July 2024 Grocery Challenge

LotsOfTea

I had a shopping delivery on Thursday which came to £90.24. It had some extras as we have guests staying for the weekend and all the usual fruit, veg, cheese, bread making stuff etc to keep us going.  

Trying to work on meal planning today and finding myself thinking only of hearty soups and stews due to the miserable weather. Oh well, no need to water the garden at least! 

£90.24/£300

Suffolk_lass

SuperMoose said:

Just wanted to add to the talk about Aldi and taking YS items through the self service tills. I was told by the member of staff on the self service tills that you have to get them to put through YS items. Otherwise you could put all your shopping through as YS

Aldi don't have barcodes for the reduced price unlike most of the other supermarkets. When you go through a staffed till with reduced items they scan the barcode and then press a button on the till for 50% off etc.

Hope that makes sense

It does, and that is top info for the rest of us, thank you @SuperMoose!

Pennypincin

£9 going into the bulk fund, I'm set for food shopping l until tomorrow.

Blackcats

Started the month with a big shop at Lidls and stocked up on store cupboard and some freezer bits.  

I had a bit of an eek moment when I worked out that there are potentially 4 more shops to do in July and then breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when I reminded myself that the budget was set based on having a few days away and some meals out during the month so the budget should stretch.

still jittery but balance is £180.00

carboot_karaoke

Evening all, I've had quite a "spendy" few days but spread across all the different headings it doesn't seem so bad 

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to @goldfinches l read the article about suncream, opted for Lidl's own brand first impressions are very good and at the moment there is an extra 25% off with there app. 12 Bottles for £30 bargain !!  

New totals 

£687/ £162.83

1. Petrol £180 / £47.37
2. Food/Cleaning £350 /£79.16
3. Camping food £100 / £5.17
4. Toiletries £57 / £31.13

leftatthetrafficlights

Totals so far:

July week 1:

Fruit & veg: £23.99/£25
Storecupboard: £15.98/£20 (monthly)
Laundry/toiletries: £0/£20 (monthly)

TravelCrystal

Had to buy stamps at Asda today (not included in housekeeping budget) spent 79p on some YS grapes. Main shopping for the week tomorrow 
Lamb yesterday was delicious and lots left and in the freezer.
£97.55/£400
Hope everyone is having a good day 
T.C

Mimismoney23

I'm joining late but on admission to save and pay debt and food is my biggest spend by far. We just eat whatever we want with little regard for cost hence the budget starting today  I have budgeted £100 for this next 2 weeks. This will be for 4 people 2 adults 1 teen and 1 child. Must include gluten free for the youngest including 2 weeks of packed lunches. The teen is home educated so I need 3 meals a day for him, neither adult eats breakfast so that reduces the costs a little. Not sure where to start but I'm hoping it should be enough. We have a lot of food in freezers and cupboards so i think I should work through them and devise a few free meals from them.
I've got a separate account which i never use so i will transfer my food budget each week into there to help control the budget. Looking forward to reading what you all do too.
I realised after totting up what I spent on June that without including meals out I spent £840.93 on groceries. Over the year that's my entire post tax wage of £10091.16!!!! I nearly died seeing that. 

thriftwizard

Good luck to you, @Mimismoney23! There's lots of help & encouragement here and invaluable resources listed on the first page of each month's challenge too. Several of us are or have been home-edders and that's where I first developed our soup-or-salad lunch habit; our lunches to this day are made from home-made stocks, "bendy" veg, leftover ham or chicken, home-grown stuff eking out bought salad leaves, breadmaker bread, seeds or beans sprouted on the kitchen windowsill, etc. etc.

I've just added £97.46 to my total, having done the non-perishables run this morning. I didn't spend any money over the weekend; took my own lunches (as advertised!) in a coolbox and otherwise just ate hotel food. Some of the money I left for the family at home did get spent but I've been persuaded that it was "Entertainments" money as it was for a joint birthday (DD1 & twin DS3) meal, which the assorted offspring did make from scratch. Luckily there was a little bit of an astonishingly good HM chocolate trifle left for me to return home to yesterday afternoon - dancing all weekend is hungry work! - as well as roast beef with excellent Yorkshire puddings - DD1's beloved being a Yorkshireman!

And in other news, DD2 & I are off up to Wales house-and-pet-sitting for DS1 again on Friday, until next Thursday - a bit of a little holiday for us, it's a lovely part of the world - so won't be troubling the home grocery budget for a week. I've sat down today & worked out a plan to leave plenty of meals & other food for OH, much of which is already bought or in the freezer. (And none of it involving Gr3ggs sausage rolls...) So this month could work out surprisingly inexpensive, despite being a 5-weeker - but I'm not holding my breath!

goldfinches

carboot_karaoke said:

Evening all, I've had quite a "spendy" few days but spread across all the different headings it doesn't seem so bad 

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to @goldfinches l read the article about suncream, opted for Lidl's own brand first impressions are very good and at the moment there is an extra 25% off with there app. 12 Bottles for £30 bargain !!  

New totals 

£687/ £162.83

1. Petrol £180 / £47.37
2. Food/Cleaning £350 /£79.16
3. Camping food £100 / £5.17
4. Toiletries £57 / £31.13

Delighted to hear this and to hear about the additional 25% off as well, well done you; am reposting the two articles here below for anyone else who wants to give them a look.

3 sunscreens fail Which? tests, but we've also uncovered some Great Value options we recommend - Which? News
The 11 best sunscreens for every need – from solid to mineral, body to face | Beauty | The Guardian

I just have one spend to add to my total which is £13.49 at M*rks for yoghurt, ys lettuce, ys sweetcorn, 3x salads and a roll.

That makes my new GC total £27.10/£248 which is an average daily spend of £3.38.