August 2022 Grocery Challenge

franby64

Well I've gone over my budget due to finding myself in As*a yesterday and not being able to resist stocking up on some tins, oats, buttermilk for soda bread, loo rolls and the dreaded sausages for DS. This will all help next month though so it's OK and I've got meals for the rest of August so shouldn't be too bad.

PipneyJane

Good morning All

I’m about 35 posts behind, so apologies if I have missed anything momentous in your lives.  

One small spend to declare.  DH popped into L!dl on his way home on Wednesday.  (I think he went in for Oaties, but they haven’t had any for at least a month.)  £4.79 spent on Gouda slices (£2.69) and three 70p YS specials (400g sliced ham, and 2 breaded Greek cheeses).

This brings our GC spend to £125.58/£152.50, leaving £26.92 for the rest of August.

Not much shopping left for us to do this month.  I will be heading to L!dl tonight, after work to pick up our free loaf of bread - we’ve crossed the £50 spend threshold on L!dl Plus -some fresh veg and (possibly) some fresh milk.  (I say “possibly” re milk because DH frequently brings some home from work to stop it being binned. He’ll let me know if there is some to rescue this week before I leave for L!dl.)

- Pip

LittleGem

Morning all, bit of a stock up shop with OH today at L!dl ahead of our BBQ this weekend. £39.26 spent which puts us almost hitting budget at £197.46/£200 but I have all meals planned for the next week so I think we can just about do it with a top up of milk and bread. 

I seem to find if we stick wholy with L!dl the budget is just about manageable, if we go anywhere else there is too much temptation. Even in Ald!s we end up wracking up a huge bill every time. Anyone else find Ald! not particularly barganous anymore?

@PipneyJane thanks for reminding me next month when I have the free bakery item to use it wisely on a full loaf of bread not a single treat pastry! 🤦🏻‍♀️

MissRikkiC

franby64 said:

Well I've gone over my budget due to finding myself in As*a yesterday and not being able to resist stocking up on some tins, oats, buttermilk for soda bread, loo rolls and the dreaded sausages for DS. This will all help next month though so it's OK and I've got meals for the rest of August so shouldn't be too bad.

I watched John Torode making a soda bread with the help of a well known chef on his Ireland food tour series and have wanted to make it all week. We used to make it so often but haven’t for a good few years. It’s going to be an activity I get my little one involved in! 🥰

gill5blue

Hi Elsiepac
I would like to declare a spend of £246.41 (should have been £200) but I have stocked up the larder, so not too worried.

It was interesting as I haven't done a budget shop for a long time.
So now I have stock in the larder and freezer I am going to buy what I use in Sept.
Gill5blue

thriftwizard

So I am now declaring for August at £570.40, £20.40 over budget. This is down to it being DS3's last weekend at home, so the tribe are gathering to bid him farewell. I'm just sighing & thinking it could have been far worse, and although we'll miss him and his twin sister (& boyfriend) when they too trot off in a couple of weeks, I'm looking forward to a slightly saner & more "normal" existence!

PipneyJane

LittleGem said:

Morning all, bit of a stock up shop with OH today at L!dl ahead of our BBQ this weekend. £39.26 spent which puts us almost hitting budget at £197.46/£200 but I have all meals planned for the next week so I think we can just about do it with a top up of milk and bread. 

I seem to find if we stick wholy with L!dl the budget is just about manageable, if we go anywhere else there is too much temptation. Even in Ald!s we end up wracking up a huge bill every time. Anyone else find Ald! not particularly barganous anymore?

@PipneyJane thanks for reminding me next month when I have the free bakery item to use it wisely on a full loaf of bread not a single treat pastry! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Glad I could help @LittleGem.  On principle, I always get the most expensive loaf available. Today it was a “crusty sough dough rye” bread, normally £1.69. 

DH messaged me when he got to the office today that they had “no spare milk”, so I went to L!dl at lunchtime to get some.  Weirdly, they only had 2 pint-sized bottles of fresh skimmed milk, but plenty of semi-skimmed and full cream.  They did have litre cartons of lactose-free skimmed milk, so I got one of those since it worked out cheaper than buying the 2 individual pints.   (I’ve been drinking skimmed milk for so many years that I can taste the cream in semi-skimmed and I don’t really like it.)

I really shouldn’t go shopping when I’m hungry. Went right off the shopping list.  Bought a steak pie for dinner, a package of dried mango and two packets of marinated anchovy fillets.£18.34 spent in total, which brings my total for August to £143.92/£152.50, leaving £8.58 for the rest of the month.  We shouldn’t need anything else, but I won’t declare until Wednesday - just in case.

- Pip

Suffolk_lass

I shopped yesterday, I noticed the basic range of butter has increased by another 10p a pack to £1.95. Most of my shopping was fresh stuff, a lettuce, radishes (both of which could be in the garden; note to self), plus peaches, nectarines, wonky carrots and lemons and two ready to eat avocados (actually, normally, one is ready and the other is a bit firm). I also bought some meat and a loaf of rustic French bread in the butcher's. We had most of the bread for supper with homegrown French beans and some defrosted and baked cod loin.

This morning I have bottled 3 large oranges that were taking up too much space in the veg drawer - not sure what I shall do with them but I have prepped seville oranges in one of the freezers so some mixed marmalade might feature. I also prepared some vodka with Victoria Plums and sugar and have cooked down a kilo of crabapples ready to make a second jar tomorrow, after I have strained them through a jelly bag. I will add a lot less sugar than I did for crabapple cordial (400g :1L of juice ratio - may go 100g:500ml) as the cordial is a little too sweet for us.

Anyway, the freezers are full and spend stands at £220.35 this month. I had not realised before this year that my DD add quite a lot - milk is weekly but big river subscriptions are significant too. September is a big-y - I will go and remove anything we can live without

katkin

Reporting in for my final spend of the month. Walked to Morries for milk, yoghurt, lemons, oranges and salady bits, spending £10.17. This as expected has brought me over budget by £5.21.

Total spend of £255.21 for August.

I will not need to buy anything else now having bought enough milk in for OH to drink and use for cooking, baking and hot drinks.

Just taken a load of chicken and mince from the freezer to batch cook meals to go back into the freezer - nothing exciting just bolognaise, chilli and curry but they are handy for those late working nights when I can't be bothered to cook from scratch.

If I can manage to make up dough this weekend I will do basic pizzas for freezing also. I have found that I can prove and top pizzas and freeze them uncooked for popping into the oven from frozen. This seems to work better with a soft, small crumb rather than an open, chewy, dough. They take about c25mins to cook from frozen and are very handy for OH if he is working v. late. 

It's lovey out today and I'd expected it to be not so nice hence the in-house planned day of cooking. Excellent for laundry line drying though! Don't know about anyone else but I love these simple, mindful jobs   

See you all in the September GC thread   

Soontobeoap

Final amount for August £398.11/£400

Big Tesco order came today that will feed 5 of us for a week. Also bought double shampoo and conditioner, 4 tubs of flora proactive buttery and 5 packs lactose free cheese as they were all on offer with Tesco club card. 

Not only really pleased that I have just stayed in budget but thrilled that I have managed to entertain and feed more guests than I did in July inside my budget. 

See you all over in September thread. 😊