January's No-Shopping Challenge

EitherWalnut

Hi everyone,

Some people might remember that I did this last year - so here I am once again, with cupboards full of stuff I have hoarded over the past year. I'm going to choose five items that I'm allowing myself to buy to compliment what I already have in the cupboard, and apart from that I am not allowed to do any other food shopping. The goal is to spend as little as possible on food over the next month. Hopefully by the end of January I will have cleared some space, prevented some food waste and saved some money! Will also keep a running total of my spend as I post. If anyone else wants to join in, let me know and I'll add you and your spend to a list.

So to start, my five allowed items I've chosen are:
- Milk
- Frozen Pastry
- Greek Yoghurt
- Cheddar Cheese
- Eggs

(So if all else fails I can live off cheese omelettes!:rotfl:)

Participants:

• nicmalauren - spend so far = £28.22/£30
• craftingmad - spend so far = £0/45
• jammydodgersandrhl - spend so far = £0
• Doing it my way - spend so far = £0
• CJRyder - spend so far = £36.48/£45
• pandora205 - spend so far = £0
• lessonlearned - spend so far = £5.80/£21

craftingmad

I love this challenge and so need it so I'd love to join please.
My 5 items I am allowed will be:-
Milk
Eggs
Cheese
Fruit and vegetables( I alternate each week so will vary)
Bread

I hope to only spend £45 for the month

jammydodgersandrhl

This sounds like a good challenge - I have so much frozen veg already in the freezer that needs eating.

My 5 things will be:
milk or OJ
potatoes
eggs
chicken or mince
fruit

I think it will be hard to stick to only these things as I will need to do packed lunches too. I often cook my lunches ahead for the week by batch cooking, but not easy to do for my DS.

EitherWalnut

Welcome to the thread folks! Happy to have some people to join in with me - we can encourage each other!

Taking a leaf out of craftingmad's book and setting a max spend. Ideally want to keep it as low as possible, so went for £30 as I figure I should manage on approx £1/day.

I think I'll sign up for the January's Take Your Lunch To Work challenge too since no shopping includes no eating out or buying sandwiches at lunchtime.

Doing_it_my_way

Wow this is a really scary thread! I don't know if I can do this but what a great idea. I would usually spend around £70 a week on food for all of us and the pets. The cupboards are full so that's a start! I am going to say my 5 items would be:
Bread
Butter
Fruit and Veg
Meat
Milk
This is a great kick start to the year hopefully will put me in the right frame of mind to keep it up, thank you xx

CJRyder

I'll give this a go, with a £45 budget. The allowed items will be:

- Milk
- Eggs
- Flour & Yeast (I make bread)
- Vegetables (I get a box delivered fortnightly)
- Rice

EitherWalnut

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to our new participants too.

Well I got off to a bit of a crap start by ordering pizza yesterday. New Year's Day was just too much effort! So that does mean that I have already blown £8 of my budget. Have resolved to get back on the wagon ASAP and dug a tupperware of vegetable broth out of the freezer to take into work for lunch. Thinking dinner might be something turkey-based to use up the last of the leftovers.

EitherWalnut

So last night's freezer-fodder dinner was a success! Frozen fish, frozen prawns, frozen sweetcorn, frozen parsley. A few baby potatoes (with the sprouts cut off lol) and then some cream leftover from Christmas. Seafood chowder! Was happy with that.

pandora205

I think I might need to join this as I have a bulging fridge and freezer. I also have a 28 yo son who decided to chuck lots of veg out so he could get his shopping in yesterday (which I intercepted just in time).

My five (provisionally) are:

milk
bananas
potatoes
carrots
something green

I am not allowed to buy bread.

lessonlearned

Hi everyone....,

You are all doing very well. Some great ideas.

Well I broke into my £21 and spent £5.80 on milk, f&v and a few bits. That should see me through till the end of next week.

I also bought myself a few new accessories to go in my freshly decorated lounge when the Christmas decorations come down, £2.65 from the chazzer and a bunch of flowers £1.79. The money from that came out of my small change jar which I use for treats, rather than the food budget, so I have still got £15 left for my January food challenge. I think I've also got some Sainsbobs points I can use if I need to.

Thanks for the reminder about supermarket points or vouchers. I'd forgotten about those.

EitherWalnut

Evening All!

Have added you to the list pandora205 - I also am definitely NOT alllowed to buy bread - I rarely use a full loaf before it starts to go mouldy, so I am trying to just bake myself smaller amounts if I feel the need and use what I have in the freezer.

Hello to lessonlearned too - I'm not sure if your post was meant for this thread specifically, but you are obviously very welcome to join in, so I have added you to the list as well. Very impressed with your £21 budget!

Popped into my parent's house on the way home from and turned out that a friend had left round a couple of bags of assorted veg - they're going on holiday and didn't want to see it wasted! My mum isn't great with that kind of thing so passed it on to me to prep and freeze what I can. Very grateful as fruit and veg are what I always miss towards the end of this challenge. So with no additional spend, I've ended up with half a green cabbage, half a red cabbage, half a cauliflower, some ginger, some chilis and a bag of parsley! Not really helping the clearout I suppose but going to make a big curry for the freezer and some coleslaw which I can have with a baked potato and some cheese for dinner I think.

I want to try and take stock of what I actually have and then try and meal plan this weekend. How's everyone else finding it so far?