November 2016 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

£60.24 spent yesterday, which takes me a bit too close to my target for comfort! But there's a reason... the market was devastated this morning; one of the older traders had sadly passed away, so a number of stalls were covered over and at this time of year, a number will be away anyway, before the Christmas rush begins So, no butcher, only one greengrocer, no baker, only one egg trader out of the usual 3, and so on & so forth. The old boy will be sadly missed - he was always great fun, and had a heart of pure gold - and my thoughts are with his family.

I hurtled over to the next town, which also has a little street market on a Friday, and bought one or two bits there, at a higher price than I'd usually pay but still less than the supermarket, and for far better quality - melt-in-the-mouth outdoor beef from a farm I can visit any day, on the edge of the Forest. But that's taken me quite close to bust, again; there's plenty in the freezer, so we're not going to go hungry, but this isn't a time of year that I like to be running that down.

So - can I stay inside my budget? Only if I'm very, very restrained & inventive - and I'm going to be run off my feet this week, so that may not be possible!

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yippe!!xx

[Deleted User]

Accidentally stumbled upon a really lovely soup - thought I would share. It was basically my 'Cheat Tomato Soup', made with tinned tomatoes and veggie stock/seasoning. Decided to roast some carrots, as I had a surplus, but burnt them. Added them all in a blended, but, although not bad, it had a bit of a charred edge, which I did not like, so I added cumin, genius. It was so nice, its going to be a regular with me, minus the burning. Who knew cumin went so well with tomato soup. Tomato, carrot & cumin is the way to go - lol.

Hoping for a no spend, but I will be buying alcohol - off to an Abba fancy dress party - fished out the blue eyeshadow and platforms - any excuse to wear me platforms - have a good w/e everyone.

Caterina

Big budget bust! But I am so not sorry. Part of the bust is stock-up stuff, 3 x large (500g) Marmite jars, finally found them in w8rose for £4 each, considering the medium ones (250g) cost £2.50, by buying the large ones I save 20%. I am all marmite-ed for the next year, I expect.

Then 2 bottes of organic maple syrup, we use it so much for pancakes, porridge etc, that it was worth buying because cheaper than the cheapest organic one online.

Then, DH and I were planning a takeaway (different budget) instead I got a nice gluten free quiche, some salad, a delicious dairy free ice cream and a bottle of wine (different budget for wine). This is quite an extraordinary expense because normally I would only buy this sort of thing if YS or on offer, but it is a treat to go with the DVD of Mr Turner that DH so wanted to see and that I have rented from the library.

Grocery also included 4 jars of homemade chutney from our church table at a Christmas fair I visited today. Again, extraordinary expense but still part of grocery. I don't bother with jam because I make my own but never tried making chutneys and in any case I like supporting the church community.

Ah and I treated us to the one-off wild smoked salmon of which I have maybe one a month, will do us two breakfast for both, with scrambled eggs.

So, really, all considered, I am not sorry, or worried, to have gone off budget. I might still have to get some bread and eggs but otherwise my November shopping is all done.

I am about to bust the budget even more because I am about to order a lot of organic quinces for jam. But I get 30% off with DD's work.

December is going to be an anomaly because we will be abroad for most of the month, then back on 6th January we will start budgeting properly again. However I hope to keep recording the spends even while away, just to get an idea.

Edited: awwww out of stock for quinces, but got 5lt olive oil, fruit, eggs and some veg and a loaf of GF bread. This WILL take me into December!

t14cy_t

spent the last of budget on ys freezer fill ups today. i want to shave another £5 off next month, so will be £75 to the two of us next month. x

Rachiedabbler70

Morning all
I love this thread it has kept me focused this month. I think I will come in just under budget at £187.45 as £20 of this is still in my purse, but is earmarked to be spent so counting it in. I have managed to buy some Christmas food as well this month as feeding 7 Christmas dinner.
I am going to put the £13 left over in my savings account and start afresh in December challenge.
Good luck everyone :j

purpleybat

oh ive seriously gone off the rails this month. totted it all up yesterday and ive reached £180 and a few pennies!!!
in my defence I do put a crimble food box together for my sister as part of her pressie and have made inroads into that. it stuff ive made (chutneys, jams etc) and stuff she'd not normally buy for herself.
on the plus side ive had a good clear out and listed all in my food cupboards so now have a much better idea of what ill need for the coming months.
ive had about 20 nsd and that I'm pleased about

Florence_J

Due to an early payday my Food budget month ended on the 24th.

I finished the month with £165.57 spent.

So this is £53.57 over the budget I set at the start of the month (£112) but am £2.43 less than my normal typical budget (£168)

I know this is kinda cheating but I am happy as although we spent close to our usual budget despite having so much food left over from the previous month, it was only because we could afford to keep stocked up the items of food that usually if we ran out off during the month we would have to wait until the next food month budget began to replace.

This means we have a good store of food to begin our December food budget with, so I am certain we can stay a little bit more under budget.

Good luck to everyone still on their month.

Baileys_Babe

Baileys_Babe wrote: »

End of week 3 £78.11 spent this week, still on track to keep under the budget for the month. We have meal planned for the next 7 days I now need to sort out a shopping list and stick to it when shopping.
I needed to contact Tesco's customer service this week as the double cream I bought just would not whip :mad: they are going to send me a £5 gift card which will pay be included in next month's GC budget.

Spends to date:
Grocery budget £189.89/280 remaining £90.11
Wholesaler budget £0/71.61remaining £71.61

End of my November challenge, very pleased with the results £217.56/280, £62.44 underspend which I will be sweeping over to our wholesale budget

Franalamadingdong

No spends over the weekend, hoping to see if we can run to no spend until the end of the month. We have the basics and I'm still trying to run down the freezer. Thinking prawn and spinach pilaf, roast chicken dinner which will make risotto, sandwiches and soup, lasagna and garlic bread (I have random baguettes in the freezer, but I need to buy more garlic), which will do at least 2 dinners for us.
I think garlic and tomato paste are the only things we need at the moment. The veg drawer is looking a bit sparse, but that's my hoardiness trying to fill everything up.