August 2023 Grocery Challenge

joedenise

First shop of the month, most of which is from the Bulk Fund.  Groceries is a fairly small spend of £16.77 including a Morrisons TGTG bag to be collected this evening leaving £233.23/£250.

thriftwizard

Well, I'm sprinting off into the August budget with a total spend today of £181.82! This was between the wholesalers, L!dls & the local Chinese supermarket for all the non-perishables for the month, plus a quick side trip into W8rose on the way home from harvesting tons of beans, spuds, leaves & courgettes from the allotment, having missed the fact that we'd somehow run out of sliced bread. DS3 has re-joined us for the summer, possibly longer, and the whole gang are assembling here for DGS's second birthday this weekend. I also picked up a few treats for my Mum on Thursday; far cheaper there than in the "grockle shop" (other West Country residents may recognise that phrase!) next to her care home. I did luck in for a £1.50 box at L!dls - once again, the cashier made me go & check that I really wanted one because so many people had turned them down already today - but there was lots of stuff that we do use like radishes, a romaine lettuce, sweet potatoes, spuds, a lime, a big cabbage, nectarines, cherry tomatoes, & "easy-peelers" which OH adores, though I think they're tasteless!

The cabbage, some sweet potato and half the radishes have already disappeared into DD2's next jar of kimchi, along with some fish sauce from the Chinese supermarket. I can see that someone living solo or in a couple might struggle to get through all the stuff in a £1.50 box, but in our household it'll all be gone in a couple of days. Once in a while there's been stuff that's only fit for the chickens, but it does them good to have a some variety in their diet, so virtually none of it gets wasted. 

I need to use up some stuff from the freezer, to make way for some of the bounty that's now streaming in from the 'lottie. This weather may be pretty grim for us, but most of my veggies seem to be loving it a bit cooler and a whole lot damper. However, it's also resulted in some monster slugs - vigilance will be required!

Ainsty

I'm back, please sign me up for £15 per week.  Hard but possible. My first shop won't be until Sunday. Until then I will be eating from the cupboard, fridge and garden.

Thank you.

AnotherNewDay

Hi Can I join with £90 per month covering food, toiletries, cleaning products and petfood

tessie_bear

Hello I’m trying to get back on the horse thankyou for all the work you do

Futuresavings

Hello
Having retrospectively looked at the food bill for the past year and being very shocked at how much 2 of us get through,  I would like to join this challenge please. I am a mortgage free wannabe, so looking at ways to make savings. 

Aim for £600 for the month please. 

Crazycatlady2

I’m absolutely shocked at how much I spent in July and I’ve no idea why other than we gave a houseful of stuff now so I need to keep spends down and use some this month 🤷‍♀️

Suffolk_lass

tessie_bear said:

Hello I’m trying to get back on the horse thankyou for all the work you do

Ooh @tessie_bear, I haven't "seen" you for ages! welcome back! I love it when an old familiar name shows up again!

Suffolk_lass

Futuresavings said:

Hello
Having retrospectively looked at the food bill for the past year and being very shocked at how much 2 of us get through,  I would like to join this challenge please. I am a mortgage free wannabe, so looking at ways to make savings. 

Aim for £600 for the month please. 

Welcome @Futuresavings you will find lots of support here and plenty of tips and techniques for reducing and substituting cheaper ingredients without losing flavour.

The single piece of advice is to know why. You know what (as in how much). You need to know why you spent that much, the first thing is to review your own habits - Me? I go off list when I shop and tend to go for all the favourites if I shop online (my regular things) so I do one big shop and then just top up milk and eggs (both delivered - the more expensive milk pays for itself because it keeps me away from my weakness, shopping). When I started, my monthly spend was well over £600. Initially I got it to £400. I stuck there for ages (years!), convinced that was it. Then I started to open up to other ways to save and now I stay within £250 (average) a month or £3000 annual budget. I have a £500 contingency and with food inflation it might take a hit this year. Reading the first few posts and following the links are good, and there are some cheap recipes too, for all diets.

Good luck in your journey!

Suffolk_lass

I did what I hope is my main click and collect for August yesterday - I have been doing the Morries summer thing and did an extra shop in July but now have £35 in vouchers, waiting for me to load it. I think I may need it this month or next! I spent £14.99 on stores, and £36.99 on groceries. I topped up with wine which is in the separate Treats and Entertainment budget because it was on offer 25% off three of the one I chose. More expensive than our normal occasional tipple but it will keep until festivities and I was fortunate to have the money to do it this month. My egg bill was £15 for July so that brings me up to £66.98 so far. Garden and TGTG will feature this month I think!