A no spend January with limited grocery shopping spend

[MikeRafone]

Im needing a detox from spending for January

Ive cancelled my amazon prime account - for now as I rarely use it until easter so it saves £35

all my bills will go out by direct debit and standing order by 2nd of the month

Im going to set a limit of £4 per person per day for the grocery shopping so £28 per person per week. We have a lot of left overs, some of which im going to freeze for January.

Coffee at home rather than out in a coffee shop, no hitting the sales for stuff no-one else wanted!

Im wanting as many no spend days as possible for January

anyone want to join?

Was very tempted in my hungover state (at a party last night) to order a takeaway for lunch. However, I have been batch cooking so had a lovely curry with samosas and naan bread all from the freezer– hit the spot, much healthier, and completely free! X

Bought some Xmas cards in sale as noticed we’d run out this year £2 for 32 which wasn’t bad I thought

got some final odds and sods for today/tonight including another milk so no need to go out tomorrow. That was 11.52.

DH filled up car -71.64

Prescriptions dropped in and will pick up Fri or next week.

DH and I need to do a financial reccie now final spending for year done and set goals for next year. Still due to receive some expenses back from work and pay a cheque in from parents plus some cash I got for selling something but know the amounts so can factor in

tonight we are staying in. DH deep frying some feta for starter, fish for main with new pots and baby leeks then parfait left over from Boxing Day

We're also staying in tonight. I've made a big batch of pizza dough so each person can make their own pizza. We have tomato puree, ham, olives, red pepper, mushrooms, mozzarella, blue cheese, and probably other stuff too when I look in the fridge. We also have a bottle of champagne that I was given for my birthday in early December.

@Fatmumslim01 I've just done a 4-week mealplan, used to do it a lot but got out of the habit! It's only for dinner as DH is out at work every weekday and takes the same packed breakfast/lunch which I batch-cook at weekends, and I wfh so tend to have breakfast mid-morning and then only eat in the evenings.

I'm restarting low-carbing from January as well so find having a plan helps massively with that, definitely need to cut down on grocery spending and miscellaneous pub/coffee shop visits!

Great idea!!!

@TheOnlyMrsW would you mind sharing your plans please?

I have meal planned for the next 2.5 weeks based around whats in my freezer and cupboards. I will have a small list of shopping to get but should be £30 to £40 pm average per week. I think i can do another week of meal plans based on my freezer so 3.5 weeks in total.

Several times a year I try and live as-much-as-possible with what we already have. It's a great way of cleaning out your freezer and other supplies. What I'm really good at (says my family) is creating new dishes with leftovers. I freeze even the smallest portions, and then when I have several of those I create someting new with them, mostly layered dishes with meat, several vegetables, some puree on top or freshly steamed rice on the side. My husband's favorite meals!

Well I tried today but money just vanished…two Curly haircuts for the children was £60!! To be fair, the hairdresser spent nearly an hour on each one and they are looking in SO much better condition but ugh. I only got bread and teabags from the supermarket though so that’s a win.

I have been inspired and have scanned some books to sell on World of Books and that will hopefully be £15 paid to me. It was very easy to do so thanks for the tip and I need to go to an InPost locker anyway to post my Vinted sales.

Not going to be a no spend as I am away most of Jan for work and I tend to need to supplement my expenses and I have a few birthdays but I got paid today and I’ve allocated nearly all of it into bills and savings so keeping my budget tight. I’m aiming to make £50 pm on vinted (made just shy of £60 over Christmas from stuff that’s been in there months) and £20 pm from prolific.

Half full tank of fuel in the car and did a bit of a food shop today but stuff that was needed. Hoping to not spend a cent tomorrow at very least but need to sit down and take stock of everything and see how we can cut down.

I never buy boxes to send books to World of Books. I just use whatever box I have handy and send it off once full. It isn't very lucrative, only on average 40p per book.

£53 in Lidl today. Dinners for the rest of the week including filet steak for tonight and some store cupboard staples.

Income:
£11.50 Vinted
£501 a return that came back
£300 side hustle job

Why have i not seen this thread before!! Happy New Year!🥳 i am joining in. About to meal plan, two small kids here.

@EvilNextDoor

Our biggest expense is the food shop from September time it’s crept to over £1/500 per month, (that’s not including dog/cat food) and I am desperate to stop the just popping to get milk and to stop spending ££ each time

it’s quite common for people to swap one addiction for another and I’m wondering if dealing with your food addiction has meant it’s now become a nipping to the shops/shopping one.

I’ve gone 4 days now and it’s actually making me not want to break my winning streak! So something is definitely working 😀

Thank you for your kind words the other day everyone.

I've decided to ease myself into January and be kind to myself. I'm going to have the mindset that I can only spend each £ once so it's considered spending in January oppose to strictness.

An example when I am back at work if I need an hour in the coffee shop at lunch just me and a book I will do it and won't beat myself up about it but probably will avoid the sugary foods and just have a coffee.

Happy first official day of no-spend January! I thought I'd got a head start yesterday when I used some Christmas vouchers for a food shop in M&S but was 90p over so that ruined that plan.

Is it a bit sad that I'm really looking forward to being super tight this month?

@AlexFurbison
Personally I think you should count it.

I'm sure previously you wouldn't have been so sensible with the vouchers and brought snacks and fun food or bits from their other ranges. You've actually saved yourself £x.

@December2025 thanks that's a good point. I was looking for things to spend the voucher on which would have been a waste as I don't really need anything so using it for food was the sensible choice. I'll take the win!😊

I’d definitely like to join. We have a last few meet ups before going back to work on Monday, one of them is with my parents and one at a friends house so neither should be too expensive. We have plenty in the freezer to use up for meals and we already do a weekly meal list that we stick to when shopping, so I’ll just try to minimise/stop buying any extras. I’d especially like to minimise buying lunch out when in work and weekend takeaway (hopefully not too difficult as we’ve had plenty of treats over Christmas). As pp have said, we also have lots of toiletries, puzzles, books etc to keep us going too. Good luck all!

@GrannyTeapot I feel you with the curly hair! It’s so expensive but the cut is so much better.

So day 1 here. Not going anywhere today, just a walk, my Filofax and the fire to do a bit of planning for 2026!

slightly regretting cracking open the port last night. Really quite looking forwards to Dry January!

Day one might be a no spend. Eating snacks all day taking the decorations down today and then to my parents for dinner. No need to spend anything. Although one of dds presents isn't working properly so needs a refill pack (it's nail gel stuff and I think the gel is old so isn't sticking properly, I've read some reviews saying it's hit and miss so hopefully a fresh pack will sort it) so I need to sort getting one of these. So probably not a no spend day if I get onto that later!

Tomorrow we are away for two days out of a separate budget. So that will be nice. Last weekend away on our credit card before we stop using them (it was already booked and the kids know before we decided to sort our finances out this year). So I'll be torn while away 😂, last two days of being a bit free but also thinking the less I put on the less that needs to be paid off!

I was tempted to buy some new Christmas baubles in the sales because upon taking our tree down, I’ve noticed a couple of our lovely baubles have cracks/shattered 💔

£48 in my basket but I’m resisting the urge…..!!!!!