January 2018 Grocery Challenge

XSpender

£7 in Morrie's on beer for DH, bread rolls for the burgers we had from the freezer for tea and a pack of snacks also for DH.

Total now £259.13/£240

I should not need to buy anything until Friday when my new month starts. I am away with work Monday and Tuesday and have plenty of food to cover today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Maisie_M

Hi all

Slightly bigger shop this week partly due to doing a pick up of some essential on Monday as the snow was forecast to come in bad here and I wanted to be stocked up on milk, bread, cereal and coffee incase we got stuck in. Glad I did as the roads have been a nightmare so I didnt need to go out for anything else until yesterday.

Sainsburys £13.20 (Monday)
Lidl £15.01 (Sat)
Home Bargins £7.25 (sat)
Asda £47.32 (Sat)
Total £82.78

That should be me finished as I get paid on Friday so £227.43/£250 and I am happy with that as I still have a lot of stock going into next month.

Lookig forward to seeing what I can manage in February

Tales17

Hi all,

Not updated my spending as yet, just got round to finishing off December yesterday and evaluating my 2017 spend and budget! I am a proper data girl and love spreadsheet and numbers so it was great setting up my new 2018 spreadsheet!

Now I am up to date with last year I will be reviewing and sorting out the year to date accounts so will update signature later today with everything and let you know how we are doing! My 6 year old daughter caught chickenpox a couple of days ago but she is doing ok so far, not surprisingly considering there are over 150 cases at school in the last two weeks so I didn't think she would avoid it!! More worried about my 3 year old getting it next, he will be a nightmare for scratching!!!

PipneyJane

Hi everyone

Apologies for being awol, but we’ve been away at a games convention and I didn’t tally up the receipts before I left.

Regarding bananas: they freeze well, so if you can’t face more banana bread or banana-based smoothies right now just shove them into the freezer. Don’t bother pealing. The skins will turn black - that’s normal. (99% of shop-bought smoothies are banana based).

emiai wrote: »

Love reading all of your posts!

I had a very rough week, 3/4 of us struck down with the flu.. we ate less simply because we had zero appetite. but I spent money on cough syrups and boiled sweets to try and keep the coughing at bay.
I actually had small top ups this week due to it, needing bread, milk etc and on one of the days we were all craving grease - so we had chippy chips (a compromise considering we have not had fast food this year so far. £3.60 wasn't too bad for that.)

I kind of groaned at £4.75 for the cough syrup - as it didn't seem to do anything at all but I had to try something.

I almost didn't do the big shop today too, woke up to more snow falling - but I made myself go out in it and picked up soups to put in the cupboard too. I was annoyed that I let them run out as I really could have used some when I was ill. We really didn't move from the sofa for 2 whole days and ate nothing but the left over ice poles from summer and ready salted crisps..

Its nice to see the little ones have a full appetite again so on today's shop I picked up extra fresh fruit, juice and cake.

3/7 No spend days this week.

For anyone who has this flu.. wishing you better soon! Its been vile.
Tempted to change my name to Bob Flemming

Sorry to hear that you were all ill. Ditto anyone else who has been sick.

Historically, the main cough suppressant ingredients in cough medicine were alcohol or cocaine. The latter was banned decades ago. There are records in Australia of people losing their license for “driving under the influence” when they had just been taking cough medicine.

Another frequent ingredient, theophylline, is contained in regular tea. It dilates the bronchioles. If you have brandy or whisky at home, consider making hot toddies: the juice of half a lemon, 1 heaped teaspoon of honey, top up with hot tea (or boiling water) and a slug of whisky/brandy. Drink while hot. That will cover all the bases.

Working in a “dry” company (as in any alcohol in your bloodstream is a sackable offence), I have also found that an infusion of ginger with a slug of lemon juice works well too +/- a spoonful of honey. Again, drink hot.

Regarding cough sweets: singers and tv people suck on Vocalzone. They don’t taste nice but tucked away under your top lip, they keep your mouth moist enough to suppress coughing. You buy them at the chemists.

HTH

- Pip

fifi35

Hi all, I've done really well this month. I've been doing the veggie challenge and have found it much cheaper. I do only have £11 left to spend however I don't need much. May need milk, veg and salad, eggs, and maybe tinned tomatoes. Fingers crossed I can do it.

£114/£125

Esthermate

£11 because of unexpected visitor; have to give them more interesting food.
Some warning would have been nice.

YorksLass

A small spend at the market last Friday brings the total spend for Wk 3 to £16.40. One week to go and £70.26 left - really pleased as that's half the month's budget. :)

Have just done an online order for delivery tomorrow and that's mainly for "stock-up" items like loo rolls, washing up liquid and food staples that I need or are on promotion. Nothing for the freezer at all and very little for the fridge. I'll post again once I know the final bill. Providing everything I've ordered is in stock, that should be the final shop for this month.

Looking back through the posts, we seem to be a mixed bunch where January and budgeting are concerned. For those struggling, I'm sending virtual encouragement to keep you going to the end of your month. Please don't be discouraged 'cos I want to "see" you all again in February!

Tales17

So just reviewed all my grocery spend for January:

- £91.20 for a meat delivery
- £3.89 for a graze box
- £2.61 on pets (2 hamsters!)
- £33 on fruit & veg boxes
- £248.90 on two large Tesco shops (lots of stocking up on household items in these)
- £30.45 on two Home Bargain shops (getting a few things here that were cheaper than Tesco!)
- £28.83 on Holland & Barratt online shop (using my voucher and stocking up on things in the penny sale!)
- £3.52 on Bread Bags bought from ebay (I am trying to use our breadmaker more than buying bread - enjoying the smell now of a fresh loaf just baked!)
- £25.49 on 5 quick shops (mostly early in New Year when we were all poorly with bad colds and grabbing what we needed each day!)
- £5.89 on 2 WH Smith shops at the airport (partner has gone away on business trips twice this month so a couple of shops to grab drinks for the flight I think!)

Gives a total of £473.18 leaving £126.82 for rest of the month which should be ok as most things stocked up and with only one more week of shopping to do this month (I mainly shop on a Friday).

It is quite amazing to see it all written down like this and make me think more about our spending! At least I should be on target this month and since I am running a yearly total it allows extra in another month where we might go over.

Also I haven't included anything paid via cash as most of our spending especially for grocery items is always on cards and therefore easy to track!

Tales17

Also just worked out that I have saved £126.41 on shopping this month with reduced items and multibuys! About £40 was from clothing shopping in the sales for the kids, £30 on reduced price items I bought on my meat delivery and rest from Tesco and Home Bargain shopping!

RedFraggle

This weeks totals:
17-Jan £20.10 to Mr T (managed to get fish pie mix off the reduced counter! Not managed topick that up in ages :-) Also needed decaff coffee as I'd run out and I don't buy cheap on that so £9 for 2 of the gold blend refill bags, gah!)
20-Jan £32.10 to Mr S (needed sweetcorn and mushy peas and decaff tea for DH. Mega annoyed they only had one box of teabags so I'll need to get more sooner than a Mr S trip was planned!)
21-Jan (today) £11.63 to Mr T (had forgotten tomato puree and peas, DH wanted crisps and we've been out all day so I treated us to a finest breaded chicken thing and dauphinoise pots, the chick was on the reduced counter so £7.94 total (plus a few peas). I can live with that as a treat!)

Total £207.86 so £142.14 left from my budget of £350.

Only one shop to go in Jan so will be well in, good job too after December!!!!