November 2016 Grocery Challenge

Meekie

Hello,

Welli also ended up p shopping today as the in laws are coming next week and I haven't a lot of time from now til Monday to get rinse in. We were also running out of dishwasher tabs, washing powder and baby wipes- all pretty essential in our house. 57.68 spent which takes me over budget to around £300/260 GRRR!.

In a positive note I did get £75 for participating in a research study so very pleased with that.

Husbands are the source of much budget trouble in our house too. It is tricky when you don't completely agree. Eg oh has bought 6 pots of Ben and Jerry's ice cream the last few weeks. He confuses needs and wants and complains about being broke all the time!

Meekie

Have obviously also forgotten how to proof read posts, oops!

Franalamadingdong

Wysiwyg, stop buying everyone's favourites every time. Maybe week one X picks, week 2 y picks etc. I was buying all the fruit and all the veg etc, and not use all of it. Tomorrow we are having chicken curry. I had some chicken in the freezer, bought some onions, I have garlic and spices and tinned tomatoes in already, I bought some mushrooms (yellow sticker but great condition) and one courgette (not a pack because I don't need multiple, and because I didn't need peppers for other meals this week I didn't buy any, I can have other veg with it, I don't need all of them. Same with cereals, 5 types for me and my son was too much.

I was lucky today in that quite a few things I had on my list were reduced to clear and I didn't need to buy meat because I am back on running down the freezer. I know what economy ranges I'm happy with, what I'm not happy with, and what I'm yet to try. I hate cheaper tea, I can blind taste it, I won't drink it so I don't buy it, but I keep an eye out for tea I like on offer AND when I'm running low. But I prefer the economy yogurts, porridge, fish fingers and most of the veg, I'm happy with their pasta too 30p is ok with me! Same with beans, spaghetti hoops etc etc.

Maybe:
1. It's fine people have favourites, but that doesn't mean they always get their favourite.
2. Test cheaper brands if things, not everything all at once, but maybe a brand here and there
3. Go veggie one or two nights a week.
4. Base meals around what you have in
5. Simplify. I don't need a dozen drink options, It's ok to have the same veg

Also- my household is just my son and I, our bills should be lower than they were! You never know, this is just our first month, December might be a whole other ball game!

Caterina

Thank you all for kind words and understanding. I was having a right off moment and am feeling much better now. In the end my rant was not so justified because he had only gone to the bl**dy store to get some foam to close a wall gap that we had agreed to fill with foam. But the general principle stands.

No grocery spends today, just DH the DIY foam, then I had to top up my Oyster card, then I treated myself to 40 beeswax tealights, as I don't like burning artificial wax that might give out fumes in my bedroom where I use the tealights most.

Good night.

t14cy_t

good morning all, nsd yesterday, yippee!!!!!xxxx

ScotinLondon

Over the weekend just gone, £51.59 spent at morries. Part top up & the rest on artisan ale for December & hopefully will last till Xmas too....lots left for today as today is the last day of the gc month for me.
Will update sig later on today.
Have a good day all!
SIL

elsiepac

OK, this is me declaring out for November: £260.35/£110 :eek::eek::eek: HORRENDOUS! BUT, as I said, at least I kept track this time and it's clear where I'm going wrong.

I don't need to buy anything today, and more to the point, I WON'T!! Tomorrow is payday so my new month begins. I'm thinking of raising my budget a bit just because I've gone so much over, but I' haven't decided if this is just a false "economy"!

To help me learn the consequences of my crazy shopping habits, I've done a little breakdown:

£181.23 was "genuine" spends - i.e. real food
£79.12 was WASTED/FRIVOLOUS - i.e. takeaways, convenience meals, extras that I didn't need
Of the genuine spends, the pattern is very clearly of going to the shops too much and picking up extras. So my plan of action for December is:

1. Minimise trips to the shops - get veg box and try and do one shopping trip for any extras/other groceries
2. Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan
3. Self control - no takeaways just because I can't be bothered!

Yesterday I got my veg box again - £10 well spent, plus a couple of top up items (kale, spring onions and green beans). My fridge is STUFFED again so I'm going into the new month on a positive! The only thing I don't really have any of is tofu, also cannelini beans - I seem to be using them in a lot of recipes at the moment, which is no bad thing! I'm not shopping today though so these can wait.

Well done everyone else who hasn't failed as miserably as me! And good luck for *eek* December!!:xmastree:

Date.......Shop.....Amount.....Remaining
26 Oct.....Ocad0.....£47.04.....£62.96 (Bulk cleaning products, tins etc)
27 Oct.....Tesc0.....£00.78.....£62.18 (Reduced organic carrots)
28 Oct.....Tesc0.....£08.15.....£54.03 (Veggies for treat stir fry etc - NOT NEEDED!)
29 Oct.....Co-0p.....£13.16.....£40.87 (Chips, strudel, treat food etc - NOT NEEDED!)
30 Oct.....Tesc0.....£04.94.....£35.93 (Bread, Tomatoes etc)
30 Oct.....A1di......£09.63.....£26.30 (Proper grocery shop, basically all veggies)
2 Nov......Co-0p.....£07.15.....£19.15 (Except for bread rolls for £1, I needed NONE OF THIS)
2 Nov......Tesc0.....£02.39.....£16.76 (Onions, parsley, spinach)
4 Nov......Tesc0.....£16.39.....£00.37 (Proper grocery shop - all veggies plus coffee)
5 Nov......0cad0.....-£1.50.....£01.87 (Refund for missing pack of tofu)
6 Nov......Tesc0.....£13.37....-£11.50 (Proper grocery shop)
7 Nov......Tesc0.....£01.84....-£13.34 (forgot loo roll)
8 Nov......Wagamam4..£19.90....-£33.24 (I have no self control and was feeling very sorry for myself full of cold)
10 Nov.....Chippy....£02.75....-£35.99 (Battered mushrooms from the chippy - their gluten free batter is vegan!
12 Nov.....McD's.....£05.67....-£41.66 (wow I've been so bad lately )
13 Nov.....Services..£17.75....-£59.41 (fail to plan, plan to fail)
13 Nov.....Services..£02.30....-£61.71 (coffee)
13 Nov.....Services..£03.29....-£65 (coffee)
13 Nov.....Services..£18.84....-£83.84 (Gloucester Services - they have a wonderful farm shop with great breads and houmous etc so I've been having those with salad)
15 Nov.....Ald1.....-£06.53....-£90.37 (Proper shop - 8tins of beans and replacing some herbs/spices I'd run out of)
16 Nov.....Veg Box...£10.00....-£100.37
16 Nov.....Co-0p.....£06.49....-£106.86 (Bread rolls and a few other little bits)
17 Nov.....T3sc0.....£26.90....-£133.76 (Fruit)
20 Nov.....Co-0p.....£01.05....-£134.81 (Spinach)
21 Nov.....T3sc0.....£02.00....-£136.81 (9 pack loo roll - I now have 13 rolls, I shouldn't run out!!)
23 Nov.....T3sc0.....£03.54....-£140.35 (kale, spring onions, green beans)
23 Nov.....Veg Box...£10.00....-£150.35

thriftwizard

Wysiwyg49, how about making your own drinks? We "brew" ginger beer, water kefir (tastes a bit like a tart lemonade) and kombucha tea nowadays; when the Offspring were younger, I usually had a jug of real lemonade on the go, as well as the ginger beer. (Lemons being £1 for 10 most of the time at our local market) Ginger beer's really easy to start with, and a great favourite with most kids; kombucha and water kefir have an upfront cost for the starter cultures (although if you're lucky, you can source them from one of the local FB fermenting groups for free) but they are powerful pro-biotics as well as rather nice. Three of my five offspring much prefer the home-made drinks to commercial ones, which they now find far too sweet.

Mind you, I live in a part of the country where ginger beer is obligatory... thank you, Enid Blyton! The young foreign students we host most summers adore the stuff.

meg72

Caterina wrote: »

Thank you all for kind words and understanding. I was having a right off moment and am feeling much better now. In the end my rant was not so justified because he had only gone to the bl**dy store to get some foam to close a wall gap that we had agreed to fill with foam. But the general principle stands.

No grocery spends today, just DH the DIY foam, then I had to top up my Oyster card, then I treated myself to 40 beeswax tealights, as I don't like burning artificial wax that might give out fumes in my bedroom where I use the tealights most.

Good night.

Hugs Caterina, we have all been there, better to come on here
and get it off your chest than bottle it up and then perhaps exploding at the OH, I did a lot of that back in the day, OH yes didn't I lol, well didn't have the internet then.

kkffoo

So many interesting posts flown by while I could only read and not 'thank/reply' while using my tablet.
The marmite jar hot water flush...why didn't I think of that??
School projects which are infuriatingly costly and not thought through by the teachers. Imagine obliging the pupils to wear Christmas jumpers...it is ludicrous..and then their normal uniform will be still new looking and possibly outgrown in January.
Fizzy drinks...aargh the weaning off process was tricky.. We have those christmas and birthdays now, and own-brand sugar-free squash for cold drinks, if we are not just drinking tap water.

As for our own shopping, the budget is healthy but our brains keep leaking out of our ears. My hubby called in at Áldi for me yesterday, which was great, except the order was sitting waiting for him behind the click and collect counter at Ásda. Luckily he realised and didn't start shopping at the wrong place.
Next month I am going to simplify, even if it means losing the odd ten pence here and there.

Vegetarian mid-week options seem to be working well budget-wise, as does my home made soup. However, after three weeks of this the family were wondering if a bit of chicken might have livened up the pilaf. Maybe I could compromise and try less meat instead of none.

Hubby and I had heated discussion about pay-back time for an additional larger pressure cooker. Our current one is used every day but is only large enough to cook our normal veg. Soup and veggie main meals have been cooked in a stock-pot on the gas hob , and I can't seem to relax properly and focus on other tasks in the house for worrying about forgetting the pan when left on simmer.

I can relax with the slow cooker, but it is also too small for a full meal, and isn't good with larger chunks of veg, meaning pre-cooking and extra washing up, more chopping than my hands like to do, or using the SC on high, which is likely to burn if forgotten, as it's a cheapy model with hot-spots.
A PC will cook most things in the time it takes to wash up when I'm in the kitchen anyway.
Well, it's ordered now, and I chose an 8L model so I can batch cook, and hopefully make everything right in the pan from scratch without extra pots.
Now that I am cooking more, I might consider a larger better quality slow cooker also, but that can wait.
I bought smaller due to lack of space but menu planning means I have more room in my cupboards!!!

Shopping
Ásda £25.13
Now £262.29/£350