September 2007 Grocery Challenge

Bobbykins

Oh well, totally lost the plot this weekend. Had unexpected visitors, meal plans went out of the window, didn't know whether I was on the proverbial "base or apex" with the spending!

I have just totalled up all my receipts, including a few from last week that I've only just found, and have updated my signature! Total overspend of £24.24 (:eek: :eek: )

The one saving grace is that, for some reason, both my freezers are still chock a block full so in theory I should have a head start for next month (mind you, most of it is green beans from the garden!). I will do a full inventory tomorrow and start playing around with meal plans (AGAIN!), before I decide what the budget will be for October. Probably be around £200 again, but we'll see.

sambamamba

Just updated spending s/sheet for the weekend & have £16.14 left til Sunday, really quite amazed. Signing up to this challenge has really focused our minds on sticking to the challenge budget as we're all in it together & we don't want to let the MSE side down.

Fingers crossed we come in on target as hopefully no more toilet seats needed! Does depend on when OH buys new (much needed) specs though & which budget this comes out of. Used to come out of the grocery / baby / car / holiday / everything else fund, but as the only frames he likes so far are Paul Smith ones I can see an arm wrestle to the death coming on!!


Thanks to all my fellow grocery challengers, it's great to read everyone's posts. :T This does mean that I my ironing pile is now as high as the ironing board, but I know what I'd rather be doing now.

Moniker

Had an email from MySupermarket today saying they were aware of the problem with speed and were working night and day to fix it.(They also said that they had not had problems before this recent spate!) They said that each time you send a trolley it cancels out the previous one, so not to worry. Any way I tried again to book a slot and send my trolley this evening and it finally worked!

Thanks Mike for the tip about going to the Sainsbury's site - I had already done that and could see that my order hadn't gone through. So hopefully no more problems.

See you all in the October challenge.


Moniker

miss_empty_piggy

lil_me wrote: »

miss empty piggy please be careful with the dieting, some can make you ill and with little piggies to look after you need your energy. Don't let yourself be bullied into dieting.

thanks lil_me, that's really sweet. No I won't. I think I was just on a bit of a downer when I wrote that, feeling pants about life in general, and miffed with having no cash. But definitely won't be bullied!!

Anyway, haven't been on since my last post as have been mega busy. Have so far managed to stay within my little budget and feel really happy about that. Have got £15.00 left in purse. Still have approx. 1 week to go, but have food in the cupboards which is good! I really hope I can do it. Desperately trying to feel in control of money for a change. So here goes. I will have to go and read eveyone's posts now as I love hearing about how well everyone is doing!! Good luck everyone, and thanks for the support, I couldn't get by without you all.

Kind regards and much respect:T
Miss empty piggy

miss_empty_piggy

MissMuppet wrote: »

Hi Guys... I have just gone bankrupt and plan on starting this challenge in October. I attempted it a few times before but with debts it's very difficult to keep to a budget as well as paying them off.

So just thought I'd say hi and let you know I'll be here for the October challenge, my budget will be £200 for me and 1 cat for all household stuff, I'm sure I'll be able to reduce it loads after I've been on here for a while.

just wanted to say welcome MissMuppet and good luck. The only way is up! Nice to have you on board.:j

lovely-cup-of-tea

Hi all, can I ask what people set themselves as a daily budget amount? I'm thinking that £5 a day for a single person seems reasonable but what do other people think? I cook and have a store cupboard full of tins and rice etc. to use up. I'm not buying any new clothes for the forseeable future but that sum will include shampoo and cleaning products too. Am I aiming too high?

mikeD

2004Alona wrote: »

Just updated spending s/sheet for the weekend & have £16.14 left til Sunday, really quite amazed. Signing up to this challenge has really focused our minds on sticking to the challenge budget as we're all in it together & we don't want to let the MSE side down.

.

Now then 2004Alona, don't get up tight about going over budget. We all do it at some time or other, even me :rolleyes:. So sit back, relax and just do your best.

Lecture over .

mikeD

lovely-cup-of-tea wrote: »

Hi all, can I ask what people set themselves as a daily budget amount? I'm thinking that £5 a day for a single person seems reasonable but what do other people think? I cook and have a store cupboard full of tins and rice etc. to use up. I'm not buying any new clothes for the forseeable future but that sum will include shampoo and cleaning products too. Am I aiming too high?

Don't know what you are including in your £5 so cannot really advise exactly. We spend around £2.60 per day for each of us i.e. 3 adults. We include only stuff to feed us, keep us and the house and all it's contents clean. However, include what you think fit and stay within your comfort zone to start with, you can always change the budget amount at any time. Okay!

Regards
Mike.:beer:

lovely-cup-of-tea

Okay, the £5 is to feed me three times a day, buy milk for tea/coffee etc, and for cleaning and laundry products. I often stretch my meals to feed the boyfriend but as I'm a slowcooker convert this is quite easy to do. If I want a newspaper or any other luxury this will have to come out of the £5. I work in an office and have to contribute to any birthday or leaving collections from this amount although I'm restricting this to £1 a time now. All my utility and other bills come out of my account monthly and I budget for them accordingly.

donnajt

Week 4 -

All gone wrong this week...

Unexpected guests for dinner on Sunday - panic buy in Tesco = £30, then made 2 proverbial errors of going into Tesco (a) with DD and (b) without my list!!!!!!!!

So I've spent £63.17 and haven't even got any milk in the house AAARRGGGHHH!

However, I'm still under budget and I hope I've learnt my lesson.

Onwards and upwards - am off to plan this week's meals and put a very small Tesco order in now