November 2007 Grocery Challenge

JAMIEDODGER

i know i have gone over budget this month. and i know why.

i have done a lot of stocking up as our cupboards were looking bare at the start of the month, and i have switched all our fruit, veg and meat over to organic. and i am now only buying doves farm gluten free flour (about 1.50 for a kg shocking)

actually, i am not to upset not meeting my target this month. i usually manage to keep within.

will have a tally up later and see what the actual total is (and i still have 10 days left of this month!!!!)

i will have to try and claw this back next month!!

High_Peak_Lass

Morning All

£199 for me so far. Off to parents this weekend and still chomping through the contents of the freezer.
£26 to last till next Friday. Don't want to get my hopes up but..........!

irishwexford

Well I still have £32 left until end of month so doing well. I have sorted out my finances with several small bank accounts for different things and after getting my head around it all have found a way to manage it all. Someone else said on here how they have cut down on waste, well that is what I have noticed about us. Since keeping to a meal plan I am cooking from scratch and just buying what we need, meat is taken from freezer the night before and lots of bol sauce cooked up ready for meals. I do resist impulse buys now and not just on food, its become a way of life for me as I enjoy watching the cash mount up in bank. I have allowed myself budgets for clothes, holidays and savings as well as food so this site has been a lifesaver for me. Wish I had done it all years ago. Best of luck to everyone.:o

flossyblog

Hi everyone,:)

I've been shopping again spent €7.65 which brings the total to €190.44:o

belfastgirl, thanks, I list all items bought in excel. I was interested to see how much we consumed in a year. I am an anorak when it comes to finances, we also have an inventory of everything we own.

Meanmarie, Yes, I do live in Holland, in between Amsterdam and Haarlem.

As with most things we have different tastes. I drink earl grey, he drinks PG tips. I used to drink sainsburys own label earl grey, (I have tried all other brands and this was the best). However a couple of years ago they changed something and it is not as good. The tea over here is dire, the dutch seem to like their tea weak, it's pretty tasteless too. After wasting lots of money testing out all earl grey brands here, I gave up, they were yuck. luckily for me Lidl starting stocking earl grey. It's not great, but I can live with it. OH on the other hand can't . He was drinking PG before I met him and has always had a supply via friends, trips and work colleagues. we did a little cost study and found out it worked out the same, whether buying it in Britain or here.

Egon, I offered to make cakes for the office when I found out how much it was going to cost. He was not interested at all. I'm sure if I had gone on long enough he might have relented,:wall: but frankly, I just couldn't be bothered. I have learnt that there are certain things he will do regardless of what I think, this is one of them.:rolleyes2

I do think I will be going over €200 by the time I finish. I'll have a cuppa and ponder over the data to see what can be adjusted.:think:

izoomzoom

Have managed to only go to the shops twice this week, and spend so was has been £7.25 which was for margarine, fish fingers (DS friend coming to tea and this is the only thing he eats :mad: ) and milk. Real challenge will be to not go shopping with DH on the weekend, because then I will blow the budget big time.

So far damage control is going pretty okay !!:rolleyes:

mikeD

flossyblog, meanmarie and BG23. Is the conversion rate for the Euro to the Pound the same in all the Euro countries? I should know this but as we don't travel abroad anymore I have lost touch with all that conversion stuff. Anyway the Euro (:mad:) is a rubbish currency, after all a Pound is Sterling .

No spend today, hooray!

Good luck to one and all whether you spend in Euros or proper money .

Moniker

Just popped in to update my sig. Looks like I will be under by about £5 or £6 this month which I am very chuffed with! (Hope I'm not counting chickens!)

Have just got back from Sainsbury's (only local rival for Waitrose!) and have enough food to last till 30th I think. I am cooking 3 course dinner for 5 on Saturday but have managed to only buy a bit of extra cheese and a couple of bits of veg as the rest was in the storecupboard and freezer- I even have two bottles of wine left from the 6 I bought at the start of the month.

For lunch today I have made a cannelloni for two using what I had labelled in the freezer as one portion of bolognese sauce. You definitely need less meat making cannelloni than lasagne and my OH doesn't notice he's getting less to eat!

Good luck everyone with the final push! Off to ponder how much I should allow for the Christmas budget!

WelshWoofer

Hello - everyone seems to be doing pretty well this month.

I haven't been to a shop since Monday (good for me) but will have to go to the supermarket on Saturday for toiletries for my trip to Canada next Wednesday and maybe one or to things to allow me to eat during the beginning of next week! I have tried to use things up in the freezer and cupboards both to save money and to try to clear some space for Xmas and have succeeded in virtually clearing them out- they've never been so bare!

Anyway, £37 left (out of £100) so not doing too badly!

flossyblog

Hi MikeD

yes, it is the official currency of 13 European states known as the Eurozone.

The Dutch guilders were really pretty

rosieben

flossyblog wrote: »

Hi MikeD

yes, it is the official currency of 13 European states known as the Eurozone.

The Dutch guilders were really pretty

without in any way getting into a discussion on the rights and wrongs of a common euro currency, I think its very sad that we lost all the different names guilders, pesetas, francs, etc. a shame they couldnt have kept the individual names - though how confusing would that have been