August 2021 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Oooops - @elsiepac, I don't know which calendar I was looking at when I set £500 for August, but it wasn't the right one... it is actually a 5-Friday month for us, starting tomorrow. We are all 5 of us home all month (trapped by tourist traffic!) and will have guests at weekends wanting to see DS2's baby (who has yet to put in an appearance) so please may I up my target to £550? Sorry to be a pain!

BUT lots coming on at the allotment; I dug up two spud plants today & came home with a satisfyingly heavy bag full, as well as 4 courgettes & one marrow (hadn't picked for a week) enough runner beans for 5, and a big vase full of several varieties of kale, which keeps best like that. I'll need to dig the rest of the spuds up next week as the foliage is starting to die back; I'm hoping for a good crop there! Spuds may be cheap but there's nothing to beat your own, especially the lesser-known varieties like Pink Fir Apple, which is my absolute favourite. Corn-on-the-cob will be ready for picking in a week or two, as will the later raspberries. August may be a frustrating month for us on the transport front, as we're surrounded by traffic jams, but it is also rather tasty...

goldfinches

Hello @elsiepac I've thrown in the towel on July and decided to come over here for yet another fresh start/clean slate/try harder go at keeping out of the supermarket and away from temptation.
Please could you put me down for £124 for the month which runs from this morning to the end of August please?

And just like that I'm off to a poor start as I spent £10.77 at M*rks this morning on y/s ginger, mangos, y/s thyme, y/s coriander, limes, pineapple, lettuce, y/s brie, y/s mushrooms, radishes and tomatoes. 

My shameful total so far £10.77/£124 and an average daily spend of £10.77.

Adorian

Hi folks. This is my first month with this challenge and I'm embarrassed to say that I've no idea how much I spend monthly on groceries. So put me down for £80 for the month, just for me, as I've a load of stuff in cupboards that I need to start using up. Gonna do a bit of a batch cook this weekend to help me stay on track through the month. Wish me luck and good luck to all!

Mrs_Cheshire

goldfinches said:

Hello @elsiepac I've thrown in the towel on July and decided to come over here for yet another fresh start/clean slate/try harder go at keeping out of the supermarket and away from temptation.
Please could you put me down for £124 for the month which runs from this morning to the end of August please?

And just like that I'm off to a poor start as I spent £10.77 at M*rks this morning on y/s ginger, mangos, y/s thyme, y/s coriander, limes, pineapple, lettuce, y/s brie, y/s mushrooms, radishes and tomatoes. 

My shameful total so far £10.77/£124 and an average daily spend of £10.77.

@goldfinches you've got this. Do you meal plan at all? Might be a good way to avoid extra supermarket trips. Interested to hear what you are planing on doing with the herbs and spices you got from M*arks - curry??

elsiepac

Budgets and updates complete up to here

Welcome new joiners! 

I'm in for £250 this month from 29th July - 29th August.  I've already spent £117.63 on the first day as I was at the giant T3sco!

In fairness this is a lot of monthly items, including a massive stock up of coffee (£30!!!) and almond milk (£20!!!) , plenty of fruit and some yoghurts (£15ish), £10 on medicines (again something I buy lots of at once as can't get the cheap ones by me!), ice and frozen ginger (gamechanger), and a fair number of treats and a couple of ready meals that I definitely didn't need... so a mixed bag really. Not as bad as I have been known to be in the past, but far from where I want to be!

Hey ho! I've divided up the rest of the month into 4 full weeks starting on Fridays, and then 3 days at the end.

So I have £132.37 left, and this is as a rough guide for myself going to be £30 a week and £12ish left for that final weekend.

Whilst I got fruit and yoghurts yesterday, I deliberately didn't buy anything for this week's shop apart from that as I have a tendency to go mad and buy tons that I don't use in that week, and I would like to meal plan some more.  Having said that, all I've had today so far is 3 coffees (buzzing!) and I'm starving and craving a fresh salad sandwich!  I have no bread, but do have cucumber, a few leaves in a bag and some tomatoes, so I'm going to pop and get some bread and *maybe* a vegan meat type filling, I'll see what's there. Must resist getting loads of veg etc as I am determined to meal plan and it's at this point that I usually muck up my budget for the month!

Stock etc: £117.63
Week 1: £0 / £30
Week 2: £0 / £30
Week 3: £0 / £30
Week 4: £0 / £30
Week 5: £0 / £12 (3 days)

Total: £117.63 / £250

joedenise

@elsiepac I find it better to meal plan before going shopping.  Having a good look at what you have and slotting that into the meal plan (I do a month at a time which obviously gets changed if I get a bargain or two along the line!).  It means you're not constantly buying more stuff.

I tend to do a big butchers shop at the beginning of the month and then spend some time batch cooking for meals during that month and sometimes beyond depending on what and how much I make.

This also brings down the weekly shop.

Money_Choices

Hi Elsiepac
I would like to rejoin this challenge. Also this month, I'm trying something different in that I am going to spilit my grocery bill into food and non food items. I will be recording food only purchases on this challenge. Please put me down for £80 in August.

Thanks

Money Choices

thriftwizard

This morning's market spend was £61.80; £7 of that was on an unscheduled lump of gammon to cook up, or I'd have been around my usual £55. But I could see straight away that that £7 will give us a ham "main" for the 3 of us that eat it, and also be the meat element for pizza topping & omelettes for us omnivores, and probably do a few salads/sandwiches as well, so very good value & versatile. In winter I'd make a soup from the cooking liquor, as I usually slow-cook it with various vegetables & herbs, but in summer that's not likely to get eaten, so it'll just be a gravy. 

I haven't yet ordered my bulk flour but will do so over the weekend, using up the bit left over from July's budget; if it comes to more, I'll take it off this month's. But it shouldn't...

LLM2018

It has been a while since I have done a challenge so I'd like to join. My August budget is £75 for the month. Thank you. 

nannygladys

Nothing spent today, I have plenty in the freezer and cupboards and veggies from the allotment and garden. It's just butter, cheese and yogurt that I'm running out of. I'm thinking of going back to make my own yogurt in my yogurt maker but the rest I will have to buy and I won't be making bread in the breadmaker as I always end up eating too much! 

Going to see how long I can last for, so some interesting meals are going yo be had.

Nannyg