January 2018 Grocery Challenge

Wysiwyg49

Trying to control my topup shopping as have gone a bit AWOL the last couple of months!!

Already spent £110, hoping to "do" January (4 weeks up to 28th) for £360.

I discovered another budget meal plans blog via Thrifty Lesley - Eat Not Spend. There are quite a few plans and I've already tried the sweet potato and chorizo soup which was very nice. DH is away part of next week so I'm going to try out some meals before dazzling him with roast cauliflower or butter bean stew :rotfl:

Just doing meal plan for next week, which also includes veg/beef burgers (veggie for me and DD, beef for DS), chicken dinner, chicken pie and chips, tacos and guacamole.

Hopefully all the Christmas feasting means everyone has gone off snacking because that's what really costs, not the main meal food, I find...

Merlin's_Beard

£65.21/£100 so far... new slow cooker turns out to have been accompanied by slow cooker recipe book, many of which look amazing... hopefully the novelty of 200 meat dishes cooked over 10 hours will wear off soon and I'll go back to my normal semi-veggie state!

(Hopefully I'll stop running out of my most expensive toiletries soon as well!!)

Bettyboo87

Just catching up. I’ve done a big shop on Tuesday then a trip to the butchers. Fully stocked for a while I think - total spend of £204.01/£300

lil_me

Costco .... OH fault, did get £68 shop for £27 as had a voucher so not all bad. Definitely shouldn’t have bought frozen stuff but again OH purchase ideas on what he wants to eat. He’s asked me to do some meal stuff for work that isn’t sandwiches which makes a change for him, a positive as he often wants to eat lunch out at work so won’t eat into the budget so much.
Dogs destroyed a kitchen cupboard door and ate all the food out of it which has infuriated me to say the least.

Meal plan, must meal plan

VfM4meplse

I’m going to join this month, budget £30, on food alone. I have stacks of food in but am eating one small meal a day. So I plan to spend a great deal less, 2 NSDs so far

Going to read through this month’s thread now for inspiration.

Suffolk_lass

For anyone new to this, please meal plan - but do so around what you already have in, then write your list for the extra things you need, add additional meals based on those ingredients, and buy only what is on the list. Aim to reduce any stores you have in this month, and stop storing ingredients for the shops at your expense.

I have reduced my spend from over £700 down to approx £200-£230 per month by changing habits, not quality. For most of us, this is how to reduce our costs. Good luck.

VfM4meplse

Frugal_Queen wrote: »

Hello, could I please set our monthly budget at £400. We are a family of three and a beautiful hound, we live in Sweden where unfortunately the cost of food (and everything else) is exceptionally high. This will include groceries, household (toiletries etc), dog food and alcohol.

Lagom to you, my friend :T

pipkin71

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

For anyone new to this, please meal plan - but do so around what you already have in, then write your list for the extra things you need, add additional meals based on those ingredients, and buy only what is on the list. Aim to reduce any stores you have in this month, and stop storing ingredients for the shops at your expense.

I have reduced my spend from over £700 down to approx £200-£230 per month by changing habits, not quality. For most of us, this is how to reduce our costs. Good luck.

Some good advice there. Meal planning really does help with cutting costs

Tink_04

Still got £63 left of my £80 for the month - it’s me DH, DD8 & DS4 our month runs 20th to 20th and I’m lucky i made so much for the freezer so we have been living off that and just buying fresh stuff when we need it - starting to struggle now as the fridge is bare but will maybe do a online shop to keep us going until payday!! I hate January!!

MadamMim2013

Hellooo everyone, seems like we are all either struggling with illness or weather issues.. Hugs for those in need
Managed a NSD yesterday & after a walk to my local shop this morning I picked up all I needed for a £13.54 spend and it contained mainly ys goodies! (Saved £4.37)
Off to work in a while so shall go update my total..