January 2026 Grocery Challenge

oceandreamer

28.79 to declare from Lidl, M and a local market. This did include £5 on a massive wheel of brie reduced from £18.  I quickly checked in the supermarket and it seems that you can freeze it so I took the risk and portioned most of it up, well wrapped then in a freezer bag. Had some for lunch with crackers I had bought and some home made chutney. The shop also included a bag of seville oranges as I want to make marmalade at the beginning of next week. Not particularly cheap but I don't think you can beat the taste of home-made. 

£98.69/£200

weenancyinAmerica

@Suffolk_lass - I just use bicarb on my tea stained mags and spoons and they come clean really fast.

Elizabeth49

£2.35 at the local shop for milk and bananas on Wednesday. We got a big delivery from Morrisons yesterday as I got a free delivery offer and it let me stock up on things Sainsbugs don't sell.£86.18, but got enough on offer cat food to last for about three weeks. Then spent £1.75 on a loaf in the bakers.
I'm hoping that I can do the next two weeks for about £75.00 each which should just bring me in on target.
I'm making some cottage pies today, just put the meat and veg in the slow cooker, one for tonight and two to freeze.

£267.38/£425.00

PipneyJane

thriftwizard said:

More spent than I'd have liked, also a £35 "hit" to the Family Contingency Fund, but I'm not too far from my target, having spent £70.95 for the weekend's shopping between the butcher, supermarket and market. This does include some buys that will be dehydrated (a tray of splendidly fresh chestnut mushrooms, of known local provenance, for £4) or frozen (3 packs of delicious sausages from free-range pigs in the adjacent forest) so reducing costs further down the line. 

I've decided to set up a proper account for the Family Contingency Fund (henceforth FCF). I have a clear idea now of how much is generally spent when the assorted Offspring randomly decide they need to come for the weekend & check up on us (& each other) and I do find it helpful to separate it out from the everyday groceries. So what I'm keeping track of here is the baseline grocery spend, for those of us who still live here - though that does vary with academic terms dates! Anyway, two weekly shops to go, plus any top-ups, so £58.50 p.w. if I'm to stay on target. Eeek...

@thriftwizard I am in awe of your ability to adapt and cope

cuddlymarm said:

Hi guys
£3 spent on 3 cartons of long life milk brings me to £87.56/£150
I have loads of food in so am aiming not to shop for another week. My bread making has been a dismal failure recently, I think I need a new can of dried yeast. Nothing wasted though as it tasted ok just really heavy 😂

Are you using the same flour as previously successful loaves, @cuddlymarm ?  If not, then that could be the problem.  Also, have you tested your yeast?  Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar into a small glass of luke warm water, stir in a teaspoon of yeast and leave for 10-15 minutes.  It should foam up a lot.  If it doesn’t then it’s definitely on the way out.  You may get by with increasing the amount of yeast that you add to your loaf.

HTH

I have a couple of small shops to declare.  As mentioned previously, I’ve been sick with a cold most of the week, so DH went to L!dl on his way home from work on Thursday to “pick up something for dinner” and bought YS fish cakes (2x£1.39), YS pizza (2x£1.99), chocolate (2x£1.25).  £9.26 spent.  (We had the pizzas for dinner; the fish cakes are now in the freezer.)

Yesterday, on the way home from football, we filled up my car at a local-ish MrT’s, (not our usual branch).  Went into the shop to buy some cognac (£22.50 from the Booze Fund) and check out the Condemned Aisle.  While there, I spotted 1kg bags of dried Black-eyed Beans for a reasonable price (£2.25 Clubcard price, £2.80 regular), and - glory upon glory - 425g tins of mackerel at £2.25 each!  We haven’t been able to find either for months.  The Bulk Fund coughed up for 7 tins of mackerel and 2kg of black-eyed beans.  Finally, the GC paid for a YS tray bake of Swedish-style meatballs (£2.50), two packets of Cod-and-chorizo Fish Cakes (£1.29 each), and a YS tub of fresh anchovies (97p).  £5.99 spent.

When I tallied everything up and compared it to what was left in the GC purse, I can see that we’ve had £5.02 of shrapnel go to the money boxes.  (I know there were two £2 coins received in change earlier in the month.  The rest are 5p pieces and coppers.)

The above brings our total GC spend to £133.64/£180 leaving £46.36 for the rest of the month.

We will have to do a small shop today in L!dl - mainly for milk - and another in Sainsbugs for fresh veg, so I expect to log that here later.

- Pip

Suffolk_lass

Yes @cuddlymarm - I always do a yeast starter when I use it. Only I dissolve the sugar in a tiny swirl of hot or boiling water, then top it up to 150ml with cold water, add the yeast and stir it in and wait ten minutes. Usually about 2 cm of foam and I add that and rinse out the jug with the other 100-150ml, to total 300ml, and I often add an egg to the rinse water, beating it a little for a yeasted dough. Oh, and I always stir the flour after adding the salt as the salt on the top can impede or kill the yeast when you add it.

Thanks @weenancyinAmerica - not on my old cups it doesn't. There is no glaze left.

Oh yes, no wonder Martin says drop a brand to save money! Air freshener (very necessary with [indoor] Stealth Cat not absorbing nutrients IYKWIM)

Sneaky, I call it. From the left:

Bought yesterday £3 or 2 for £5 185ml
Bought yesterday Morries OB 65p for 240ml
Bought previously for less than £2 each or maybe 2 for £3.50 for 300ml

jivjules1

@PipneyJane good yeast tip I might try making some bread given I’m off work this week, not used the bread machine for a while.
bought milk and washing powder and some reduced dates, a YS loaf of sourdough and some coffee. 7.50 + 4.30 spent

Total 322.48/600

not bad - I think still on track for £400, only really consumables needed for a couple of weeks I think and we are down to just me OH and the youngest DS. 

Nelliegrace

@cuddlymarm, DH always activates the dried yeast before adding it to the dry ingredients. His idea of tepid water was too cold, and our tap water is really cold in winter. 

Watched, What Not to Eat, Episode 2, Channel 4.  Yuck!

Pennypincin

Apologies for being awol.
Lost track of spending, but had just under £70 left in the food budget.
I've transferred the money into the bulk fund.
I've been putting the money into a current account, and it's just occurred to me that it's so easy to spend now I haven't got the physical cash on me.
Although I started putting the money into an account because I was worried about carrying the money with me, especially when the bulk fund builds up.
I will have to be more on it now with using the account.

PipneyJane

Nelliegrace said:

@cuddlymarm, DH always activates the dried yeast before adding it to the dry ingredients. His idea of tepid water was too cold, and our tap water is really cold in winter. 

Watched, What Not to Eat, Episode 2, Channel 4.  Yuck!

I watched it, too, this afternoon @Nelliegrace.  The demonstration of how cheap ham is made left me gobsmacked. Initially, when I saw the meat slop, I thought they were making those really boring, cheap sausages, then they pressure canned it into a roll of ham!

I have two shops to declare from today:  

• £21.75 in L!dl on a YS steak pie £3.83, Mixed seeds 3x98p, 1L soy sauce £2.79, 1L lactose free milk 3x99p, 30% crème fraiche 85p, bags of lemons 2x79p, 1kg Salt & Chilli Belly Pork £6.79.  
• £8.21 in Sainsbugs, where we bought 1.25kg sweet potato £1.49, peppers £1.20, mushroom 6p, 528g loose carrots 36p, Yeo Valley lemon curd yoghurt 2x$1.80, wholemeal wraps 2x75p.

This brings our total spend to £163.60/£180 leaving £16.40 for the rest of the month.

I will have to go to C0stc0 at some point soon, in order to buy our annual box of washing powder, but the Bulk Fund will purchase that.  Might go on Thursday.

Meal plans for the next few days, possibly rearranged later:

Monday Brocolli & Chorizo Pasta, using the crème fraiche purchased today.
Tuesday Pork & Beans, made with some of the belly pork, plus the black-eyed beans I purchased yesterday.  (I’ll freeze the rest of the belly pork.)
Wednesday. Nadiya Hussain’s Ham & Cheese Crown made with prosciutto and sliced Maasdam cheese.
Thursday something from C0stc0, probably Chicken Fajitas.

All breakfasts are cereal; all lunches leftovers.

- Pip

JingsMyBucket

Morning! On Saturday I went shopping at the usual places. 

£6.49 at Savers for 2200g box of my detergent. This usually lasts 9 months or so. Mr. Jings is going to Savers today to get his Fairy non-bio detergent. 

£39.78 spent at Lidl for loose red bell peppers, blueberries, 3 microwave rice/mixed grains packets, blood oranges, 2 clementines, parsley, arugula, mushrooms, 2 packs of smoked salmon/lox, butter, 30 eggs, granola, Activia 8 pack of yoghurt, drinkable kefir, and various Greek Week items (capers, jarred artichokes, chili halloumi, frozen chicken gyro meat, frozen cheese pita).

£5.45 at M & S for bananas, clementines, and 3 cans of baked beans. 

Total £338.67 / £300 spent. £38.67 overspent. 

@PipneyJane how's your lurgy doing? Hopefully it's left you by now.