Frugal Year on a Tight Budget...January Challenge...The Details

Due to our recent move to the bungalow, our savings have taken an enormous hit.  I have done a financial review for 2022 and it has become clear that if I pop my clogs in the near future G will have enough income to carry on living here, but if he pops his clogs first then I will be in dire straits.  His pension would disappear overnight and my own income would barely cover the bills let alone buy food or run a car.  With that in mind we are on a mission to put back into the savings a years worth of bills money so that I would have a safety net and plenty of time to decide what to do.  We're not being morbid, just practical 😊

January Challenge

Aim: to spend as little actual cash on grocery shopping as possible

Funds:  Nectar points £32.50

            Asda Gift Voucher £50 (G's gift from work)

            Boots Loyalty points £14.77

            Tesco coupon     £1.50  (found a bit tatty and neglected in my purse)

            G's Nectar points £7.50  

Rules:  

• We can use the contents of both freezers and store cupboard as we need to, but not run them down to empty which would defeat the object of keeping a reasonable stock of food in, in case of emergency or shortages.  We can use yellow sticker food or any other bargains we can find to keep the cost down.
• Our usual food delivery day is Wednesday.  As there are 4 in January and our budget is usually £55 per week we could potentially save £220   
• We will include food, cleaning products, toiletries and a TV guide each week (but NO other mags 👀)   in our spending 

Our final home delivery (for now) was last Wednesday afternoon and it was well within budget so no cheating by stocking up on a massive scale.  Any shopping we do will be reported on here for me to keep track of spending but I don't want to bore you all with photos of our meals, although I might post a weekly meal plan for my own records.

I think we have a reasonable amount of money to spend if we shop with care so a month of spending a minimal amount of cash on groceries is definitely do-able.  Fingers crossed 🤞 

Is anyone else cutting back for January, ? 

 I could do with losing a few pounds in weight and this challenge might help there too

Thanks for popping in everyone.

Stay safe wherever in the world you happen to be x