January 2023 Grocery Challenge

EssexHebridean

Well after saying that should be me done for spending this week, I have more to report! 

A trip to the farm shop on Sunday morning for Seville Oranges ('tis the season!) ended up in a £11.18 spend as we also grabbed a few others things we can only get there too. Then a further spend in T's on sugar and lemons for the marmalade, plus a few odds and ends for lunch. £6.62 there. 

MrEH made a small spend in sainsbugs on Monday - an additional bag of sugar as we bought one too few, and he found a jar of YS'd Blood Orange Curd while there for a bargainous 19p. He used his personal spends for those though so it's not being counted! 

£59.22/£225 now. And I am NOT spending anything more this week!  

I'm reminded from another post that we also need dishwasher tablets so a trip to the market might get pencilled in for Saturday morning - those won't come from the grocery budget though. 

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

Hello all

kicking off my first spend of the year so far!

went into town today and popped into Lidl. I got some skinny crunch, energy drinks and finally managed to get a £1.50 fruit n veg box. It had a mango, 7/8 apples, a pear, 5/6 oranges, 2 bunches of spring onions”, orange pepper, lettuce, loads of baby potatoes, 3 red potatoes, aubergine, a lemon, a lime and a grape fruit. 4 bananas although I think only 1 of those can be saved. Apart from 3 of the bananas the rest of it is absolutely fine, 1 apple has a bruise but I can cut that off. I won’t need much fruit n veg this week now. Tesco is delivering on Thursday. I’m trying to keep that under £70

£246.67 left 

£84.33 spent today 

my shopping is due this afternoon and I’ve just got my receipt from Tesco. It would have been a bit higher but there’s 3 subs I don’t want. 

It is slightly bigger than I was planning on but I’ve done a mini stock up on things we use like crisps, cereal bars, biscuits and I’ve also got my husband a selection of tinned soup for his lunch when he wants it. I’ve only got chicken and a big pack of mince on it for dinners. I’ve taken out leftover lamb for dinner tonight, I’ll do a tikka curry, got naans coming for that. The mince I’m batch making a chilli adding in lentils and kidney beans, that will easily do 3 dinners. I’ll freeze 2 lots. Chicken, which I’m going tomorrow will do is 2 meals so freeze the rest for a curry or sweet and sour. I’ve still got 2 joints of pork, 2 joints of beef plus bacon and other bits in my freezer. Next week won’t need to be as high as I continue to use what I’ve got. 

£162.34 left 

£4.60 spent today

£1.60 in Poundland. We visited my sisters and her children. My daughter wanted a drink plus I got some skinny crunch bars as I’ve not tried the rocky road yet

£3 was a Too good to go bag from Costa. I’ve done them in the past when I’ve been up my sisters way. They are lucky to have a few Costas nearby. The one today I’ve never been lucky enough to get. I ended up with a croissant, chocolate twist, 1 chocolate muffin, 1 lemon muffin and a ham n cheese toastie. Maybe not massively money saving but a nice treat. 

£157.64 left 

£59.34 spent today 

it was over £60 but something on that was for my daughters birthday and I don’t include that 

£98.30 left 

2 shops left so needs to be under £50 each to keep myself under my budget. We shall see how it goes 

£30.30 spent today 

I went into town and headed up to Lidl as I forgot to get my daughter yogurts and she had ran out. Also needed some biscuits as I struggle to get the single packets on Tesco line. 

Anyways I got what I needed plus some reductions 

2 x chicken goujons 90p each 
1 x southern fried chicken £2
1x lemon and pepper pork chops £2
1 x breaded chicken steaks 90p
10 sausages 30% off
2 fish cakes 30% off

plus the £1,50 fruit n veg box. I had potatoes, apples, carrots, tomatoes, plums, oranges, kiwi, leek, grapefruit and red onions. There is so much for £1.50!

plus a few other bits that I needed so yeah, £30.30 spent. I’m very happy because the meat/fish alone I’ve saved probably £20 on full price, add in the fruit n veg box another £10-15. I’m extremely happy

£68 left. I think I might go over by a few pounds but I’m getting a shop this week I’ll see if I can stretch it to the end of the month, only needing milk and bread in the final week or January. With what I got reduced today and my freezer stash I definitely don’t need and meat or fish for a good few weeks 

Thanks 

£80.27 Tesco shop today 

it was a big shop too as I’m getting 2 weeks worth of shopping so that I don’t need to do much else between now and the end of the month

so I’m £12.27 over 

I’m ok with this. I got a lot of reductions from Lidl on Monday that will push us into February and help February’s budget. I shouldn’t in theory need much else. Maybe bread, milk and yogurts between now and the end of the month.

otb666

520/600 a bit annoyed as picked up pizza base mix reduced and got charged full price co op, why dont they just stick the reduced price over the bar code

2Scratters

And still December grocery money sits in the bank.  We have just over £6 left in the purse. Did a TGTG for 2.99 and picked up 1 single ltrs of skimmed milk for 48p. Turned out to be another milk in the bag. Well that's 3 for the freezer sorted. 

2 Scratters xx

sams247

Few spends..... including Super Savers for kitchen bits and Mr T for wraps and cheese.

£146/£160

Saver-upper

Saver-upper said:

When I was checking receipts last night,  I found some reductions had not been taken off (totalling  2.85),so I will be chasing that up. Naughty Asda- in October I questioned them because items were not scanning as the shelf ticket price (and almost always scanning more expensive 😑). 

I went back into Asda yesterday, pointed out the discrepancies,  they refunded the £2.85.

Since that big shop on Friday, I have spent £6.60 in Asda (chicken and cheese), £10.38 in Sainsbury,  and £12.75 on pizzas in Asda 😑.

Today a client I was to be working with, asked if I could bring her milk,  and she would pay me back. I have added it to my grocery spends until such time as it is repaid.

Without refund, this month's spend comes to £271.75/£300.00.

gill5blue

Hi All,
week 3 update spent £62.29

 £175.93/£240

feels great to be on target, thanks to this thread and all in it
gill5blue

patentgirl

Morning everyone smallish spend this week mainly bread milk etc too ups £4.59 at Tescos and £12.32 at Aldi  week 3 spend total £16.91 will add to signature £144.65 spent since 1st Jan. We are away for weekend from tomorrow going to Derby all budgeted or already paid so nothing out of food budget till early next week.

ancientmum

Mostly this month I've only had to buy basic eggs, milk, bread and fruit but needed some extra grocery store stuff on Tuesday which has brought the total spend so far to £24.63.  I was also lucky at the community fridge, bagging  a hand of bananas and a couple of pain au chocolate for weekend breakfasts.  

gm2917

I haven't posted for a while.

Various shops including cat food subscription brings me to £287.43/£400 so far. My month normally ends on the 27th, so hoping I can keep to budget with one big shop due.

Not as well as I was hoping, but better than I would normally do. 

This challenge is helping me to think twice about what I'm buying and how I use it.