January 2013 Grocery Challenge

Newbie_here_2

Hello everyone, new to all of this so please bear with. I am in so much debt and need to cut down on everything starting with sm spend. I online shop as I find I don't overspend so I would like to be put down for £250 from 31st December till 31st January, just me, 2 teenagers and a dog. About to do an online shop for week commencing NYE.

KittyFisher_2

I desperately need to keep hold of grocery spending. Please put me down for £300 monthly, to include all food, household stuff, nappies, and dog and chicken necessities.

elsiepac

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas

I'm back at work already, boo!

Have been really slack with all things MSE in the latter part of this year so I need to get back on it.

More important than ever now as have just moved from my shared house to a flat on my own, which is fantastic. Not financially, but I'm much happier there so to me it;s worth it. And I should hopefully be getting a pay rise this year, fingers crossed.

I normally get paid end of the month but they paid us on the 17th Dec for Jan, and whilst I have the lions share left, I still have to pay all bills from it, plus £175 first month council tax (then £85 in Feb and that's the year done) - that;s band A with single occupier discount already taken off!! :eek:

Also have to get 6 months car tax and MOT in there somewhere...am officially skint!

I reckon I have about £30 to last for groceries till end of Jan, but will calculate properly when I'm home. Have a couple of meals made and lots of storecupboard items, so am aiming just for fresh stuff like fresh fruit and veg, milk etc. I have 4 bread mixes that desperately need using, so need to be disciplined and use them instead of keeping buying bread!

This year I need to be really disciplined but January will by far be the toughest month. Panicking slightly!

I owe my parents £650 which they lent me towards my flat deposit - it was £750 but they've given me £100 (£50 for Christmas and £50 for my birthday in Jan). We have got a payment plan worked out but on the basis that I throw in any extra when I can, so I want to do this as they're not really in a position to have lent me this. Mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before Christmas - she's not the usual patient they would expect - fit, not overweight, healthy and she's only 51. It's under 2cm and hasn't spread but they need to move quickly as it's really bad cancer to have, so they might have to go private. She's at a chemo consultancy today as they want to shrink it before operating. No idea on costs, but will be thousands. They'll probably have to sell. the house. I hate that I'm not in a position to help them financially, and worse, that they lent me this money (before we found out), so I want to pay it back asap.

They've had £272 from my deposit on my old place, so £378 to go.

Anyway, enough of a ramble, will post later with proper goal for Jan.

LC xxx

Newbie_here_2

I'm so sorry but on an iPad and scrolling up and down on here and it said thank you for reporting this as spam! Oh dear, did not do this intentionally? I can't even see which one I reported, I was just scrolling.

nicolula87

Well our month started well with a NSD yesterday! We have lots of Christmas leftovers, making turkey curry tonight, only need to buy garlic and passata for that, and we need some milk.

Then going to have a good root around in the cupboards before I do my meal plan for next week. We have a meal out planned on Saturday, so hoping to keep the cost of that down as I am including it in grocery budget. I also have a work meal out in January so going to be tight.

On the plus side I have a 10% off voucher for Pets at Home for January, so going to buy both bags of dog food at the same time which will make it £61 instead of £68 (ish).

My partner and I have been discussing money saving strategies - we are planning to buy all meat and veg from the market on a Saturday, and as many of our staples as possible from Aldi, instead of our usual Asda.

Hopefully this will keep us on track!

Mamjak

Sorry to hear about your mum Elsiepac. Hope things get sorted soon for her and she makes good, quick recovery.
Happy new home!!

savingpennies

Having lurked on this thread before, I thought it was about time to join in. DH and i hope to retire in a couple of years time and have already started to reduce our spending in readiness. I've reduced nearly all our utilities by using comparison websites, buy what I can via cashback sites and only use cashback credit cards and now it's time to look at weekly costs, such as food/toiletries etc. Already have BM and SC, so no additional spend there. I think we'll start with £350 and see how we go from there.

[Deleted User]

Hi, I've often started these threads and not kept up to them but I want to get back on track with some payments we have to make - please but me down for £60 a week. There are 4 of us and 2 cats - my daughter has a newly diagnosed wheat intolerance and I've noticed buying specific wf products are really eating away at my budget. Hopefully over the course of the year I can lower this amount.

lovecrafting

Hi everyone please could you put me down for £200 for january. there are 6 of us (2 adults 9,8 &5 year old and the baby) i will update my sig now.x

raphanius

Hi folks! I want in for January. I did a few grocery challenges last year and it was educational even if i was over budget most months. things have slid money saving wise in the run up to the festive season so some discipline is needed for 2013. January is the easiest month to start again because of the xmas food mountain taking us into the start of the new year so put me down for £200