December 2016 Grocery Challenge

just_the_two_of_us

Hi all I need to come back to the fold!! DH has retired recently and we have a very, very much reduced income! I am declaring at £200 for the month to last up to 30th December, including Xmas which is going to be just the two of us. Must post daily to try to keep on track. Wish me luck please!!

claireyfairy82

Hi everyone count me in again.


Wasn't around last month but to be honest I didn't revert back to over spending by too much, it's progress.


I'll be in for £200 this month from 30th November until 29th December. I wont include my xmas & new year foods as I've saved a little bit all year for this, even though my turkey and ham will do a lot of leftover meals.


Loads left in my freezer and no large meat order this month so should be able to end the year on a high!! Even discovered a local fruit and veg shop will sell me a 25kg sack of Maris Piper potatos for £10, Mash with everything in our house this month.

Slowly57

Coconut milk, freekeh, bananas, a lemon, two sorts of bread, crumpets and some stuff for the medicine cabinet (which I discovered had run woefully low) £18.00 (rounded up).

thriftwizard

£18.50 for the first spend of this month: raw milk (does make a difference to my ASD one's delicate digestion) kiwis, raspberries & bananas, two chickens and some mince. I'm still playing catch-up after missing the market butcher last week. Tomorrow is the Big Day when our household goes down to relatively normal proportions, i.e. 4 people here full-time; I'd like to think the food budget will drop, but we won't see the benefit for a while as half the contents of the kitchen seem to be moving out too!

Georgiegirl2012

I will be watching with interest. I did attempt this about a squillion years ago (ok - 8 years) but have fallen off the budgeting wagon, and rolled all the way down the hill. I had a complete stab in the dark at £250 a month when doing a budget, because it's less than £10 a day, but as there is only me, and reading all your posts, many of you manage on much less than this for far more folk.

So I shall watch, and hopefully pick up many good pointers. And when I join for January will have a much better idea of how much ( or little) is realistic for a family of one with 2 elderly puss cats.

Thank you for the folks who set up and continue to run this challenge

Redshank

55p on baby wipes today.

£173.33 spent so far.

I asked husband to withdraw £30 and he got cashback in work instead of going to the ATM. We'll use the babywipes so not really an issue though I should probably use reusable wipes more (I call them reusable wipes, they're bits of old cut up towel and fleece. Does the job though :P )

t14cy_t

please count me in with £75 for the 2 of us this month, this doesnt include the pets or alcohol as they have own budgets!! good luck everyone!! xx

Baileys_Babe

Redshank wrote: »

55p on baby wipes today.

£173.33 spent so far.

I asked husband to withdraw £30 and he got cashback in work instead of going to the ATM. We'll use the babywipes so not really an issue though I should probably use reusable wipes more (I call them reusable wipes, they're bits of old cut up towel and fleece. Does the job though :P )

Redshank our reusable wipes sound very much like yours, my 2 are now 7 & 11 and we still keep a pile in the bathroom which are used regularly for various things including by my dd when she is playing with her dolls

kkffoo

December challenge;

Budget £273.08* for four (not including vouchers see below) for four weeks 5th Dec-1st Jan (*can you tell that my hubby provided that figure? I'm going to do something exciting with that 8p, like buy a onion and put some tinsel on it )

£20 of that needs to spent in H!ron in exactly £10 chunks due to expiring vouchers.
Any £10 H!ron shop must be capable of fitting in two carrier bags so son can hoik it onto bus.
At least £10 needs to be spent in Eyesland, due to expiring voucher, but it would be better to spend all of these and get them out of the way (another £25 worth)

Any Ásda shop must be either just over £40 to get free delivery, or just over £25 to get click and collect.
Any Áldi shop needs to be small and light enough to fit in a basket to facilitate my hubby's high speed aisle slalom technique.
Any Moreishons shop needs to be small and light enough....(see above)
Any £land shop must be capable of being done without, and bought next week, as sometimes there just isn't time to go there.
We need not to run out of milk, as local shop is £££

This shall be achieved using limited storage plus a very small chest freezer and medium fridge with ice-box. Thankfully our garage is pretty icy this time of year.

By mutual agreement, no future menu plan will include sm!rtprice discount cornflakes, meat free mince, an excess of lentils or soup more than twice a week.

As a wildcard, members of family may arrive at short notice over the festive season and I am to serve something which looks normal, and doesn't involve anything wrapped in plastic held together by home made yellow elastic bands (cut up cuffs of my punctured rubber kitchen gloves, work really well actually). This last dictat came from my son.

I have thought back to my school day maths questions, and do not remember being asked to solve equations as complex as this. All that nonsense about not over-filling the kind of baths which have taps with very even flow rates, and how long it takes a train to get to Edinburgh if it reaches Crewe by 8:00am. Nope, there was nothing about if I accidently slightly overfill the breadmaker how long will it take to scrape the lid clean later?. Life skills.

For myself, I am utterly sick of sm!rtprice rice, it might be 40p a kg but it is only fit for rice pudding, and I'm also fed up with frozen salmon trying to get enough omega 3. Will experiment with milled linseed and putting walnuts in things this month and treat myself to some decent wholegrain rice.
Also home-made croutons, especially cheesy ones are absolutely delish, and easy to do.

Phew! Made a four week menu plan using above criteria. It only took me two days to do

Franalamadingdong

Haha redshank I have a 5 year old and we still have muslin cloths for cleaning stuff up.

Kkffoo that all sounds complicated! Best of luck! Btw I find Tesco basmati in the purple packet good. I like their value cornflakes too.

I've had my first spend of £3.81 for the month. Good old tummy bug stopped much being needed. Lovely dad picked up the bits for me and brought home the receipt!

£3.81/£200