December 2020 Grocery Challenge

Pixiehouse55

Christmas Cake was made in October. Christmas pudding left over from last year as I made 2 and cooked in the slow cooker its got Cranberries in and its lush. I make my own mincemeat and make mince pies/turnovers.I put away £130 a month from January to November and that pays for all family presents and money for Christmas food. We don't drink but do buy a Bucks Fizz and hubby loves his Crabbies Ginger Wine. Our 2 service users who live with us buy themselves a bottle of cider and wine. Dont know if step children/Adults wi,l be allowed here for Christmas because of COVID19. Waiting to hear. One of them is a vegan. We don't over spend we just buy normal monthly shop and a few extra treats. 

Suffolk_lass

@welshspendthrift I divide my annual budget (£3000) into 15 (£200 each) - with 2 portions for Christmas, two for stores and the rest spread across January to November. This year I am starting with a bargain premium beef joint in the freezer, and like you, some homemade mincemeat. I also have a couple of reduced mini Christmas puddings with a 2021 sell-by date that I picked up in the bargainous aftermath of Christmas 2019.

We will be buying expensive meat from our local butcher this year because I want them to have a good Christmas too (and unlike many, we can afford this choice) - too much for just us so we will deliver some treats to others - including our son and his housemates if they are not allowed to go elsewhere. We will take meat, potatoes and gravy, he will cook vegetables. I'll also give them mince pies and a few treats to make things better for them. If we are allowed to be together he can take left-overs made into curry and pies

thriftmonster

Can you put me down for £ 300- that's for 20 November to 21 December - I would like to see if I can come under for this. I already have quite a few things in and have paid off part of my Morrison's Christmas order. I need to order a few things from the butcher and will get the cheese from the market as well. I actually need to sort through what I have bought - for me and treats for others.
I'm another one that puts money away every month - for Christmas and birthdays. (and a lot of other "cocoa tins" as well)

thriftwizard

Thank you for the shiny new thread, elsiepac! Please can you put me down for £450 this month? Festive supplies come from another account (much of it's already made, bought, or ordered & paid for) and I doubt we'll be able to have too many guests at any other time, so back to our "new normal" we'll go.

That's to feed & clean up after 4 adults (2 omnivores, 2 pescatarians) 3 adult cats, 2 cockatiels and 12 chickens.

quintwins

welshspendthrift said:

Hello can I put a budget of £350 as a target for December, that is everything food and cleaning and Christmas extras.We might have a quieter than usual Christmas due to Covid so should be less than this if that is the case. Next year I will take hints and tips for getting stuff through the year. Any tips for saving on this Christmas welcome. I do like to make from scratch all the Christmas goodies,I have some home made mincemeat from last year as a start. 😀

I wouldn't squirrel actual food away cause your are likely to eat it lol. I use a change jar....I lodged £135 last week from random left over purse change and considering my kids pocket money comes out of the change jar and we were cashless for awhile I don't think that's too bad 

elsiepac

Budgets up to date to here

Loving all this Christmas talk! A lot of people in my little town have already started putting their lights up!! I'm not doing any of mine until December as otherwise I get a bit fed up of the decorations gathering dust!
Christmas budget for me won't change too much - usually we have Christmas Dinner out but had already decided to have a year off from that anyway due to the prices rising a lot.  However we are having our evening meal out Christmas Eve instead - obviously dependant on the lockdown situation.  If not, we will get treaty food.  So first Christmas Dinner cooked at home in a quite a few years - I'm vegan and my mum tends to prefer veggie stuff over meat, so we are going to make one of the big Bosh! roasts; they look so tasty!  For my sister and dad we will buy a turkey crown or beef joint ready done in one of the little trays as it's only them who will eat it, so we don't need a lot.  
My spending is all over the place still at the moment.  I'm toying with the idea of annual budgets next year, but we will see.  Haven't set a budget for December yet.

off_the_wagon

Can you put me down for £800 for the month again please. This is for food for 5 adults (4 of us with dietary issues) plus pets and other household spending like toiletries.  Did really well last month (with the same budget) but am now back up to 5 adults (from 4) and Christmas is coming - not that anyone needs any reminding!  Should really think about a separate Christmas budget for next year....

Pixiehouse55

Yesterday I spent £140.91 on click and collect with Asdi and £48.15 delivery with Iceland. Dog food is separate and that was £80  and oddses. Need to go to Farmfoods for Ice Cream. Pop in to asdi for bread from their bakery as they didn't have it on their online shopping. Happy so far. Lovely chicken casserole in the ninja potatoes chucked in as well. Having that in a minute and a toffee and pecan rhoulard for dessert...its been in the freezer for a while begging to be eaten 😉

Smoosh

Can I join please. Used to play a lot but now I just stalk the threads every month, so figured it was time to join again!

We have a budget of £300. That's for 2 adults, a small dog (raw fed, he costs us roughly £20 a month including treats) and a cat (he costs us £35-40 a month - we use zooplus, so always spend £35 to make sure we get free delivery, so sometimes it lasts more than a month and includes his litter). Our month runs payday to payday, usually 25th but this time it'll be 25th November-23rd December. 

We have a bank account used solely for groceries as it makes it much easier for us to track and means we can't overspend, although this month we only have 40p left, so I'd like to do a bit better in December! 

patentgirl

Thanks Elisepac for thread going for £300 for Dec think I will need bit extra, runs from 1st to 31st also toying with annual budget next year.