November 2014 Grocery Challenge

Billie-jo

Kiwiblue - I hope the chemo knocks the hell out of those bad cells and everything is good. Get plenty of rest as you going to need it and eat when you feel like it. Wishing you all the best.

Spends are now at £63.26 as we really didn't need much today as had enough frit & veg left in. I have managed to freeze a portion of lamb rogan josh today from the other night and we have enough soup left for starters tomorrow, then we are having roast balsamic chicken with pancetta and sliced roasted potatoes with green beans - not sure what mum will make of it but hopefully she will eat it, I wont give her too much sauce and hope for the best.

Ellie_BB

Been budgeting well all month (5 more days to go before payday and new month), and grocery challenge has kept me on track in supermarket again. Can't get too excited though, as don't think I'm going to be within my overall budget this month and anything left in the grocery kitty is likely to be 'borrowed' to cover petrol. Oh well, can't do anything about needing petrol, so will just keep fingers crossed that i'm not too over budget, and keep patting myself on the back for doing well on the grocery side at least :-)

applejack07

NSD today!

Had a horribly stressful day at work and was tempted to pop into Sainsbobs on the way home for a treat, but I resisted as I'd had free nibbles at work anyway Hoping to get a few spend-free days in a row this week, as I've got a trip next weekend that could prove to be pricy! But fingers crossed

CountingPennies

NSD today! Not bad for a saturday..... But i have been at work all day!

CP xx

Bobarella

Hi All
Clocking in with a £35 spend today. It goes to show how your mind changes when you start being really frugal as I felt that was masses. My spends these days are between £5 & £18 on average. I don't have a car which makes a difference to how I shop & I'm not one for online shopping. So little and often.
The £35 was to cater for my 6 year olds birthday party tommorow. We have 18 children coming so that covers a lot of food. I went for proper food though, potatoes to do potato wedges, huge sack of chicken to do roast chicken pieces, salad vegetables, bread, ham, cheese. I don't like to give children lots of processed or sugar heavy foods so there should be plenty of cooked leftover for us too within that budget.
I have £40 left of my food budget for the month & roughly a week till payday. Considering I slashed £25 off what we spent in October when I set this month's budget I am really pleased. Especially as we have had my birthday, son's birthday tea on actual birthday & now this big party all to cater for in this Grocery Challenge.

Caterina

Happy birthday to Bobarella's DS, hope the party is great fun! Just a word of advice, if I may: in my experience children don't eat many sandwiches, so if you have the time you could do the ham in little rolls and the cheese in cubes and pile them on plates rather than between bread slices. Then butter some little rolls and leave on the side. This way the children can assemble their own little sandwiches and if they don't eat it all you can use the leftovers in the next few days, instead of having a big pile of doggy sandwiches. Ah, and put out only a small amount of ham at a time, keep the rest in the fridge and top up the serving plate only when it is nearly empty. Hope this helps (I have 25 year old twins and am the veteran of many OS kids birthday parties). Have fun!

Bobarella

Thanks Caterina that is really helpful. I will take your advice. Any other top tips? We are having a treasure hunt in the park first, so should only be in the house for about 45 mins. Plus they should be worn out from running round the park. She says optimistically

WantToBeSE

Morning All


Well, just over half way through the month and I have only got just over £10 left. I am just going to have to make sure I spend as little as possible between now and the end of the challenge (28th). I have everything I need for meals and breakfasts, so that's OK.


the main reason I spent so much is because my 10 yr old is on an elimination diet as the dentist and GP think he is intolerant to gluten. Gluten free stuff is, I have just found out, very expensive. I am sure that once I get used to it I'll find more OS ways of dealing with it, but any tips are appreciated.


I think that the GP says he will get some items on prescription if he is diagnosed, but I am not sure what/how much.


Aiming for a NSD today. Going to give my house a good clean and tidy and hopefully keep the heating off for as long as possible too.


Have a lovely day everyone!

dingdongsaving

xx Happy Sunday & all the best to everyone on here! xx

I've not been on much again as we've been living off our start of the month stockpile & fruit/veg from home/swapped.

We were under budget by such a chunk that I'm going to attempt to get all of our Christmas food/drinks/crackers/bits & pieces/& NYE nibbles/tasty treats for various visitors from our "normal" GC budgets for Nov & Dec. (We had £200 in a "Christmas extra" budget allocated for this, but I'm thinking we'll keep this for the savings pot if poss!!)

Lots tucked away in our "hamper" ready for the festivities already! I get a big old basket out & we stash it in the corner of the kitchen & fill with all of the lovely non perishables so that we can see our treats growing as our excitement & anticipation of the Christmas holidays swell to bursting! Hehe. Our little boy is over the moon to see crackers & his special "Christmas drink" in there (fizzy black grape juice from A5da! Funny how tiny different things become so special in our memories...I remember having 5chloer on our xmas table when I was little & feeling that it was a massive treat too! ). Hehe. I must admit...I love seeing that hamper fill up too though...

So far we have: some special chocolates, lime tortilla chips for dipping, Christmas crackers, fizzy grape juice x2, a few special ciders for hubby, hm chutney, hm mincemeat, hm Christmas pudding, a few packets of biscuits for our cheese, a lovely new balsamic, a fresh packet of my fav. coffee, some vanilla pods for baking, wine & champagne.

Sig. updated with the new festive spends.

*Just looking at our Dec. meal plan & my various lists for family/visitors/gatherings. We need to organise our bird with the farmer down the road...& that cost will prob. have to come from the original xmas money. Luckily everything else will involve people bringing their own drinks & should be manageable. :xmastree:

Caterina

Bobarella the only other advice I can offer is about party bags. It was given it to me by a then kids party veteran mum and it has been helpful for me.

The hardcore approach: do not give party bags. Start as you mean to go on. The party in itself is (or should be, in an ideal world) enough of a treat, with games and "special" food. All the kids need, if you want to give them something, is a piece of cake, wrapped in a napkin, to take back home.

A softer approach, which is what I used and served me well, is: party bags made of simple grocery paper bags, containing a piece of cake and a few trinkets and bits from the pound store. If you get a box with, say, 6 model cars, or 20 felt tip pens, just divide them Up. A few sweets each, although in this day and age this might be frowned upon, so it depends whose kids you are inviting. Check with the mums. If they are ok, a bag of pre-wrapped sweets or mini chocolate eggs should do. A fiver should be more than enough for 18 party bags.

I know mothers, these days, who spend a fortune in party bags, but I think that's a crazy thing to do and only encourages competitive consumerism in little children (e.g. "I got a computer game in Emma's party bag nyah nyah nyah" etc...).

There will always be someone who throws a mega expensive party and always some yuppie mummy who will outdo all the other parties. This is life and the kids need to learn it. We can teach our kids to have fun with less gadgetry and more homemade entertainment.

Pass the Parcel and Musical Chairs are great fun for indoor parties.

I hope you all have a fantastic time, especially your little boy.