June 2020 Grocery Challenge

ancientmum

I've totalled up my spends over the last week and added to the total.  £17.20 at the butcher and £51.16 between Sains and Adli.  I will probably need to get milk and SR flour before next weekend but otherwise we don't need anything.

Bluegreen143

Meals for today:

B - sourdough discard pancakes with fruit and jam - yum!
L - have a new loaf of sourdough from yesterday so will make tuna salad sandwiches with some raw fruit & veg out on the table
S - (afternoon snack) haven’t yet decided, either some home baking from the freezer or hummus on toast again (with fruit and veg)
D - beef goulash with roasted new potatoes and cabbage or kale (couldn’t be bothered making this last night but we desperately need to use both up!)

Another loaf of sourdough waiting to be baked, hoping to slice and freeze this one.

MazzieD

Couple of spends since my last post, both at Lidl's, £9.22 on coffee beans and a few bits, £10.89 on more frozen fruit, veg and salad stuff to last until 25th.  Total now £92.94/£100.

£7.06 left which is amazing, this is my danger point when I normally run out of grocery funds and go over budget towards the end of my financial month .  The only item I might run out of is eggs, so looks like I could come in under budget if I can resist going shopping again. 

I have to say I don't usually just shop at Lidl, this is just because I have two within walking distance so partly being lazy and not shopping around!.

XSpender

Popped to Lidl earlier as a friend had recommended a beer to DH he fancied trying but they had sold out.  Really quiet in store, no queues to get in just a small queue at the self service till.  I am going to do next week’s shop there.

Bought wraps and cheap sandwich bags which I forgot on Friday, frylight which was on next week’s list, flash bleach spray I haven’t been able to get for a while, ice pops (for DH aged 50 and 1/4) and a bag of crisps. No brown sugar though and none in Morries on Friday either.  Is everyone making flapjack I wonder?

Groceries £284.36/£360
Bulk Buy £47/£40

The above figure also includes a takeaway we had last night.

I’m a bit twitchy about having only £75.64 left as I need a steak for DH Father’s Day treat and I would have liked to have stocked up on some of the Lidl DW tablets which are £1.99 instead of £2.99 next weekend.  I will just have to make it work.

XSpender

@joedenise - I think we would both like the sweet chilli noodles and I have a nice recipe for a bacon and feta rice salad we have enjoyed before I could do to fill out his lunch

@PipneyJane - thanks for all those great ideas and links.  I am a decent baker but I don’t use wheat flour in the house as I am coeliac.  I have a pack of cooking bacon in the fridge that needs eating along with half a pack of feta and will use this for some crustless mini quiche/muffins this week.

MazzieD

I'm interested to know what you all do if you are lucky enough to have any grocery vouchers to use.  Do you save the money, roll it over to the next month's grocery budget or another way and how do you make a note of it if you do.  All suggestions are welcome.

I have been given a £5 M&S voucher and have discovered there is a food hall reasonably near me.   I don't really buy clothes from them so it would make more sense to use it towards food or treats.  I'm not sure what their prices are like as I've never used their food hall but think that any contribution towards food is welcome in these times of rising prices!.

Suffolk_lass

MazzieD said:

I'm interested to know what you all do if you are lucky enough to have any grocery vouchers to use.  Do you save the money, roll it over to the next month's grocery budget or another way and how do you make a note of it if you do.  All suggestions are welcome.

I have been given a £5 M&S voucher and have discovered there is a food hall reasonably near me.   I don't really buy clothes from them so it would make more sense to use it towards food or treats.  I'm not sure what their prices are like as I've never used their food hall but think that any contribution towards food is welcome in these times of rising prices!.

I never count my vouchers in my spend total (I get them for John Lewis/Waitrose from using their CC) - I use them when I go to Waitrose to get the things I can't get elsewhere, or I love - so a bit of a treat or my store cupboard usually.

M&S have started doing food boxes but they are quite expensive - the trick might be to ask around locally to see if anyone knows when or whether your local one reduce prices (some are giving to food banks but it depends (I think) on management and whether they are an M&S Food (only) on more of a franchise) - certainly there seem to be different arrangements in different stores. The one that is closest to us (in a BP fuel station) brings out the YS about 7.30-8.30pm

joedenise

I count them as a bonus on top of the grocery budget so they get spent as if part of the grocery budget but not actually counted.  I was given some food from friend recently which she'd received in food boxes and which she didn't eat but I'm certainly not counting them as part of my grocery spend as I wouldn't have actually bought any of it this month so going forward it will save me a little bit of money over the next couple of months or so in that I won't need to buy those things out of the budget.

A very small spend for me today!  We needed more coffee beans which I always buy from Amazon; they have gone up a little bit but fortunately I had a £10 gift voucher available so actually only cost me £2.50 from the grocery budget.

Will be doing more shopping when I go out tomorrow so will update my totals after that but the way things are going I don't think I'm going to manage to come in under budget this month with only being half way through the month but less than half the budget left!

pamsdish

@MazzieD check the expiry date and make a mental note, you may see something you like or a bargain, they do mark down groceries near date too.

Doom_and_Gloom

£46.51 spent since last post.

Off to work out my meal plan for the week.
OH isn't home at the moment but I'm sure he has a rough idea already what he'll have this week.

£219.13/£300
£80.87.