November 2007 Grocery Challenge

belfastgirl23

Well done Thebees on completing the run! I can barely bring myself to walk to work these days And funny you mention the Tesco value dishwash tabs, I had just noticed them when I was in on Sunday and wondered what they were like. I bought enough for 6 months last time I was in lidl but will give this a go when I need them again. It is a bit of a pain to go to Lidl for me, the local is about 10 mins drive and is usually rubbish and the better one in the West of the city can take 20mins or more to get to through the traffic.

Oh and Moniker I'm with you on the once a day dishwash unless I'm doing a big cook up. Usually after dinner. Mike I would also have thought washing up was no big deal but have since realised that it's like the post, it just keeps coming, and that is allegedly what drives postmen mad

Trying very hard to keep out of the shops for the next week or so fingers crossed.

MrsDave

Hi everyone

Everybody seems to be doing well, isn't it hard though, just now? The shops are full of all these tempting treats on BOGOFS or big boxes of choccies, reduced. I am just trying to shop online and stay away because I find it really hard not to be tempted!!
That's my second week past, total spend for the week 48.22, that was an online shop and a wee trip to Morrisons (they have got some good deals just now, 3 bottles of Fridj for 1.00, 3 tins of Ambrosia custard for 1.00, oops, there I go again with my multisaves!)
I'm away to update my sig, now, I've spent 130.00, 70.00 left for the next 2 weeks, that's gonna be tough for me!!! I think I'll need to be locked up!!:rotfl:

flossyblog

Hi everyone,

Here’s the latest. Total so far is €182.79. I’ve broken it down into sections

Bread - €11.82, I like wholemeal, OH likes white. Buying it is the best option for us. I do make pizza dough.

Cheese - €4.49

Cleaning - €3.67 - soda crystals, bath cleaner, and scourers

Drinks - €40.42 - Tea from england €11. 8 packs of OJ €12.72 . 2 bottles of wine, €4.88 This includes coffee in café, €3.70. The rest is tea, coffee and milk

Meat - €28.65. 1 whole chicken, 1.5kg of chicken wings, 1kg of lamb, 1kg mince, 1kg fresh fish and 4 fillets of various fish

Pantry - €19.47 Beans, nuts, oil, butter and sauces

Sandwich - €12.67 this is anything that we have on bread. Eg cold meats, peanut butter,etc OH is dutch so that means a lot of chocolate spreads and sprinkles

Chocolate - €7.34 this is mostly OH, I eat chocolate occasionally with a cup of tea. He will eat all chocolate in one sitting. I don’t buy it that much anymore, but it was his birthday this month.

Toiletries - €6.83, toothpaste and 16 toilet rolls

Fruit & veg - €21.08

Cakes - €26.35. It was DH’s birthday, His office has this tradition, on your birthday you buy the cakes. I offered to make cake, however he thought this would make him look like a timmy tightbum. He also got PG tips from England via a work collegue this cost €11. It was expensive as it was bought from a local shop. Why do men do that?

If I knock off the cakes it comes €156.44. The pantry stuff will last approx 3 months as well as the OJ and toilet rolls. I have 2 portions of chicken, 4 HM chillis, 500g lamb, 4 HM burgers, 1 stew and lots of chicken wings in the freezer. However I only have a courgette and 3 weeny carrots in the fridge so I will have to buy more veg in the next couple of days.

I am enjoying this challenge and learning so much, it’s fantastic! thanks

belfastgirl23

flossyblog wow that is one impressive inventory. If I get time/energy I might try doing something similar myself cheers for the idea

meanmarie

Flossyblog,

Do you live in Holland and if so what is wrong with the tea you buy there?? DS1 and his Japanese wife live near Amsterdam and every time someone visits the main thing we have to bring is tea

Just wondering

Marie

mikeD

Will have to go to town tomorrow for veggies as almost out, also bread. Might try the new refurbished Sainsbury's if I can find my way in. Apparently the entrance to the store is a bit of a rabbit warren for pedestrians. If not I'll go to the Tesco Metro. Might get a couple of packs of :beer:

Welcome Hilary, you've had plenty of good advice already so I'll just say "Good Luck"

Well done the Bees, what energy! Makes me tired just thinking about it.:D

Glad you're feeling better HPL and have a nice restful weekend.

Bobbykins

Hiya all

things are getting a bit tight for us at this stage of the month (always does!) - why, despite meticulous meal planning and budgeting, do I always end up being just that little bit short at the end of the month?

I find the trouble is, also, that once I realise I'm probably not going to make it, I seem to get this "in for a penny, in for a pound" mentality saying "S*d it" and chucking the whole thing out the window and blowing the budget big time!??? .

High Peak Lass - the meal went really well, thanks. Unfortunately I didn't manage to keep it below £10 though as I got tempted by some flowers for the table (£2.99), we needed extra cream at the last minute (£0.47), the lemon I had in the fridge was soggy so needed another (£0.21) and then realised at the last minute we had no ice cubes as I'd used the ice cube tray to freeze herbs :mad: :mad: so, for the first time in my life, I actually had to BUY ice cubes! (£0.65).

Also, have just had to make a cake for someone who's leaving at work, so had to buy extra butter.

Will update siggie in a mo', but have already worked out that we have about £12 left until month end on 30th :eek: :eek: - so, off to do an update on the freezer inventory and see what I can cobble together for a replacement meal plan!

High_Peak_Lass

Bobbykins

Don't jack it in for the month. This is my first GC and you're all being such positive role models!
I've not let bronchitis beat me yet.......although a few hot toddies from a bottle of Jamesons would be nice!!!

Get to that feezer and re-plan!!!!

(oo-ee-oo, get me! I may need your help this time next week for exactly the same thing!)

belfastgirl23

Bobbykins wrote: »

Hiya all

things are getting a bit tight for us at this stage of the month (always does!) - why, despite meticulous meal planning and budgeting, do I always end up being just that little bit short at the end of the month?

I find the trouble is, also, that once I realise I'm probably not going to make it, I seem to get this "in for a penny, in for a pound" mentality saying "S*d it" and chucking the whole thing out the window and blowing the budget big time!??? .

High Peak Lass - the meal went really well, thanks. Unfortunately I didn't manage to keep it below £10 though as I got tempted by some flowers for the table (£2.99), we needed extra cream at the last minute (£0.47), the lemon I had in the fridge was soggy so needed another (£0.21) and then realised at the last minute we had no ice cubes as I'd used the ice cube tray to freeze herbs :mad: :mad: so, for the first time in my life, I actually had to BUY ice cubes! (£0.65).

Also, have just had to make a cake for someone who's leaving at work, so had to buy extra butter.

Will update siggie in a mo', but have already worked out that we have about £12 left until month end on 30th :eek: :eek: - so, off to do an update on the freezer inventory and see what I can cobble together for a replacement meal plan!

Would it help you to decide to add an extra 5 - 10% contingency to the budget since we are in the mouth of Christmas rather than blowing it? If you had a business this is probably what you would do....

But do stick at it one way or another...

belfastgirl23

I just did a rough count of my spending in various areas of the food budget like flossyblog above and it has been very very instructive for me. It breaks down this way:

Cleaning/personal care basics - £8.51 bought 6 months worth of dishwasher tabs so ok
Treats - £12.94 includes crisps, chocolate and a couple of ready type meals
Dairy/eggs/£5 of fish - £33.92 over £10 on mozzarella alone!:eek:
F&V - £41.59 I probably dumped about £8 worth of this:eek:
Drinks - £6.95 tea, coffee, mineral water
Storecupboard - £21.19 really well stocked on everything now
Flour - £2.25
Bread/Pasta/Oatcakes etc - £21.16 our passion for ginger oatcakes is expensive!
Other - £9.28 all the stuff that doesn't belong in this budget - newspapers, vitamins etc

I know realistically I should be trying to take our budget south of £140 in the new year and couldn't see how to do it. If I could track down a cheaper mozzarella supplier, meal plan better (so as not to dump f&v) and cut back on the non-food spends I think this would do it. Funnily enough all the things I could easily cut back on would also help a lot in the waisline department - especially cheese (which I can't even blame DH for, it's all me sadly except for the mozzarella).

I also see there's a lot I didn't need to get this month eg milk and loo rolls since we were well stocked so I'd need to come in on budget.

For others struggling to see where it all goes this might be a useful tool too!

Also if anyone can think of a snack that would replace cheese (I am esp fond of it on oatcakes or on toast) I would love any veggie suggestions...