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My January Challenge

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torbrex
torbrex Posts: 71,340 Forumite
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edited 20 January 2015 at 5:27PM in Old style MoneySaving
I knew at the beginning of December that I was going to be short of wages come January and into February so I did a lot of bargain food shopping. I picked up as many yellow stickered items as took my fancy and stuck them in the freezer, I also bought an extra one of the weekend half-price Lidl deals when it was something I liked.

My challenge is now to go through January without buying food other than bread, milk, fruit and veg and just use up what I have in the freezer.
This is not a desperate bid to cut my food bills to save the cash for some huge bill that I am expecting, its just a little exercise to see if I can still be as frugal as I used to be when I absolutely HAD to do things like this just to get by. It's not a no-spend challenge as such but I am hoping that I can keep my spending on food to a minimum.

I will keep a record in this thread of what I buy/spend at each food shop I do just to see how I get on :)

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  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
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    torbrex wrote: »
    I knew at the beginning of December that I was going to be short of wages come January and into February so I did a lot of bargain food shopping. I picked up as many yellow stickered items as took my fancy and stuck them in the freezer, I also bought an extra one of the weekend half-price Lidl deals when it was something I liked.

    My challenge is now to go through January without buying food other than bread, milk, fruit and veg and just use up what I have in the freezer.
    This is not a desperate bid to cut my food bills to save the cash for some huge bill that I am expecting, its just a little exercise to see if I can still be as frugal as I used to be when I absolutely HAD to do things like this just to get by. It's not a no-spend challenge as such but I am hoping that I can keep my spending on food to a minimum.

    I will keep a record in this thread of what I buy/spend at each food shop I do just to see how I get on :)


    Are you going to set yourself a monetary limit on what you spend on those? I'm pretty sure I could live indefinitely on unlimited bread, milk, fruit and veg.
  • torbrex
    torbrex Posts: 71,340 Forumite
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    LandyAndy wrote: »
    Are you going to set yourself a monetary limit on what you spend on those? I'm pretty sure I could live indefinitely on unlimited bread, milk, fruit and veg.
    I will not be buying any more than I normally would of these things.
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
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    It is quite an interesting exercise. I think I could probably live comfortably for a couple of months off what I have in the house right now plus a small weekly addition of 'perishables'.


    I think some meals might get a bit 'unusual' towards the end though :D
  • torbrex
    torbrex Posts: 71,340 Forumite
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    LandyAndy wrote: »
    It is quite an interesting exercise. I think I could probably live comfortably for a couple of months off what I have in the house right now plus a small weekly addition of 'perishables'.


    I think some meals might get a bit 'unusual' towards the end though :D

    I do have quite a lot of quality food in the freezer and my collection of tinned food isn't too bad either, I'll see how long I last :)

    I won't actually know how much I have saved cash wise but with not actually buying 'main meal' ingredients there should be a fair saving :T
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
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    Thinking about it. I could probably manage without milk and I have enough bread flour to make loaves to keep me going for a while and I could stick to just vegetables so wouldn't really need fruit.


    All I need now is a blizzard winter to test it out.
  • joansgirl
    joansgirl Posts: 17,899 Forumite
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    There's a "Living out of your freezer" thread on one of the other boards. Not sure where, erm, probably the old style money saving thingy :)
    floraison.gif
    Some people only exist as examples of what to avoid...
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  • 74jax
    74jax Posts: 7,929 Forumite
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    LandyAndy wrote: »
    It is quite an interesting exercise. I think I could probably live comfortably for a couple of months off what I have in the house right now plus a small weekly addition of 'perishables'.


    I think some meals might get a bit 'unusual' towards the end though :D

    I think I'm really unusual. We buy or food for the week on a Monday . We do have maybe a tin of soup or beans in the cupboard but that would stay there for months.

    My friend has said before she has nothing in, and I've taken her at her word and even bought her food, only to find she's got blooming cupboards of stuff.

    I don't know anyone else who buys food like we do, we really should have a stack of back up food, mind we do have a pizza normally in the freezer and frozen veg.

    I have no idea why we do it that way, my parents never so don't know where it's come from.
    Forty and fabulous, well that's what my cards say....
  • torbrex
    torbrex Posts: 71,340 Forumite
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    joansgirl wrote: »
    There's a "Living out of your freezer" thread on one of the other boards. Not sure where, erm, probably the old style money saving thingy :)

    Sshh, like you I knew there was a thread somewhere but I didn't really want to join it as this is going to be more of a diary for myself just to see if I can do it :)
  • joansgirl
    joansgirl Posts: 17,899 Forumite
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    torbrex wrote: »
    Sshh, like you I knew there was a thread somewhere but I didn't really want to join it as this is going to be more of a diary for myself just to see if I can do it :)

    Oops (again) :D
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    Some people only exist as examples of what to avoid...
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  • pollypenny
    pollypenny Posts: 29,394 Forumite
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    LandyAndy wrote: »
    It is quite an interesting exercise. I think I could probably live comfortably for a couple of months off what I have in the house right now plus a small weekly addition of 'perishables'.


    I think some meals might get a bit 'unusual' towards the end though :D



    OH keeps buying yellow sticker stuff and stuffing it in the freezer. Trouble is, he never tells me what he's bought and he forgets himself. :cool:
    Member #14 of SKI-ers club

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