June 2018 Grocery Challenge

Hopeless_Case

Well I'm more or less finished for the month - payday/July spending officially starts on 28th June, but I *shouldn't* need to spend any more money so I'm going to be comfortably under my budget.

Unfortunately we've ended up spending in other areas so I don't actually have the unspent part of the food budget, it's very much just on paper!

I've learned a lot about myself and my food spending habits and I'm working on refining them, as I could have spend a lot less - it's my first month doing this and my freezer and cupboards are jam packed, so I really could have spent hardly anything *but* I got into the habit of popping into the big supermarket by my house frequently and did get lots of stunning bargains, and my freezer and cupboards are still very full, but at a much lower cost than previously, so I'm set up for a good July if I work at it.

The downside of popping in regularly has been the temptation to buy snacks or impulse extras even if they were YS or very cheap, so I need to work on this as I won't be able to get away with it once my stores are more run down!

But it's my first month and on the whole I'm pleased with how it's gone

pamsdish

My friend asked me to take her to Dunelm as a sale on, she has a serious problem with duvet covers, but hey ho she distributes her surplus to her friends, all barely used and excellent quality. £201 on covers and matching pillow cases.

I bought a new shower head, which don`t work, this is the 3rd I`ve bought why is it so hard to get something that just drops water on your head, I don`t want one that sprays sideways, just down, I have a wet room so need directly down, bought a rain shower, flat plate, now had to buy an extender bar to connect it.

Plus 2 towels for kitchen, none of which counted in my grocery budget, just quite peeved about shower head,

FoxFace

Last big shop of June done!

£42.84p spent total... but I got LOADS! Menu plan is looking stunning this week:

Sunday: Nut loaf, Roast potatoes & Veg
Monday: Vegetable Cannelloni
Tuesday: Baked Potato & Beans
Wednesday: Philippine Mung Bean Curry
Thursday: Paella
Friday: Jackfruit Stew with Bulgar wheat

Happy little accident today also... Eldest child is in Yr9 and has cooking class, with a practical lesson every 2 weeks. He forgot to tell me that he needed ingredients this week, until I got back from the shop. We both panicked for a second, until he handed me the sheet with ingredients for Paella... which I had already planned to make this week; therefore already had the ingredients in :rotfl:

So he is taking half to school and cooking dinner for him and his younger brother, I shall use the rest for husband and I

Also had to use £5 of the budget to top up eldest's lunch fund.

That leaves me £12.41p under budget for June as I don't think we need anything else... the cupboards, fridge, freezer and fruit bowl are all full! :A

Edit: Forgot to mention, when we were away yesterday, we went to a little vegetarian co-op and they were giving away slightly stale, handmade loaves... so we bagged a free loaf, which is being made into a good old-fashioned bread & butter pudding as a treat this evening

Have a lovely Sunday everyone
Fox
x

K9sandFelines

Only Spent £6.07 yesterday at Morrisons on chocolate, bread and f&V ( struck lucky with a ys watermelon reduced from £2.00 to 10p)
£1.00 spent yesterday on YS strawberries from work and nothing spent today.

Six days and counting :T. Good luck all.

£7.07

Chloris

A nsd today. We did visit a garden centre to buy some potted herbs for a small herb garden I'm creating. I'm not good at keeping plants alive so wish me luck. Xx

pamsdish

Chloris wrote: »

A nsd today. We did visit a garden centre to buy some potted herbs for a small been garden I'm creating. I'm not good at keeping plants alive so wish me luck. Xx

I have a few herbs growing all from supermarket pots, herb section. Just planted the little pots and away they go, mint, parsley, chives, sage, thyme, probably cheaper than garden centre, and all perennial.
even the basil will keep growing but an annual.

CRANKY40

£5 added to my spend (signature updated) as the House Troll (aged 13) went to McDonalds with his friends on Saturday. They came back to our house afterwards and later in the afternoon had pizza and hot dogs in buns which I already had in. Apparently I'm the best mum ever because nobody elses mum lets them lounge round their house and garden, eat their food and make themselves drinks.

Biscuits and fruit squash are cheap enough (especially if you go to Home Bargains for the biscuits) and personally I'd rather they were here than hanging round the estate doing who knows what. The water fight that they had watered the garden :rotfl: and they'd brought towels and swimming stuff so no damage done there either.

Talking of gardens, I picked my first courgette yesterday. I sliced it and put it in a freezer bag, added a sliced chopped onion to the bag, labelled it "courgette soup kit" and put it in the freezer. I also cut a thick piece off the loaf I made yesterday, cut it in two and put that in the freezer next to the soup kit. That's 2 days soup and a roll lunches when the weather cools down. I'm loving the sun though.

elsiepac

Hi everyone!

I've been a bit absent, I don't know WHERE June has gone!!! I need to tally up my budget still, but just wanted to pop on and say sorry it's a bit later than usual but the JULY GROCERY CHALLENGE is now up and ready to go!

Will try and catch up on thread later

Chloris

pamsdish wrote: »

I have a few herbs growing all from supermarket pots, herb section. Just planted the little pots and away they go, mint, parsley, chives, sage, thyme, probably cheaper than garden centre, and all perennial.
even the basil will keep growing but an annual.

Thank you. I would love basil and coriander too so may pick up a couple of large tubs from the supermarkets next month . Do basil and coriander need to be replanted yearly? X

Chloris

CRANKY40 wrote: »

£5 added to my spend (signature updated) as the House Troll (aged 13) went to McDonalds with his friends on Saturday. They came back to our house afterwards and later in the afternoon had pizza and hot dogs in buns which I already had in. Apparently I'm the best mum ever because nobody elses mum lets them lounge round their house and garden, eat their food and make themselves drinks.

Biscuits and fruit squash are cheap enough (especially if you go to Home Bargains for the biscuits) and personally I'd rather they were here than hanging round the estate doing who knows what. The water fight that they had watered the garden :rotfl: and they'd brought towels and swimming stuff so no damage done there either.

Talking of gardens, I picked my first courgette yesterday. I sliced it and put it in a freezer bag, added a sliced chopped onion to the bag, labelled it "courgette soup kit" and put it in the freezer. I also cut a thick piece off the loaf I made yesterday, cut it in two and put that in the freezer next to the soup kit. That's 2 days soup and a roll lunches when the weather cools down. I'm loving the sun though.

Like you, I try to make my children's friends welcome. I make my own pizzas but have some emergency shop ones in the freezer for impromptu visits.
Your soup kit sounds awesome. I'm hoping to start Kitchen garden so will steal that idea in the future.
I have made up 8 homous pots of curry/soup/pasta sauce starters for the freezer. Just onion, carrot and garlic prechopped by the food processor but it is a godsend when getting in from work and needing to get dinner on. I have a bit of a toddler pout about chopping onions, sad I know. This new method short circuits that.
Nsd today! That is 4 in a row. Working on portion sizes means the salad is lasting longer! X