July 2021 Grocery Challenge

Finstickle

a couple of Tesco shops to declare:

£23.19, primarily egg whites and shampoo!!
£24.52, primarily beer and wine plus some fish for tea (only have meat in the freezer and needed a change)

Currently at £112.11/£450 - 25% of the budget with 26% of the month gone
I should be able to do only 3 big shops with little top ups, as long as i can keep the big shops down should be fine.
Freezer stock take and meal planning tonight :-)

[Deleted User]

I did my weekly shop on Tuesday and forgot to post my total.  Spend was £29.40 in Lidl.  With the heat just now we are mainly having salads for dinner and then fruit for pudding.  I got a lovley watermelon which we'll make a start on tonight.

goldfinches

Hello all, this is getting very interesting with all the comparisons between various supermarkets so I'm reading this page with close attention.
Meanwhile I have to declare having given in to the impulse to trawl for y/s bargains at my local Mr T express on the way home from a walk and I picked up 4 punnets of cherries, 3 of baby plum tomatoes and 2 of apricots for £6.36.
That makes my new total £19.11/£124 and my average daily spend £2.38.

DaffyDaisies

I've not done this before but would be interested in doing the August challenge - when is that likely to start? Thought we were doing really well for grocery shopping (recently started going to a farm shop for Longley products, bread, eggs etc.) and then a weekly Moshishons delivery, but told today we spent £450 at the supermarket last month, and there are only three of us! I would like to cut it down a bit but my dad's quite fussy now (won't eat leftovers, gets bored of things easily etc.), and I struggle to eat a variety of foods (I have achalasia), so I'm wondering where we could trim it. We do get 9 pints of milk delivered a week, which is £6.80 a week, but I like the glass bottles rather than plastic and it being local

joedenise

@DaffyDaisies - could you freeze the leftovers and bring them out again a week or two later so that your dad won't realise they are leftovers?  Alternatively can you do something different so it's not the same meal?  For example roasting a chicken then use some of the leftovers to make a pie and some to make a curry?  You then have a couple of meals using leftovers and they don't need to be used the next day they can be frozen and used at a later date.

Do you menu plan?  If not you will probably find that you can save quite a bit by doing so.  Also make sure that everything gets used and not thrown away.

GSDMum

DaffyDaisies said:

I've not done this before but would be interested in doing the August challenge - when is that likely to start? Thought we were doing really well for grocery shopping (recently started going to a farm shop for Longley products, bread, eggs etc.) and then a weekly Moshishons delivery, but told today we spent £450 at the supermarket last month, and there are only three of us! I would like to cut it down a bit but my dad's quite fussy now (won't eat leftovers, gets bored of things easily etc.), and I struggle to eat a variety of foods (I have achalasia), so I'm wondering where we could trim it. We do get 9 pints of milk delivered a week, which is £6.80 a week, but I like the glass bottles rather than plastic and it being local

Hi Welcome to Grocery Challenge.

Why not start now, and join in when the August thread opens.

It must be lovely to have milk delivered, especially in glass bottles, something that I've not had for decades. I usually buy 2 x 4 pint cartons of milk for £1.09 each (£2.18), and a 4 pint carton of filtered milk for £1.19, using the two normal cartons of milk first then the filtered milk - this lasts us for about 10 days without having to go on a 'tempting' trip to a supermarket.

That's a great idea what @joedenise suggested, putting leftovers in the fridge freezer.

Good luck with your challenge.

goldfinches

Hello and welcome to GC @DaffyDaisies.

I've just managed to lose my post after writing out everything I'd spent money on this pm and cba to do it all again. 

Suffice to say that my new total is £43.02 with a daily average spend of £5.37.

Suffolk_lass

Welcome @DaffyDaisies. Sorry to hear about your medical condition. @elsiepac normally puts up the new thread just before the last week so that people getting paid (and starting their month from their pay-day) have somewhere to go - she generally pins them at the top of this board.

In the meantime read and enjoy - lots of tips in the first few posts, then loads of recipes for all sorts as well as the day-to-day logs, tips and advice from us on here. A good start in July would be to look at what you already have that you can meal plan from (with this forming the basis of your shopping list) - I am always shocked to find expired dates on stuff in my cupboards but I know I have a tendency to stock up for the next Suffolk siege(! )

I find that the Morries web-site encouraged me to buy more by reminding me of things I had bought before, before I checked out. It might be something you could work on when you get going.

Like you I pay a small premium for milk (and eggs from a local person) to be delivered as it means I always have the wearwithal to make a meal of something (potato and onion omelette or frittata is a popular Friday night CBA meal, and supports local people and employment.

[Deleted User]

Hi folks, listening to the radio I heard that there will be a £5 off a £25 spend Lidl voucher in The Sun over Thursday - Sunday this week.   

pamsdish

£16.08 on a quick foray to Aldi