December 2025 Grocery Challenge

AnotherNewDay

AnotherNewDay said:

AnotherNewDay said:

Just realised I have done my second weekly shop of the month, but yet to post any update. Currently at £161.12/£400 - cats = £19.01/£60 and the humans are up to £142.11/£340, the grocery/household/toiletries shop did include more cleaning products and toiletries than usual. So far we are still on track

Top-up shop done today and we are now at £196.62/£400 = cats at £19.01/£60 and humans £176.71/£340

Last day of the Dec budget for me, gone slightly over with some indulgent Christmas snacks - £428.35/£400 = cats at £42.75/£60 and humans at 385.6/£340

Suffolk_lass

JingsMyBucket said:

I kind of took my eye off the ball, especially in Aldi. Thankfully, the freezer is also full and we can use that as a resource in January and February. Speaking of January, I’ll put up next month’s thread later today. Can you believe it’s almost 2026?! Bring me my fainting couch, please! 

I'm hoping all is well @JingsMyBucket, and Christmas just overtook you. Hopefully you have the January thread saved as a draft and ready to go, but you haven't started it yet. 

For me, December has ended with my annual budget also concluding and I am at £2880.99/£3000 for 2026. I did have a contingency/"Christmas fund" of £500 but only the turkey and butcher's meat came from that. So I end the year £119.01 under budget.

On that basis, I am going to go for £3000 for my 2026 budget again, and we will try for a low-spend January - I think £150 might be what I aim for. 

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Did you have a nice Christmas?  We cooked dinner at my MIL’s and seriously over-catered. Roast gammon - precooked by me and served cold - together with roast beef, Yorkshire puddings and roast veggies (potatoes, carrots and parsnips glazed with honey, onions and garlic). 

Is there a leftovers thread?  (I don’t recall.). We brought home a third of the beef and a third of the gammon.  My task now is to work out how to do the remains of these two fabulous joints justice.  The gammon came from M&S and has a honey glaze. (It was 1.9kg and cost £39.). The fillet of beef roast cost a fortune (£132), but did our local butcher proud.  Will I buy another one?  Definitely. My only regret is that I didn’t use the juices in the gravy - I wasn’t given the chance to do so.

- Pip

oceandreamer

Well here we are the other side.  The frugal shopping took a complete nose-dive prior to Christmas although part of that is my complete inability to ignore a bargain!  The freezer is completely rammed again and I still have the Christmas leftovers to deal with.  At least there is no hopefully about it, January can't possibly cost much as I probably have enough food for the entire month!  Anyhow, over budget as it stands and no doubt I will have to top up with some milk/bread before the end of the month.  I have included all my Christmas food shopping in this though, I was going to keep it separate but it was too confusing!

366.58/300

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane said:

Good morning All

Did you have a nice Christmas?  We cooked dinner at my MIL’s and seriously over-catered. Roast gammon - precooked by me and served cold - together with roast beef, Yorkshire puddings and roast veggies (potatoes, carrots and parsnips glazed with honey, onions and garlic). 

Is there a leftovers thread?  (I don’t recall.). We brought home a third of the beef and a third of the gammon.  My task now is to work out how to do the remains of these two fabulous joints justice.  The gammon came from M&S and has a honey glaze. (It was 1.9kg and cost £39.). The fillet of beef roast cost a fortune (£132), but did our local butcher proud.  Will I buy another one?  Definitely. My only regret is that I didn’t use the juices in the gravy - I wasn’t given the chance to do so.

- Pip

@PipneyJane Not specifically leftovers, but reverse meal planning ie start from what you have in, use your imagination, substitute, adapt and don't waste - rather than shopping the ingredients first

Nelliegrace

I am finding it quite hard not to go round the supermarkets for bargain Christmas food which we DO NOT NEED. The freezer is full. The fridge is full. The store cupboard is well stocked.

We don’t need or want the UPF, over-sweet stuff they are selling off cheaply. 

JingsMyBucket

Afternoon folks. Happy holidays! I'm finally back at my computer after taking a few days off.

The January 2026 GC thread is now live: 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6647815/january-2026-grocery-challenge/

I've sent an email asking someone to pin it for us. In the meantime, please bookmark the thread for yourself. 

suprisinglynice

Thank you @JingsMyBucket

carboot_karaoke

Evening all,

I'm here to report what l hope are the final spends of the year !!

I went to Tesco and was shocked to see the cheap veg still available at 15p. I resisted the urge to buy more.

I did buy a joint of pork on offer £6.63 and 2kg of chicken thighs £5.50, plus mozzarella, Greek yoghurt, fresh mint and garlic to make todays tzatziki and flat breads to go with it. Various other fresh items and some large bags of doritos to take to a games night next week. This came to £35.33.

At Aldi l brought noodles, and puff pastry we need for this weeks dinner but also a couple of things l could have waited a week for. It will save me a future journey £9.03. 

New Totals 

Grocery Budget £452.78 / £450 

Bulk Fund £42.47  / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 495.25 / £500

See you on the January thread. 

PipneyJane

Suffolk_lass said:

PipneyJane said:

Good morning All

Did you have a nice Christmas?  We cooked dinner at my MIL’s and seriously over-catered. Roast gammon - precooked by me and served cold - together with roast beef, Yorkshire puddings and roast veggies (potatoes, carrots and parsnips glazed with honey, onions and garlic). 

Is there a leftovers thread?  (I don’t recall.). We brought home a third of the beef and a third of the gammon.  My task now is to work out how to do the remains of these two fabulous joints justice.  The gammon came from M&S and has a honey glaze. (It was 1.9kg and cost £39.). The fillet of beef roast cost a fortune (£132), but did our local butcher proud.  Will I buy another one?  Definitely. My only regret is that I didn’t use the juices in the gravy - I wasn’t given the chance to do so.

- Pip

@PipneyJane Not specifically leftovers, but reverse meal planning ie start from what you have in, use your imagination, substitute, adapt and don't waste - rather than shopping the ingredients first

That is a very good thread, @Suffolk_lass.  Thanks for pointing me in that direction.  Turns out I won’t have a problem with using up the gammon. < cough > DH’s someone’s midnight munchies took care of the excess < / cough >. (I am not pleased.  I was planning a quiche.)

Did anyone manage to bag some post Christmas bargains?  We dropped into a branch of L!dl yesterday evening, on our way home from football and scored a 1kg fillet of beef joint down from £32 to £13.33!  That’s gone into the freezer.  Also scored an 89p packet of sausages, which are now in the slow cooker as part of tonight’s Sausage & Lentil Casserole.  The Meat Fund paid for both.

Today, we visited Sainsbugs and our usual branch of L!dl.  (We’ve got 5 branches within 2 miles.).  £4.33 spent in Sainsbugs on peppers and a bag of pak choi.  In L!dl, we spent £4.91 on two YS packs of fish cakes (£1.24 each), and 3 packets of egg noodles.

I’m declaring for December at £181.14/£180, making us over by £1.14.

- Pip