January 2025 Grocery Challenge

ancientmum

Over the last week or so I've added £48 to my grocery spends, giving a total of £100 for the month.  I should not need anything else now until February, as I bought enough fruit at the market yesterday, and milk, bread at Lidly today to last the week.
After reading how a lot of you on here save with the Lidly app, I've downloaded it and went shopping there instead of Adly, so we will see how that works out.  The shop is less convenient, a bus or car ride away rather than a 10 minute walk.  I do like their pastries though and there is always the possibility of a veg box.

Hope everyone is ok in these storms, it has not been too bad here but a local nature reserve has been closed due to the risk of falling trees.

LotsOfTea

I did some shopping this morning whilst DS was busy sportsing. I picked up some tinned pineapple in juice, a jar of roasted peppers, some unsalted mixed nuts, a huge jar of gherkin slices and a few medicines and toiletries that were needed for a grand total of £15.23. I was hoping to get some batch cooking done this afternoon but a migraine has put the kibosh on that. I can't dodge getting the school uniform sorted for the week but I can postpone everything else.

Up to £184.45/£300 for the month and I'm extremely happy with that. I will need a few more fresh bits and bobs early next week but I'm definitely going to come in under budget for a change.

PipneyJane

determined_new_ms said:

Hey Random and welcome  I'm fairly new round here too (left the forum for a few years but never really ventured that much onto the old style board). I totally get where you are coming home, I find I over purchase food as well. But this month I've been able to massively reduce my GC spends - and my freezers and cupboards are still really full! In the last few months of 2024 I was spending between £450-600 a month, and our budget was £400. This month I've spent £164, there's 3 of us (11 yo child). I've loved being resourceful, using things from the stores, care shopping around what we already have. (my partner loves it less! He sees it as a scarcity mindset while I see it as an abundance mindset! We're being resourceful, we have plenty and we have the resources to buy more if needed). 

I'm setting up a slush fund with the under spend so when things are on offer - like meat around Christmas/Easter - to put in the freezer. I'm also using the underspend to change to more sustainable products/reduce plastic use. I'm trying to buy GC items without plastic packaging. I'm preparing for when we need to remortgage later in the year and hoping to reduce the impact on our joint finances. With how we were spending last year we would have had to put more money into the budget. By being more resourceful we shouldn't need to (if rates remain as they are currently!) Finally, I am going to give a portion of my under spend to a food poverty charity (haven't told oh that!)

That’s very generous of you @determined_new_ms.  

@RandomOne don’t be down on yourself.  It takes time to get your frugality muscles up to speed.  As others have said, do an inventory to see what you already have in stock and mealplan based on that.  I’d also add:  cook from scratch, and when shopping for a branded product, e.g. baked beans, I’d buy a can of the cheapest own-brand version instead and try that.  If it didn’t work out then, the next week, I’d try the next version up, until I found one that I liked.  Best case scenario, you find the cheapest version is perfect; worst case, you end up stalking the branded product around supermarkets to find it at the cheapest price.  (In the case of chopped tomatoes, I found no difference between branded and cheapest.  In the case of baked beans, MrT’s were more watery, so I pour some off and save it in the freezer to go into a tomato sauce, while L!dl’s were exactly like Heinz.  HTH.)

I have three small spends to declare from the weekend:  £2.07 in Mr T’s on own brand pasta bakes 3x69p (HomePride version were £2.50 a jar!); £3.68 in L!dl, on 1kg frozen mixed berries (£2.99/kg) and a packet of muffins; and £4.83 in Sainsbugs, where I went a bit mad on YS fish cakes (bought 2 packets) and a YS Quiche Lorraine for the freezer (the latter was 75p).  2p went to the Shrapnel money boxes.

The above brings our total GC spend to £150.10/£160, leaving £9.90 for the rest of the month.

- Pip



ETA: My household consists of 2 adults and our £160 covers everything bought in the supermarket (toiletries, cleaning products, etc, too).   I cook from scratch, eat whole grains where possible, buy most of my meat from the butcher using a separate budget (£40/month).  But I have 30 years experience of this and I’ve had time to save to buy the huge Lock-n-Lock containers, so that I can buy the cheaper 10kg bags of flour and rice.  We have a pressure cooker, so I can batch cook dried beans, etc, etc.  It takes time to get to this point.  There are things I won’t compromise on: good meat, no palm oil in products, recycled toilet paper and paper towel.  For other things, it makes sod-all difference whether you buy the cheapest or the most expensive brand, e.g. shampoo.

Spendywendywoo

determined_new_ms said:

Spendywendywoo said:

gill5blue said:

determined_new_ms said:

Hey guys - I saw many of you are in the pantry challenge thread. Was reading through and am inspired to join, hope it continues for Feb as our pantry/freezers are still full!

I have done a few shops over the last few days, and a more substantial grocery shop today. Current spend £164.95/£375 . I think I need to get another litre of milk before the end of the month but hopefully that we're set for January. Super happy with how I've done! Personally I haven't felt deprived at all. Far from it.

Hi,

Your wombling for 2025 is very impressive. How do you do this?

Gill5blue

What does wobbling mean, please? X 

It's from the Wombles, things you get for free. Other people's rubbish that is useful. Can relate to finding money on the street. I use it as things I've got that I would have paid for

That's amazing, thank you very much  

Quick update for this month's challenge;

January Challenge £214.58/£250

Usually I would have spent many hundreds on shopping by this point of the month (we run 15th-14th due to my payday). Still got lots in the freezer and cupboards, plus done some meal prepping of soups and other meals. I'm going to set a Feb budget as a full month, even though my budget runs differently as I'll be able to work out the spends from my budget tracker. 

Soontobeoap

£22.95 spent in Aldi today on cereal fruit juice, milk, bread and veg. Just staples that we needed. That brings my total for January to a whopping £446.72. still you can't feed guests on fresh air. It could have been so much more I suppose. Anyway that'se.declarimg for January
 Hopefully I will see you on the February thread when I will aim to do much better.

LotsOfTea

£9.85 spent at the "no plastic" shop today where I refilled various sized containers from home with organic oats, jumbo oats, wholegrain couscous, puy lentils and bulgar wheat and also got some more compostable floss picks for my teeth. I bravely resisted all the vegan jelly sweets and chocolate covered ginger as they're not so good for the teeth! 

I'll need to pop into the supermarket when I'm nearby tomorrow and get some fruit but apart from that I should be good until next week. I'd like to feel virtuous about doing so well this month but honestly it's mostly because we've got far too much stuff in the stores already. Still, take all the wins you can! 

£194.30/£300

carboot_karaoke

Wow , 70 new messages since l was last on the thread l will try to catch up with them a bit later.

I've had a busy few days hence the radio silence. I also have three new spends to declare totalling £62.95, most of it necessary some of it wasn't. 

I'm declaring at £412.42 / £500 l think it could have been sub £400 considering the amount of food l began the month with, going to try harder next month. 


See you in February 

carboot_karaoke

After catching up with everyone's comments I've realised that the February thread hasn't begun yet.

I've only been using GC for 6 months but I've never known it to start so late. Has anyone heard from @elsiepac recently? I hope she's ok.

BudgetingBelinda

Ohhhnooo.
816/550
why am I so bad at this! 😵😵😵😵

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines said:

£14.53 spend; in Tesc© and  £ 2.53 at Aldi

DD nipped in @ldi for me on Saturday and that came to £4.37.
Then I've been in today ( got a bit carried away with the cheap soba and udon noodles,.as they are less than I normally pay for them, so stocked up)
Also got four packs of vegan salmon reduced to 50% off. Could have done without it but made a nice change in a wrap with cream cheese. The rest was lemons, tofu, thai curry crisps and herbal teabags. Total =14.74
I also made a spend in HB but I can't find the receipt. I think the only food item was a multi pack of my fave maple and bacon crisps ( they're vegan) and mixed nuts. I'll adjust if I find the receipt, as the rest is from a different budget. Total = £3.48