At the start of each January when I write a budget for the forthcoming year, we resolve to spend less on food for January to give us a bit of recovery time from the expense of Christmas. This year, 2025, it's a necessity to re-jig the whole budget because:
- We have lost Graham's part time earnings
- We didn't get Winter Fuel Allowance
- Energy prices are not coming down
- Our rent will be going up in March
- As will Council Tax
As usual, the only wriggle room left is in the food budget so we are setting ourselves a challenge of a low spend January. I want to see how long we can last by eating from our stores and only buying groceries using Nectar points. Gray usually has a £50 Asda voucher from work and, of course, we don't have one to help us this year so are already at a disadvantage. What we do have is:
My Sainsburys Nectar points £22.42
Graham's Nectar points £18.47
Boots points 624 (worth £6.24)
We have lots of veg in the fridge and freezers, long life milk, a huge tub of Clover spread, Cheddar cheese etc We will only need to shop for protein like eggs and some meat for Gray or when we run out of things we really need. We will also buy any yellow sticker reduced items we come across. Meals will be simpler and, hopefully, healthier too.
With this challenge in mind, I'm looking for some recipes for cheap veggie meals and I'm also following the u tuber ALI LIVES WELL ON LESS She is a retired teacher, living on a small teachers pension and she is FAB! She is so inspirational and so far has donated every penny raised from u tube to local (to her) charities. Do check her out 😃
Anyway, I digress......
The question is can we survive on points and no more than £100 cash until 31st January?
Let the fun begin 👍😎
Thanks for popping in. Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,
Angie 💓
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Too many things going up - it's frightening.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your January challenge, I too have food enough to make Jan food spending much less. Plus No More house things need doing this year (now I've said that something will probably go wrong)
Oh dear, for your sake I hope not! That's always a worry isn't it, Sue, things going wrong can cost a lot of money these days :/
DeleteWe are the generation who watched our mum's make meals out of nothing, so we have the skills, it's just so annoying that so much is taken away so quickly.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Marlene, you just think you have a grip on things and something else changes....
DeleteWishing you Good luck in your challenges.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kirsten 😊
DeleteHappy 2025!
Of course you can survive on that, I have every faith in you. :-)
ReplyDeleteAli's channel has really taken off quickly hasn't it, she's doing really well ... even with Luna's help.
You can use the Boots points to either stock up on soaps, shampoos etc, or if it's food you need get a meal deal to share with some of them while you are out and about one day.
Let the Challenge commence!!
Thank you for your encouragement Sue!
DeleteYes, Ali's success took her by storm didn't it. She explains things so well, very much like you do 😁
A brilliant idea of yours about food from Boots, it truly never crossed my mind to get a meal deal with them. Yay! Thank you.
Happy 2025 to you all Sue.
Good Challenge Angie, I'll be following!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sooze ☺️ Happy 2025!
DeleteGood luck with your challenge. As you say everything has gone up and packet sizes seem smaller, so you are getting less for your money. Happy 2025. Hugs Xx
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on there, Gill, I think it's called shrink-flation 😏
DeleteThe manufacturers think we are stupid at times, don't they.
Happy 2025! Hugs back 🤗xx
I'm sure you will be able to manage with that budget and do well in your challenge, Angie. I've seen some of the great deals you've managed to find in previous blog posts (on your other blog). Looking forward to reading about how you do with your challenge.
ReplyDelete