December 2007 Grocery Challenge

atypicalblonde

Hi all, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I have spent a further £13.96 this week on bits, which takes me over budget by £13.30. I will probably add a little to this before the month ends, but I'm still really pleased with how I have done, as a lot of the £13.96 was on mega reduced bits for the freezer on Christmas Eve. I'll post back on 31st to update final totals x

rosieben

Great to see so many newbies joining in :wave: Good luck with the challenge!

Jacks, your figures are mighy impressive, well done! :T

and to those of you who say you 'failed', dont be hard on yourselves. If you look back on your spending - like Jacks - you will surely find that you are a great big success; I've put my old spending figure in my sig to remind me how far I've come!

nopot2pin - £10 over budget is not so much really. What did you spend each month before GC?

and Bobbykins, perfect hostess syndrome is very expensive (we all have it from time to time!) but give yourself credit for what you have achieved!

see you all on the January thread :dance:

Frugaldom

I have a quick question - I always buy my Nescafe Instant coffee from Semi-chem, where it is usually £1.89 for a 200g jar - it is about £4 a jar in the supermarkets! I also get Tetley teabags at 99p and biscuits, like Jammie Dodgers, for 39p a pack from Semi-chem. Are these REALLY the exact same products? They all have the brandname labels but why are they less than half the price of elsewhere?

lil_me

Well done Jacks, great feeling isn't it. I managed to do Christmas without borrowing and that is even with going OTT because of grocery savings, makes a huge difference. Scary I used to spend over double what I do now, had nothing to show for it, cupboards and freezers have never been so full. Amazing what you can do when you think about it.

nykmedia, many offer different reasons, the tea and coffee I usually notice has different labels, comes from abroad, same as coca cola etc imported (like all the takeaways use) is cheaper. Those prices I think are the same as Wilkinsons/Instore aswell. Always a good idea to shop around, I love my price book where I note prices of what I buy in different shops, only problem is they have gone up so many times this year my book is so untidy and have had to start a new one.

tattycath

lil_me wrote: »

Well done Jacks, great feeling isn't it.Always a good idea to shop around, I love my price book where I note prices of what I buy in different shops, only problem is they have gone up so many times this year my book is so untidy and have had to start a new one.

Hi everyone. Well done Jacks!!!

That's a great idea lil_me!! The note book idea i mean. You are so organised!!! I'm seriously impressed!!!:A

Frugaldom

WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU! I am really impressed by these threads and would love to think that I'd be able to further reduce my grocery challenge amount! I read £80 a month somewhere and that is amazing! I'll stick at £120 for now but will try hard to cut that even further over the coming months. I might be here quite often though, as I don't do a 'main' shop, just buy it as I need it and stockpile any bargains that I use regularly.

Off to search for OS recipes now as I refuse to throw out 3 bananas just because their skins are getting overly freckly

rosieben

nykmedia wrote: »

WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU! I am really impressed by these threads and would love to think that I'd be able to further reduce my grocery challenge amount! I read £80 a month somewhere and that is amazing! I'll stick at £120 for now but will try hard to cut that even further over the coming months. I might be here quite often though, as I don't do a 'main' shop, just buy it as I need it and stockpile any bargains that I use regularly.

Off to search for OS recipes now as I refuse to throw out 3 bananas just because their skins are getting overly freckly

My grocery budget is £80 a month, but that is just for me! I include food, take outs, cleaning and toiletries in that.

make banana bread! excellent recipes on here. you can put your bananas in the freezer, in skins, if you want to make it some other time.

OS index? here you go - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=235198

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Cheers lovelies!

I am trying to work out what sort of target to set for January (and thinking about a yearly target as well.)

I want to hit it hard, and continue to reduce my monthly grocery spend...

BUT I don't want to create a sort of arbitrary self imposed kind of "poverty" for my children just because their mum and dad have been daft enough to get into debt.

I'm just trying to find the balance....

If I allow £2 per person per day, plus £0.50 per day for the cat then that makes £248 + £15.50 = £263.50 per month ( OR £2920 + £182.50 = £3102.50 for the year)

But is that a step too far given that our average spend over the past four months has been £339.59 per month? (or £2.61 per person per day plus £0.50 for the cat / £4007.70 for the year?)

And we all found November (our lowest spend month) really really tough - but we were motivated by wanting to have some surplus in the bank for Christmas treats.

I'm just thinking aloud really, but thanks for listening. :A

Love Jacks xxx

Rowan9

hello - I have done grocery challenges on another board but never kept it up. Now that i have found you I will be up for this!! and.....hopefully stay on track.
Jacks - I looked at your sig because of your comment about November and am amazed that you came under by over £100. Wow!!! I am looking forward to learning things on this board
W

Pink.

Hi everyone,

The January Grocery Challenge has started here, although if you are still finishing December's challenge feel free to continue posting in this thread.

To see how people fared in December have a look at lil_me's post here. If you want to have your final total added in, then send a pm to either me or lil_me and we'll update that post.

Good luck to everyone taking part in the January Challenge.:)

Pink