January 2026 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

@Soontobeoap you are living life with your Caribbean cruise! Happy anniversary! 

TravelCrystal

Happy anniversary @Soontobeoap, and have a great cruise. We have just had our 44th, where does the time go

thriftwizard

Oh wow, enjoy that cruise, @Soontobeoap! 

I'm late to the challenge, just having caught up with the washing after having anything up to 13 people here for 5-6 days! Any food or drink I bought over the festive period has come from the Festive Fund (money put aside all year) which is still looking fairly healthy - a good start for next year, perhaps! - and I've only just reached the stage of needing anything much. There'll just be the 3 of us this month (plus the odd weekend visitor) with 2 different diets (2 x omnivore, 1 x pescatarian) and there's still a fair bit in the freezer, not to mention enough cheese to sink a battleship, so I think I'll aim for 

£400

please, @JingsMyBucket, as it's a 5-week month. The Girls (the feathered ones) are back in lay again after the moult so the egg supply is building up, & the winter veg at the allotment is keeping us in fresh greens, though my parsnips are a very odd shape. (Tasty though!)

jivjules1

Complete newbie here! Want to get my debt cleared and cut work hours so am planning on getting more frugal this year!

5 of us 3 are teenagers although 2 are at uni some of the time. Hoping to come in under and use up store cupboard and freezer but budget is £600 a month hopefully by the end of the year it’ll be a lot less!

cheerfulness4

Could you put me down for £150 for the month please.

Working_Mum

HAPPY NEW YEAR you lovely lot!! May it be filled with fun, frugality and excess funds!!

I have been tracking and comparing my annual grocery and fuel spends and I think it's fair to say, down to this challenge I have reduced my 2025 food spend by almost £1700 when compared to 2024's!  I was gobsmacked when I saw the results! 

My diesel bill has been reduced by almost £350 too which I am thrilled with!

I came in at £293.92 for December's food - am quite happy with this to be fair - I was super busy and my usual restraint went out of the window whilst "popping in" for bits and pieces at my local Tesco and Co-op.

I've done a fridge, freezer and larder audit and have a LOT of food so have decided to really challenge myself in January with a food budget of £50 - this is for fresh fruit, veg, eggs, bread and milk.
 
There is myself, my adult son (who lives here half of the time) and a little well feed pooch - I eat meat and strive to do a low carb and very low fat diet which means it doesn't always come cheap. 

January 2026 budget £50 and £60 for household items including pet food.

Thanks everyone for keeping me on the straight and narrow  - as I realised when I did my annual totals,  reading along has kept me focussed and motived!

((WM))

ShelivesintheShire

I had an interesting but tasty lunch. DH and DS had  big omelette with cheese and mushrooms and I had soba noodles( they have been in the cupboard for about a year)  with mushrooms  thrown in and porcini powder, some airfryed tempeh that I bought in December, airfryed tomatoes and a teaspoon of miso. I added a couple of baby beetroot as I have about 6 jars and am finding creative ways to use them. I really enjoyed it.

LotsOfTea

I spent a total of £10.82 across 2 shops on reduced post-Xmas goodies. I got 3 boxes of mince pies, 3 jars of fancy jam, a jar of blackberries in gin, 2 tubs of mint choc biscuits, 2 packs of chocolate covered marzipan and a packet of stollen pieces. I'm a firm believer that January is not the month for deprivation, it's too cold and dark so they will be used and enjoyed over the next month. 

£10.82/£300

thriftwizard

Brilliant achievement @Working_Mum! More power to your elbow!

£57.89 spent here this morning. Most of the small traders in our little town won't be open until next week but the greengrocer & the egg-sellers were at a very cut-down street market. £30 spent there, for a shopping-trolley-full of fresh fruit & veg, herbs & a dozen eggs, then a quick dash to the supermarket for a shoulderbag full of a large chicken, some sliced bread for OH, some salad & some olivey bits for £27.89! (We only have W8rose and a smallish Co-op.) I'll do a monthly non-perishables run at some point next week but we don't really need very much - some butter, coffee, maybe some tinned fish, loo roll, washing powder. We still have lots of festive bits & treats to eat up over the next month, to be honest!

Elizabeth49

First spends of the year, £7.38 at Savers and £13.05 at M&S on new year's eve for the bits I can't get on my online delivery, but should be able to stay out of both shops for the next couple of weeks.
£51.20 for our online delivery this morning, sadly didn't get any teabags. The ones I ordered were out of stock and they didn't have a substitute available, so I'll have to get those locally. Other than that I shouldn't need to shop again until next weekend.

£71.63 spent out of £425.00