January 2024 Grocery Challenge

Pennypincin

Another grocery spend for today and hopefully the last fot January.
£6.50 spent in Tesco for eggs, cheese plus a rare treat of a reduced potato and egg salad and reduced shredded beetroot to go with it.
A fair chunk of the budget has gone on what seems not much, but it's still a learning process/curve and hope to be under budget by £5 so I can stash it to top up the cupboards and freezer when I eventually manage it.

CRANKY40

I did my last grocery shop for January this morning. I spent £76.75 which included a big box of tea bags even though we have some left and a big jar of coffee the same. I thought that while I had a week when I didn't need much I would buy some of the things that we use regularly because buying a large whatever it is makes better sense but can also be budget wrecking if it's a week when a lot of other things have run out. 

Total spent this month £345.54/£405.28. I'm happy (and surprised) with that. 

Finstickle

Final update for Jan.

There's been 2 big shops at £144.04 & 56.98 as well as a couple of top ups.
The £144 shop included £47 of alcohol primarily for a party and I am now not really drinking until mid-March due to prepping for the CrossFit Open at the end of Feb.

Overall, there were a few more top-ups than I'd like and a bit too much spent on alcohol, but bearing that in mind, this was still probably our lowest month in a while, primarily due to how conscious I've been when meal planning, writing lists and actually shopping :-)

Finishing January on £390/£350

StickyTheStickInsect

Today a small top up shop in Tesco’s for cucumber, bread and melon £4.38. 

A slightly bigger top up in Lidl on Saturday for grapes eggs, noodles, bananas, rice, ham and crisps, £15.35, I also managed to pick up some free bits using my Lidl rewards (BBQ sauce, sweets and a baguette). 

Last Wednesday a small Sainsburys’s top up for DS1’s birthday cake, cheese and bread £18.15

School dinners for my DS1 and DD for two days each £9.64

Well probably need one more top up shop before the end of the month.

£488.57/£7,200
(January : Groceries £411.45  School Dinners £77.12)

SausageDogSandwich

Morning all, so far this month I’m up to £335.46/300. I’m fine with this as I’ve cancelled school dinners for son as they’ve swapped companies and the options aren’t great now for 2.40 a day, so told him he could have £12 budget for his dinners and he chose his own stuff, plus I’ve spent about £7 on stuff for my brother. Won’t get anything today and shouldn’t need anything tomorrow but won’t declare until then just incase. 

£335.46/300

sarahj1986

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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 

£73.43 spent

£12.69 in Morrisons. My daughter loves the weetabix melts, only place I can find them locally. They aren’t cheap either £3 for a small box. Plus I’d forgotten to order honey, soy and cornflour 

£60.74 Tesco delivery due shortly. My husband is doing dry January so about £15 of that is a few packs of 0% beer for him that will last a few weeks. Plus nappies, wipes, some household items, 

£273.15 left 

£11.70 spent 

£5 at a cafe that does a kinda “cake and savoury” sale every day. So we got 4 items for £5

£3 in Poundland on Skinny bars usually £1.25 everywhere else

£3.70 in Tesco on reduced sausages 

£261.45 left but we dont need a massive shop next week as we’ve got loads in - don’t need crisps, snacks, toiletries, cleaning stuff, toilet roll. We will need fresh things like fruit, veg, milk. We have a lot of frozen meat/fish so should be ok there. 

£49.35 spent

I went over to Lidl for a change. I picked up a few bits not on the list but reduced/on offer and will get used. We will only need milk and maybe bread till next week and potatoes as I couldn’t carry them home (although I only need to carry thrm
over the road) 

£212.10 left 

£5.36 spent 

unexpected of sorts. I pop into M&S often because they can have decent reductions. I got 2 nice pizzas and 2x6 potato skins for £5.36 which is good for M&S. I don’t even think Lidl would be that cheap for what I got. That’s an easy freezer meal one night 

£206.74 left 

£10.38 spent

Split over Aldi and Lidl. I needed milk yesterday so Lidl is closest plus a few of their energy drinks in case I need the pick up. I went into Aldi as there was a baby event on. I got my daughter and son a few things (taken off as it’s not food). I did however get some mayonnaise as I didn’t realise were out and 2 boxes of Weetabix melts as they were in the middle aisle for £1.99, they are £3 in Morrisons! My daughter likes them so grabbed 2 boxes. 

£100 spent 

this is an (over) guesstimate as it is my daughters birthday today and we had her party was yesterday. I did all the food and I ordered from Tesco yesterday. The order had party food on and food for the week and that’s my rough over estimate plus today I went into Lidl as the milk we had from a few days ago was off. I also got some meat 30% off for the freezer. 

£96.36 left eekkkk it’s gonna be tight 

£8.28 spent 

needed milk and fruit. We renewed our daughter’s passport and done our sons first. As they are separate departments they both come separately. Anyways my daughters was coming recorded between 9:06am-1106am. It was more like midday which is fine. It meant I didn’t have much time before collecting my daughter from school and I desperately needed and walk and my son needed a sleep (he only seems to sleep in his pram on a walk during the day). So whilst I was out M&S is closest, as I knew my sons passport was going to be despatched and arrive tomorrow I decided to take the hit and go into M&S. I only needed milk and some fruit. I paid a tad more for the berries but needs must. 

£88.08 left

£68.88 spent 

tesco shop which should hopefully last me the rest of January with a small top up. I’ve still got lots in especially my freezer. I need to find out when my husband is having his days off next week because it’s easier to get the shop in when he’s here so it may be calendar wise January but for February (if that makes sense) 

£19.20 left which I’ll use for bread, milk, fruit etc 

£11.48 spent

 bread, milk, fruit, baked beans 

£7.72 left will need more milk and fruit before 1sr, possibly bread too. 

Gone slightly over by £1.20 getting milk, bread, fruit which is fine I’m pleased how it’s gone this month. No spend day tomorrow 

thriftwizard

Well - I dashed down to L!dls yesterday & spent some of the rest of the Christmas fund catching up with the non-perishables; I deliberately hadn't done this at the start of the month, to see how far the stores would get us with reduced numbers. But when it comes to running out of filter coffee... no way, not happening! It wasn't too bad & I'm happy with it being a belated Christmas spend, but I have added the £1.50 TGTG veg box, which was just adventitious spending, to the already-over January budget. 

In said box: one slightly wilted Cos lettuce; went to the chickens this morning, much to their delight. A single large carrot, half of which went into my lunchtime salad, the other half will be in tonight's casserole. 2 packs of very nice miniature spuds; one pack was eaten last night & the other may get planted! A single large potato, will be added to Thursday's baked-potatoes-with-anything-left-over-in-the-fridge meal. One pack of cooked beetroot, to gladden OH's little heart; a favourite thing that he normally only gets when I've grown some. 4 biggish sweet potatoes; some, at least, will go into Oklahoma potatoes (a fry-up of spuds, sweet potatoes & onion with herbs, cumin & soy sauce) at the weekend, & the DDs will polish off the rest. 3 oranges, one of which I have already eaten; not too bad, but nowhere as nice as my crowd-farmed Spanish oranges. 2 pears, which OH loves, and one pomegranate, which I will split with DD2 tonight. By my reckoning, which I can't double-check as they don't list their prices online & it's hard to work out prices for individual items when they normally come in packs, that's well over £5-worth, maybe even £7. There were lots of boxes available, with all sorts of different stuff in like bananas, cabbages & onions; I just chose the one that most suited what we eat & didn't duplicate too much stuff we already have, except potatoes - I just opened a 25kg sack of Desirées! But they'll keep, kept cool & dark.  

LadyWithAPlan

CRANKY40 said:

I did my last grocery shop for January this morning. I spent £76.75 which included a big box of tea bags even though we have some left and a big jar of coffee the same. I thought that while I had a week when I didn't need much I would buy some of the things that we use regularly because buying a large whatever it is makes better sense but can also be budget wrecking if it's a week when a lot of other things have run out. 

Total spent this month £345.54/£405.28. I'm happy (and surprised) with that. 

This is why @s@Suffolk_lass suggests  brilliantly having a bulk fund - separate from your grocery - to cover the big items eg the 10 packs of coffees etc I buy. It really helps smooth out the edges of buying lots of YS meats or offers to freeze even though it would kill your current monthly budget. Plus when there are good deals on staples eg teabags, huge bags rice, YS meats you wont get through this month to freeze  etc  you can buy in bulk without leaving your grocery budget short.

I now have a £50  per month bulk fund aside from my Grocery budget -  if I buy things that I may use part  this current month and into next months- I just split it eg 10 packs of coffee £25 , know I will use 2 this month so 20% eg £5 of cost goes to this months grocery and  the £20 -80% from bulk fund. 
I then keep  adding  to the bulk fund each month - and whats left at the end of the year goes towards Xmas food etc. I also use it to swipe up excess spends in emergencies

SuffolkLass actually puts £400 away beginning of each Jan... whatever works best for you. She does another step but it confuses me so I stick with my simple system

Grocery Jan   £139.82/£175 plus £24.49/£50 bulk plus £35.28 HFresh -  think thats final unless I pop out tomorrow to get DF milk and greens.


Jan - no spend on food since last report but I am using HF last box...
Pleased I was under budget - I did buy loads of YS meat etc on Jan 1st at my local Co*p which really helped with the freezer. 

HELL FRESH   £10.30 spent today   (spent £24.98 beg Jan  also with £10 off coupon)
I have £34.99 HF credit I have been saving so i have now allocated that for the week one in Feb -  4 x 2 meals arrives next Sunday   - its £4.99 always delivery (credit wont cover it) so if I have 3 meals I leave £5 credit on the table as they still charge me the £4.99 as cash for p+p  - so instead  I am buying 4 meals x 2 - net result to be spent  £10.30 to be spent this Tues for next Sunday so will reduce Feb grocery bill.
This then leaves me flat and done  in HF - I couldnt access my credit til I had used all my £10 off vouchers ... - I can see one cant pause HF  but only skip  weeks  so I have paused the weeks after and once my food arrives I will cancel acct

I will try some other food sub when deals arrive but I am happy to pause for the moment - I have ordered a couple dishes I want to try and make 

I do need loads green veg and some bits in but made  today a yummy pork chop brown rice loads veg dish today  in pressure cooker using YS frozen pork chops, passata, peppers, onions, musgrooms, peas and soya beans  and store ingredients so I think I am done for spending in Jan on food. I had found a spare HF gouchujang sauce in the fridge I also added to the rice thing  - two decent size meals - had some frozen spinach for the greens.

Have a decent freezer amount in but it does need eating down a bit. My local Mr Lid will be closing down which is very annoying as it was near my gym so will have to walk 15 min in other direction to Aldi. There are most big shops near me but the Lid was v convenient - there is an iceland - I have a bonus card so I will start getting more frozen green veg from there as fresh kale, broccoli and spinach is always what I run out of as I aim to eat a v large portion daily with my main meal. I do like the Iceland frozen cauliflower rice - seems as good value as actually buying cauli fresh from what I can tell.

(Lost a family member to diabetes so I now really try to eat as much green veg especially kale as possible as kale is so good for cleansing the liver)  Also I have had no haribo/sweets/candies  etc in 2024    go me! 


NSD 14/13 (HFresh  spending today so not count) 

well done everyone! See you in February..

Suffolk_lass

@CRANKY40 I might have simplified my bulk buying since I first shared it with LaPlan.

It is now within my £3000 annual budget (this averages out at £250 a month but I need to spend less, to allow for the bargains). I account for my spending in three rows of my trusty spreadsheet -

• Grocery shopping (fresh, bought online or in-person SM or in shops), 
• Store-cupboard (where I rarely pay full price for non-perishable food, laundry, SM toiletries or cleaning products) and 
• Direct debits and subscription things (Big River subscriptions organised so I get 15% off things, plus my delivered milk and eggs - I know the milk costs more but it keeps me out of the shops where I succumb to temptation)

My spend is in my signature and currently includes food for our four visitors coming for this weekend. I might move some to my (outside Grocery Challenge) Treats and Entertainment budget that covers trips out, naughty purchases like chocolate, cafe breakfasts and so on. It is also really helpful to see the balance, a bit like the recent Michael Mosley programme, you don't realise unless you track it, just what proportion of your basket is non-essential luxury or UPF. I was shocked by the condiment revelations this week.

kayannie

thriftwizard said:

Well - I dashed down to L!dls yesterday & spent some of the rest of the Christmas fund catching up with the non-perishables; I deliberately hadn't done this at the start of the month, to see how far the stores would get us with reduced numbers. But when it comes to running out of filter coffee... no way, not happening! It wasn't too bad & I'm happy with it being a belated Christmas spend, but I have added the £1.50 TGTG veg box, which was just adventitious spending, to the already-over January budget. 

In said box: one slightly wilted Cos lettuce; went to the chickens this morning, much to their delight. A single large carrot, half of which went into my lunchtime salad, the other half will be in tonight's casserole. 2 packs of very nice miniature spuds; one pack was eaten last night & the other may get planted! A single large potato, will be added to Thursday's baked-potatoes-with-anything-left-over-in-the-fridge meal. One pack of cooked beetroot, to gladden OH's little heart; a favourite thing that he normally only gets when I've grown some. 4 biggish sweet potatoes; some, at least, will go into Oklahoma potatoes (a fry-up of spuds, sweet potatoes & onion with herbs, cumin & soy sauce) at the weekend, & the DDs will polish off the rest. 3 oranges, one of which I have already eaten; not too bad, but nowhere as nice as my crowd-farmed Spanish oranges. 2 pears, which OH loves, and one pomegranate, which I will split with DD2 tonight. By my reckoning, which I can't double-check as they don't list their prices online & it's hard to work out prices for individual items when they normally come in packs, that's well over £5-worth, maybe even £7. There were lots of boxes available, with all sorts of different stuff in like bananas, cabbages & onions; I just chose the one that most suited what we eat & didn't duplicate too much stuff we already have, except potatoes - I just opened a 25kg sack of Desirées! But they'll keep, kept cool & dark.  

For anyone like your OH in who loves beetroot - I make beetroot & horseradish soup, using the packs of cooked beetroot. It was a recipe in a NT magazine years ago & is now a firm favourite in our house. I also use the cooked beetroots to make beetroot chutney. It's more economical to use  cooked rather than raw beets that take ages to cook. KA