January 2020 Grocery Challenge

Esthermate

£120 for one realistic person and some guests, please.

Hettyhound

I’d love to do this again. I’m back to my normal £150 budget for the month. That will cover pets, cleaning and food; no need for toiletries this month after Christmas gifts and we have enough chocolates to last all of 2020! I’ll be doing my first of the month big shop on Monday when my son is playing at a friends, it’s easier and quicker on my own. I’ve got some meal planner sheets I printed off and I’ve made a list of favourites. Going to try and plan at least 2 weeks of food but preferably 4 making use of the slow cooker and batch cooking to keep the freezer stocked up.

Do need to walk into town today for some bread and milk. I should maybe start making bread as I have a mixer with a dough hook so no effort required :rotfl:

H2020

First shop of the month for me yesterday, £58.19

Stocked up on the usual basics that we were out of and planned some meals out, making use of some of the bits we have in the house - tofu in the fridge to make sweet and sour, and some wine still left from Xmas that I'm going to put in a chilli. Still got loads of chocolate and mince pies left!

Going to go through the chest freezer before the next shop as it's pretty much full, could clear that out and not need to get as much next time.

Suffolk_lass

Please can you put me down for £3000 for the year again?

This breaks down roughly as:

10 months at £200,
1 month of £100,
Stores of £500 and
December will be £400 (plus any bits I underspend in the year).

It will be my third year at this level

When I think back to my £700+ months when I started it is remarkable! - I could reduce further but I choose to stick with some premium brands and products. Good luck with 2020 everyone!

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Welcome to some more new joiners - Hayze1980, Kepi, dragonlily, Esthermate and Hettyhound

K9sandFelines good luck with the move - is it internationally again?

Nice to see you back nannygladys - I've put you down in both the yearly and weekly sections

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Really pleased that I've had a few no spend days for the GC but going to break that today with a small shop - I worked out a meal plan for the week last night trying to utilise what I have in, so to buy I just want a cucumber, probably 2 bags of leaves, and a broccoli.

My cold is still with me though and one of the things I'm doing is making a butternut soup, so I'm going to get some ginger for that too as I'm craving it!

Also really fancying some fresh fruit, I have blueberries and melon (maybe strawberries if they look ok but they are expensive and a bit rubbish as out of season so maybe not!) in mind so will see what Mr T has to offer.

I don't want to spend more than £30 in total this week (up to Friday) but I do also need a few bits like passata as I'm totally out, a few beans, loo cleaner and washing up liquid. And I think rinse aid for the dishwasher too.

SummerDays

Hi, I’d like to join in for January please. I’ve followed the thread for so long now but actually need to join in and make some changes!

I am going to say £500 for January (1st-31st) as I don’t want to set myself up to fail. The aim is to bring this down month on month. It will cover 2 adults and 2 kids, to include all food, cleaning, toiletries and alcohol.

I hope that we will come under this budget as we are well stocked with left overs and have enough chocolate to open a chocolate shop. We have shopping being delivered on NYE as we’re having a small gathering but this is paid for from money saved over past year. We’ll have more left overs for sure!

I currently having a delivery pass with A5da which has been a great time saver, but cancelling it after NYE delivery and aiming to shop at L1dl and A1di more- with top ups elsewhere for items we can’t get there. Meat and eggs are pretty much always bought at our local butchers.

I aim to post regularly to keep myself accountable.

Thanks!

Rowan9

Hi could I please rejoin?
I’d like to go for £200 for the two of us.
I always love reading and did regularly join in a few years ago. Since then I’ve just dipped in and out but hoping to stay this time! Many thanks.

twinklie

I'm going to bite the bullet and join. I'm aiming for £450 per month. This is for 2 adults and 2 kids (both with ASD and VERY particular), for grocery shops including food and toiletries. But won't include school dinners (or milk subs for school) because I pay that from a different pot.


My DH also has ASD an is also very particular and impulsive in shops, so I try and do most of the shopping myself. The youngest goes to school in September so hopefully from then I'll be able to use my day off to keep on top of shopping, meal planning and any batch cooking (assuming we actually buy a freezer).

Shopping spends January
Weekly budget for weeks 1 - 4 £101.62
Weekly budget for week 5 £43.52

Week 1 (1st - 7th). Spent £
Week 2 (8th - 14th) Spent £
Week 3 (15th - 21st) Spent £
Week 4 (22nd - 28th) Spent £
Week 5 (29th - 31st) Spent £

Barbeduk

Hi all

Glad to be back for January! I'm aiming for £220 which is for me and 2 very hungry teens.

The freezer is absolutely heaving and as I am going away tomorrow I've bunged all the leftover veg from the fridge into the slow cooker to make a curry. Hopefully I can get at least some of that in the freezer too!

Got some odds and ends today - a few yellow sticker bargains and some breakfast bits for our weekend away so I don't have to buy hotel breakfast as sadly the budget does not currently stretch to that.

Have a lovely weekend all

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Welcome new joiners - SummerDays, wmf and twinklie!

Welcome back Barbeduk!

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Did my Mr T trip earlier - I got my broccoli, cucumber, leaves and ginger, also my melon and blueberries. Also bought 4 fresh bread rolls, washing liquid and loo cleaners. The one un-necessary thing I got was two packs of the Jus R0ll pain au chocolat as they caught my eye so that was £3 I didn't need to spend. Still, £17.08 total there.

I also spent on Amaz0n P4ntry - basically found Th0rntons C0ntinental on there for £7 for the 284g box which is REALLY good, but you have to spend £15 for an order and I wanted to get them for my mums birthday. So I bought a few more bits which were cream cleaner, tahini and my coffee which was 50p cheaper than Mr T. Total from GC was £12.02, therefore I've spent £29.10 of my week 2 money and have 5 full days left. However as I've meal planned this should be fine, and if I have an inkling for anything naughty I have TONS of chocolate in the house from Christmas so no need to run out and waste money!

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My Budget so far (Only including weeks 2-5 of Jan)

Week.....................Budget.....Spent
Week 2 (27 Dec - 2 Jan)..£31.06.....£29.10
Week 3 (3-9 Jan).........£40.00.....£
Week 4 (10-16 Jan).......£40.00.....£
Week 5 (17-23 Jan).......£40.00.....£