July 2021 Grocery Challenge

Finstickle

Final shop of the month done on a couple of bits from Tesco.

£468.95/£450.00 - July (over by £18.95)

YTD £15.43 pd (2020 £17.50), happy with both this value and the reduction.  
includes alcohol, toietries and cleaning products

Although over my target, this is still £50 below my YTD average, or £82 less than my average excluding Jan where there was a lot of December excess to use up.

We are low on meat so will up the budget for August again.

thriftwizard

Right - I'm declaring at £502.38/£550, which I'm happy with. £42.69 spent this morning at the supermarket; there will be a market shop tomorrow but that's in August, budget-wise! Plus I have added £40 for the "missing receipt" mid-month; it was something around there. I have £38 in my head for it, but added £40 just in case.

BUT I've realised that I do need to "up" my target for August; it is in fact a 5-week month for us, i.e. 5 Fridays. Must have been looking at the wrong calendar when I thought it was only 4 weeks! Off to request a change of target over there...

goldfinches

I think I'm going to throw in the towel on July and declare at £152.49/£124 which is £28.49 overspent and means my average daily spend was £5.25.
I'm simply going to go over to August and start the month two days early because I'm so disgusted with myself this month.
See you all in August.

Mrs_Cheshire

Had a couple of low spends, getting milk, bread and some fruit/veg spending £10.70 over 2 shops. Currently standing at £297.26/£350, might need to get a pack of yogurts for the kids but happy that I'm well under budget again. Will transfer the leftovers to my bulk fund. 

JingsMyBucket

Hi all, I'm catching up on the thread after being absent for about a month. Mr. Jings and I did finally close on the house and we moved just two weeks now! Things have been hectic and we're still unpacking. Due to using a bunch of convenience food the last month our total for the month is currently a shocking £666.56. We have a couple more items to get tomorrow like butter, berries, and yoghurt. Let’s see if we can keep the total below £685.00. 

PipneyJane

boultdj said:

And I'm now over, up to £159.16, it's the extra pop for other half as he will not drink water, on the plus side I've been able to pick the first small bunch of grapes off the vine in the greenhouse, first year we've grown them as the plant was a gift last year.

@boultdj will your OH drink squash?  Apologies if someone else has already proposed this idea - I am about a week behind.  MrT’s double-concentrated sugar free squash is £1 for 750ml and their Orange & Mango flavour is lovely.  (I can only taste the mango.). We get through 3-4 bottles a month.  

Our tap water tastes OK, but where we used to live it was horrible, so the only way to get any water into our diets was to drink it with squash.  We chill our tap water which also helps (refill large water bottles and rotate through the fridge door).

HTH

- Pip

PipneyJane

Good morning All

I’m declaring for July at

£160.10/£161.20

There’s four shops I haven’t talked about:  £17.07 and £6.88 spent at LIdl last week, plus £1.45 at the C00p and £7.75 at L!dl this week.  I popped out in my lunch break to get the latter - the first time I’ve done this in 16 months working from home - which meant we crossed the £100 barrier on L!dl-plus to get £2-off our next shop. 

See you all in August.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Pixiehouse55 said:

PipneyJane said:

Pixiehouse55 said:

Hi everyone. Sorry food shop gone to pot!! We've sold our house and so now busy selling everything we can't take with us. Spends so far is £350!!!
I am still trying but this hot weather our people are snacking more and drinking more.  I'm on and off and busy right now. Will still try to keep on track with August budget. Happy shopping to you all   xx

@Pixiehouse55, congratulations on the sale.  Is your new home much smaller?  Will the people you support go with you or are they moving elsewhere?  (I’m just being curious.  I have always been in awe at your kindness and patience with them.)

- Pip

Hi Pip. We are retiring love. We've spent 8 years or so working hard and saving, we will be buying a narrowboat and living our dream. Travelling 2000 miles of the canals. We will soon be giving 28 days notice on the people that live with us. I'm going to miss my lady, its time to enjoy our life now. We done 10 years of fostering children then 4 years of looking after vulnerable people.   Policies and rules are changing. More work for us. Its all very exciting for us but at times scary. Just want to get on and do it now.  X

@Pixiehouse55, you are doing one of my daydreams.  I’ve had several canal boat holidays and love the canals.   Please share your adventures with us.

(One of my favourite work-related memories was when I had to train an engineer from the team who built the first new stretch of canal in Britain for over 100 years.  It was fascinating.  We talked for so long afterwards that I was worried I’d been locked in the car park.)

- Pip

boultdj

PipneyJane, no he won't fussy begger that he is.

Calling this month at £179.70, over by £29.70.  

Will try again for next month.

thriftwizard

@boultdj, how about trying him with home-fermented drinks like water kefir (tastes like a tart lemonade) or ginger beer? Admittedly you still have to buy some ingredients, but they are a whole lot healthier (natural probiotics) & I'll swear they do work out cheaper. Save some of your pop bottles up & give it a try - I can always send you some kefir grains. 

@JingsMyBucket, congratulations on your move! Hope you'll be very happy in your new home.