January 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Evening All, any snowfall where you are? We had a bit this afternoon.

Having been laid low with the lurgy for the best part of a week, I’ve now got the head-space to go through the last couple of weeks’ receipts and tally up the grocery shopping. (NB: I’m better now.)

Two weekends ago, we did our “big shop” for the month, spending £71.49 at MrT’s and £10.91 at Lidl. The Lidl shop is almost entirely unmemorable, except that we finally found the mythical Lidl cooking bacon! I’d swear I have been searching for it for a year, looking for it in every Lidl I visit, and never finding it. £1.14/kg so about a penny/kg cheaper than MrT’s. (It got quartered and 3 quarters are now frozen.)

The MrT shop was memorable for Bulk purchases: we hit the motherload of YS tins of sweet corn, all marked down because they’re clearing the Everyday Value labelled goods off the shelves. We bought 24 tins (2 trays of 12) for 28p/can, £6.72 in total. They also had litre bottles of the cinnamon-flavoured Jack Daniels “Tennessee Fire” for £18 (normally £35). Having been given a shot to try at Christmas, it took about 10 seconds contemplation of the Bulk Fund before it, too, got added to our trolley. The other bulk purchase we made was colour catchers - again they’re clearing out their own brand for some reason - so we bought 4 boxes at £1.74/each (£6.96 total). In the end, the Bulk Fund contributed £31.78, reducing the shop down to £39.77.

DH also agreed that Bulk should fund the Southern Comfort we bought at New Year, so another £13 got refunded to the Grocery Challenge Kitty.

Sunday, was a small shop. I was feeling quite chesty but needed to expand my lungs a bit by walking around so we popped to MrT’s to pick up the paper (we subscribe, so get a discounted voucher). A quick whiz via the condemned counter, where we collected 3 packets of fish cakes and 2 packets of “Finest” chicken Kievs, plus a YS box of 4 cans of strawberry cider, resulted a spend of £14.25.

The above brings our total Grocery Challenge spend for the month to £96.02/£120 leaving £23.98 for the remainder of January.

- Pip


PS: Jings, they didn’t have any Woolite. I’ve been in 2 separate MrT’s, so will now look to Mr W Rose’s for it...

tantaraza

Hello :hello:

I’m a newcomer here, hoping to join the GC in Feb — I won’t be able to join in this month as I don’t move to my new house for another few weeks, but I’ve read through this thread and everyone seems so wise about grocery shopping, I hoped to ask some advice

When I move, I’m intending to stockpile “cupboard food” for three reasons:
— unreliable income (so if I end up not getting paid, there’s food to eat)
— bad weather (self-explanatory)
— “the B thing” (hopefully not necessary, but better safe than sorry IMO. Also, the first two reasons are more important, so I’m not stockpiling specifically for

The plan is to keep an inventory and replace whatever gets used, so I always have X amount of Y. However, my online shopping basket is currently at £190 for one person (for an estimated 2-3 months food) and I feel like this may be a bit too much, especially as it doesn’t involve fridge or freezer food or pet food... :think: If anyone has advice or suggestions, it would be very much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

mummyjane wrote: »

We’ve been waiting for the test results of a close family member and they’ve confirmed that they have cancer. I’ve just not been in the right place either physically or emotionally to be cooking every night so we’ve reluctantly had a couple of takeaways

Sorry to hear that. Sending best wishes your way.


Well, not had a massive shop, but loads of little ones that have mounted up. Made a surprisingly tasty pea & spinach pesto tonight, with stores, to go with tagliatelle, batch cooked a bean & sweet potato stew and also some yellow split pea soup. I have tons in, so hopefully that's it. Am still on 'Dry January', so no alcohol spends.

Merlin's_Beard

tantaraza wrote: »

Hello :hello:

I’m a newcomer here, hoping to join the GC in Feb — I won’t be able to join in this month as I don’t move to my new house for another few weeks, but I’ve read through this thread and everyone seems so wise about grocery shopping, I hoped to ask some advice

When I move, I’m intending to stockpile “cupboard food” for three reasons:
— unreliable income (so if I end up not getting paid, there’s food to eat)
— bad weather (self-explanatory)
— “the B thing” (hopefully not necessary, but better safe than sorry IMO. Also, the first two reasons are more important, so I’m not stockpiling specifically for

The plan is to keep an inventory and replace whatever gets used, so I always have X amount of Y. However, my online shopping basket is currently at £190 for one person (for an estimated 2-3 months food) and I feel like this may be a bit too much, especially as it doesn’t involve fridge or freezer food or pet food... :think: If anyone has advice or suggestions, it would be very much appreciated.

I'm quite jealous of the cupboard space you must have to store 3 months worth of food.

If you're actually going to use it before it goes out of date, and you can afford to spend that much in one go, I don't see the harm!

i would be up to £71.80/£100, but the craft gin club offered me 50% off for two boxes, which is the best offer I've seen so... £91.80/£100, but hopefully that's me done for the month.

Let's not dwell on the fact that I'll have spent £100 on gin in four months. it'll keep me going forever, I promise

tantaraza

Merlin’s Beard I just don’t want to throw money away or end up with ridiculous amounts, as I’m guesstimating what I’ll need. I could, in theory, see what I consume in a month and then stockpile in March, but that feels a bit too close to the B date for me.

:eek: at the £100 on gin, but as you’ve said, if you have the money to spend and the space to store it, and were planning on buying it anyway, that 50% off sounds like a bargain! :T

debtfreeforlife

Just put in the veg box order for this week which takes my total to £158.18/£200. That's not an accurate number either as I bought a new wok with that and have started buying extras each week to put in the food bank bin as I realised I was going to come in under budget. So I think I've probably spent around £130. Around this time each month I would usually be at around £190 and trying and failing to make the last tenner stretch. So that means I waste approx £60 a month on bad meal planning, buying lunches at the shop rather than bringing them in, and buying alcohol. I've not been fantastic at meal planning this month but I have definitely done better than I usually do. And I now have a huge amount of motivation to improve next month!

Hopeless_Case

£10.72 spent yesterday, I struck lucky and got 3 boxes of Tesco washing tablets RTC for £1.40 each for 48 tablets, it says to use 2 tablets per wash so that would be 5.8p per wash :j:j but I might try using just one on lighter loads, I also got RTC coconut milk for 45p so Thai curry on Friday

£113.15/£200 so far

ancientmum

My spending has just been on fruit, veg, milk and bread this week, with a couple of snacks for the grandchildren when I look after them. Every week I plan to bake scones or fairy cakes for them but have got really lazy lately. So total updated, and standing at £65.32/2000

Matron_Midge

Declaring January at £519.80/£400
Lots of stocking up was required and I'm not too concerned as I run an annual budget.
See you on the Feb thread!

MrsLottie

Just been to Aldi for the weekly shop, still a few bits to get from elsewhere . Spent £40.14 making a total of £142.58 / £250 for January so far .Been really careful shopping today ,comparing items and shopping carefully for meal plans. So pleased this is working for me so far !