November 2016 Grocery Challenge

Wysiwyg49

Weekly shop last night at Sainsbobs was £66.54 so have updated sig - a bit over budget but generally feel ok about amount of spend, especially as this week have planned for lunches at work.

Very successful potato, spinach and chickpea curry tonight! Lovely flavour with some baking spuds and a chopped sweet potato in there too. Loads of LO for lunch tomorrow.

Caterina

t14cy_t wrote: »

caterina, dont forget to print off the 40p off marmite on the coupons page on here. every little helps. x

Awww, t14cy t I missed your post, thank you for the tip but I ended up in sainsbobs and got a 250g jar before I read this! But not all is lost as I need to get another jar to take with me to Italy and will get it with the coupon!

Suffolk lass we scraped that jar eight an inch of its life and then I filled it with hot water and had it as a hot drink, great minds think alike!

£11.80 spent in groceries plus £2 for church lunch bread. Going to update my dig.

[Deleted User]

Spent £7.51 in Lid & Sainsbobs, seem to have got a load. Don't really need any more shopping 'till next month - very stocked up. Have updated my sig, including alcohol (ahem), I must say, some of the alcohol bought, a bottle of wine and a bottle of cider, are unopened, totalling £7. If they remain so (i'm sure they won't), I will add them to next months (alcohol) budget.

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yippee!! xx

pamsdish

I am running a local lad to work for his night shift at amazon 5 nights a week, so have got into the habit of calling into morries on the way home, picking up a lot of ys stickers, get there about 6-30 pm, they seem to have reduced them to the last ditch price by then, most are 10p, I am also stocking my carless neighbours up on velvet t,rolls £6 for 24 and Ariel 3 for £10, plenty 6 for £3, which as they keep giving me vouchers I am gaining 2500 extra points every £20 spend and money off coupons which I am using against reduced purchases is great, 25p off 10p veg purchase, not counting up these spends, I get cash from my neighbours, and not my money spent, so I think as I need no major shop by end of the month I will come out on budget probably under, with loads in fridge freezer and store cupboards.

[Deleted User]

Well done pamdish you economics sound a bit like mine I also work in that way if I can, every penny saved is better in my pocket than someone elses.Meg72 what a nice idea to use the extra to help fill the food bank ,after all its in effect a 'freebie' that will help others in these straightened times.A little helping hand to someone else is always returned at some point with a bit of good luck well done

Caterina

Good morning,

I was planning a NSD but DH just announced a visit to his beloved BANQ, which is one of our biggest money drains. There is no way of stopping him squandering money in that infernal, overpriced store, no matter that a lot of the materials he buys can be found in skips, such as wood for shelves! I saw loads in the neighbourhood but, no, he has to go to that bl**dy place.

Anyway, in the end as it is not a NSD and I have quite a long day babysitting I have decided to treat us to a takeaway of sorts, not sure yet if Indian or even a ready meal from a supermarket, will see how it goes later. What's the point of trying to scrimp and save when DH just can't be bothered... Sometimes I feel it's such an uphill struggle, I should just give up the budgeting and the worrying, just live day to day and damn the consequences. After all we live only once and DH is living with a Damocles sword on his head (life limiting neurological illness), so should I even care about budget? Well yes, because when it will come to the crunch I will want to have plenty of cash to pay for the best care for him, and comfortable living situation, house adaptations etc...but he still goes on as nothing had happened.

Sorry for the moan, it just had to come out.

Have a good day.

Franalamadingdong

Caterina, it's right to vent sometimes, and it sounds like you have a stressful situation. Maybe budget long term but a day of rest every now and then, for your own sanity sounds ok.

Went shopping after 3 NSDs in a row! Bill came to over £89 :eek: but I had £7.68 of mum's shopping, which she'll pay back, and £52 :eek: on clothes (£36 Christmas; £16 clothing budget) because they have to have a bleeping Christmas jumper for school next month and pay £1 for the pleasure. The jumper was £12! He'll be wearing it endlessly until Christmas now. And he has a smart outfit for Christmas day, and I have a new cardigan (on sale) and he has 2 pairs of trousers and a jumper from the sale ready for the next size up.

So my food spend was £30.17!
I'm £144.48/200! So £55.52 left. The Christmas/clothing spends have gone in the appropriate budget slots. I think £52 for 3 pairs of trousers, 1 shirt, a cardigan for me and 2 jumpers isn't too bad.

I am so pleased that I've cut my food/cleaning/toiletries bill by so much! From £70-80 per week, avg £300 a month to a snip under half that! Our £20 eating out fund is still untouched so we'll be getting fish and chips next week.

thriftwizard

Oh Caterina, {{{hugs}}} from me! On one level I know what you mean; my OH seemingly has no idea (and doesn't want one either) about the household budget, and it's always uphill work trying to convince the assorted offspring that we don't have endless financial resources. But on another - we have the great blessing of good health.

A slight slip of the wallet today has put me in the danger zone, though part of me wants to count it in the "entertainments" budget. DS1 is home for a couple of days, and I was passing the butcher's stall at the county town market, and they had his favourite rump steak... couldn't resist buying some for a treat. £15 down to that, and £3 on kale & galangal, though I'm planning to grow some of that on.

Wysiwyg49

Franalamadingdong wrote: »

Caterina, it's right to vent sometimes, and it sounds like you have a stressful situation. Maybe budget long term but a day of rest every now and then, for your own sanity sounds ok.
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I am so pleased that I've cut my food/cleaning/toiletries bill by so much! From £70-80 per week, avg £300 a month to a snip under half that! Our £20 eating out fund is still untouched so we'll be getting fish and chips next week.

Doing a great job in difficult circumstances Caterina, I completely agree about the days off!!

Franalamadingdong - what progress - I have improved 0% since starting the challenge and still on about £80+ a week even without toiletries and cleaning! Please post your tips I observe about half my spending is on "real" food and the other half on drinks (fruit juice, posh pop (I like those Bottle Green sparkly things)), crisps and biccies!! I reckon if I wasn't buying everyones favourites I could cut it down a lot.

Oh well, off to the kitchen - sausages, beans and Spanish omelette for tea tonight.