June 2024 Grocery Challenge

leftatthetrafficlights

As I have no more shopping to do this month, I'm declaring for June at £68.96 🙌 

Of that the breakdown is:

Fruit & veg: £38.98
Storecupboard: £18.93
Household/toiletries: £11.05

Very low spending month for a couple of reasons- dh and I were both away for a week this month then we both ended up with a tummy bug so ate nothing other than fruit for a couple of days!

We're also at the point where we are able to harvest all of our salad stuff from home grown produce (other than tomatoes) so that is saving a decent amount of money plus it prevents us from needing to go to the shop so no impulse buys happening! 😉 

Our biggest outlay is fruit - I buy frozen berries for my smoothies but the frozen stuff just doesn't cut it for anything else and dh has fruit for breakfast every day. We have planted raspberry canes this year and have harvested a handful so far, hopefully we will get a decent amount once they have established; I grow blueberries but it's too early in the season for those and I've tried growing strawberries previously but have never been successful - I may give it another go next year 🤔 

Anyway, I'm hoping for a low spend July as the garden veg is starting to do well in response to the decent weather- courgettes are beginning to form so we'll be overrun soon!! 😁😂

thriftwizard

The plot has become very murky here but I think I'm at around £407.84/£420; I was away camping this weekend with the older two DSs & their families. Didn't spend any money at all away, but there was a bit of infrastructure-replacement beforehand. After adjusting last Thursday/Friday's supermarket, butcher & market receipts to remove those, what's left was £66.77 of household grocery spends; I did leave OH & DD2 with £20 in case of "emergencies" but it remained unspent. There will be a little top-up spend today, as my brother is coming to stay tonight, but probably under a tenner. Fingers crossed, I will be inside my target figure this month...

PipneyJane

leftatthetrafficlights said:

As I have no more shopping to do this month, I'm declaring for June at £68.96 🙌 

Of that the breakdown is:

Fruit & veg: £38.98
Storecupboard: £18.93
Household/toiletries: £11.05

Very low spending month for a couple of reasons- dh and I were both away for a week this month then we both ended up with a tummy bug so ate nothing other than fruit for a couple of days!

We're also at the point where we are able to harvest all of our salad stuff from home grown produce (other than tomatoes) so that is saving a decent amount of money plus it prevents us from needing to go to the shop so no impulse buys happening! 😉 

Our biggest outlay is fruit - I buy frozen berries for my smoothies but the frozen stuff just doesn't cut it for anything else and dh has fruit for breakfast every day. We have planted raspberry canes this year and have harvested a handful so far, hopefully we will get a decent amount once they have established; I grow blueberries but it's too early in the season for those and I've tried growing strawberries previously but have never been successful - I may give it another go next year 🤔 

Anyway, I'm hoping for a low spend July as the garden veg is starting to do well in response to the decent weather- courgettes are beginning to form so we'll be overrun soon!! 😁😂

@leftatthetrafficlights from my experience, strawberries are a three-year-cycle fruit.  In the first year, they’re establishing themselves so don’t give a load of fruit.  In the second year, you get masses of fruit.  In the third year, you get a reasonable amount of fruit AND plenty of runners, before the original plant dies off.  Plant up the runners ASAP, so that you will have masses of fruit for next year.

HTH

- Pip

PS:  Has anyone heard from @elsiepac ?  Hope she’s OK.

SausageDogSandwich

Morning, hope everyone is doing well. Had big shop delivered yesterday, I say big shop but didn’t seem to actually get a lot for the £64.25 it cost. Plus at the weekend there was an offer on ubr 50% off snacks so I got loads of branded crisps for the kids and have hidden most of them away so they will last them the 6 weeks holiday, that cost £29.23. Which has made me go bust and I still have to buy toilet roll, other than that got everything for 7 days now, will just have to not spend   
Total £322.23/320 spent.

elsiepac

July GC Now Live!

leftatthetrafficlights

PipneyJane said:

leftatthetrafficlights said:

As I have no more shopping to do this month, I'm declaring for June at £68.96 🙌 

Of that the breakdown is:

Fruit & veg: £38.98
Storecupboard: £18.93
Household/toiletries: £11.05

Very low spending month for a couple of reasons- dh and I were both away for a week this month then we both ended up with a tummy bug so ate nothing other than fruit for a couple of days!

We're also at the point where we are able to harvest all of our salad stuff from home grown produce (other than tomatoes) so that is saving a decent amount of money plus it prevents us from needing to go to the shop so no impulse buys happening! 😉 

Our biggest outlay is fruit - I buy frozen berries for my smoothies but the frozen stuff just doesn't cut it for anything else and dh has fruit for breakfast every day. We have planted raspberry canes this year and have harvested a handful so far, hopefully we will get a decent amount once they have established; I grow blueberries but it's too early in the season for those and I've tried growing strawberries previously but have never been successful - I may give it another go next year 🤔 

Anyway, I'm hoping for a low spend July as the garden veg is starting to do well in response to the decent weather- courgettes are beginning to form so we'll be overrun soon!! 😁😂

@leftatthetrafficlights from my experience, strawberries are a three-year-cycle fruit.  In the first year, they’re establishing themselves so don’t give a load of fruit.  In the second year, you get masses of fruit.  In the third year, you get a reasonable amount of fruit AND plenty of runners, before the original plant dies off.  Plant up the runners ASAP, so that you will have masses of fruit for next year.

HTH

- Pip

Thanks for this @PipneyJane, that's really helpful! 😁

thriftwizard

The top-up shop came to £10.89; that duly added, I'm at £417.73 which I'd be happy to declare at for June, BUT apparently we're in need of vinegar... Personally I think we could get away with using wine, cider or rice wine vinegar, all of which we do have, until I do the non-perishables run next week, but OH wants his malt vinegar! Let's see if I can find some locally for under £2.27 but we do not (yet) have any low-cost shops here, and I'm not inclined to swelter in the car, and use up fuel, to go down into the city to find some! 

Pennypincin

£8.38 spent on 2 jars of coffee substitute.
I will be picking it up tomorrow from Holland and Barrett, but will pop into a supermarket to do a top of salad.

PipneyJane

Pennypincin said:

£8.38 spent on 2 jars of coffee substitute.
I will be picking it up tomorrow from Holland and Barrett, but will pop into a supermarket to do a top of salad.

Coffee substitute, @Pennypincin?  I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.  Please elaborate.

We finally went to L!dl today, to pick up the handful of items on our shopping list, including our free “bakery product” (from having spent more than £50 there, this month).  £11.96 spent.   I’m pleased to report that their Chocolate Oaties have decreased in price by 8p.  Last time we bought some, (April), they were 77p; today they are 69p.  Naturally, we chose the most expensive bread they had for our freebee (a rye bloomer for £2.09).  Also picked up a YS cream herring salad (£1.53), Chewing Gums (3x£1.10), Milk Chocolate Oaties (3x69p), cooking chorizo (£2.79), plain bagels (79p), a bag of wild rocket (69p), and a potted parsley (79p).  Sadly one thing remains on the shopping list: they’d sold out of mixed nuts, due to the latest offer. 

The above brings our total June GC spend to £156.30/£162.30, leaving £6 for the rest of the month…

…once I extract the 4p we received in change.  (It’s now in the money box.)

Something else to note is that they didn’t have any black bread.  They didn’t even have an empty space for it showing on the bread shelves, hence the purchase of bagels.

Meal Plans

All breakfasts are cereal and all lunches are leftovers from the previous night’s meal/freezer, unless otherwise stated.  Also, with the exception of today, the order may change.

Today.  L!dl pork knuckle roast, served with HM tabouli and mixed leaf salad
Thursday. Lunch: herring salad bagels.  Dinner:  HM quiche, made with cooking bacon, cheddar and pastry leftovers from the freezer.  Served with fresh broccoli.
Friday.  Broccoli pasta, made with the rest of the broccoli, cheddar and crème fraiche.
Saturday.  Not sure yet.
Sunday.  Mutton Pad Thai, assuming the bean sprouts I’m growing are big enough.

- Pip

thriftwizard

Yay! Found half a bottle of malt vinegar in the utility room... so I'm good to declare at £417.73/£420 - phew!