November 2023
I'm always in it, it's only the depth that varies....
Current debt: £10,806.75
Debt free date April 2025 (though expecting this to come forward)
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Hello Forumites! However well-intentioned, for the safety of other users we ask that you refrain from seeking or offering medical advice. This includes recommendations for medicines, procedures or over-the-counter remedies. Posts or threads found to be in breach of this rule will be removed.January 2024 Grocery Challenge
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Evening All,
For quite a few years, I’ve been dipping in and out of Old Style and numerous threads, including this one. Hopefully this year I will get better at posting and keeping myself of track.
I would like to join in for Jan with a budget of £400 a month, this seems a large budget for 2 adults but recently it’s been creeping up above this and I need to get it back on track. Budget includes household cleaning products and toiletries.
Good luck with the budgets everyone, hoping to pick up some tips from you all so I can get the budget down some more.Well Behaved women seldom make history
Early retirement goal... 2026
Reduce, reuse, recycle .8 -
Went to Tesco earlier and spent £39.52, which included lemsip max and a couple of other bits for DH who has Covid, and a bottle of wine for myself as it’s my birthday 😁 dinner was leftovers from Christmas still. Have milk and bread so shouldn’t need to top up until Monday.
Frugal living challenge 2023 £7500 for 2 adultsJanuary grocery challenge £60.55/ £2007 -
Thank you for the shiny new thread! I'm going to stick to my £400 per month to include all food, family use toiletries and cleaning products. For 3 adults and two teens. We don't drink alcohol so that helps.
This year I want to get my family eating healthier. They snack far too much and it really increases my budget. Also I'm guilty of quick shove in the oven beige meals when I'm tired/overwhelmed/fed up/bored of cooking.....I'm sure some of you can identify!! Also reading about you all looking into ultra processed food is striking a cord, I need to look into that as well.
Any left over money will go towards a bulk shop. I'd like to buy bulk meat from an online butcher in a couple of months time when the freezer is a bit emptier so will want about £100 for that.
Bring on Jan!Grocery challenge:
Mar 24.£72/£350
Jan 24 £350/£400
Dec 2023
Debt pay down: from move
loan: £11500
CC £4222, Jan 24 £3831,
Grocery challenge:
Dec 23 £393/£400
5 Jun 2023 new debt pay down
Personal loan £12,864 (starting balance)
Balance at End of:
Jun 12,400
July 11,960 (-£440)
April 20 GC - budget £168/£280, spent - £112 ( use up stores, no food waste, shop every 10 days, stick to list, home cooking)
Debt repayments
Barclaycard (£187) £0
Debt to family - (£200) £0
Tesco (£2200) (£5343) 0
Halifax (£488) £298 =£0
Virgin £3611 = £3572
Santander = £1500
Total: Mar 2020 (£6486 ) Apr £6109 May £5665 (+£106 tranfer fee); June £5331 Sept (£950 added) £5343, Dec £5070 April 2021 PAID OFF!!7 -
@Frugalistamama
I hear you about the shove-in-the-oven food
I've committed to 24 low/non UPF meals per month. Since I'm intolerant to both wheat and tomatoes and DS is Type 1 diabetic, ingredients are likely to be quite expensive and meal planning will be fun. It's so much easier to read the labels, but it has to stop!A budget is like a speed sign - a LIMIT not a TARGET!!
CHALLENGES
2024 Grocery Challenge: Q1 £37.83/£660
2024 NSDs: Jan 1/12
2024 Decluttering 24 containers/month: Jan 10/24
Weight Loss: 0/24lbs
2024 Fashion on the Ration: 0/66
24 for 20248 -
£12.22 spent in the supermarket today on bread, milk, some fruit and some salad stuff. I'm actually fed up of eating rubbish now.
£12.22/£405.288 -
Thank you @elsiepac for the new thread for the new year.
Can I please have £300 for January. Thank you
As normal this is for two adults and three children who eat like adults and a dog. Also includes all household stuff but no alcohol (which I don’t intend to buy for a few months) I am hoping to spend less than the £300 this month but will see how we get on!6 -
Is it too early to start feeling smug?!
A few people had mentioned here about the 19p veg deals etc, and I thought to myself, "Yeah, gonna get loads of 19p veg!" BUT, I didn't. I was going to my mother's for the big day, and told myself, "NO! Driving especially to go and fetch the 19p veg would cost me as much as I'd save." And I think that was the right decision.
However, Christmas Eve, mum realised my step-father had gotten a pork joint out of the freezer instead of the Christmas ham, so we went to Tesco before it opened. The place was EMPTY because they opened the doors an hour before you could check out. So, I DID then collect my 15!!! p veg items and as we killed some time wondering around noticed the reduced meat section. 750g of minced beef (5% fat!) reduced to a little over £1, salmon fillets, the same, so for £15.10 I filled a trolley! The BBD on the meat was all 26th so had to divide up and freeze.
I have just done my meal planning for the whole month, which for me runs roughly 24th - 23rd, and including snacks, breakfast, juices, cleaning products etc, I think I'm about £40 ahead of my £168 monthly budget.
I really do hope so anyway, because I REALLY need to be debt free this year!!!
Groceries to far:
£15.10 / £168 for January
£15.10 / £2024 for 202410 -
Could I join for January please. I had a budget before for £150 a week but its now regularly over £200 with items missing and its mainly done online so littlechance of bargains.
As I don't really have a starting point I'm going to use the average on the first page. There is 6 of us, me, DH, DS20, DS18, DD15 and DD14 for breakfast, lunches, dinners and snacks and cleaning, toiletries etc and we have DD and DGD most afternoons every other week and usually stays for dinner. But just using the averages for the 6 of us is...£762.60! For January 1st/31st
That looks massive to everyone else's but we are currently spending way over that.
We really need some cheap, filling, different meals as we are fed up of the same meals each week.LBM in April 17 - £14998/£33554 (44.6%) paid. Mortgage@1 June 18 = £9935/£76350 paid.Total debt @june 18 £102311 now £84972GC Jan £40.99/£500 2021 declutter 85/2021 items 0/20 bags clothes8 -
charlies_tribe said:Could I join for January please. I had a budget before for £150 a week but its now regularly over £200 with items missing and its mainly done online so littlechance of bargains.
As I don't really have a starting point I'm going to use the average on the first page. There is 6 of us, me, DH, DS20, DS18, DD15 and DD14 for breakfast, lunches, dinners and snacks and cleaning, toiletries etc and we have DD and DGD most afternoons every other week and usually stays for dinner. But just using the averages for the 6 of us is...£762.60! For January 1st/31st
That looks massive to everyone else's but we are currently spending way over that.
We really need some cheap, filling, different meals as we are fed up of the same meals each week.
My current go to when I want to do something filling and cheap, if this helps at all, is a spicy sausage casserole with potato wedges. I make 2 meals out of one pack of 12 chipolatas for 3 of us. It probably costs about £4 or less in total, so what, about 70p per portion.
I have really started to make an effort to reduce the amount of meat we eat. My husband's idea of a portion of meat is half a chicken each. An actual portion is around the size of an average deck of playing card. So in reducing these meat portions, I'm saving a fortune. 2 sausages instead of 4 - I cut them up in my casserole so he doesn't even notice, though I would tend to chop them into 4 pieces each and give him one of mine, and one of DD's. The other thing I do with minced beef dishes, is grate carrots into it to make it stretch. A 750g pack of mince will make 4 meals in my house (unbeknown to him!).
xxNovember 2023
I'm always in it, it's only the depth that varies....
Current debt: £10,806.75
Debt free date April 2025 (though expecting this to come forward)8 -
Thank you CMD79.
Dh and the boys are huge meat eaters and there can't be any spare/leftovers. If we double a meal as it makes 4 and ill double to make 8 they will just Pile it on instead of portions being left for another meal/to freeze.
A 750g mince does us one meal! And DD2 doesn't even eat our meals as she has ASD/ARFID and eats the same meal (waffles, breaded chicken and Yorkshire puddings, luckily all shops own brand as branded have too much flavour) every evening so only 5 of us most days.
I have warned them portion sizes are reducing next week when the budget starts.LBM in April 17 - £14998/£33554 (44.6%) paid. Mortgage@1 June 18 = £9935/£76350 paid.Total debt @june 18 £102311 now £84972GC Jan £40.99/£500 2021 declutter 85/2021 items 0/20 bags clothes7
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