January 2023 Grocery Challenge

gm2917

Please may I join.

My budget is £400 for January to include all food, cleaning bits and toiletries.

Thank you.

goldfinches

Wow, so many pages already! Welcome to all the new joiners, the returners and everyone from December's thread. Happy new start to one and all.
Thanks again to @elsiepac for these threads, they really help keep my eye on the bottom line.

 Main GC Budget £124, Baking Budget £20.

This is for one moderately active vegetarian woman and covers all food, cleaning materials and basic toiletries (alcohol, birthdays, Christmas and treats are budgeted for separately). The Baking Budget is calculated at £5 per Wednesday and covers making a treat for my walking group.

I've decided to go back to a budget of £4 per day as my store cupboard, freezer and fridge are jammed full and I needed an incentive to keep using up what I have. I'm off to start reading through my recipe books to see what I fancy and to do some much needed meal planning.

snowbird20

first shop $24.19/$400 and $13.66/$50 for cleaning supplies.   I bought 5# of flour as I went thru two bags doing hoilday baking.  Some mustard greens and some chicken thighs for soup.  Jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, iceburg lettuce.  Doesn't taken much to add up quick.  A tin of coconut milk for chicken satay tomorrow was $3.19 (2.65 gbp).  Things have just gotten so expensive.  I may need more coriander before the end of the week and a knob of ginger.

elsiepac

Budgets updated to here

Welcome to all the new joiners, the returners (lovely to see so many familiar names!) and the regulars!

My budget is £300 for Jan - Quite a lot of bulk buying of mainly coffee stocks (don't judge me, I have few vices lol).

Although my month started last Thursday and today is Monday, I've been living off stuff I have in, so I've only done my first shop today of £33.93 in Mr T.  Also my wonky veg box payment comes out on Mondays, so that's £15.99 and it'll be delivered Wednesday.

Mr T shop was a few veg bits I need now as I've run supplies down and wanted to make a few batch things - eg tomatoes, celery, peppers, courgettes, spinach etc.  Also, £5.75 was a big bag of ground almonds!!! Few cupboard restocks like a couple of tins of chickpeas, some cornflour, nooch, soya milk, vegan cheese (grabbed 2, so one will not be touched until at least next week), plus 3 packs of specifically Cauldron tofu for a recipe - didn't even realise I got a discount on them till I got home - £6 instead of £7.50 for the 3 packs - bizarrely the offer on the receipt says "Cc Frozen Foods 3 for £6" - no idea why that applies to non frozen tofu but I'm not complaining!

I'm doing a plan/course/lifestyle thing called Second Nature - it's about learning to eat properly and lose weight etc.

My plan for this week includes:

Tofu Breakfast "muffins" (hence the specific tofu)
Tofu and veg stir fry (will use my normal smoked TofooCo)
Morrocan Butternut Stew

Slightly foiled by no fresh butternut squash in Mr T and not even any frozen, however I will just sub with either courgettes or cauliflower in the recipe.  Mr T was like a plague of locusts had descended, the whole salad side of the veg aisle was basically empty, also the WHOLE vegan/vegetarian section in the freezers except for a couple of pizzas at the bottom!  Are we in the apocalypse? 

Anyway, need to get on and batch cook my tofu muffin things.

£184.72 / £300 (sounds scary but it's totally on plan - majority of that is monthly purchases done on subscribe and save).

pennywisesheeb

 @elsiepac I think the emptiness of the veggie/vegan freezers was maybe down to it being Veganuary? Probably also why the tofu was on offer. You should be able to pick up some good deals this month.

Also thanks for doing all the updating!

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I dug out some homemade carrot and coriander soup from the depths of the freezer for lunch and a veggie stew for tea. I've got quite a few more portions of both of these in my outside freezer that I'm going to work my way through. 

I made a foccacia this morning to eat with both and also made a banana loaf. Managed to use up some bread flour and some light brown sugar that had been lurking in the pantry forever.

I think I may need to buy a few fresh bits towards the end of this week but have most of the week planned out. 

outoftheviciouscircle

Good evening everyone. Wow this is such an active thread.
I have just had my first week of Januarys food shop delivered.

£41.04/£200

This will do us nicely until the weekend and there's also extras I didn't need for this week but wanted to take advantage of the offers on the beans and tomatoes etc. Will probably need some more milk towards the end of the week but that's it.

thriftwizard

First spend of the month to report here; £16.42 between W8rose and the Grape Tree. Did't need much but fancied a change from festive leftovers, so did a stir-fry & re-stocked with noodles, various greens (allotment veg seems to have attracted the pheasants over Christmas, whilst the plots were quiet. Must cover them over!) pilchards because the only way I'll get OH to eat any salad at this time of year is with pilchards & boiled eggs, also dried chestnuts for next year's festive stuffing, on BOGOF & long-dated in the Grape Tree, and some liquorice tea for me as I still have the last dregs of this horrible cold & it really soothes my throat!

But I have to enter the danger zone tomorrow - otherwise known as our local health food shop - to acquire some loose-leaf green tea for a new brew I've been given for Christmas. Luckily I do have a voucher, but can I stay within it? Or will I run riot & buy all sorts of worthy goodies that the family will refuse to eat - again?!

CRANKY40

My first grocery shop will be tomorrow. I have a list - I just need to remember to take it with me. I did try keeping the list on my phone but that was the day that I left my phone at home....

We're still eating from the freezer with no notable space appearing. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with a friend and it was tempting to drive past the takeaway on the way home but we decided to do a roast dinner instead. I'd already defrosted chicken and I added roast potatoes, mashed carrots, sprouts and some leftovers from christmas dinner which were pigs in blankets and stuffing balls. The gravy was instant from a jar but I can be forgiven for that because we stayed out of the takeaway. 

We've been home all day today because the House Troll is back in college tomorrow. Dinner tonight was pulled pork in bbq sauce made into wraps with added grated cheese. There were also oven chips as requested by the HT. Not the healthiest of meals - the once a week roast dinner opportunity to get veg into the teenager is the reason that I give him daily vitamins. 

patentgirl

Reporting first spend of 2023 Sains/Aldis majority Aldi £68.50 so slightly over what planned but should last till at least next Thursday so not too bad will update signature tomorrow. 

Landgirlinthelittlecity

First payment of the year done, £17.60 on our monthly milk bill. Ek!