January 2026 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

JingsMyBucket said:

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. 

I'm a lot better now, thanks @JingsMyBucket .  My throat is back to normal.  I had a chat with my hairdresser on Saturday and she'd had the same bug the week before: extremely sore throat; lots of coughing fits in the middle of the night; not much nose involvement.

- Pip

Nelliegrace

Is it still January? One wet, grey day after another.

Thirty days has September, April, June and November.

Unless a leap year is its fate, February has twenty-eight.

All the rest have three days more, excepting January, 

which has six thousand, one hundred and eighty-four.

oceandreamer

It is Nelliegrace, but there are lots of snowdrops out and I have even seen a solitary daffodil - so spring is definitely on it's way.
£14.30 spent at Lidl mostly veg, eggs and milk. I did put the sprouting broccoli back and pick up sprouts instead as they were half the price. Red peppers were on offer and were huge so I got three, one for the ramon tonight and another couple to make butternut squash (I have three left that I grew last summer) and red pepper soup.

£115/£200

wishus

Got to add a £17.94 spend at A*di on cleaning essentials and £5.06 at Mozza.

Just been to my slimming group and been told about avoiding carbs except for small amounts of wholewheat things and potatoes. Boo, I love carbs. So, Mozza was on the way home and I had a £5 voucher to spend, so bought healthy mackerel, salad, and veggies.

When I got home, OH had made soup and I gave him the rest of the bread to eat with it. 

Feeling virtuous. And sad.

Total spend so far £77.44 out of £150.

weenancyinAmerica

@Suffolk_lass - If there is no glaze on your cups any more, have you had them tested to be sure they aren't leaching lead into your tea or coffee? Just concerned.

Suffolk_lass

weenancyinAmerica said:

 - If there is no glaze on your cups any more, have you had them tested to be sure they aren't leaching lead into your tea or coffee? Just concerned.

It's OK - they are not antique porcelain. They are fired at much higher temperatures these days and lead is no longer used in the glaze. Thanks for your concern.

While I am here, just to confirm our year to date spend is at £130.64/£3000. I shall need to hammer the stores a bit next month, though, but will stick with the current approach to fresh food.

carboot_karaoke

"December the 19th l brought cheap veg ;  sprouts 2kg, potato 10kg, carrots 8kg, broccoli x 6 and two red cabbage  for a  total of £2.85. I wanted to write it down somewhere for reference next year." 

Yesterday, l used the last of the cheap veg not a sprout was wasted 😇. I did get worried with the cold snap we had but the veg survived brilliantly in the garage, in fact l wished id brought more. 

I have another spend of £10.53 to declare for a large block of cheese 2 x carrots, 2 x kale, red onions, noodles, humous and squash.

Grocery Budget £213.07 / £279 

Bulk Fund £50.19 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 263.26 / £329

Also l wanted to ask if anyone knows when Lidl have sun cream in stock? We're going away in Feb.

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
Another couple of bits needed so I’m now on £92.66/£150

Changeyourlife25

£403.49/£500

Still in budget, which is spiffing but realising so much of what’s spent is just us going back and forth to the corner shop for soft drinks and red bull. Things I don’t include in the food shop because they’re unhealthy but they’re unhealthy and ten times the price from the corner shop.
Im needing to give my head a wobble, sorry the italics won’t go off 🤦‍♀️

TravelCrystal

Just been out to lunch with a couple of girlfriends, thought I would pop in to Lidl’s on the way home save taking the car out again. 

What horrendous weather, got very wet just buying a couple of bits.
Picked up a free bag of potatoes as only about quarter of a bag left of the last freebie’s. That will be 4 bags we have had.
Also had a couple packs of Y.S rolls, icing sugar and a large washing machine liquid.
Total spent £5.52
Going to declare now for January as I don’t intend to purchase anything further this month.
Will keep a running total of the bulk and declare year end just adding any left over G.C in to the fund both monies kept in a separate bank account that gives me cash back. 

Every little helps.


Will also be watching that food program later on the disgusting ham.
I know why I try and eat as much food as I can cooked from fresh.
 I won’t mention the corned beef hash I made last week 🤭 
D.S number one has welded in some of the factories that produce meat products, I won’t repeat what he says or it will put you off your supper. 

Total January G.C £184.01 plus £48.50 bulk/£300

See you in February 

T.C