January 2024 Grocery Challenge

wannalot

The year started well for me, by receiving a Morrisons discount voucher for £15 off of a £70 shop. However, it also made me very aware of how much of a compulsive shopper I am (in the belief that I had best snapping up bargains when they are available): I somehow managed to fill my online basket with £100 worth of products. It’s all discounted stuff with lots of 3-for-£10 deals, but I can’t afford to spend that amount and I am sure I don’t need so much!


I’ll spend an hour this evening going through fridge/freezer/cupboards and then reduce my online based on the result.

CRANKY40

My supermarket delivery this morning was £49.72. It stops me from buying all the yellow stickered Christmas bits that I wouldn't usually buy anyway. It also makes me concentrate on what we actually need. I bought cat food, cat litter, fruit, bread, sugar, mouthwash for HT (he has a brace and it has to be a specific expensive mouthwash but I'm ok with that), ham, eggs, coleslaw, butter, cat treats, bin bags and a few other bits that I no longer remember even though I've just put it all away. 

I had a chicken salad wrap and some fruit for dinner last night and the HT had a toastie. Tonight may be more of the same. I'm still tired from the cold that started on the 18th of December.....

Total spend so far £61.99/£405.28 (£18.01 left for week one)

CRANKY40

charlies_tribe said:

with DD2s eating disorder she can sniff out a change a mile off and don't want to put her off.

I wouldn't try any tricks either @charlies_tribe. You could maybe put some in a bowl and ask your daughter to have a look at it and see what she thinks. 

The HT is a sensory eater for texture as well as taste so over the years we've perfected our "lets try it" routine. If I think he'll like something I mention it a few times and if I'm eating it I show him. First we do the sniff test then if he wants to try something I give him a small spoonful and he stands next to the bin in case he wants to spit it out. He's improved over the years and tried something last week that he did actually eat the spoonful of but then said it wasn't for him thanks. 

For anyone who thinks he's just being fussy/faddy, he once cried while trying to taste a chocolate raisin. He's not a great sweetie eater so he's not doing it to get treats instead of his dinner and also orange flavoured anything is totally off limits. This is his explanation ...

"Mum, if you eat anything that you don't like you can eat something else and take the taste away. If I eat something that I don't like I can taste it for the rest of the day no matter what else I eat". 

LadyWithAPlan

Frugalistamama said:

Accidentally forgot to cancel my HelloF subscription and they charged me £35 which is annoying and put up my spend this week even though I haven't gone to the shops. more than I would have spent for three meals but never mind. I'll cancel and wait for the next discount offer. Spent another £5 at the corner shop so so far have spent half my weekly grocery budget of £80 and no main food shop. Not started off too well.

They kept catching my mum this way - she cancelled on the phone to them whilst ill before xmas  - they didnt cancel her - and then charged her this week. HF are a nightmare for this. She has now gone on live chat for a record but waiting to see if she gets a credit back as she was delivered stuff with meat in she doesnt eat - I do think HF are deliberately difficult.
I am buying my last HF with £10 voucher as I was given a credit - but what they didnt say was that I could not use the credit til after all my vouchers were used up! Argh so I have been having to buy to access my credit.
So today should be the £23.55 last fee for HF  then I can access the £30 credit plus £5 I should have that I got from complaining on the delivery ..
I am getting a free choclate bar with it but that will be a gift as I am off the chocolate

I will then keep a my prepaid  HF box  for end the month or Feb.

Grocery shopping  £44.68/£175  +  £1.99/bulk of £50   + £23.98 this evening HellFresh
Popped to Mr L after the gym this morning to get kale - £19.93 spent £17.94 grocery and £1.99 coconut oil/bulk
I did get a 6 pack of YS pork chops that the machine miscalculated so they gave me an extra discount so £2.39 instead of £5.99 - these have been portioned into 2's and frozen.
Also bought walnuts, lots of green veg,  there was 15% off red onions, cucumber,   plus lemons, sweet potatoes etc, guac and houmous.

thriftwizard

£11.25 spent on a swift top-up shop today. £5.25 of that was a dozen eggs, as I only have one chicken in lay at present thanks to the annual "moult" and W8rose only had their top-of-the-range organic, free-range eggs. And £1 was on a soft white-sliced loaf - I feel I have to buy this for OH, who eats a lot of it because any other form of bread "hurts his teeth," even Panasonic-made bread now; I'm beginning to wonder if he's given himself scurvy as he'll often avoid veg and fresh fruit completely if he thinks I'm not looking - but I really, really don't like buying it! Otherwise, just 2 packs of wholegrain rice as we'd run out & I had to use oat groats instead last night. However that was fine, they ate it all! Shouldn't need anything else until the week-end shop on Thursday & Friday.

Soontobeoap

I had root canal work at the dentist today so whilst I was in town I popped into poundland and bought shampoo and conditioner £1.00 each. The cheapest I could find in Tesco was £2.30 each on an offer. I have quite easy hair so the cheap version works for me.
Porridge for lunch as I am still quite numb!

Florenceem

Not sure if we can wait until tomorrow to buy milk - it is 10% off day at Icela.. but so windy out - would like to stay indoors.

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

Good evening 

I’m starting this again. Things have been all over the place! Moved home in August, daughter started school in September and our son was born in October. I’ve let things slide and honestly when I look at my bank transactions I’m disgusted in our food shop spending. We have a holiday booked for August, we need to cut back in order to pay for that 

As I have a newborn, he is breastfed but his nappies, wipes plus all our toiletries, household cleaning are included on this budget. We start giving him solids in April. 

Factoring all that in I’m going for £360 a month, ideally less but I think around £80 a week is right, some weeks will be more, others less. I’m determined to do it 

so @elsiepac I’m down for £360 per month 

First spend today 

£13.52 spent 

made up of the following 

£2.25 in Poundland on Barney and Party rings, neither on CC so cheapest in there

£4,90 on toothpaste and a new toothbrush for my daughter. I always let her pick her toothbrush and the toothpaste for her is safe price as Tesco and the sensitive toothpaste is cheaper there than Tesco 

£6.37 M&S. I find their beans are the nicest, 50p a tin but still decent price, plus bread and milk (same price as Tesco) and some tea cakes I found reduced to 92p a pack 

£346.58 left big shop due tomorrow 

mumtoomany

First spend of the year. Not planned on spending much, but needed fruit, milk, bread and butter. Found some bargains so ended up spending £51.91. Got three lots of sausages and 6 sausage rolls at 75% off. 2 bags of flour at 30% off. Two lots of marinaded chicken breasts, two in each pack, for £1 pack. 5 pork steaks for £2. 1kilo boiled ham for sandwiches £1 2lt milk 50p. 5 reduced loaves and 3 selection boxes for 50p each.

Will only need milk next week, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx 

Thevalueofless

Hello all

Our month started 28th December with first shop of the year coming in at £42.56. Have meal planned using mostly items we already had in the freezer or shelves and we have a lot of potatoes, squash and green beans in store all from the allotment.  I have set myself a challenge to include each of these in our meals at least three times a week. If I don't manage this they will either no longer be fit to eat or in the case of the beans they will still be in the freezer when the next harvest is ready. Parsnips and carrots still in the ground and random bags of courgette in the freezer too.

Have kept to meal plan for five days so far, two more to go as I do this Fridays to Thursdays🙂.

TVOL