December 2016 Grocery Challenge

Franalamadingdong

Hope everyone has been having a nice Christmas. No spends from me still although I did manage to replace a make up set that had both ran out and was pretty out of date in the sales - glad I waited!

Grocery spends left should be fine to the end of the month. It's my birthday in the morning, then I'll be out shopping all day Thursday, mostly hoping to replace a pan I can't rescue and get a few birthday gifts etc ready for upcoming birthdays. My eating out budget will be ruined but at this point in the month I'm pretty flexible and across the budgets I have £151.46 left plus £64.11 left from last month. I have £90 on gift cards too. Those are spends budget, not saving budget.

Won't need any chocolates for a long time! Side note: super proud of my son (5 years) who offered to share his chocolate each time he had any.

hex2

I am up to £485.93 of my £600. I am impressed with myself - that includes a lot of meat that went into the freezer for the lean months ahead.

I have tried really hard not to shop, and to plan for not just popping into the co-op 'for milk' and coming out with 4 bags full. The old one about not going round the shops because you are bored or hungry is very true.

t14cy_t

nsd yesterday and wont be another spend until the new year! xx

FurryBeastOz

No YS when I went trawling yesterday. Very disappointing. Will try again on NYE. I want to load the freezer with some of this years underspend before reducing my budget for next year

kkffoo

t14cy_t wrote: »

happy christmas all!! did well on the YS front yesterday. between morrisons and tesco i bagged £119 worth of goodies for £26!!! everything i bought from morrisons was 9p!!! best bargain at morrisons was the best shepherds pie that was originally £4.59!! best buys in tesco were deli and butchers counter fayre. got a rib of beef for £3!! fancy cheeses galore too!! freezer and fridge now full again!! and only £3 over the lower budget of £75 so i cant complain!! god bless ys. xx

Oh wow, great haul!

Hubby has done some 'weekend' shopping already, and says if anyone wants a bit of peace and quiet after Christmas, Áldi at 8:00am this morning was a great place to find it. He said it felt like they were closed and had let him in by mistake.

We have £40.82 left in the budget until Sunday, plus the year's change-pot-excess for xmas takeaway tonight (hoping to have a few quid over from this) & £3? on the Eyesland voucher card.

I'm hoping to get a lunch out with what's left over. Might be a round of bakery pasties and cup of tea in the van, but I'd be happy with that. :rotfl:

pinkypig

Hi everyone. £9.76 today on milk, laundry liquid, deodorant, baby wipes and some reduced Christmas goodies to put in the freezer. Large pieces of Brie and stuffed turkey parcels ( that apparently feed 6-8) were half price so I got two pieces of Brie and 1 turkey parcel for the freezer. We wouldn't appreciate them now as we've had too much nice food but we'll enjoy them in the new year.
I've got one more shop to do using my December budget but it won't be a big one. I am under budget at the moment but I had allowed extra for three family get togethers but we have postponed one of them due to a nasty virus laying a few family members low. I'd budgeted an extra £20 for this which I now don't need.

PP x

freyasmum

I am declaring a total spend of £322.41 for December - which is, as always, still over budget. However, we catered a massive buffet as well as hosting an extra Christmas dinner still have loads of food in the fridge/freezer. AND, this is the lowest spend that we've actually has as well.

£1874.72 for the past five months out of a possible £1530.00 :eek:

During our budgeting conversation earlier, OH suggested lifting £300 at the start of the month and then making that do. If we have money left at the end of the month, then we can buy treat foods (steaks, etc). I pointed out that I suggested this recently and he said it would be more difficult to keep track of, whereas I thought that it would help focus the mind more - I said that people find it so easy to get into CC debt because you don't realise how much you're spending when you don't see the money leave your hand! Happily, he's come round to my way of thinking and we will start January like this.

kkffoo wrote: »

I gave up alcohol 18 months ago, after two glasses of white wine created the last-straw migraine attack which wiped out some of my holiday. This time of year I miss Bailey's, and buck's fizz. Hubby said he would look round to see if there were any Christmassy alcohol free alternatives, but only came back with four cans of cider for the son. We'll see if anything turns up in Moreishowns on Saturday.

Áldi £9.59

I'm sorry, I know this is late for Christmas - but may help with NYE?

I am currently pregnant (and am not a big drinker anyway) but on Christmas Day, I had some Alcohol removed Chardonnay from Asda. It was £2.98 a bottle and was from a brand called Fre. They had red and possibly a rose as well.

Aldi had a lovely Mulled Punch but it was like trying to find hen's teeth searching for another bottle

Franalamadingdong

Still no grocery spends from us, but will be shopping tomorrow, can't decide between a quick pick up of bits in the near by town or a bigger shop that is the hour round trip (lidl) I think I need to plan out what we actually need.

On a side note, went to Exeter to go shopping (sales) and spent HALF of what I'd normally spend without thinking, still in my month's overall budget. Most notably some beautiful glass baubles reduced from £30 (for 30) to £7! And a new stock pot after setting alight mine on Christmas eve and not being able to rescue it (it was donated 2nd hand to me 12 years ago, so it has had a good life) which was £25 reduced from £42. And when I decided to treat myself to a hat I loved that I thought was about £20 reduced from £28, I got to the checkout and I was told it was £8.40! The cheaper sticker hadn't been put on it. I've got gift tags etc for next year and birthday cards for relatives up until mid march from the nice (and cheap) card shop.

Annoyingly, my brother who is on a really good wage (and has nothing to show for it) "forgot his wallet" when we met for coffee. I paid and slipped him a fiver so he can get something for lunch, but I've counted it as Christmas as I gave him him Christmas gift at the same time - ironically a wallet!

If we do a big shop this weekend we might well go over food budget (but not overall monthly budget), but should hopefully ease us into January!

lynnejk

Evening all

Three NSD in a row :j

Will have to get some shopping t/m though but am still hoping to come in under budget fingers xd

Hope you all have a frugal Friday
Lx

wishus

Right, going to declare... £200.81, so bust by £35. However, the freezer has a fair bit in it.