January 2024 Grocery Challenge

Amateurretiree

Please can I join. 

Just two of us, both retired, so all meals eaten at home, apart from odd lunch out.

£300 a month for absolutely everything. I do online shopping at T so pretty easy to control. We are both aiming to get back to healthy eating from Jan 2 nd, I’m actually sick of chocolate/ biscuits etc now as well!

otb666

50/600 @charlies_tribe I also have a adult child who eats waffles, breaded chicken and Yorkshire puddings only.  When he came back from uni we bought him a chest freezer and he prepares his own food now as was causing too many arguments.  My husband has type 2 Diabetes and prepares his own food as well.  He will occasionally eat with me like today he had turkey soup I made. Me and hubby cook from scratch and no processed food.    

CRANKY40

charlies_tribe said:

I have warned them portion sizes are reducing next week when the budget starts.

Back in the day it was common to have a slice or two of bread to mop up gravy etc. Maybe that could be a way of breaking them in gently?

Soontobeoap

Looking forward to taking up the challenge again in 2024. Would really like to spend less than last year on food, toiletries and cleaning stuff. Starting January a couple of days early. We have been away for several days so DH went to Aldi for juice, milk and bread. £12.80 spent. My plan is to try to keep months when it is just thr 2 of us down to under £190 a month if possible which should give me plenty of money for the months when the hoards descend!! 😂. Good luck all. Here we go. 

sarahj1986

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 

retiredinfrance

@CRANKY40, this is where the French custom of bread with a meal comes into its own. When I have lunch out on a day trip to the big city I always mop up the sauce and wipe my plate. This is not frowned on and the bread is usually delicious and more is free if requested. However I need to get into the habit of more bread and less dessert!

Suffolk_lass

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.

@charlies_tribe - please don't be embarrassed by a big start. There are 6 of you, plus regular extras. I started with over £700 a month for three of us, plus two cats. It is worth you taking out an hour or two to read the links on the first page, including Spiggle's post about how she approached it, which I am pasting here:

"We all have different budgets that suit our households. The most important thing to remember is that you set yours according to your needs and finances. It can take time to get to where you want to be too so don't knock yourself out if you go over in the first few months. We are here to support each other and it is not a competition.

I thought it might help to outline where we've come from and the top tips I've learned. 

When we started in March 2010 we had spent in excess of £600 in the previous month. :eek: This had to stop, (there's only me and him and our two beautiful black cats) something which thankfully my OH completely agreed with so I have been lucky that he has been on board from the start. He gave me his debit card voluntarily and I still keep hold of it until he needs to get something for the home. At the same time we set up a system of pocket money (pm) at £15 each per week which doesn't count towards the GC and which we can each spend as we wish with no comebacks or complaints. OH predominantly uses his pm on his beer and I ferret mine away mostly. :rotfl:

The next step was to set up my own spreadsheet which is absolutely simple onto which I put all spends so that I have a continuous running total for the month and for the year. We initially set our budget at £280 per month and brought it down to £240 where it resides for most of the year it is occasionally increased to allow for extras e.g. Christmas to £260.

The important 'tools' we found greatly helped and continue to do so now are:

Stocktake cupboards, fridge, freezer - make lists and ensure that the older products get used up first. You'll be amazed at what you find squirrelled away and it will help with your shopping list as you'll realise that you don't actually need so much.

Before you go shopping check staples - running out of milk, bread, butter, etc often leads to going into a shop for one thing and coming out £20 lighter. Always check these and if they'll run out tomorrow buy them the same time as getting other things.

Always make a shopping list and stick to it - the supermarkets (sm) try every which way to get us to spend so having a list and strong resolve is the only way to beat them.

Keep every receipt - and then note it down on your spreadsheet/spend diary so that you always know where you are.

When tempted, ask yourself do you NEED it or just WANT it - now this advice goes with two things. Firstly, the things you see in store when shopping that APPEAR to be bargains - if you hadn't planned spending the money then its not a bargain. Secondly, the sm send us loads of vouchers for £X off a spend of £XX - if you had no NEED to spend £XX then have you SAVED anything???

Use my supermarket Trolley to compare prices (limited to four of the biggies) - The site may be used to actually do an online shop at whichever of the big four offers the best value or, if you have the time and sm availability, to make up lists for visiting each of the stores so that you can purchase all you need at different stores thus getting the best possible value. (I'd add, do a 'shop' virtually on this site and take the list you create on it with you, whichever one you shop at, it will help keep target prices in your head and allow you to spot bargains. Mr M is not included but you can do a virtual list on their website so you know what you're going to be spending.)

Always have a list - this is just as important when shopping online as shopping on foot.

Use Approved Foods online (with a list!) - if you don't mind out of date things (ood) or you can search for only in date items. The only drawback is storing the goods as far as I can tell. Oh, and watch the delivery as it's done on a scaled charge for weight so keep an eye on it. You can of course do an AF order with friends, family, colleagues or like minded neighbours. Other GCers use Big Br*nds 4 Less too.

Invest in a bread maker - we have saved so much by making our own bread. The prices in the shops are extortionate for bread these days. There's loads of advice on this thread and others in the forum on this.

Use the recipe lists - always posted at the front of a new thread. There are fantastic, tasty, healthy and economical recipes to use on them and there are a number of other threads on the forum such as Weezl's that will help you to eat well on a budget.

Shop locally - the local greengrocer (or preferably market but I don't have one ) is usually cheaper as an option for fruit and veg (f&v) than the sm. Often the prices may look the same but when you look at the quantity for the same price the greengrocer will be cheaper. The same goes for the local butcher. Often you will have far more variety of meat available, advice on how to cook a particular meat can be offered and there is (for me at least) no comparison in terms of quality. We buy our huge FR eggs there and I'm yet to find an equivalent FR egg in a sm at the same or lower price. Obviously if you have your own chicks/know someone who has chicks you can get them even cheaper again.

Grow your own - it's quite simple to grow some f&v at home even if it's only in pots on the patio. There are also supportive threads on the forum for this.

Cook your own - making meals at home from ingredients is far more economical, often tastes better than shop bought and is probably far better health wise.

Meal Plan - this is something that others can advise on as we don't do it. I have a tremendous capacity for eating the same food over many days but presented in slightly different form. For example, we could buy £7 worth of brisket from the butchers and eat it as pot roast for a couple of days, sliced for sarnies, sliced with a salad, chucked into a casserole or shredded up and fried as crispy beef.

Don't waste food - either only make what you need or use any leftovers for other meals/creations or freeze it for another day.

Withdraw the cash you want to spend - and keep it in a separate purse. This can be particularly effective as you have the money in front of you reducing rather than spending with plastic which is so easy to lose track of. Very useful when you first start out.

Don't go to the shops to browse - this can only lead to pain and hardship!!!

Keep posting and reading the thread - there really is no better supportive, wise and inspirational place to be! I think I saw that somebody mentioned forgetting to read/post. I get around this by using the Advanced button to post, below the window where your text is displayed you will see Additional Options. In the Thread Subscription box use the dropdown to select either instant email notification (this is what I use) or daily email notification before you submit your latest post. Then you will get an email into your inbox from which you can click to the thread to see what others are saying.

Always remember the sm is not your friend - it wants to profit from you and take as much of your money as it can coerce out of you!

So, there you go as a starting point. Others on here will offer tremendous advice on meal planning. And don't forget, the only silly question is the one you didn't ask! 

See you all later,
Spigs"

For me, the thing was to identify why I failed - was I too smug? probably; a brand snob? definitely; buying the same things because I always did? oh yes; going off list? Absolutely my worst trait; stockpiling? yes, bargains are only bargains if you will use them. I am still set for the next Suffolk siege (several centuries after the last) but at least it is stuff I will use, eventually. So for me, eking out what I have until I absolutely have to shop is the way for me to save and the reverse meal planning thread is all about that, substituting something similar and sharing hacks.

Good luck with your journey

charlies_tribe

Thank you all so much for the comments. Meal planning is definitely needed here. We do only buy shop brands, except for soup.
DH does have bread with any meal he thinks I haven't made big enough.
Yesterday we had sausage and mash and I just put 2 sausages in each, they never said a word! It might be easier than I thought.
Going to book a delivery slot and start planning for next week. 

wishus

Thanks once again @elsiepac.

I'm joining again with a slightly reduced budget of £170 for 2 people and a cat!

basketcase

@charlies_tribe
I noticed that you said if you doubled up meals with a view to saving extra portions your 'tribe' ate them anyway because there wasn't enough.  I was wondering if you separated your planned leftovers and portioned them before serving, or waited to see what was left.

If you boxed/bagged them up before serving the meal and put them straight into the fridge/freezer, would anyone bother getting them out and reheating?  Or would they settle for some other form of filler?  You say above that DH already does have bread if he thinks the portion size is too small.  Do you think this could become a habit?  I ask because when I was small what was cooked was all there was (just missed rationing myself!) but anyone still peckish could get themselves a slice of bread, with or without jam.