January 2020 Grocery Challenge

H2020

Thanks for the thread!

It's my first time trying this challenge. Please can you put me down for £390 for the month (runs for me from today 27th Dec - 28th Jan) This is food for 2 adults, pet food for our cat & dog, plus toiletries and cleaning.

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

I'm down for £300 this month... it's a 5 week month for me and my first week has already gone - however I spent a heck of a lot on Christmassy bits so actually I have £151.06 left for the next 4 weeks. This week I shouldn't hopefully need too much so I'm going to try and keep it as minimal as I can so that I can have £40 a week for the last 3 weeks of the month. We'll see how this goes as I'm just terrible with money really!!

I'm also now running a new thread over on the DFW board called the 365 Day Penny Challenge in case any of you want to check that one out...[URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6084722Day Penny Challenge[/URL] - I'm doing it and I've already started so that I can have some "free" days in the year. I'll probably use odd bits of change from groceries to put into it.

Welcome to our new joiners lantanna, dumpling, peony40, MountainAsh, sausageelza, patentgirl, Bake-a-Cake, killielila, H2020

Welcome back to everyone else!

thriftwizard That's great news about your son - it'll be so much healthier and more interesting for him to have a more varied diet!!

StripeyTightsSpottySocks I've put you down on both the monthly and annual sections - hope that's what you wanted - let me know if not!

killielila sorry to see you've been struggling with depression - hopefully you are over the worst of it now and are feeling more positive. Thanks for joining us

PipneyJane Thank you and I hope you have a brilliant year too! I'm currently full of cold and cough which obviously started on Christmas Eve :cool:

lantanna

First spend for me today from M nd S. £16.88. Pleased with this as I usually go overboard in M nd S. got reduced bread, smoked salmon, veg. This also included Parmesan as I’m out and a sandwich for lunch. Dinner is a pasta dish to use up stuff in the fridge. Have left out chicken for tomorrow’s dinner, need to use up stuff in the freezer coz at the minute once it goes in there I forget about it and it never comes out again.

Hoping to come out with a saving this month so it can go into my new car fund.

sausageelza

Thank you elsiepac for adding me

Oh my goodness! I have spent the afternoon going through the fridge, freezer and cupboards, writing down all the food we have. I am embarrassed at the amount, especially when so many people in this country have so very little.

Back in the 1980's and 90's I was one of those people who went without, so my children could eat. I would regularly faint through lack of food and I ended up in hospital one winter with hypothermia. I was 24 years old. I wouldn't wish that existence on anyone.

So, let's tackle that food mountain and get the budget down to a sensible level. I'm off to look at all the budget recipes.

This first month looks achievable, fingers crossed.

elsiepac

Thoroughly fed up of my cold and cough now, this is the 4th day and I only have 2 more off work, hoping I have a bit more energy tomorrow to get some bits done round the house.

Just sorted through my fridge and found I don't have as much veg as I thought (and annoyingly found a slimey pack of peppers that had escaped my attention lurking at the bottom of the drawer) - so with 5 courgettes and most of a bag of very-desperate-to-be-used spinach, I'm going to make pasta for tea - I keep garlic and herb passata in for easy meals, and I also have some vegan smokey hot dogs that are out of date tomorrow, so they'll be yummy in that. I also have a load of vegan cheese as I bought the V1olife festive 3 pack for Christmas, but have only had a bit off each flavour, so I'll top my pasta with that too! I will make this into 2 portions so I can have it for a cooked lunch tomorrow or for tea, depending on when I fancy it.

I will still have 3 or 4 courgettes leftover, plus a few beyond their best carrots, and in the cupboard I have about 5 potatoes and 2 butternuts, so I'm going to do my very best to try and use some of that before I rush out and buy more veg in a panic. I eat a lot of vegetables, and I like a lot of variety, so this may not seem hard to some people, but to me it's the hardest thing ever.

Also left from my mad Christmas buying is two unopened packs of T0furkey slices - one ham and one smoked turkey flavour, but they have very long expiry dates. However, it would probably be prudent to use them in a roll (freezer) for lunches next week as I'm back at work and on call all week, albeit with New Years Day off work (but am still on call). So if I do that and just get some little salady bits to go with them, and have my teas from the freezer with just a veg accompaniment where needed (yes I have plenty of prepared "mains" in the freezer which I need to use up a bit), then I should be able to stick to my plan of keeping this week to a minimal shop.

K9sandFelines

Can't join in this month as i am moving again, but will hopefully be back in Feb.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and All the best for the forthcoming year and my trillionth year of GC

Hayze1980

Can you put me down for £240 for January please? This is for 4 adults, 2 little ones and a dog and will include everything bought in a supermarket.

I used to do really well at making money go a long way but then our situation improved and I found I didn’t need to be so careful. It’s been 7 years but I’m on extended maternity leave and we’ve got 2 years of frugality to deal with. Trying to turn it into a game.

Kepi

Hi, could I join please.

I have been following this thread for years but never had the nerve to join. I am determined to be more organised in 2020. Could you please put me down for £300 for 2 adults and a teenager, and also a 3rd adult for most evening meals. Cat food and alcohol are under another budget. Best wishes everyone for 2020!

nannygladys

Hi everyone
Back for this year, Im going to allow £32.50 weekly, so that's £1690 for the year starting Jan 1st. some weeks I will be spending a lot less, in January it should hopefully be about £20 weekly as I have quite a bit of food in but money left over will go into a pot for bulk tin/freezer buys later on in the year. This is to cover groceries and cleaning stuff, but there is only me and I have a lottie, cook from scratch and don't eat meat or fish, so it should be doable!!
Nannyg

dragonlily

Hi, can I be put down for £400 please