January 2023 Grocery Challenge

Saver-upper

Thank you for running this thread elsiepac.
After dipping in and out of this challenge last year, I really need to get organised this year.

Over the Christmas holidays,  I looked at my household spending over the 2023, and saw where every penny went. I was shocked to see I'd spent £4600.95 on groceries 😳😳. Now, we are a family of 2 adults and 3 teens at home, and 20 yo home for a few weekends a term, and during term holidays, so (what works out as) £383/month, it  probably doesn't seem too bad.  But when I look at the receipts,  and see what I've actually bought, I know I can cut down- so many sweets, biscuits, and impulse buys even when I'm "just going to get bread and milk".

Previously on here  I have aimed for £250/month budget, overspent every month, and given up tracking. Now that I have seen exactly how much I spend, and on what, I think I can make a more realistic budget. 

So, I am going to set a budget of £300/month , though I would love to come in under every now and again . Hopefully this is a bit more realistic.

My goals:

- meal plan

- like a lot of us at the moment,  run down what we already have in.

- buy less "rubbish" (sweets and biscuits). Some days I look in the shopping trolley, and over half of it is junk food! 

Before shopping on Monday, I checked out fridge, freezer and cupboards, then meal planned, and bought as little as I could get away with to make meals for the rest of this week (inc reduced chicken breasts for hunters chicken, jacket potatoes and fillings, tacos and fillings, ingredients for carbonara. Already have stuff in for brocoli, leek and carrot pasta, and fishcakes we had last night). I spent £64.69.

Shouldn't need to do a shop for a few more days, so that should help the budget. Besides, it's too cold to go out!

£64.69/300

joedenise

Picked up a Morrisons Magic Bag tonight for £3.09 and while there picked up some grapes and bread for a total spend (including the magic bag) of £7.14.  Really happy with the Magic Bag as it was all fruit and veg so won't need to buy any for a while.

Its_time

Tesco shop delivered tonight for £53.17 total this month so far:

£131.11/£250

So need to slow down! I am finding it really difficult to use the Tesco savers because I feel like I always have to shop at Tesco, going to LIdl feels a waste of the saver.  So confusing!

Soontobeoap

Just had to share with you guys as you are the only ones who would understand my excitment! Just thrown some left over roast beef from new year, Mushrooms, gravy, home grown tomato sauce and carrots from the freezer and some leftover baby potatoes, an onion and half of a 19p swede bought just before Christmas together and created an amazing beef stew with small roasted potatoes and mashed swede. Added to the glass of wine that was left over we had an amazingly tasty meal for next to nothing. Its amazing what you can do with a few leftovers! 

LLM2018

Spent £5.18 today at Morries for cereal, tuna and ice cream. 

Total spends to date: 

34.99/100

LLM

MissRikkiC

I shopped today. A little under £30 which shouldn’t have been entirely necessary as I planned for the next 5 days however my youngest is being weaned and I wanted some variety for him to start with plus I topped up a few store cupboard things. 

Overall whilst everything looked high price wise, i felt I got a fair bit for my money (which is the first time I’ve said that in a while) especially since £7 was a free range corn fed chicken (yellow sticker). I made sure to buy only a single leek, courgette etc rather than packets and bought such a huge butternut squash for £1.29 that could actually feed us for a week I’m sure so  overall I am pleased. I had meals in mind when I shopped so just need to firm those up now. 

£4.99+£16.85+£29.47 = £51.31/£150 spent

KajiKita

Soontobeoap said:

Just had to share with you guys as you are the only ones who would understand my excitment! Just thrown some left over roast beef from new year, Mushrooms, gravy, home grown tomato sauce and carrots from the freezer and some leftover baby potatoes, an onion and half of a 19p swede bought just before Christmas together and created an amazing beef stew with small roasted potatoes and mashed swede. Added to the glass of wine that was left over we had an amazingly tasty meal for next to nothing. Its amazing what you can do with a few leftovers! 

Hugely satisfying when you can do this! 😊💪👏❤️🎉

KK

Chelleybee

2 NSD's ! It's a miracle! Making do with frozen roasties rather than buying a bag of potatoes. Yes I know frozen roast potatoes are a silly proce but I found them in the freezer ! 

2Scratters

I have not yet withdrawn the grocery money from the bank account yet. We had over £50 left over from December, that doesn't mean we were good - it just didn't get taken from the purse to probably pay back. Maybe I should put it to one side towards a bulk buy in the future. 
I purchased 4 different bags through TGTG and that was paid for from the bills account. Actually I will re credit the bills account of the £15 spend and hold the cash in my purse of my own spends. So £40 now sits in the cash purse. 
As this is a 5 week month I will see how far the money can go and we intend to have a no spend week at the end of the month.

2 Scratters xx

gm2917

Another visit to the shop for some ingredients I couldn't get when I did my last big shop (and a couple I forgot to buy).
£4.92 spent

£123.93/£400