July 2017 Grocery Challenge

wannalot

Good morning all! I can't sleep, so I thought I would catch up on this thread.

I returned from holiday on Friday, and picked up some milk bread and bacon on the way home, a total spend of £4.40. This turned out to be a good spend because I suddenly felt like a takeaway for dinner tonight but managed to persuade myself just to have a quick bacon sarnie instead!

All in all, my month has gone well. I still have quite a bit of money left, which I will probably spend on Saturday at the local fruit stall and the farmer's market. This will give me an exceptionally good start into August, since my new month begins on 26th July.

I've also got the benefit of a crammed-full freezer which i will try to use up. I'm going to spend 15 minutes menu planning now before I try to get more sleep before morning.

Good luck finishing the month everyone!

pamsdish

Still trying to tweak my budget, I have spent £350 this month that`s, food car and others, not counting "normal" utility exs going out as DDs. I have looked at my DDs and not much to cut there, annually check I am on the best deal for utilities etc.
I was watching a programme the other day, it mentioned Vampire shopping, late/middle night internet purchases. I do this, not at night but during the day, mindless clicking, oh it`s only a couple of quid, over a month mounts up.
For August I will try to set an overall budget and see how that goes. Going Morries in an hour hopefully not too much spend.

armchairexpert

Good cheap shop this week again: $130 for the main shop and then Mr E and I have splurged on a nice dinner in for two tonight, so $170 all up. Leaves $242 which should very easily get us through until the end of the month. I bought lots of lunchbox snacks in preparation for the girls going back next week.

Only variable here is that I'm away next weekend, so I'm letting Mr E do the weekly shop. It'll be interesting to see what it comes in at. If we go over budget, I'm blaming him!

Ginmonster

Traveling home from a lovely week in Scotland today so at some point we'll need to stop and buy some milk and bananas. I've also been whiling the journey away by placing an AF order so a spend of £60.50. There will be a big old box full of all sorts of useful stuff arriving soon which I'm not sure where I'm going to stash. It should make august a cheap month with any luck though as I bagged a load of staples like flour, rice,pasta and beans.

£ 77.87/£100

pamsdish

£25 in morries, £10 b/b stock of t.rolls, tried to negotiate some to be reduced plants, not enough off though, so other side of the coin saved £15

Doom_and_Gloom

[Deleted User] wrote:

Brilliant, thank you. I will definitely give these a try.

Just a note I did these last night (ran out and I always have these for work break) and the mix didn't end up in a ball for some strange reason but when I took the silicone spatula I had and poked around in the mixture it had clearly come together as it should. It does take a while. Starting, stopping, prodding the mix form to the blades etc. But worth it.
I use Lidl sultanas and cashew nuts and Sainsbury TTD dates (big box) to make these. Even with electric for blender they come in at 30p each for the size I make them (simular size to nakd), when nakd are on offer they are 50p each so the savings add up for me (£20+/yr minimum against nakd on offer). You could use cheaper dates I'm sure but you would likely have to soak them for a couple of hours to soften them.

MissLemon

My OH did a couple of 'popping in the shop after work' shops this weeks. The type where you just pick up what you think you need without checking the pantry.

So my total with just over a week to go is £192.04 :eek: I don't think it's going to be on budget of £200 as there are a few veggies and bits I need to buy but making a note of everything we've bought will help to keep me on budget next month!

elsiepac

Hi everyone!

I managed to postpone last week's shop until 16 July instead of 13 July, and as a consequence I haven't needed to go this Thursday, or even this weekend. I have enough fresh bits along with my stores plus a few frozen meals to see me through to Tue evening, as I get paid Wednesday.

After some great advice, I have decided to up my budget for next month and try a slightly different way of doing things, to give myself a better chance of staying in budget! I haven't 100% decided, but I'm looking at £170 - this is based on £45 for "stores", plus £25 a week for 5 weeks.
Now, this may not look like a big difference, but actually my month for August is only 4 weeks plus a couple of days. So really I'm giving myself extra.
I'm also going to re-focus on using up things I have in the fridge as part of my meal plan, this means stock take PROPERLY, not the slap dash job I've been doing recently!

I'm not declaring out as there are still 3.5 days to go - but I'm genuinely not planning on spending anything at all. Also, I'm away for work from Monday evening until Tuesday evening, so no spends then, plus tomorrow I'm out at a big family BBQ (bringing my own Linda M sausages from the freezer), so I'm just going to focus on using up my odds and sods of veg in the fridge, alongside freezer meals.

PS - I'm still keeping my freezer down after the big clearout/defrost - very proud of it now!!



................................£150 Budget
Date.......Shop......Amount.....Remaining
24 Jun.....A1di........£01.24....£148.76
25 Jun.....Ocad0.......£33.72....£115.04
25 Jun.....Tesc0.......£69.87.....£45.15
29 Jun.....0cad0......-£01.40.....£46.55
29 Jun.....A1di........£01.49.....£45.06
29 Jun.....Refund.....-£03.00.....£48.06
1 Jul......A1di........£11.70.....£36.36
1 Jul......Tesc0.......£32.25.....£04.11
4 Jul......Tesc0.......£07.64....-£03.53
5 Jul......Tesc0.......£04.50....-£08.03
6 Jul......A1di........£02.96....-£10.99
7 Jul......Tesc0.......£00.50....-£11.49
8 Jul......Tesc0.......£12.45....-£23.94
13 Jul.....Tesc0.......£01.00....-£24.94
16 Jul.....Ald1........£09.56....-£34.50
16 Jul.....Tesc0.......£09.58....-£44.08



Date....Fresh/Frozen..Cupboard/Dry Goods..Cleaning/Toiletries..Treats..Bags
24 Jun..£01.24........-...................-....................-.......tbc
25 Jun..£04.00........£14.90..............£31.64...............-.......-£02.00 (£15 off whole order)
25 Jun..£33.85........£25.32..............-....................£10.70..-
29 Jun..£01.49........-...................-....................-.......-£01.40
1 Jul...£10.22........£00.79..............-....................£00.69..-
1 Jul...£18.35........£13.85..............-....................-.......£00.05
4 Jul...£00.90........£02.99..............£02.40...............£01.30..£00.05
5 Jul...£04.50........-...................-....................-.......-
6 Jul...£02.96........-...................-....................-.......-
7 Jul...£00.50........-...................-....................-.......-
8 Jul...£11.70........£00.70..............-....................-.......-
13 Jul..£01.00........-...................-....................-.......-
16 Jul..£08.27........£01.29..............-....................-.......-
16 Jul..£06.33........£03.25..............-....................-.......-

FurryBeastOz

Goodness prices are going up. 25p on a 500g tub of Total 2% in Mr W today. The only place I can get it though so I can't move.

Also went to Mr T today because I needed a couple of non-Lidl items and I CBA driving 20mins in the opposite direction from where I was to get the basics in Lidl. Ouch. Definitely more expensive across the board.

Florence_J

I did what will hopefully be my last 'big-ish' shop before my new month on the 27th, and we now have £4.51 left of the budget. Really all we would need to buy is milk and bread-if that-before Thursday. I will just have to make sure OH doesn't go and buy himself treats.