December 2007 Grocery Challenge

belfastgirl23

Hi everyone

Back again for the last challenge of the year. I did some soul searching last night about a realistic budget and I think I'll have to up it to £200. I've already spent £11 towards some Xmas stuff and I have a big shop arriving with about £50 of stuff on Monday night but I'm gonna need a few bits and bobs before then. I'll also need to do a shop in Lidl at some stage. We usually buy some nice bits and pieces to bring with us when visiting etc and this all adds up. A lot of our regular eating foods have also gone up a bit in price so I'll have to think again in January.

Okay off to update the signature...

And welcome Patches and Sweetpea, good to see ya!

belfastgirl23

PS do you think at the end of Dec we could have a 'results of the Grocery Challenge in 2007' type thread? Would love to see how much we've all saved and what we've done with it. We all seem to spend so much time noticing the stuff we haven't done I think a bit of self congratulation might be in order. What do you guys think??

Patches41048

Hi and thanks for the welcome.

I like the idea of celebrating how well everyone has done! Its easy to beat ourselves up over 20 here or 50 there over but if we have spent overall less than we used to its got to be good!!!

I will have to wait a while for that kind of praise, I'm taking 'baby steps' so that i can do this. I know what i spend but not where yet this may take a few months to get to grips with.

Blairweech

Hmm. I am really not sure what to set for December - we have a very complicated month. OHs wages don't get paid until Jan, so Decemeber we have to pay all the bills out of my wage (about £600) - pretty difficult when rent is £650!! Although we do have an extra £400 coming this month. Think I will do mine weekly, as I now get paid weekly, but I dont get paid til tomorrow.

So, I'll go for...£30 a week, with £50 for the Christmas week.

Jacks_xxx

sweetpea03 wrote: »

Hello Jacks :hello: Thank you for the lovely welcome Good luck with your december budget, try not to worry, I bet you'll be fine! I am really good at doing a meal plan but rubbish at sticking to it! Hope that doing this challenge will help me get more organised :cool:

We have a kind of "movable" meal plan.

I know what meals I'm cooking each week - barring any big changes - but on which days???

Well, that depends!

The only one that's at all regular is that there's always pasta on Tuesdays cos OH and eldest son go to five a side and they like to carbo load beforehand! (and afterwards!)

But some days they all ring up to say that they're eating elsewhere tonight,

Or conversely they turn up with extra mouths in tow...and without the milk / bread / aubergine I asked them to pick up.

And then of course there's those random weeks when nobody eats any cereal at breakfast time so the milk and cereal pile up - but we run out of bread on a daily basis. :rolleyes:

So I have to build in some flexibility really or it just wouldn't work.

I'm pretty happy with the way things are going though - and nobody's moaning yet!

Love Jacks xxx

Jacks_xxx

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

PS do you think at the end of Dec we could have a 'results of the Grocery Challenge in 2007' type thread? Would love to see how much we've all saved and what we've done with it. We all seem to spend so much time noticing the stuff we haven't done I think a bit of self congratulation might be in order. What do you guys think??

Big thumbs up on that one sweetie. :dance:

Let's celebrate the progress made and the lessons learned!

Love Jacks xxx

atypicalblonde

Oooh can I please join in? I vaguely remember having a half-hearted go at this a few months ago but I wasn't strict enough with keeping my receipts . I definately need to give this a go though, food is one area I struggle to keep under budget. There are 2 of us in our house, so I'm going to aim for £120 (including any cheeky bits of Christmas alcohol!:D )

Best of luck everyone! x

ShirleyPark_2

Right I'm going to join in this month, I need to start budgetting properly again now that I have a huge mortgage to pay by myself. I'm going to try and do £60 for the month, I'm spending Christmas at my sisters so nothing extra to really spend there.

High_Peak_Lass

Woo Hoo!!!

I'm starting in the morning (OH Payday)
Going for £200 this month as still have bits in freezer and away from 21st - 29th.
Being slightly crazy on Saturday and going to ASDA rather than Mr.T. OHs idea, 'i used to like asda, it was cheap'.... wish he'd said that 6 months ago!!!

ah well

Good luck to all.xxx

lil_me

Good evening, right nearlt they end of my November and still hanging in.

I'm planning on spending no more than £350 this month, this is to include everything for 2 adults, 2 children, pets (2 big dogs, lizard and hedgehog) including food (all meals every day), toiletries, cleaning, takeaways/food out etc. I am allowing slightly more with it being Christmas month.

I suppose someone (I will if you like) could do a list of what everyones budget is and what they spent at the end of the month as a sort of final report on the thread.