November 2016 Grocery Challenge

Franalamadingdong

Thriftwizard, I figure having a budget will give you a figure to aim round so even if you go over a bit it is better than having no budget and no idea how much you've spent. Love the idea of decamping the boy to his brother's if he can't toe the line. Pretty sure the brother will have fun telling him to pick up his pants and turn lights off. Lol.

NSD again. Tummy bug travelled south, but I've managed to keep down some toast and just had dinner so we will see. It might mean that we can push shopping to the weekend maybe.

Caterina

£8.09 stock up of tea in c00p, so glad to find 99 tea in loose leaf! Used 2 X £1 off £5 vouchers.

Also £3.89 spent on lunch, while doing the puppet work. Everybody else got free lunch but nobody thought about providing gluten free or dairy free. I stayed gluten free with oatcakes but had some cheese (provolone), also a few slices of grilled aubergine and courgette and a few kalamata olives. But also got tempted by the homemade cake in the end and wasn't even gluten free after all. My tummy let me know it was not best pleased :-( but it was an one off.

Tonight dinner was super healthy, with loads of steamed cabbage and kale, a bit of potatoes and a nice piece of haddock, courtesy of DH. And he cooked more veg and potatoes to keep for tomorrow dinner bubble and squeak. Inspired!

Going to update sig, very much over budget but knowing that most of the excess represents stocks for future use I am ok with it.

Good night.

K9sandFelines

Hi folks, I've kind of lost track whether I am on target or not. My granddaughter arrived last week; and inbetween trying to help my daughter (cooking meals etc), looking after youngest daughter, the cats, work and normal everyday things,time is running away with me. I will try and update total shortly.

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines wrote: »

Hi folks, I've kind of lost track whether I am on target or not. My granddaughter arrived last week; and inbetween trying to help my daughter (cooking meals etc), looking after youngest daughter, the cats, work and normal everyday things,time is running away with me. I will try and update total shortly.

807.64 with a small spend to add from Homebargains and possibly a few bits from Amazon, but not too bad otherwise.

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday, yippee!xx

freyasmum

Hi All

Sorry, I'm not sure I even posted at all in the November thread?

Things have been pretty mental here over the past few months, and we are still over budget. HOWEVER - this has been our lowest spendy month so far! :T Not by a huge amount (only around a fiver), but it is still heading in the right direction. We have been discussing and, rather than trimming the fat elsewhere (because I'm not sure that there is much to trim, really?), we may end up revising our budget upwards next year. We are also discussing leaving the budget as it is and seperating out all cleaning products, etc.

This pleases us because, although we are by no means splashing out on caviar every night, we do sit down to nice meals, full of veggies and lean proteins. We're snacking on fruits and nuts and we don't want to lose this.

When OH and I sat down to have our budgeting talks, we felt having the store cupboard was the way to go and initially, we did spend a bit more when we were trying to set it up. However, it is certainly paying dividends now.

Another thing that we have found very helpful is UHT milk. My daughter goes through stages of guzzling milk so a carton that should have lasted us at least half a week will sometimes be gone in no time. Rather than popping to the shops and spending an absolute fortune, I'll open a carton of UHT to have in teas. This is definitely helping because I can't just shop for one item without seeing something else! :A

FurryBeastOz

Yahoooooooo. I smashed the Grocery budget. I CAN do it:j:j

£86 for the whole month. Ok we were away for a week and DH was away for another, but the rest was freezer and storecupboard. Should be able to repeat it this month as they are both still full:j

We are away for Christmas so only New Year to cater for. Anywhere from 4-14 people and we'll only know on the day. Will need to create feeezer space so I can freeze leftovers - looking for curry recipes with items I already have:D

See you on Decembers thread.

Franalamadingdong

Well December is here tomorrow and tummy bug has kept me indoors and food consumption is pretty darn low compared to normal! Haha

Finished the month on £144.48! Our eating out budget (for fish and chips at the end of the month) is untouched due to illness, so we're rolling this over to when I am better.

(All variable budgets considered, Xmas, travel, school etc we're £64.11 in credit compared to what was budgeted. So pleased for my first proper budgeted month and I've drawn up December's for myself cutting back on what was not needed so much, and added to where I went over.)

[Deleted User]

Get well to the poorlies and well done to everyone - even if you went over, at least we are all trying. I'm declaring November @ £92.09, which is nearly £8 under. See you in December.

Caterina

November over, what I have learnt is:

- DH and I spent almost more in meals out than for home food budget, must do something about that, cut down dramatically.

- £180 is realistic and fairly generous for the two of us plus our cat, if I don't count the bulk shops and stock-ups. I need to look at budget differently.

- There is no point in trying to involve DH in active budget planning, he will only forget or slip up or go and buy something on a NSD, so NSDs from now on mean MY NSDs and I will have to keep shopping according to my budget and accept that he will never be too bothered about moneysaving. At least I know he defers most financial decisions to me because he just isn't bothered, so I retain a modicum of control over the family budget and can save where I need to save (for the most part).

Have a good December, I won't be going the challenge because we are away for most of the month, so it would not work, but will keep tally of expenditure as much as I can. See you in the new year!