January 2018 Grocery Challenge

[Deleted User]

First spends of the month £1.38. I'm shopping 2moz, at the no packaging store, organic, locally grown & blessed by angels. Me thinks this is going to cost an arm n a leg. My sister in law has very kindly made me some cotton bags, so I'm all set. Want some peanuts to make peanut butter to try Jack Monroe recipe, otherwise will buy ready made, if can find any without plastic lids, plus coffee, if they sell it n some plant milk - doubt they will have that, otherwise oats to make some oat milk, gawd I hate black coffee. Also, need some salad, which I will buy from my regular stall. I've done a loose meal plan, for the rest of the week, based on what is already in or batch cooked. I will throw in some salad with most of it.

Sweet Potato, Chickpea & Spinach Thai Curry
Homemade Veggie Burger & Spicy Wedges
Meat Free Bangers & Swede & Carrot Mash with Onions & Gravy
Spicy Veggie Mince With Cauliflower Rice
Burritos With Avocado & Salad
Black Bean & Peanut Stew

mrs-moneypenny

Morning all
Back to work today, so meal planning and batch cooking again. Made a veggie lasagne last night for tea and will have what's left tonight. Jacket pots for lunchtime.

Nsd yesterday, but need to put weekend spends in sig.

Hope all are well

TooClumsy

Hello all, although its late, please can I join in? My grocery spends are a bit out of control. Just for some background, have moved into our first home together and finances are absolutely wonky with paying off loans, buying everything as we had nothing and trying not to go crazy in all the supermarkets. For some reason, my budget is £290.72 (don't know why its so specific) for the whole of January (1st - 31st). We are two adults, who are carnivorous potato couches, attempting to eat more vegetarian meals throughout the week.

emiai

I've been following this thread for inspiration. I participated in something similar a few years ago - and stuck to it for the entire year. I kept all the receipts - made spreadsheets, and each week anything left from the budget went into a glass jar - and then into a savings account.

This year I have one less mouth to feed as our eldest is at University and budgeting for herself.

Were attempting to cut out fast food, we slipped back into old ways and was having it once a week.
I'm back to being strict about no spend days, and currently eating out all the left over Christmas bits - I want to empty everything before restocking, which should keep the costs down a little bit for January at least.

I am also having to snap out of visiting the charity shop, as I always seem to go in there and buy something that - that I wouldn't have necessarily bought if I had not have gone in there. Saying that I love my rolling pin and new glass dishes that we use all the time now (They were my last bargains before Christmas)

I will keep reading and good luck all, this is my favourite thread on MSE right now!

Ginmonster

Save Dosh - I'm really impressed with how well you're doing cutting out plastic. It's so hard as it's everywhere and there really aren't many places you can buy stuff that isn't packaged in plastic. It's inspired me to see where I can cut back though. I'm going to try and find alternatives for some of the things I get that come in plastic.

BTW - I've made Jack's black bean and peanut stew (with kidney beans as I didn't have black beans) and the sauce came out quite claggy so I just thinned it down with a bit of water.

Grannymolly

Morning!

Today nsd too.

Just done next weeks shop in Mr A online but I won’t add to the budget until it’s paid for (next Tuesday) managed to get a £1 delivery slot so that saves me petrol too

Made some cheese twists this morning with some pastry I had spare and they’ll make lovely little snacks for us and the kids and can’t go wrong for 8p each!

Making paella for dinner with the last of the chicken from Sunday roast and the carcass stock.

Starting his month afresh makes me realise how lazy I’ve been with food in previous months and it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive to eat well!

Have a good day everyone

[Deleted User]

£93.52/£300 to date - a lot more than i intended but I've had visitors over the weekend and also had a few toiletries/household goods to get.....I spent £21.95 on stuff for visitors; £48.26 on Household & Toiletries and £23.31 on food. I'm hoping to do better next week!!

IrisViolet

Just checking in to report after another shop I in so far at 149.02/400
We have four kids so I think is pretty good going.
I don't anticipate spending more than £5 before weekend (we need arborio rice and possibly bread)
17 days to go. For the first time I actually think I can do this!

Wysiwyg49

Wow, can't believe I have only spent £47.83 on groceries for this week. Went to A1di and Tesc instead of Sainsbobs with a list. I had overspent a bit last week so still had quite a lot in I suppose.

Last night we had roast cauliflower and red peppers, with couscous. DS had a few sausages which were already in the freezer with his. Next time might add kidney beans to the couscous too.

Tonight will be butterbean stew with pork steaks and tomorrow veggie or beef burgers. I'm hoping to make bread buns as I have loads of bread flour, but my bread always turns out like rock!! Think I need to leave it to prove all day or something. Tips welcome...

Islandmaid

Trying to push my next shop through till next Wednesday, so that will be 10 days between.

2 NSD’s this week so far