August 2023 Grocery Challenge

otb666

572/600 as i go from 24th to 24th that it my final figure Really pleased as come under for the second time only in last 16 months.  I have gone through all my kitchen cupboards and have 2 shelves full of items over their BBE dates which i will slowly work through.  I cleaned all my kitchen cupboards and gave them a good clean and was shocked by the colour of the water.  They looked clean before honest.  I am also trying a different farm shop this week as not sure I am getting a good deal as spending 50pw on fresh fruit and veg seems a lot

Soontobeoap

I bought burger buns in an online Tescos shop 6 days ago. Went to use them for a quick meal tonight and they were 2 days out of date and were mouldy! I know that they were only 80p but it was still very dissapointing. I was lucky ebough to have some in the freezer but had to find and defrost them which all took extra time!

We spent £5.00 in Aldi on chips, juice and milk. I would like to think thats it for the rest of the month. 

Florenceem

Plan a nsd.

Suffolk_lass

NSD for me too. Used up two large potatoes, M/waved then under the grill to crisp up and served with cheesy leeks. The leeks had started to "grow" out of their tops so def time to use or freeze and freezer space is very much at a premium with all my garden produce needing to be processed.

Suffolk_lass

Pennypincin said:

£4.98 spent in Tesco.
I had a £1 off a certain brand of cheese or milk and couldn't resist the cheese as it was on offer for £2.50 and was a bargain with the extra money off.
I'm shocked at £1.48 for some courgettes and kicking myself for not picking up some courgette seeds for around 70p, as all the seeds were gone the next day.
Id also bought tomatoes and peppers to do roasted vegetables and tofu.
I may well have a look in a couple of garden centers to see what veg seeds I can get and see if I can grow a small amount myself. I doubt that it will work or save much, but it's worth a try I guess.
I've at least £14.50 left of this week's budget and am hoping to just spend £3.50 Friday at the food club and maybe a £1 on fruit.

Courgettes are a great thing to grow for value. They take up quite a lot of space too but are self-fertile and if chopped and frozen they make great soup in winter (2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 courgettes). I grow things that I know we will eat. If your space is at a premium and you have a warm spot, a mini munch cucumber is great for 10cm snack sized fruits (another self fertile hybrid) and a beefsteak and cherry tomato - I've grown gigantomo this year - big enough to stuff for 2 people, frankly, along with sungold orange cherry tomatoes, so sweet. 

joedenise

Needed to pick up a couple of bits from Tesco this morning which I didn't know had run out until this morning and as I was going into town anyway decided to pick them up today so I didn't forget when I next went shopping!  Spent another £9.27 and total to date is now £118.41, this also includes a Morrisons TGTG bag for pick up tonight, leaving £121.55 for next week's shopping.

thriftwizard

Sigh - just £23 left to buy fruit & veg at the market tomorrow, after spending nearly £60 at the butchers & the supermarket today... oh well, if I plan carefully & the right things are on offer, it's still do-able. Raspberries & blackberries, runner & pole beans, courgettes & summer squash & lots of leaves are all available at the allotment, even a couple of leeks. We still have HG onions & garlic and some "volunteer" potatoes found when I removed the broad bean plants; there's another flowering merrily under the raspberries & a few in big pots at home. In the garden, the big apple tree has started to drop apples, somewhat early, but they are ripe, and OH is delighted that "his" tree is producing lots of figs. There are kiwis on the garage roof, quinces & hazelnuts coming along in the front garden & lots of herbs in pots. The Girls (the ones with feathers, as opposed to the DDs) are still churning out a couple of eggs a day, though they'll be going into moult shortly. We're not about to starve...

Soontobeoap

Took DGs's home today and DD gave me a shoe box full of apples from her apple tree. We are just waiting for the 3a.m ferry back to the Island but tomorrow I will be gathering blackberrys and making pies for the freezer. Some will also be given to neighbours as I dont think I have room for them all sadly. 

goldfinches

I managed three NSD's on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and also used the blackberries I'd picked to make this liqueur and this blackberry ripple ice-cream which was pronounced a big success by my Wednesday walking group. NB none of us liked the gingerbread so to make the ice-cream on its own just begin at step 4 in the method. It's definitely going on my list of delicious things to do with YS double cream.

On the way home on Wednesday I spent £4.50 at M*rks on bread rolls and milk. Then, yesterday at Sains, I spent £10 on loo rolls and decaf coffee, the Baking Budget spent £5.20 on baking paper, salted and unsalted butter and the bulk buy fund spent £22.40 on nectar price coffee. The treat fund also lashed out on limoncello, Tia Maria and vodka but the less said about that the better!

My new figures are £106.35/£124 which makes my average daily spend £4.43.
Baking Budget £20.10/£25
Bulk Buy Budget £22.40/£100 

I also spotted this reported in the Guardian yesterday and thought others would like to see the estimated spends for absolute rock bottom living expenses which are shown in a table when you scroll down the page Guarantee our Essentials: reforming Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times | JRF . I think that £37 pw for food and non-alcoholic drinks for a single person is quite do-able especially as cleaning materials are included in the sundries category, what do others think?

SausageDogSandwich

Just a small spend here of 3.42 at the coop on Apples, bread and yogurts. Got to go to the pharmacy later so may get something for an easy dinner from the Asda. 

£251.59/400 spent.