January 2026 Grocery Challenge

Pennypincin

£27.04 spent earlier this week on food.
Again on odds and sods, but also dinner bits with family.
£123.96 left from £160.

joedenise

jivjules1 said:

Another shop, that’s 2 in one day 😬 £23.33 at Lidl 

total 211.38/600 was hoping for more like £400 but not really on track for that! How you guys manage your budgets so well - hoping I get better over time! 

Do you menu plan?  Batch cook?  How many are you cooking for?

I only cook for 2 of us but always make enough for 4 portions so 2 to eat and 2 to freeze.  Also build up a store cupboard of tinned foods - a tin or 2 each week soon builds up.  Same with herbs and spices.

I've got into the habit of menu planning a month at a time - it's taken a long time to get to this stage but even planning for the next 3-4 days helps.  Choose as much as you can using food in your freezer, cupboards and fridge and then just buy what is necessary to make your chosen meals.

Of course on top of this you'll need to buy things like toiletries, loo roll, cleaning stuff but no need to have huge stocks of these!

Hope that helps.

itsthelittlethings

No food spends today.

£15 in Aldi yesterday but I did go to the bargain isle and bought a noodle bowl with chopstick holes for £5. I also bought a tin of canned finest cherry tomatoes. Other than that just lunches.

jivjules1

joedenise said:

jivjules1 said:

Another shop, that’s 2 in one day 😬 £23.33 at Lidl 

total 211.38/600 was hoping for more like £400 but not really on track for that! How you guys manage your budgets so well - hoping I get better over time! 

Do you menu plan?  Batch cook?  How many are you cooking for?

I only cook for 2 of us but always make enough for 4 portions so 2 to eat and 2 to freeze.  Also build up a store cupboard of tinned foods - a tin or 2 each week soon builds up.  Same with herbs and spices.

I've got into the habit of menu planning a month at a time - it's taken a long time to get to this stage but even planning for the next 3-4 days helps.  Choose as much as you can using food in your freezer, cupboards and fridge and then just buy what is necessary to make your chosen meals.

Of course on top of this you'll need to buy things like toiletries, loo roll, cleaning stuff but no need to have huge stocks of these!

Hope that helps.

We are 2 adults one teenager and 2 uni students who come and go variably! I sort of meal plan but very loosely and less now because  I’ve been trying to use up what I’ve got so largely the shops are essentials like bread and milk and cheese but then there’s always ‘bargains’ etc on top and it’s the stuff that’s not meals that seems to add up. I’m much more conscious than normal and I  do have enough in for most meals so I’m definitely making progress - learning all the time! I think the biggest realisation is how much the little top ups add up over time.
thanks for your advice, I think I just need a bit more discipline - enjoying the process! 

joedenise

I have a set budget for "treats/junk" - just £20 a month and once it's gone there are no more treats/junk will be bought until the following month.  Don't know if something similar would work for you.

itsthelittlethings

joedenise said:

I have a set budget for "treats/junk" - just £20 a month and once it's gone there are no more treats/junk will be bought until the following month.  Don't know if something similar would work for you.

I have a no junk policy. I do eat crisps.

itsthelittlethings

I saw it suggested to shop with a list. I might start doing that.

I'm on £269 for January and I was at my mum's for a week over Christmas and then a week next week.

Suffolk_lass

I think it helps enormously to know what your personal shopping weaknesses are:

Are you a YS hoarder who can't leave a "bargain" behind?
Are you tempted by off-list things like the fresh bakery items when you only went to the shop for milk/eggs/bread?
Are you a bit of a prepper, with groaning shelves of tins and dry goods that you never use? (You are paying the SM to store their food for them!
Do you buy the same things on each visit with particular brands always there?
Are you a wanderer who absent-mindedly puts things in your trolley as you shop, having an "Ooh, that looks lovely" moment?

There are more - mine is buying more than is on my list so I mitigate this by

• trying to do one big shop and plan around what I already have in. 
• I get my milk delivered so the corner shop is not regularly there every few days. 
• I make soup for lunches which we have with either bread (which I make) or maybe a small bag of crisps. 
• I have a series of household subscriptions with big river company (6 most months so many items attract a 15% discount) - and I always compare these to check they remain good value
• also within the big river subscriptions are small things, such as a single box of Essex sea salt - so the other things in a small month are still 15% discounted
• I earmark about 15-20% of my annual budget as stores and buy non-perishables in multiples when they are on offer. Shower gloop is one of those because I have a particular brand I like - by keeping a record I can see when it was on offer (eg sun-cream before summer holidays, alcohol buy 3 get 1 free, in autumn before the fizz offers for Christmas)
• I ignore most of the £12 off £80 spend type of loyalty offers - it has to be good and fall in line with things I plan to do. I especially hate the short dated ones from Sainsbugs for neck-tie ones so I only load them just before I shop
• I am not a coupon trawler, but I could be
• I grow stuff and prep it - like tomatoes, I make my own passata, and I cook and store fruit in jars as though it was jam - it keeps for weeks/months - and I forage blackberries from the farm hedgerows - so I don't freeze it as it is no longer cheap if it has needed a freezer on, just to preserve it. I do freeze homegrown rhubarb and courgettes - but if I didn't grow it I would buy in season and preserve some to use - 5p sprouts are excellent blanched in boiling water, plunged into cold, dried and frozen and are excellent if you are running low on green veg

I think knowing yourself, and keeping records is a great way of building a bit of insight into your spendy habits and changing or adapting to get around these.

Along with planning meals and shopping lists - "fail to plan, plan to fail" is the project manager's mantra - and you are your household project manager!

joedenise

itsthelittlethings said:

joedenise said:

I have a set budget for "treats/junk" - just £20 a month and once it's gone there are no more treats/junk will be bought until the following month.  Don't know if something similar would work for you.

I have a no junk policy. I do eat crisps.

You do eat junk then!  All snacks are junk food and that includes crisps.

cuddlymarm

Good morning 
My online shop comes today so £71.78 making my food spends so far £84.56
I have found it’s a lot cheaper for me to get my groceries online because no matter how disciplined I try to be I always end up with stuff I didn’t mean to buy. Unfortunately it means no yellow sticker items but that’s ok. We’ve still got some Xmas stuff left over but it will get eaten over time.
Keep warm and well guys