December 2019 Grocery Challenge

BVic28

Hi, I’m looking forward to joining my first grocery challenge! Can you put me down for a target of £300 please. That’s for 2 adults and nappies for baby (he’s breastfed so luckily no formula to pay for). I’d ideally like it a lot lower than this (this is what we typically spend but I’m going to try and cook more therefore spending less, but have allowed extra for Christmas). My month runs from 25th-24th due to paydays. I’m off to a good start this week - made a big batch of spag bol which will last another two teas and a dinner.

Going to peruse the recipes for inspiration! Good luck everyone

Barbeduk

Hi all,

Two more spends to declare! I was driving past Ald1 so nipped in for a few bits I knew I would need and would be cheaper there than a closer supermarket. Also got a stollen for christmas! So that was £12.80 out of the purse.

One of the big supermarkets is walking distance from me so I went there later on for bread, trying to time it with yellow sticker time. Managed to get bread, flat bread, cucumber and apples for a grand total of £1.73 so was very pleased!

Tea last night was risotto made with chicken left over from last week's roast - don't worry, it had been in the freezer! There's enough left for dd's lunch. I need to make some space in the freezer for xmas food so for my lunch I'm having tomato soup and for dinner chicken casserole - both currently defrosting. I batch cook everything so there are always goodies in there!

Really pleased to have only spent £35.60 so far as I have enough 'proper' food to last until next week. Just need to top up the fruit bowl and maybe get a pizza for ds's Saturday night treat.

[Deleted User]

Can I join in this month please? I am slowly getting back into the MSE habit and posting regularly on the forum as I have felt that things are getting out of control over the last few months. This and other threads will help me refocus.

Please put me down for £150 for the month. This may be a bit ambitious but I just want to see how I get on. My month started yesterday as it was OHs payday.

So far we have spent £9.96 stocking up on our favourite coffee. Lidl had the coffee we love (Nescafe Azera Americano) on offer for £2.49 so we stocked up on 4 jars. I also spent £7.80 at the butchers. I am planning on tracking grocery spends closely this month and will keep my total in my signature.

Thanks elsiepac for running the thread.

Bake-a-Cake

I need to focus again after months away from the forum. Please could you put me down for £5001st December - 31st December. I will try and update in my signature as I spend.

nannygladys

Hi there, Can I join in for December please. I would like my budget to be £35 weekly with a further £35 added on for Xmas week (so that's £70 for that week}, this is from next Wednesday. I have already budgeted for this week, so that's four weeks in total and £175!!! Im hoping its a lot less than this!!!
Nannyg

Mrs_Cheshire

Joining in again after a little while. Need to keep a firmer grip on the spending as it's too easy to go overboard.
Budget starts on 1st and will be £400 for the month, I've already got a lot of my shopping for over the Christmas period so hopefully it'll be fairly easy to keep on track.

[Deleted User]

Another £7 today - needed some avocados and beetroot - running total this month is £57/£200 - not great!

PipneyJane

Elsiepac, may I change my budget, please? I have £9.90 left after declaring for November, so I'd like to formally include that in the December challenge's budget. Therefore, please change my December challenge budget to £129.90.

Many thanks. I really appreciate the effort you put in running this challenge. Sorry for adding to your workload.

- Pip

thriftwizard

And I'm off into December with £63 gone out of the normal housekeeping budget, on virtually everything we'll need this week, barring a top-up of fresh fruit & veg at some point. We've just been informed that DS3 is "popping" home for a few days during the week, which generally involves some budgetary challenges as he's quite - ahem, idiosyncratic - on the food front. But we'll make do... come to think of it, he's probably popping back to dip in for the first of December's mince pies, possibly his favourite thing in the world after pizza. (Shop-bought pizza only, needless to say...)

I'm panicking slightly that it's a 5-week month for us, with lots of visitors & guests, and hoping like mad that we can "coast" mainly on Christmas leftovers for the last week! Which should be entirely possible. Festive food & drink is coming out of a separate fund, as well as all the presents, which is paid into throughout the year. We do enjoy a good feast, but it'll all be HM/cooked from scratch (with all hands to the pump) and we don't go overboard buying or making stuff that will end up being fed to the chickens or even the compost heap.

I've decided not to make a traditional cake this year. Instead we'll have a Heligan Pineapple Cake (very yummy & quite easy to make) topped with cream cheese icing. The offspring aren't fond of traditional fruit cake, marzipan or royal icing, but they do rather like the pineapple cake & they adore cream cheese icing, so that's the way to go.

Hettyhound

I did the first of the month shop yesterday as it was payday for me. I spent £103 out of my £200 budget so I’ve got all the toiletries and pet food for the month. I also bought one bottle of wine and the sweet treats for Christmas, mince pies and stollen bites. With the remainder I do have to buy a wreath to take to the cemetery and two more bottles (one for gift when we visit family) so that will leave me with about £75 left for normal grocery shopping which equates to my normal weekly budget of approx £25. I did actually get a frozen roast yesterday as when I looked again at the butchers order form the smallest chicken I could order was huge for just 2 of us. I decided my budget took precedent over shopping locally and eating cold roast into 2020 :rotfl: