June 2025 Grocery Challenge

mandco

Various spends totalling £259.51 over the last 9 days which isn’t too bad considering we were away for 6 days and that includes some eating out - there may be a few small spends I forgot -bits I paid cash for but not gonna worry about those as normally we’d have had a holiday budget anyway.
i wasn’t well when we returned so didn’t go food shopping as planned meaning oh went and got maccy d’s as decided he couldn’t be bothered cooking blowing a whopping £45 so not sure if should include that in my total? 

June total so far £455.61 exc maccy d’s  

mandco

How do you get everyone else on board with sticking to the budget??
still not feeling great so asked oh to pick up a few bits to tide us over till I can go and do a proper shop as he was going to the gym next door anyway - gave him a list of things we actually needed like bread milk fruit/veg ect which should have been about £22 but despite not being able to get a couple of items on the list he came out £39.49 lighter as picked up a load of stuff he wanted too - none of it was necessary and mostly junk food. Thinking about it this seems to be a regular occurrence which is really pushing up the food spends so really needs to stop but can’t seem to get it to sink in    I don’t begrudge him having the odd extra thing but nearly £20 worth is ridiculous 

Soontobeoap

@mandco My DH is exactly the same. I try to shop without him. Not easy now we are both retired! He looks after breakfast and hot drinks and his bread so often needs to pop out for milk and comes home with a £10.00 shop. He also doesn't bother with the receipt so I have to guess which often results in me overstating the spends which annoys me too. I try to preempt his shopping trips and get in first by asking him if he needs anything. Strangely he has learned to stick to the list in Sainsbury's and Tesco ( not Aldi) and does tell me that getting an order delivered is a false economy! So small steps are being made. He has started asking me what I plan for lunches as I have often got leftovers to use up but he has bought cold meat. We are getting there and I have only been doing it 3 years so there is still time!! 

K9sandFelines

£8.61 spent between Am@zon and Aldi on agave, soap, gf bread and some chocolate.

GSDMum

Stuck to my plan, and I popped into Aldi while DH was having treatment in the hospital. Receipt came to £52.37 for milk, cream, 7 pats of butter (mostly for freezer stock), fruit, veg, orange juice, mayo, coleslaw, and a pork loin joint to shred.

Spent so far this month £226.71. Trying to be as close as possible to £270 budget which will bring my average monthly total since January to £350ish. Have loads of meals in the freezer yet which needs to be eaten.

Next shop is planned for Friday to buy fresh fish from Morrisons. 

Sadly I've had to pull up all my onions and garlic in the garden as they got a dreadful scourge of blackfly which has decimated them. So annoying, but hey ho... luckily onions and garlic are quite cheap to buy and they all seem to taste the same. Autumn carrot seeds have been planted in their space. It's the convenience more than any money savings to have veg growing in the garden.  

Good luck everyone! 

weenancyinAmerica

@PipneyJane - It has been very scary. Have some neighbors in hiding. My sister went to one demonstration and her son went to another. There may be more to come. Makes it very hard to concentrate what I need to make for food.  I am making three meals for people here as roommates want different things.

Trying to clear out cupboards at the same time. Have take several boxes of food to neighbors already.

And I don't really cook - not since my mother died in 2008. So some of the concoctions come out very strangely as I experiment. May have to see if we can get meal delivered for two of roommates. Their meals would improve. They don't want to eat my salad ideas. Only 28C here today and tomorrow. Once I get the fan set up, it might make it easier to cook. Will be heading to Aldi's tomorrow to get some meal ideas.

SausageDogSandwich

Morning all just a quick post to say after the main shop yesterday I am upto ££217.07/385 

Pennypincin

I had £10 left from last week, which I put into the bulk fund.
I've yet to do any food shopping this week and have been trying to use what I have in for the last couple of days.
I'm hoping to get through today at least and will likely need to head to a shop tomorrow.

C_J

Hello fellow grocery-challengers! I'm enjoying the warm weather and have a whirlygig washing line full of things drying nicely.

@weenancyinAmerica : thinking of you, and sending you good wishes. It sounds such a horrible time.

@mandco : the late Mr CJ used to be really terrible at supermarket shopping, and was for ever shovelling beers or expensive photography and motorsport magazines into the trolley and expecting me to pay for them. He would even 'conveniently' wander off when we got to the checkout, just to ensure he wouldn't have to get his own wallet out    My mother in law gave me some very wise advice, citing how she handled this exact behaviour with my father in law: make it crystal clear before you enter the supermarket that only the things on your shopping list will come out of the grocery budget and be paid for by me. Anything extra which he adds to the trolley just because he fancies it gets separated out on the conveyor belt and is his responsibility. It wasn't an easy conversation to have with him, but he never ever made a fuss about it again and either paid for his own added bits and pieces, or decided not to buy them because they were too expensive    He seldom went grocery shopping without me but if he had done, it would have been the same rules - here is the list, that's what I am paying for. He learnt quickly.

I popped out to a neighbouring town today, primarily to visit a charity warehouse (that will be reported on the chazzer thread) and to get a couple of bits from Aldi - milk, buttery spread (which I use for cooking), a jar of turmeric, and a pack of assorted Italian sliced salami/prosciutto as an impulsive treat.  £8.08 spent, bringing my total for June to £42.16/£150.

The visit took me past my third favourite Community Fridge during its one-hour opening time this morning so I nipped in to see what might be available. I came away with 2 giant onions, an M&S bag of Jersey Royals, 8 pointed red sweet peppers, 2 large lemons, an M&S jar of tamarind paste (very pleased with this!), a handful of rhubarb stems, 1 orange, about 10 individual portions of runny honey (the hotel breakfast sized things) and a lovely bouquet of pink roses.

I will cook the rhubarb in orange and honey to have for desserts this week (I have a large tub of Greek yogurt to use up which can go with it). Not sure what to do with the peppers - I may just dice and freeze them to add to future curries/chillies/soups, but I am also thinking of making a few jars of red pepper relish as I have the other ingredients for that already.

remmie

Another £1.67 spent on bread and vinegar. If I can keep this up things won't look too bad.

£243.25/£300.00