January 2023 Grocery Challenge

LLM2018

Hello,

A very busy week in work and have grabbed convenience food rather than cook. Spent in Icelnd, Morries, Tesc* and Sp*r lol. I'm over budget by 9.80. The little spends really add up!

I'm am pleased with that as it could have been much worse lol. Need milk and cereal this weekend but that will it.

109.80/100

LLM

newroadahead

Spends so far £174.35/£250, however that is due to me removing alcohol and entertainment or it would be more. Will rethink for February best way to calculate

NRA

EssexHebridean

Apologies - I’ve been AWOL, life getting in the way! I have been keeping track though - so can declare the last couple of weeks

Planned Farmfoods visit last weekend netted the dishwasher tablets for our target price as well as tinned tuna on their usual multi-buy deal, and a tin of coconut milk at a reasonable price too. £9.48 just for the last two items there as DW tabs come from a different budget. Then across the road to T’s for the main weekly shop - £24.55 there. We also made the decision to skip the farmer’s market as while there were things we would have bought, there wasn’t much we actually needed if you know what I mean.

This week has been about a combination of the normal weekly stuff, and also topping up storecupboard supplies a little. Al’s yesterday - £15,15 which included a few tins, a couple of packs each of noodles and packet rice/grains - to my delight I managed to get eggs too which was a result. Then to T’s today -  £30.09 and topped up stocks of rice, couscous, halloumi plus a chorizo on clubcard price. Also grabbed a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks which will make a roast dinner for tomorrow plus a meal in the week too. 

That leaves me at £138.49/£225 which allowing for only one more shopping week in my month suggests a fairly good result for this month. Aim is to rebuild a nice credit in the grocery account as I figure when we move we’re going to have to run down stocks first, then re-stock, so having some surplus ready for that will be useful. 

Thevalueofless

Calling it for January £213.51/£300.
Very pleased with this but we did have an lot of stuff in stores and freezers. Making some changes going forward - my £300 budget included £30 to keep stores topped up but have decided to run down the stores and reduce budget accordingly as I am not getting a true indication of what we really spend as I can 'shop my own shelves' for now. This will be hard for me to feel comfortable doing for various reasons but I'm going to at least try and only replace items as we are due to run out or if it is on offer and then I can buy for the month. I think it will help me use up more of what we have. I also need to make sure I include all spending as OH usually picks up our oat milk in bulk for the month from Ald! which I stupidly hadn't thought about until this very minute  - last months was paid for in December so am making executive decision not to include it in January but will do going forward. This is quite a bit at around £28 per month. So, budget for February £270. 

Have found taking part in the challenge very enlightening and enjoy reading the comments each day to see how everyone getting on. 

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

sarahj1986 said:

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.

Another £20.18 spent today 

actually it should have been more like a tenner but I took my daughter, never a good idea and there was a few reductions I picked up. I’ll only need milk now which I’ll get on Saturday 

£32.45 over 

£10 spent on a few things.

this is actually an approximate amount. Tesco for some reason have taken off their own brand chocolate spread online and my daughter has taken a liking to chocolate spread on toast. As I was in there I picked up 2 jars even though we don’t need it and I wouldn’t have bought it till next week had it been online. I also managed to get a massive chicken. If you check the weights online for example the willow farm chicken is 1.2-1.6kg in weight for £3.56, that’s gone up in price again. Anyways, they always send me a 1.3-1.4kg size online so seen as I was in there I got one myself 1.7kg for £3.56 so made sense to get it myself and get more chicken for my money. It annoys me they do that in this country. In Spain it’s all on weight if you get a 1.5kg chicken to pay for 1.5kg, if you get a 2kg chicken you pay the price of 2kg. The chicken is ok till 2nd so that might be dinner on 1st or I’ll freeze it if I need too. 

I also picked up a few things for my sister like coffee, brioche. She didn’t give me the money but she picked me up so saved me £11 bus journey. I wasn’t going to quibble over £3.50 😂 I’ve discounted that as I’d have spent that on the bus 

so yeah I’m going with £10 cause I needed milk, cheese, chorizo, yogurts, crisps so yeah a tenner is about right and I’ve lost the receipt. 

£42.45 over 

mfwin2019

Total for this week is 100.90 which includes a shop at T and one at L, veg box, spice kit subscription and more milk.
As I am nearly at month end and seemed to have a lot of budget left about 30 of this was store cupboard bits as I know this month we benefitted from a lot of Christmas left overs.

Veg box on Tuesday should be my final spend for January. 

So far 304. 14 from 350

Very happy with my spends for January so far. 

Crazycatlady2

Need to find my last post to figure out where I’m at but got £65 to add on for todays Tesco delivery and I’m done for month. 

Scrapped in at 598 which is still far to high 😢

SausageDogSandwich

Just been through my bank and realised I’d missed £1.70 for ibuprofen for husband and £2.79 on a car very breakfast TGtG bag. Haven’t done any spending today and shouldn’t spend for the next few days but will see how that goes. 

£187.62 spent.

Chelleybee

Declaring at £354.63. That's £4.63 over but no food needed until the 4th February.  

Not bad for a 1st attempt.  

Trying for £350 again next month 

ancientmum

Only two days to go until the end of January thank goodness.  I did a storecupboard top up in Sains which came to £26.33 and included butter and cheese reduced in the app, so bought enough to last 6-8 weeks.  The cheese blocks do go crumbly in the freezer but it takes up less space like that than if I grate it first.  Also got enough toilet rolls for about 3 months.

So I'm declaring for January at £75.58/1200 annual spend, and hopping over to February as I shouldn't have to buy anything else now until Wednesday.