December 2017 Grocery Challenge

BrassicWoman

totally blew it in M&S on festive food

shall try again January.. I have plenty leftovers in the freezer....

Mrs_Cheshire

Evening all, hope you've all had a good day celebrating.
Had a couple of small spends the last few days, £0.99 at ald! for some crisps to tide the eldest over until lunch yesterday. £1.95 in Mr T on flour, chocolate chips and mushrooms, hubby made chocolate chip and fudge brioche for breakfast this morning. Was ok but not as fluffy as it could have been.
Had a small shop in Asd* on thursday for Shloer, apple juice, banana's, raspberries and a loaf of reduced bread for the freezer which I'll use tomorrow. £3.53
I need to check my bank account as I can't find any recent receipts to double check if there were any others.

I was very fortunate yesterday that a charity I've had contact with, had gone to Aldi to collect food which wouldn't be sold due to use by dates, they were doing food bags for families who could use them.
Got a large Ald! shopping bag full, 2 packs of 5% mince, 2 different packs of meatballs, pack of diced beef, 2 packs of luxury pigs in blankets, packs of chilli and lime salmon, small bag of carrots, head of broccoli and pack of tenderstem, parsnips, brussel sproats, 2 packs of spring onions, twin pack of avocados, loaf of wholemeal bread, 2 packs of 4 rolls, and a twin pack of panini's.
I've frozen all the meat and fish, and most of the bread. The veg will keep in my fridge for a few days so will use that with meals, I'm also planning to make some soup and may blanche and freeze the rest.

Budget is looking good, I'm currently standing at £454.34/£650 with 6 days left.
I've meal planned the rest of the week, most of it I have in already so should spend relatively little.

PipneyJane

Good morning everyone

Did you have a good Christmas? Ours was very quiet but lovely. The turkey was 7.5kg and is yielding loads of leftovers. I can foresee a lot of freezer Tetris in my future.

On the grocery challenge front, I completely blew the budget. The moral of the story is don’t let me go to Waitrose alone. I only went to buy chestnut puree, since they’re the only reliable source, and £25.17 later.... Well, I did get four sachets of chestnut puree along with quite a bit of dried mango, a couple of oranges and some sweet potatoes.

Even without Waitrose, we’d have blown the budget. The last weekend saw £4 spent at the farm shop, £8.25 at L!dl, and an additional £16.69 at Mr T’s. Ho hum. We’re at my MIL’s for the next few days and I get paid on Friday, so I’m declaring for December at £192.92/£162.70, an overspend of £30.23.

Roll on 2018.

silver-oldie

Hi everyone
I've de-lurked to ask if anyone can please help?
I keep my record of spending on paper and add up every month.
I don't understand anything techie but would like to keep my records on my laptop.
Need something to record, food, petrol, presents, clothes money off coupons etc
Any suggestions please?
Thank you.

[Deleted User]

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE. I have so much stuff. Before Xmas, I literally only bought 1 x bag of cashews extra - I thought be Chrismassy - which is still sat there oh yeah n some booze, which is hanging on in there (just). I did buy 7 bags of veggies on the Aldi 19p each, which cost £1.33, but not as a Xmas thing, just normal shopping, plus a load of salad and I made coleslaw, dips etc., I still have most of my cheeses left - oh gawd. Been working Crisis @ Xmas n they have silly amounts of food, fully cooked full English breakfast - with veggie/vegan option, plus lunch, tons of snacks, so really feel stuffed, without spending. My family got me 4 boxes of posh chocs, mouses & cakes, plus Madeira wine, all vegan friendly, as part of crimbo prezzies and sent me off with a ton of cooked veg too, which was gonna go to waste. I'm gonna cook up in2 a bubble n squeak concoction 2moz, maybe burgers??? EDIT: Mashed all the veg, which included stuffing, seasoned with salt & lots of pepper and added a couple of tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast, to give a cheesy flavour, plus some brown lentils, which were in the fridge. Made 7 large burgers, which are now freezing. Need to do a proper meal plan, as I hate waste. Today I spent £4.47 on 3 packs of wholemeal seeded rolls reduced to 14p, brown loaf 11p, passata and some cashew & soya milks. I want, rather than need, some green thai chillie paste n some coconut milk, to make some curries for the freezer, but that's it though. I am on target, but never say never with me. Have updated sig

pamsdish

silver-oldie wrote: »

Hi everyone
I've de-lurked to ask if anyone can please help?
I keep my record of spending on paper and add up every month.
I don't understand anything techie but would like to keep my records on my laptop.
Need something to record, food, petrol, presents, clothes money off coupons etc
Any suggestions please?
Thank you.

type budget planner into play store and quite a few freebies, read the reviews as to performance.

Rachiedabbler70

Hi All
Not kept up with the thread over the last few months due to a nasty illness in Sept/ Oct then busy at work, but I kept all my receipts and when I was ill I could hardly eat so I actually saved more money - every cloud has a silver lining!! Anyway - with £20 in my purse and plenty of food in the fridge and freezer I'm going to declare my spend for the year at £3176. Under my budget of £3250.

I'm going to go back to monthly for 2018 as I find it more motivating and as I am transitioning to a more vegetarian, then vegan diet I expect my costs to go down as I cook everything from scratch and already have a good stock cupboard of dried lentils, beans, oats etc.

Happy New Year everyone.
:)

YorksLass

Well, that's Christmas done for another year! Just New Year to go and then we can get back to normal, whatever that might be.

Not posted since mid-December due to (a) lack of time and (b) coming down with the dreaded lurgy. Now feeling almost human again but finding it hard going. The enthusiasm is there but energy levels are definitely lacking!

YorksLass wrote: »

Not planning on going overboard with food this year and I'm hoping there might even be some cash left over.

Mmm, that didn't quite work out. After a large online shop, a trip to the market and a small spend locally, I ended up going over budget by £5.91. On the bright side, we are well stocked up foodwise so I'm planning on spending as little as possible in January and I'm going to cut the grocery budget by £5 pw as well.

Happy New Year everyone, hope to "see" you all again in January.

PennyGrabber

Hi all,

Is the Jan thread up yet? My budget-tracking has gone to pieces through the latter part of the year. I haven't gone majorly over, but I really have no idea what I've spent. I'm hoping to start again with keeping track in the new year...

PG x

dingdongsaving

Just finished an online shop to be delivered tomorrow as I can't fathom going to any shops at this time of year.

Delivery will see us well into Jan with just fruit and veggies needed...but not until end of next week as we have grapes, oranges, apples & toms, cucumber, lettuce and a couple of cauli in already.
Found quite a few 1/2 price and B1G1 free offers on non perishable items we buy regularly too, so stocked up on these as had money left in the budget.

Ilness unfortunately meant some of our visitors couldn't come this hol, so we've planned to meet up in the new year. Ds has not been devastated by this as it means we have lots of jam and lemon curd leftover to carry on making tarts throughout the holiday and beyond. :rotfl: A jar and a half of our mincemeat left in stock also. :T

Final count for December is £574.04. Delivery may not have everything in stock, so may be a tad less.