January 2026 Grocery Challenge

RedLipstick

Everyone doing so well, great job all! Love reading about all the meals you're having.

Quick shop at Sainsbo for instant coffee, 4x soup and 2 packs of tortellinis, £10.53 spent. Next Friday is my big uni deadline so no time for standing in the kitchen anytime soon Have few curry portions in the freezer, will be eating that next. Paying with cash is odd, the self service till didn't accept any of the 2p coins that I've had, but when I've paid it gave me random 2p coins back. I now have 48p in 2p coins, how lovely

Currently £16.62/£200

oceandreamer

Did a shop this week that included some steaks for a family meal (last one of the season!) so more costly than I would have liked coming in at 36.75. Tomorrow we are back to normal and I will be using up the last of the leftovers for a couple of days so hopefully no spending.  It does add up really quickly, there have only been 6 days of the month and I am already a quarter way through my budget.  Hoping to get back on track now though.

£49.85/£200

thriftwizard

I hurtled down to L!dls yesterday for the "monthly non-perishables", and spent £66.46, which included one of their £2 TGTG fruit & veg boxes, which was pretty much full to the brim. It contained red & white potatoes - we are halfway down a sack of reds but the more, the merrier - two large swedes, onions (red & white) bananas, 4 lettuces (2 of which went straight into our chickens, who have been a bit short of greens this week thanks to the frosts) carrots, a couple of peppers and one single, solitary mushroom, which made me laugh. The swedes gave me the idea of making "stovies" with the spuds, onions, swede and a couple of butcher's Toulouse sausages left over from the weekend; they'd originally been bought mid-December but frozen for later reference when DS3 returned to the fold later than originally expected. I hauled them out again last weekend when I found most of the local traders were taking a long weekend and not opening again until 5th, so they were the "main" on Saturday; the leftovers made excellent stovies and that's returned to my repertoire of favourite leftover dishes!

That leaves me with just under £70 per week for the rest of the month, which will be tight, but do-able with sensible planning & use of what we already have. However the guest list is creeping up; DD1 announced today that she'll be with us for a few days next week, and her twin brother (DS3) will be home for the following weekend. DS2 & family live locally & will probably want to appear for the odd meal whilst his siblings are here too - it's lovely that they want to be together, but this is where the bills start to creep up & my budgets come unstuck!

carrotstick_2

Already ran out if butter and milk, so had to pop to Aldi and picked up an extra couple of things £12.02 spent.
£58.30 / £100 for this week. We actually have no money in our spends account now until Friday, but will have to do a big shop then as we're almost out of a lot of things.

AnotherNewDay

AnotherNewDay said:

AnotherNewDay said:

Hi,  I'm aiming for an overall total of £350 this month. £60 for the cats and £290 for 2 human siblings(M+F) - food, toiletries and household.

First of the shops - done last week but forgot to update total £44.34/£350 with £4.76/£60 for cats and £39.58/£290 for humans.

Second shop and the first in Jan - took advantage of a  few household offers. Another £4.76 for cats and £67.33 for humans/household, bringing totals to £116.43/ £350 overall with £9.52/£60 for cats and £106.91/£290

ShelivesintheShire

Beige lunch today An opened packet of crackers to use up, a mini pork pie from the pack that I took out of the freezer on Monday 1/3 tub of Seriously  cheese spread,  a few olives from an opened jar and a few crisps from an opened share bag, with a tomato for my 5 a day and a glass of orange juice!
The cheese sauce concoction that I made yes tastes amazing and I have made a macaroni cheese for me and DS for tomorrow. DH will have the left over spag bol sauce with a baked potato. 
DH made a loaf today so him and DS had some of the Sandwich Spread from our covid store, that is 3 months out of date( it's mainly vinegar)
Dinner tonight is the sweet potato and squash curry and we will fight over the lone mini naan bread from the freezer.
This grocery challenge is making me very resourceful,  but I may have to go shopping tomorrow. 

oceandreamer

£2. 24 spent on some veg.

£52.19/£200

Elizabeth49

£6.15 for decaff teabags for us and cat food for the fussy furry thing at the local shop yesterday.  I'd intended to go to the big supermarket where prices are lower, but the pavements were too icy to risk the walk.
Haddock out of the freezer and veg out of the fridge for tonight though, so nothing spent today.

£77.78/£425

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,  

The bad weather prediction along with the Lidl discount prompted me to go shopping today instead of Friday. 

I went before eating lunch and was cold walking around the store which are my excuses for bad decision making 😅.  I did pretty well at Lidl spending £26.46 after the £5 discount. High ticket items included a large block of cheese @£4.99 ,  dishwasher tabs £4.29  and two packs of YS Jumbo Pork sausages @£3.75. I did also buy wholemeal spaghetti and long grain rice we didn't need 🙄. We will use them at some point but the £2 could have been spent elsewhere.  

Next l went to Asda, for chicken breast, squash, flavoured water, peppers and part baked baguettes. Alas, l succumbed to 3 x YS 6 exceptional bramley apple pork sausages @£1.30 a pack, followed by a steak pukka pie for my lunch £1 and an apple pie for pudding tonight @£2.11. This is where the cold and hunger kicked in hence the stodgy comfort food 🤭 and yes l did buy 42 sausages 🤣.

Grocery Budget £104.31/ £279 

Bulk Fund £30.54  / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 134.85/ £329

At this rate It's going to take a miracle 🙈 to come in on budget. Need amend the food plan to use what we have and stay away from the shops!! 

jivjules1

carrotstick_2 said:

Already ran out if butter and milk, so had to pop to Aldi and picked up an extra couple of things £12.02 spent.
£58.30 / £100 for this week. We actually have no money in our spends account now until Friday, but will have to do a big shop then as we're almost out of a lot of things.

Also went for milk and bought other stuff on top so ended up at 14.45 I need to try and stop picking up extras but I did get 5 packs of tofu for 30p each and I couldn’t resist the mince pies at 32p spent £5 on juice which was a lot but my DD is sick and not eating and asked for juice so seemed worth it.
it really adds up quick and going more than a day without spending anything is really hard especially as I’m wfh this week work is distracting! Also ordered a bulk buy of loo roll at £44

155.96/600 need to slow down the spending if I want to come in under budget!!