow cooker, steamed veg & baked sweet potatoes
Sunday ...beef casserole with leftover meat & vegetables
Monday... leftovers or some pork chops (from freezer) & mushroom & veg
Tuesday ... Baked chicken thighs & veg
Wednesday... Black bean burgers & sweet potato wedges
Thursday... Cheesy ratatouille & pasta
Friday... Roasted sausage & broccoli with pasta
Saturday... Chicken chilli & rice & salad
Sunday... Leftovers

I'm pleased that I don't need to buy any meat this week. It's so expensive here for anything of any decent quality. So i can stock up on basics like tomatoes and pasta etc that He simply doesn't have!!!!!!!!!!