June 2025 Grocery Challenge

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

Soontobeoap

Just spent £28.90 in Aldi on a weekks shopping( still using meat etc from freezer. Forgot puff pastry so need to nip back up as still have meat for pasties

JingsMyBucket

Hello, just a quick one to report. Mr. Jings spent £5.40 today at M & S for coffee beans and garlic. Colour me surprised that he bought only what was requested and didn’t tag on an extra £15 of stuff! 

£248.44 / £325 spent. £76.56 remaining.  

K9sandFelines

£17 at Bread and Butter thing.
Great bags again today.
Loads of mushrooms, raspberries, nectarines, mint leaves, chocolate ( luckily vegan as they are vegetarian bags), crisps, Chinese leaf cabbage, potatoes, oat milk, and lots of cream, mozzarella and bits ( listed on Olio)
I shared with my daughter, as I owed her some money back.
Also,  I've had some gf.flour delivered; but not sure I'm keeping it for the price (so not adding that yet).
Also adding £1.20 for a bag of sugar. So I can make jam out of surplus raspberries. I don't normally like raspberry flavoured jam; but I'm hoping if I mix it with some blackberries ( I still have loads in the freezer from last summer that my DD1 and GD picked), that it'll be nice.

goldfinches

Evening all and I hope you've all had a good day. Extra good wishes for @weenancyinAmerica and hope things get better soon.

I've been shopping a horrifying three times since my last post and today I have to confess to having forgotten to harvest various herbs while I was at my allotment and, instead, buying them from Waitflower rather than cycling all the way back again because I was feeling so hot and tired.

Anyway, first I went up the road to Mr T's yesterday because I needed eggs and sour cream for a recipe and, unfortunately for my will power, arrived at exactly the moment they were putting lots of fresh veg and salad bits into the marked down area. So I fell for a ys lettuce, ys broccoli, 2x ys cherry tomatoes, 2x ys smashed avocado, 2x ys panini and a croissant as well as the eggs and sour cream which all came to £9.86.
Then today at the other Mr T's I bought lemons, 2x walnuts (club card price), cucumber, garlic and a pear which came to £7.90.
And this afternoon I bought milk, roquefort, jalapeno relish, parsley, rosemary, chives, dill, chillies and mint at Waitflower which cost £15.50.

That makes my new GC total £127.92/£150    aaaaargh and I forgot to buy the handwash liquid this afternoon!

I shall just have to have a fridge and store cupboard rummage and put my thinking cap on!

Nelliegrace

June budget £150 for the two of us.

We shopped at a different Aldi on the way home from the afternoon film, the new Bridget Jones, (£5 including tea and biscuits in the interval,) at the Memorial Hall. It will save going out again in this hot weather.

A few bargains, the mixed seeds have been out of stock. Frozen blueberries are considerably cheaper than the plastic packs of fresh ones, I defrost enough for a couple of days in the fridge. We have some growing in the garden.

£18.12 spent.

Total Spent £63.01

C_J

A visit to my favourite Community Fridge today costing £1, and which brings my June total to £43.16/£150

There was less food available this week I think, but it's still such an excellent place. 

6 large baking potatoes
Red onions
Shallots
Carrots
Leeks
Pak choi
Chinese cabbage
Cherry tomatoes
Large vine ripened tomatoes
Cucumber
Avocado
1 pack cut herbs, coriander
1 pack cut herbs, flat leaf parsley
White and chestnut mushrooms
1 pack baby spinach
1 pack samphire
1 pack mangetout peas
2 pain au raisins
Bananas
Tub of prepared pomegranate
1 M&S ready meal of sweet and sour crispy prawns
1 pack sliced salami
1 pack paneer
1 loaf thick sliced multigrain Hovis
6 free range eggs
1 Pret egg and cress sandwich
1 Pret romesco, butter bean and feta salad
1 shawarma chicken flatbread
1 tub hummus
1 tub Tesco Finest fresh pomodorini tomato pasta sauce
2 M&S bircher muesli bowls
1 potted coriander plant
1 bunch white roses


So the use-up plan is to make a paneer makhani as I already have the other ingredients for this. I'll probably go rogue and add a handful of the baby spinach to it too then freeze the rest of the spinach (along with the pomegranate and cut herbs) to use another day. There are plenty of ingredients above for a nice mixed veg and mushroom stir fry, and the pasta sauce will go with some spaghetti from my larder and parmesan which needs using up. I'm having the crispy prawns tonight, the sandwiches for lunches on Thursday and Friday and the butter bean and feta salad for dinner tomorrow night. I have plenty of tomatoes, red peppers, cucumber, garlic and onion so will make a nice jug of ice cold gazpacho because the weather is set to top 30 degrees by the weekend and I reckon I will only want soup if it is chilled!