January 2023 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

@joedenise ours does but each time I’ve been there the workers happened to not be there. Either I caught them at lunch or just on a break I think. I’ll have a look on our next trip. Instead of going tomorrow we’ll go Saturday because it’ll be absolutely pouring down tomorrow. 

Thevalueofless

£330 per month for two adults eating vegan diet. Split £300 for all monthly needs including take away/meals out and £30 store cupboard stash and contribution to local food bank.
Excited to have found this forum and join in. I have spent the last few hours reading through 2022 posts and keen to get started. Had a look at spending last year and we averaged £380 per month for grocery shopping,cleaning materials, toiletries and take aways/eating out. Food shopping supplemented by fresh veg from our allotment - it was our first year last year and quite successful luckily. We still have quite a bit of surplus in the freezer mainly courgettes, french beans and home made tomato sauce plus potatoes, onions and squash and a staples stash including oats, rice, pasta, lentils, beans etc (experienced food poverty in my youth and the worry of this has never left me). Planning a bit of a store cupboard challenge in January so I hope January will come quite a bit under budget. The target is not a big reduction on last year, about £50 per month but I hope to stay under target each month and will move any underspends to a separate savings account. My OH, although not wasteful at all, finds my interest in frugality mildly amusing and constantly tells me we are not broke and can afford whatever we need (within reason of course) so I'm going to be doing this but not telling him yet to see if he notices! We also still have Christmas goodies around the house so plenty of treats still to be had.

Chelleybee

Please could you add me to the list. Just worked out how to do bold!!!
£375 for January.
Last did this about 10 years ago when we had teenagers and we were trying to pay off our mortgage. 
Any savings made will be used for our holiday fund and to help out our 29 and 26 year old.
Thanks for running the thread.  Can't wait to get started.

Fuddydud

Hello everyone very long time lurker here (over 6 years 😳). I’m biting the bullet to make myself fully accountable and not be full of empty promises to myself of cutting back. Needs definitely must now due to all overtime at work having been cancelled since last October and no signs of it ever returning, to be able to afford my car service, mot and insurance this next year I have to get back to basics only ( I do believe I will manage it this year I just need to stay focused). As my freezer and cupboards are full I’m going to go for a very low weekly spend of £20 to cover milk, bread and vegetables, this is for myself and my DH. I only go shopping once per week (to save fuel) and I’ve started going with a list which I have already calculated the total for before I go (this on a couple of occasions has made me rethink when the total has been too high). I will shop this weekend but that will come from my January budget, I’m aiming to keep this £20 budget for as long as possible to get through the contents of the freezer and will then think of a realistic budget after.

pennywisesheeb

My Target for January is £200

2 adults, 11 & 6 year old.
Purely for food, doesn't include toiletries or cleaning products ect.
Lots of food left over from Christmas.

joedenise

@elsiepack - I've redone my budget and unfortunately with going away for a week the money doesn't stretch to my usual amount so can you please put me down for

£200

This is for 2 adults and is just for SM shopping excluding alcohol for which there is a separate budget.

the_cat

Budget of £300    please for 3 adults

Ive been around MSE for years but not been active for a long time. Jumping back in as I’ve definitely dropped the ball grocery spends wise. My 2 freezers are bursting at the seems after a VERY successful whoopsie haul yesterday so I should come in well below this target for day to day meals  but I will use the excess to replace stocks as I hate being low on food, especially in the winter!
spend so far £20.18/£300

Suffolk_lass

Please can I stay the same for 2023 with an 

Annual budget of £3000 + £500 contingency

I'll be back shortly (not today) to post my end of year figures for 2022.

Good luck everyone and welcome (back) to unfamiliar names. Oh, and happy new year.

I must venture out to the market for broccoli and possibly bread, and to the butcher for streaky bacon to wrap around the venison that is in the freezer when I roast it. The Treats and Entertainment budget may get raided if DH comes too

PipneyJane

JingsMyBucket said:

Hello all and happy holidays! It's great to see so many people joining in to the thread.  @elsiepac thank you so much for running this thread every month and I hope your year is filled with ease and good health. 

@PipneyJane how much is your butcher fund again? I can't remember the exact amount. 
…

Weirdly enough, is it just me or are some folks open to spending *more* on food lately? It seems like quality and variety have taken a nose dive in the past few years so I've been looking for good sources of interesting and nutritious food. For instance, I can't seem to find any squashes or pumpkins other than standard butternut squash. And even that's been hard to find at times! I may have to venture to a farm stand or a different supermarket like Morrison's in hope of finding a larger variety. 

I'd also like to incorporate more fish back into my diet and a wider variety other than just (battered) cod or haddock. Salmon steaks seem to have completely vanished from all supermarkets in place of filets so I may just buy a whole salmon online and cut it down myself. How are others dealing with this? 

Hi @JingsMyBucket

We put £40 a month into the Meat Fund for the Butcher.  We don’t go every month, so it builds up over time.  Basically, I shop to replenish the freezer.  Usual purchases from the Butcher include 2kg minced beef (in 250g bags), their largest roasting chicken (costs between £8.50 and £10), some chicken fillets, lamb chops or shanks, chicken legs or thighs, stewing steak, possibly a large leg of lamb (£35-ish but we’ll get it cut into two roasts).

It helps that I’ll also buy YS meat from L!dl, where the quality of meat is excellent, but those purchases come from the GC purse not the Meat Fund.

Regarding fish, if you don’t have a fishmonger handy, do you have a W8trose?  They used to have an excellent fish counter.  Failing that, I’d suggest looking in L!dl, which has a wider range of fish than most of the other supermarkets.

As an Australian, the fact that you can get butternut squash still seems like a miracle.  When I first arrived, the only time you got pumpkin was at Halloween and that variety was incredibly tasteless.   Sweet potatoes (kumara) now seem to be ubiquitous, but I remember when they were hard to source, too.

- Pip

CRANKY40

The teens appeared last night to get ready. There were four of them including mine so as well as the pizza from the freezer they had the pizza from the fridge and the rest of the garlic doughballs as well as some oven chips. When I came downstairs to take them to the party venue there was nothing left so at least they left with something inside to line their stomachs. I have to go and collect my teen from his friend's house in 30 minutes. 

Today I will be making packed lunch for my best friend and I to take to his house and I'll leave the HT a ham sandwich in the fridge. There's plenty of crisps and biscuits for him to chose from to go with it. I think I'll do a cooked breakfast for dinner tonight as it's quick and easy. The HT will have beans, bacon, sausage and toast and I'll add musgrooms and tomatoes to mine.