January 2012 Grocery Challenge

TylersMummy

Hi all, after stalking this thread for months, I'm ready to join and thought I'd better start my first GC

It's just me, OH and my son who's just 6 weeks old. OH is now going to stop buying lunch at work every day (about £3-£5 a DAY!) and is going to take sandwiches in instead so that should save us a bundle. Put me down for £100 which includes food, cleaning products and householdy bits. Nappies and milk come out of a different budget.

I have a freezer full of meat so going to attempt to eat out of the freezer for January and only buy fresh stuff and store cupboard bits as and when we need it.

Our month starts tomorrow!

bupster

Hi there, very longtime lurker, just looked at my horrifying debt levels and decided I need to get them down. I know how to live within my means, I just get bored of it

I've managed to save £30 a month already by changing utility providers, but want to put at least another £200 away each month towards debt. This leaves me a budget of £75 a week for everything after bills, which is really much more than I think I need, but I wanted to be realistic. Anything I don't spend and anything extra I earn will go towards paying down the debt.

I actually think I can spend next to nothing out of my January budget, especially as I've got some cash kicking about. I live alone, but have a family's worth of leftovers after Christmas! I also tend to buy in bulk - just did a partial inventory of my store cupboards and found 4.5 kilos of spaghetti alone :rotfl: - so as long as I don't mind pasta every day I'm sorted for the next month!

I also need to lose some weight, so it's going to be interesting to see if I can cook enough interesting meals to keep me going given that I have a full time job, a four hour daily commute, a part time semi-voluntary job, and am just about to sign up for a part time higher degree. My workload is insane (I also have an allotment) but the immpetus behind driving down the debt is the promise that maybe one day I'll be able to take a job in the town I live in on less money that will give me some of my life back. Wish me luck!

recovering_spendaholic

Gosh this thread moves fast!! Welcome to the newcomers today - this is a fab thread!!

Rant Alert!!! I went to visit an old friend today in her new house and DD2 had a friend in and I said they could make fairy cakes (we had loads of stuff in) and before I went I made sure that there was plenty to eat for their lunch, and possibly tea if I wasn't back by then. I had chicken casserole left from yesterday and I made a huge ham and cheese pasta bake which looked lovely and I got out some sausage rolls from the freezer (reduced to 20p or something before Christmas so...).

I came in just now to find all of that untouched and DD2 had opened a tin of tuna and a tin of sweetcorn and had gone to the shop and bought a loaf and had made sandwiches!!!!! I was furious with her particularly as I had left enough food for a small army, never mind two 13 year olds! They WILL eat that pasta bake for tea though!!

Went to Aldi before to see if there were any reductions but it was very disappointing - only got some cherry tomatoes and an iceberg lettuce. I used the money out of my purse, which is not from today's pay packet so I am not counting that out of January's budget, which begins tomorrow!

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

Spent £2.39 in Sainsbugs today, getting tomatoes and creme fraiche for a seafood spaghetti we're having tonight. Have had the mixed seafood in the freezer for a month (bought on 3 for 2) so should be interesting.......

In other spending 'news' DS1 and I had lunch at a local cafe - nice to spend some time alone with him - almost a teenager, not wanting to walk down the street with his old Mum, you get the picture. We had a sarnie each, I had a pot of tea and he had a large coke - £9.95 :eek:. But spent cash that I had in my purse so not counting it towards the budget. Also got him some new stationery for school - seriously, how many pertractors (sp?) and rulers can one year 8 get through...??

DH, DD and DS2 went to the local indoor playpark and bought lunch there £17.45 :eek::eek: - again cash, but seriously, these places are a licence to print money (not to mention the £11.60 to get in :mad:).

NYE party at friends tomorrow. They are doing various curries, so hopefully a NSD

hex2

Huge hugs Recovering Spendaholic, that happens here too

I went to the bulk butchers today - £148 for c95lb meat now all portioned, bagged and in the freezer. Well worth a visit for anyone in the East Mids - just off J20 of the M1: https://www.joseph-morris.co.uk/ then look at the freezer price list. A good three months supply for us which I will split into £50 a month over the next three months for the purpose of my GC budget.

icontinuetodream

First spend from jan gc today....£1.99 on some corn oil.....very annoyed as had promised myself that I wouldn't hit any supermarket before the end of Jan, but only have about 3 bowls of granola left so have to make more :mad:

On the plus side though.....that's all I bought....I went straight to the oils in the shop, then immediately to the self serve checkout..:D Probably the first time that I have done that in years!!!:A

mumto2monkeys_2

Please put me down for £250 for January.

blackandwhitebunny

I really need to stick to this, this year after failing miserably last year:o My December totals don't bear any resemblance to my target. Partly because we visited Mr S on boxing day and bought eight markdown turkeys, only two for us and the rest for MIL and neighbours but the money came out of grocery budget and somehow the repayments from everyone have ended up in the casual spends, out and about money and I've completely lost track. Please can I have £200 for Jan again. I;m still not including food for the furry critters in this as its just too scary:eek: any suggestions as to how to ween a cat off Royal Canin biscuits?

SpagBol

Another £5.93 spent here on spices and veg as have made a bumper lentil, rice and potato indian dish taking my total to £40.66 and 4 more dinners in the freezer

Have now got enough dinners for me and DH for the next week-10 days but need to buy lunch (sarnie and soup) stuff and spag bol ingredients to put portions in the freezer for the kids. Should come in under budget for this week :-)

hannahroberts1985

Hi Guys, Hope you all had a great christmas. I'm new here and determind to make 2012 the year i start looking at my money properly. I'm gonna take a guess of £100 for January inc cat food. I have already spent £30 so will try stick with the remaining £70.