August 2023 Grocery Challenge

Pennypincin

£12.94 spent today.
Mostly on salad,veg, dried herbs and stock cubes.
I will have a spend later on onions and possibly food waste bag's if I can get to Lidl.
Plus Friday I will most likely have a spend of £4.50, to being able to access a food pantry where I volunteer.
It's a £1 to join, I think yearly, plus £3.50 every week I collect the food. It's approximately £15 worth of food.
I'm hoping that it will help, as like many,I'm noticing that the cost of food is ridiculous.
Completely forgot that I'd bought eggs and beetroot in Morrisons, £1.40 I think.

mumtoomany

Another £8.89 spent. Found deodorant in b and m, 10p cheaper than tesco. Bought six. Also picked up a pack of cereal.
Total spent to date, £1325.53/£1860. Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Pennypincin

Just spent £5.57 in Lidl on the food waste bag's, onions, the last 2 sachets of fajita seasoning, a multipack of sweetcorn and 2 tins of budget red kidney beans.
I'm determined to make what I have last, use what's in the cupboards/freezer and just get the food club stuff, Friday plus maybe a little salad or fresh veg on Friday.
With a few no spend days in between. I will try to keep posted.
Hope everyone is doing well.

goldfinches

I've managed 2 NSDs and have also been given an enormous yellow courgette and 3 hefty sticks of rhubarb from a kind friend's allotment today so I'm feeling a bit more hopeful of sticking to this month's budget. I realised yesterday that my sodastream cylinder is getting very low on gas and I've only got a few washing capsules left in the box, restocking both of those will make a big dent in my budget so every little is being pounced on here at goldfinches mansions. 
My new average daily spend is now £4.49 which is still not quite on budget but is going in the right direction.

JingsMyBucket

Morning y'all. Yesterday I had a trip to Tesco which came to £26.26 and included: strawberries, bananas, arugula (rocket), eggs, Greek yoghurt, Lebanese wraps, pork steaks, a sparkling ginger mango drink, YS ham, and a YS raspberry cheesecake which I was SO excited about. 

£220.62 / £400.00 spent. £179.38 remaining

I'm really pleased with where we are in the budget right now. Going in person to the grocery store really helps instead of doing multiple deliveries. That said, I think I'll put in a small Morrison's order for Tuesday evening at some point. I'm also going to Glasgow tomorrow for a day trip and wanted to stop by an Italian deli to pick up some authentic Italian sausage for the freezer. It's going to be warm so I may take a cool bag with me. 

@goldfinches the orange almond flour cake turned out really well. I only made a couple adjustments: instead of 1/2 cup honey, I did 1/4 honey and 1/4 maple syrup. Instead of canola oil I used olive oil because I had standard vegetable oil. Would that have worked you think? 

Just a heads up, there's was a discrepancy between the ingredients and the instructions. In the ingredients list it called for 1/2 cup of yoghurt but in the directions it said 3/4 cup. I used the former and it seems to have turned out fine. I was going to split the difference and do 2/3 cup but when I emptied the yoghurt container it came to about 1/2. I think next time I'll use 2/3 cup yoghurt and vegetable oil just to see if it's moister. 

Next time I think I'll use more orange peel shavings or even zest instead to boost the orange flavour. But still, our friends loved it. We served it at their house with M & S' pistachio and Madagascan vanilla ice creams.  

Soontobeoap

Reading everyones posts recently I have become very aware that you all seem to be getting better value for your pennies than I am. I am absolutely determined that September will involve more considered shopping! I think i have been slipping a bit. 

Anyway. I picked loads of runner beans and dug up a few potatoes yesterday. Tomatoes are still providing lots of fruit and we picked blackberrys at the weekend. We still have a few raspberrys too. Carrots arn't quite ready yet though. 

One more load of guests next week and we will just be feeding the 2 of us again in September.

Good luck everyone. 

Suffolk_lass

@goldfinches I thought canola oil was rapeseed oil and many vegetable oils are now rape instead of sunflower, because of the Ukraine war.

@Soontobeoap - me too in casual ill-considered spending. Also too many treats means there is 2k sticking to me that would normally have gone in the summer salad season. We are certainly eating more potatoes and pasta than we normally do in summer. Mercifully both are cheap but ice cream and chocolate are in there too. It has to stop.

I have a c&C morries order in for next week but I might just cancel it. We still have plenty of produce from our garden and hedgerows locally. I could postpone it until September

lilly81

Got my universal credit today
I spent £18.54 on fresh fruit and vegetables, meatballs and some treats 😋
The food bank really helped me in the short term but I have definitely missed meat and fresh veg/fruit ! 
I'm also switching my puppy on to cheaper food (not included in the groceries budget).
£87.07/£264

lianne1984

A £5.20 spend on a few bits today 

£116.70 / £250

Florenceem

Been to the community shop - spent £3.25 - got green beans, tomatoes, peppers, a courgette, red onions + 2 tins of tuna chunks + packet of shortbread fingers + Ginst.... sausage roll.