January 2019 Grocery Challenge

trailingspouse

Count me in.

This last year, OH has been renting a flat nearer to work and pretty much fending for himself. Next year, he'll be back home. I'm keen to see if our costs come down - they certainly should, as he would often shop at the 'big' supermarkets or even (!!!) M&S, whereas I pretty much buy everything at Aldi. He's not a food snob - just a hard working, stressed-out bloke who doesn't have time to either shop or cook at the end of a long day at work so just goes to the nearest shop and buys the first thing he sees.



Our average monthly supermarket spend last year was a shocking £367 (not just food, I hasten to add). I reckon I should be able to feed us for £50 a week or +/- £200 a month from Aldi. So I'm hoping for costs to come down pretty quick straight away, and then I'll see where tweaks can be made after that.

candygirl

CRANKY40 wrote: »

YorksLass Thanks - I like the idea of a freezer fund and I'm going to do this too. What usually happens is that as I start to run the freezer down I panic because it looks empty and fill it back up again If I know that I have money put away to do a freezer shop I think I will be more relaxed about using all the stuff in there.

So..... out of my £50 per week I'm hoping for no more that £40 on food, £5 saved for freezer stock up and £5 saved towards special occasions food (like birthdays etc).

That's a brilliant idea CRANKY .I usually spend about £20 ish a month at Farmfoods to fill the freezer, so will use up what's in mine, then start doing this

Katie_j

Please can you count me in? Any ideas what you think a reasonable food budget would be for a family of 5 with 1 cat and dog? :question::

Katie_j

beenthere_donethat wrote: »

How much do you usually spend each month, Katie? I would start small and shave a set amount off that. Save all your receipts for the month to see where you are spending your budget then aim to cut it some more

I normally spend about £105 a week. I do seem to have a lot of extra cupboard stuff left but always worry I don't have enough packed lunch stuff in.

CRANKY40

beenthere_donethat wrote: »

I also like the idea of a freezer fund

We have two freezers which never seem to empty. Having a separate fund might just give me the strength not to rush out and fill them up because we might run out of food, if I can shut the drawers with ease :rotfl:

We're food hoarding twins, lol.

candygirl wrote: »

That's a brilliant idea CRANKY .I usually spend about £20 ish a month at Farmfoods to fill the freezer, so will use up what's in mine, then start doing this

The original idea was mentioned by YorksLass. I've just pinched it as a way of potentially stopping me doing exactly the same as bt_dt says up there ^^^

dragonlily

I did our first shop for Jan today, enough for the week (Asda click and collect) £32.33.

Lower than it would usually be as have done a proper meal plan, checked what we have and only bought exactly what we need. Feeling quite proud of myself, as a good start, and didn't take as long as I thought as refused to start planning unrealistic elaborate meals like I am prone to if I try and plan. Thought I would start simple with easy things to make that all three of us like. I thought we had like no food in and actually we had more than I realised!

So meal plan for the week:
- HM Cottage Pie (enough for 10 portions) - so some for the freezer - already had large packet of beef/pork mince for this and the potatoes / carrots and store cupboard bits (think I only had to buy onions and celery).
- Roast chicken with HM sausage meat / chestnut stuffing, roasties, parsnips, carrots + yorkshire puddings with gravy - Got lucky on the chicken, I buy free range and had ordered one for £3.52, they didn't have it and had substituted it with a nearly 2kg corn fed free range one with a price of £7.90 on it (they don't charge for substitutions). I had everything else in already from the cheap veg at christmas, and never got round to making the sausage meat stuffing so am going to do that.
- Chicken korma and rice w/ spinach and naan (again didn't need much just the jar sauce - lazy I know!)
- Spanish chicken pasta (only needed the jar of sauce and fresh bell peppers)
- Chicken chow mein (only had to get soy sauce, ground nut oil and chillis - again got the rest already)
- Pulled pork rolls w/ salad - I made pulled pork for christmas eve in the slow cooker and froze what we didn't eat that night. (I haven't bought the rolls yet just the salad as thought we could get them fresh later in the week. If I want to avoid the shops I can always use the wraps we have in the freezer instead)
- Burgers and chips (out of freezer supplies) - We got some lovely burgers from sainsbury's, yellow stickered (last months spends), ate one packet last night for tea and froze the others.

For breakfasts, we have stuff in for cereal, eggs, toast, bacon, yoghurt, and frozen fruit in the freezer. I want to do a batch of overnight oats for a couple of days. Lunches will be soup, salads, sandwiches and crisps etc.

Do you all include household products and toiletries in your budget. I have done??

x

candygirl

CRANKY40 wrote: »

We're food hoarding twins, lol.



The original idea was mentioned by YorksLass. I've just pinched it as a way of potentially stopping me doing exactly the same as bt_dt says up there ^^^

whoops!! I didn't realise :oThanks YORKSLASS

awinterstale

Please may I join? We have tons of food in the cupboards and freezer to use up so I’m aiming for a hopeful £250 in January.

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Thought I was doing so well, but I realised I am virtually out of oats and I forgot to buy a bit of fruit - I was going to have oats and fruit for some breakfasts. I may do beans on toast for a couple of days instead, but I don't always get on too well with it in the mornings so we'll see. If I do buy oats and fruit I'll need to readjust weekly budgets again, but the oats will last more than the rest of this month so that part's not so bad.

juliejukes

Can I join please? I'd like to attempt £80 per week