Good evening all

I'm a bit behind (nothing new there!) and have just totted up our amounts for January and my aim for Jan was £750 to include groceries and takeaways, including lunches, pet food, toiletries, cleaning products and healthcare items. Well, I'm pleased to say that we came in at £670

So, I'm setting our target for February to being:

£500

Which given DH and I are on a bit of "health kick" should help us avoid some of the takeaways, which is where the majority of the spends go and the calories come in.

Popped to Mr T's for paracetamol and Ibuprofen as I had a headache, ended up buying chocolate, ice creams and sweets for my sons. Not too worried as I only spent £4.19, could have easily spent that on the paracetamol and Ibuprofen if I'd bought them from the corner shop or bought branded items.

Managed to lock myself out of my account so haven't been able to update. Last week we went through the cupboards and fridge and freezer and managed to get through the week on thirty pounds, I did an online shop earlier which came to just over £50 so I'm thinking of leaving it for now and go through the cupboards again as another really frugal week would be good.

Good morning everyone
I have to go to shop today but I have my list ready and will hopefully not buy anything extra. I plan to go to small shops rather than supermarket. I think less time spent in shops means less temptation.

Hi Tighteningthebelt I don't quite live in the highlands but it is very rural and very beautiful and as you say very cold at this time of year.
I agree that friendships are very important and a cuppa is a small price to pay. If nothing else this challenge has made me more self aware of my spending.

Planning to clear out, clean and organise fridge today. Probably make some soup with bits and bobs of veg lurking in there. Love my soup maker. Just fling everything in and walk away. Have made some really nice mixed vegetable soups made from veg I used to throw out. Even rubber carrots are no longer safe.

Good luck everyone for this weekend.

Spent 5.45 on pizza as a treat yesterday so now on £49.51/£180, going to do a weekly shop later we've got some ys stuff left in the freezer so hoping to come under £40.

Spend of £41.34 today at A5da.

Weekly shop done for £31.46, so we re on £80.97/£180.

£26.72 spent these last two days. £8.95 of which was at Costco for lots & lots of porridge.

So far spent £64.79/£130.

Only buying food etc when actually needed & going without if not.

Feeling very productive and quite proud of myself today, I decided to see what I could make out of what we have in before going shopping. Today I have made;

6 portions fish pie
6 portions Spanish chicken
8 portions quorn chilli
8 portions sausage casserole
6 portions quiche
12 potato cakes
4 portions turkey curry
2 large steak and vegetable pies (8 portions)

Tomorrow I am going to make a meatloaf, some type of vegetable soup and some portions of colcannon. I'll probably make some sweet things too - flapjacks and maybe even a victoria sponge. I'm shattered now though lol I need to make a list of what I need for the rest of the week but feel sure I must have made a difference to this weeks grocery spend!

NSD for me today, took lunch and drinks out with us and remembered to get the meat out to defrost this morning.

Have my list ready, not made it to L*dls yet though
I'm just feeling rubbish and unmotivated..
Called in local shop and spent £8.49 on nonsense really.. Did get a ys enchilada kit..
Still, I need to do a proper shop & avoid the extras! Fingers crossed I'll feel well enough tomorrow

why oh why do I do it?
shopping on a Saturday is pure murder.
i'd run out of veg and sarnie fillings so decided to bite the bullet and go and get it done, so after dosing up on horse-style painkillers off with my trusty pink flowery trolley off I went.
well, it rained non-stop and I was soaked, in pain and miserable before I even got in the shop. I found as usual i'd left my shopping list on the stove top so tried to be good but i'm afraid too many treats 'fell' into my shopping trolley.
I was planning on spending about £20 but my very soggy receipt (it was in my coat pocket and I was drenched) tells me I spent ££27.81 so not as bad as it could be.
I did pick up a leaflet from lidl tho and it tells me that my favourite leek swirly pastries are in on thurs

Oh my gosh, SaveDosh, that's horrible. I'm just catching up with posts from the last few days and only just saw how tired, sick, and broken everyone is. I hope you all feel much better starting today.

Yesterday was a NSD for me but I had bought some stuff on Friday, January 9th.

€3.74 - potato chips and some Babybel at a shop when I was out because I needed a snack.

€8.49 - two bags of chia seeds at my local Holland & Barrett. I'm going to start adding them to my yoghurts for more fiber and to keep me fuller longer. It was Buy One, Get the Second for €1. It's more expensive than what I had ordered for the UK collection in January, but I'll settle with this for now. They didn't have anything else I wanted that was on my list. I would have to get it delivered but I think I'll just wait until we go to the UK in March. There will probably be another sale by then.

€28.97 - at Carrefour for some snack things for the guests we have this weekend and other stuff. A pork chop (ate that on Friday night); a smoked ham hock that I'll use for soups and for general gnawing; a fatty duck leg that was YS 30% off; toilet soap cakes that turn the water blue; 2 containers of blueberries; a container of strawberries; blackberries; hummus; red pesto for OH; composting bags; and some back up toilet paper, which I'm glad I bought!

Totals So Far:
€70.71 / €450
6 NSD / 10 NSD

I've also updated my sig. I think I'm doing pretty well and am staying out of the shops. OH bought two bottles of olive oil from the organic market on Friday which should last us through to the end of March. We were down to a few tablespoons in the current bottle. I won't count that in my total because that's stuff he's buying even though it's for the house.

On Friday I realized that Holland & Barrett still hasn't refunded me for the order we never collected in January in London due to OH being so ill he cancelled his trip. It's been nearly two weeks now. Calling them is on my agenda for today since that's about €70 they owe me.

As for meal plan, I have no idea what I'm going to cook this week for dinners/lunches. I think I've lost my cooking mojo. I may do a frittata with the last bits of the brussels sprouts I have which should also use up some cheese that's going off. Not sure about main meals though. We ate so much with our guests yesterday that it's kind of put me off eating and cooking I honestly think. Maybe I should just do soup as a way to reset my palate. I definitely need vegetables though. Sigh. I just may finally dedicate time today to inventorying my pantry and fridge to help spark some ideas.

Returning to the totals I currently have, I think I may try to limit myself to €30/week for the next few weeks just to see if I can do it. That would be nice to have a cheap month. OH's nephew and his girlfriend are coming to visit in two weeks as well. I pretty well not buying too much for this set of guests that we won't eat and I'll try to carry forward for the next set.

Have a good Sunday everyone! I may check back in later if I do some more shopping today for veg.

At this point, would it just be easier and cheaper to do a delivery from a "more expensive" place like Tesco or Sainsbury's just so the shopping gets done properly and it keeps you out of the corner shop? It's understandable to be unmotivated if you've been so ill but maybe it might be good to break your mental block on "not going to the big expensive shops" just to get a full proper shop done? (Disclaimer: I can't remember if you live in an area where any of those shops deliver to you.)

Need to add a £17.58 Morrisons shop earlier on in the week and £1.40 spent at work.

So £18.98 to add to total

Was going shops yesterday, but gave myself a good talking to, as weather was carp, decided to hibernate, can manage until tomorrow, but MUST go tomorrow.

Good morning everyone.
Snowing here so won't be venturing out.
Might take a leaf out of This time's for keeps book and try to make some meals for the freezer.
I may have a browse through the recipes at the start of thread for some inspiration.
Keep safe and warm everyone.

Managed to contain my excitement in the supermarkets this morning to spend £40.57, taking my month total so far to just under £80.

I've been freezer rummaging over the last couple of weeks and have quite a bit of meat and single portions of leftovers to use. I think that's why I've managed to keep the totals down so far.

Cooking a massive pork leg later and that will be turned into as many meals for us this week as possible plus some for the freezer, then I'll cook the bone down for stock.

I do normally shop from a mix yet mainly Mr L's as we like the food quality (& prices!)
I am extremely lucky to be able to order from any of the big names to be delivered, including Waitrose if wanted.. (I like to pop in and grab the ys sushi from time to time)
Sadly my autoimmune conditions have flared up badly and kicked my butt this month, the will/want is kind of there it's just the body is not..
I have taken your advice (the same that I would give to others struggling) and done an online shop to be delivered tomorrow..
Thank you for giving me a gentle shove in the right direction, it was much needed and I have also stopped mentally nagging at myself so feel less uptight about it!

Well, I made a large custard tart but didn't use the trimmings for sweet tarts. Instead I used them to make x6 mini beef mince & rice pies. (The mince was from the weekend's cottage pie and the rice leftover from Saturday's prawn curry.) They went down nicely for lunchtimes with a mug of the hm tomato & red pepper soup. I'll make the flapjacks this week.

Week 2's spends came to a total of just £20.02 - 4 pts milk, 1/2 doz eggs, 4 slices of lunch tongue, a small polony, a punnet of ys mushrooms and x2 packs of casserole beef (£3.69 each or two for £7 promo). One of these has gone in the freezer and the other one is in the oven along with half of the mushrooms and some chopped onions; we'll have that for tonight's dinner with mash and spring greens. If there's any left over, we can finish it on another night and pad it out with Yorkies or dumplings.

This week's meal plan not finalised yet but I have a good idea in my head of what we'll be having. I have some ys minced lamb in the freezer so I think that will make an appearance as moussaka during the week. I'll do a double quantity of the meat base, freeze half and use half.

Not really salad weather but I have salad-y stuff in the fridge that needs using up, so a salad it will have to be one evening. Anyway, I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

Planned Soup of the Week is butterbean & lentil with some spices for a bit of oomph.

This week I need to review my store cupboard inventories (a) to make sure they are up to date and (b) 'cos they're getting very messy .

Well done to everyone who's making progress and (((hugs))) for the worried and poorlies. Roll on Spring - I think we're all in need of some warmth and sunshine.