January 2020 Grocery Challenge

madwife28

Hi everyone.
Please may I join the grocery challenge as I have so much food and keep buying more! I would love to get a grip on this as there are only 2 adults, 2 dogs, 2 chickens and a cat in the household:rotfl:

So my grocery budget will include all food, cleaning products and toiletries and I am aiming for £180 - wish me luck!

Madwife28

lantanna

£9.07 spent today in the local shop after work, combined with a trip to post office, sausages, bacon, beans, milk, drinks for work and stocked up on kitchen roll as the one I liked was on offer.
Told my team today I wouldn’t be going to the shop anymore at lunch so if they needed anything drinks and the like one of them was now going to have to go or else they need to bring it in. No more shop bought sandwiches for me.

Just thinking this will save on petrol costs too, it all adds up.

£132.07 / £300.00

Doom_and_Gloom

Our January started 1st and will go until 31st. I'm setting g the budget at £240 for the month (I plan for this to be the budget every month but may have to adjust if prices go up a lot).
2 adults and a chinchilla for all food, chinchilla items (food, hay, treats, sand etc) cleaning, toiletries and non alcoholic drinks.
Last year chinchilla items, cleaning and toiletries all had their own budgets. However I'm going to combine them in this and only alcohol and special occasions foods (anniversary, birthdays etc) won't be included in the budget. I will also roll over any money not spent to help with bulk items however I will also deduct if there is an overspend.

Thanks elsiepac for the thread. I don't think I'm alone in saying it keeps me on track and more accountable this way. Hopefully we'll come under, or at least within, budget

Yesterday we spent £19.65.

£19.65/£240.
£220.35 left.

OH needs milk and butter so will be going out later to buy those, will update when he does.

miss_empty_piggy

Hello, so DOH and I went out to find a light fitting for the newly decorated lounge. It's quite a big room so we knew we'd need a big one. DOH has very expensive taste and we went to a specialist electrical shop where we looked at one for £330! He would have bought it there and then. We then went to a different shop where the same light fitting was £294. Again, he was itching to buy it but I said we'd think it over. Carried on further where we got a really big light for £99. Still more than I was hoping for but it's not £330!

The other main win of the day was that we were headed out just before lunch so I suggested we eat before going out. I felt DOH's heart drop as loves to eat out but it's so expensive even in a cafe. I compromised with getting him and DD2 a McD's on the way home. This will have to come out of the food budget though so once it's gone, it's gone.

I bought some dried chickpeas on BOGOF for £1.29. Never used them before but going to give a chickpea curry a go. Also picked up some omega mix of seeds which look fab. Love putting these on soups and salads and even on breakfast cereal or with oats.

Also, I had to make up some milk today as our usual delivery is on a Thursday but due to the holidays it is on Friday. I always keep dried milk in for baking and so made a pint up and poured it into a cleaned out milk jug. I've done this in the past also to save on plastic, but also to keep me out of the shops as it's never just a pint of milk is it?

Will update figures later. Hope everyone's had a good day.

dumpling

First spend of the year today with my Sainsburys delivery coming in at £62.49. Unfortunately they failed to deliver any of the bakery items so I had a refund from them and had to send one of the kids down the shop to get some bread. That was another £2.40 for a couple of white loaves. My total today is £64.89 but I have been sent some vouchers of £15 off a £110 spend so I may stock up on dishwasher tablets and laundry stuff on my next shop to take advantage of them.

Saver.The.Taste

First shop of the year, and after going in with a list that totalled £25, I somehow ended up with 2 extra items and only spent £17.56. The pure luck of getting there to find all the long life oat milk was on offer, so stocked up on that. Other than that quite a small shop but should tide me over for a week or so

£17.56/£155 11% for the month

tessie_bear

i have been naughty today and been hoovering up christmas bargains in asda and m and s cant resist a chocolate bargain

i havent purchased any proper food yet but the fridge is looking empty so will need to do something need milk and some veg that isnt sprouts

miss_empty_piggy

£39.49 /£300 Jan grocery challenge 2020

Tink_04

£6.88/£200spent so far on cumin, mushrooms and a cake of after lunch on NYD.
Need to get some bits tomorrow but I'm pleased as have made some great meals for the freezer for when we are back to work next week.

MountainAsh

So, I'm at the end of week 1. I set my budget at £100 per week (£500 for my 5 week month). I knew this was quite a lot but wanted to use January as a sort of exploratory month. I also knew I wasn't going to be able to meal plan properly as we are all still off school & work & our days were a bit more unplanned & spontaneous than usual. I did, however, have quite a lot of Christmas food in stock.

Just done my final adding up & I'm super pleased to find that I've only spent £77.04 this week! I'm sure I can get this lower too with more thought & effort!

The things I've found helpful have been to get my DH on board so we both encouraged each other to think creatively about what we could do with stuff we already had in & he didn't keep suggesting we buy stuff we didn't really need. This stopped my guilt & feeling like the grinch all the time! I've also been using a little notepad to keep track of all the spends, both on my debit card & in cash, so I could see at any moment how much I'd spent & had left. Plus reading the updates on here everyday. Thanks guys!

Feeling super motivated & even quite excited for the next week! We can do this!