January 2026 Grocery Challenge

Finstickle

I have a couple of top-ups and last week's main shop to declare

Tesco - £12.68 & £16.25

Co-op - £7

Asda £64.57

I get paid tomorrow so today is my last January day :-)

I'm declaring an underspend for the month of £58.95. It's been a long time since I underspent by so much however I have been really conscious to only buy what I really needed/wanted this month, there's not much in the freezer but I will look at that in Feb.

£341.05/£400

jivjules1

family emergency has meant lack of focus on this need to leave more wriggle room for the end of the month.
447.63/600

Blackcats

we are all doing brilliantly well, inching our way to the end of what feels like the longest month.

Our final shop of the month today was £30.
this means that I have a fabulous £100 underspend 🥳

Thank you freezer and cupboards!

carboot_karaoke

Thank you @PipneyJane I'm going to have another look for suncream at my local lidl. I will wait until February so that the spend contributes towards a Lidl plus reward.

Working_Mum

Hello everyone,

Gosh January has felt soooooo long!!

I'm declaring for January at £88.98 - which is over my £50 target but way lower than my usual spend of £250ish. Part of the overspend was that my daughter arrived home unexpectedly for over a week and I had to feed her too! I'm still happy with this result - my freezer still has a bit in it which I can use up in February - I have a small shopping list to start February with (includes frozen cherries!).

My January eating from the stores project has broken a couple of food related habits for me which I am super grateful - I actually got quite comfortable with seeing my fridge slowly get emptier and emptier (and the sky didn't fall in!!). I also felt less hungry during January - am not sure why that was but I'll have a think and take the lesson onwards.

Thanks all for keeping me on the straight and narrow. This time last year I wouldn't have believed I could do this!

See you on the February thread,

((WM))

Elizabeth49

£13.24 at the Co-op today for fruit, salad, mushrooms, sandwich stuff, baps and a couple of other little bits. Also £6.74 online for flour for my breadmaker, bringing me to a total of £403.64 for the month. I'm very happy with that as it's the first time in months that I've come in under budget, so being on here obviously works 😄

I'll wander over to the February thread now and start again for next month.

Declaring £403.64/£425

Nelliegrace

January Grocery Budget £155 for 2 pensioners, £1,825 for the year.

DH made a nice small loaf this morning, 50% wholemeal and white bread flours. He makes our daily kefir too.

I shopped at Aldi on the way home from the hospital. I watched Episode 4 of What Not to Eat, with Tim Spector, so I am trying to get a bit more colour into my vegetables. The leeks were 50% off and the mixed peppers, pomegranate and Kiwis 30% off. I have carrots and red cabbage still.

Meat, fish and cheese from the freezer. No eggs from the hens for over a week, we are down to our last few. I didn’t freeze any last autumn.

£21.80 spent

Total for January £128.48. Under budget by £26.52

If I add the savings to next month’s budget I shall be tempted to spend more. I have had a think and I shall save it. There may be a bulk buy of venison available again, or it will help with Christmas, I could get a hamper of Christmas baking from the local college. Their £10 cake was excellent.

otb666

I have enjoyed the what not to eat as well. Do not think i will ever eat tinned ham again. So true that eating whole foods is better for you. I eat a lot of frozen veg and fruit now with the beans and lentils.And I like how it explains why you feeling empty after the non fibrous convenience stuff I thought the program would put me off crisps but not sure it did.

Nelliegrace

@otb666, I was impressed by the demonstration of a savoury snack dropped in cold water and turning instantly into oil and a bit of gloopy stuff. There was nothing nourishing, nothing filling. The supermarkets have whole aisles of them, sold at a large profit, the perfect UPF, which, “Leaves Them Wanting More!” Salty too, so they can sell even more fizzy pop!

carboot_karaoke

I went food shopping again today due to time constraints later in the week. The food is for next weeks meals so I'll record the spend in February thread.

Declaring with the figures below, happy with the month, especially as l still have lots of the Xmas meat joints, pork,lamb, beef and salmon in the freezer.

Grocery Budget £274.61 / £279 

Bulk Fund £53.59/ £50

Grocery Challenge £ 328.20 / £329

See you on the February thread.