June 2025 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

Morning everyone. Earlier this week I visited M & S and spent £18.20 for bananas, clementines, strawberries, sliced ham, canned tuna, olive ciabatta and one other thing I’m forgetting.

£266.64 / £325 spent. £58.36 remaining.  

I’m going to head out early this morning to visit M & S and Lidl for a few items such as olive oil, other ingredients and some non-perishable snacks. I’m doing an overnight camp tonight for the first time in my life!! 😬 We’re attending a solstice party and will sleep over in a tent. Usually everyone contributes to the buffet. I’m going to make a vegetable tart and Mr. Jings will bake some goodies. 

PipneyJane

Good morning All

I have a small spend to declare from Thursday.  £2.55 spent in L!dl on 3 large sweet peppers (£1.79), a YS bag of lettuce (32p) and a YS bag of stir fry veg (44p).

This brings our total spend to £157.55/£165 leaving £7.45 for the rest of the month.

It’s going to be very tight.  I’ll need to do some serious meal planning to a) ensure we can live off what we already have in stock, b) that it’s summer tolerable, and c) that, if I do need to purchase something, it won’t push us over budget.  Also, that we don’t waste anything.  Hmmm….

To get through the next week, we’ll need eggs.  That’s £2.79, spent.  A hand of bananas, approximately 80p. And one carton of lactose-free milk (99p).  There’s a Sainsbugs Smartshop offer on small tubs of Greek yoghurt (which I use in potato salad), 62p.   That’s £5.20 “spent” before any of the fresh veg we have needs replenishing.  Hopefully the mushrooms will survive, but I may have to make up a few tubs of base to freeze.

- Pip

TravelCrystal

Morning all
Had to go to the dental hygienist early in the week so spent another £2.22 on cakes.
This has made me go over budget 🥲

Just back from Lidl 
Picked up some free lemons which is good as SIL is making cheesecake for tomorrow so don’t need to worry about my fruit Charlotte.
YS muffins and discounted eggs, celery and cashews from my app
Had to get drinks for tomorrow, decaf T bags, biscuits, fruit and veg, oats, mayonnaise, mango chutney and milk £30.85 spent
Total for the week £33.07

I am declaring for June as I don’t want to spend any more this month

£400.29/£400🥲 plus £290.82 Bulk 

Have a great rest of the month all

T.C

Soontobeoap

Sorry @TravelCrystal I think I am missing something! What is the link between the hygienist and cakes? 

We have spent another £15.00 today on salad, milk, bleach, mince and a few other bits and pieces. I really hope that's it for this month but it's still early isn't it? Anyway that's the only raw meat I have bought this month ( I've been working through freezer cooking the joints on Sunday and then making things out of leftovers to last the rest of the week) This worked better as the month has gone on because when I made 4 individual pies they did 2 days so I could freeze 2  to have the next week etc. 

We have been eating like kings and there are still 4 or 5 joints in the freezer. I know I have chosen the wrong weather to be cooking roasts but we have had a lot of salad with rissoles, fish cakes ( from left over fish and chips, lasagna etc, so it's not all been heavy. I will definitely be investing in the half price joints at Christmas and Easter again next year.

So going forward into July I plan to carry on like this. I will need to buy some chicken breasts  for a bit of variety but if I do as well as this month I will get my monthly average down. Then I will have some hope of coming in at the same as last year in total. Fingers crossed but it is really getting much harder with things either shrinking or getting dearer.

AnotherNewDay

 The month has run away from me, and I have not been tracking as well as I should have been, so no surprise that human/household is now at £85.79/£50 and the cats are at £32.95/£50 bringing total to £118.74/£100.
Human/household should be fine until the end of the month but will need to get dry food for the cats tomorrow and possible also wet food before the budget resets on 28/06.

Most of the extra human/household has been spent on ice-cream/lollies etc due to the heat as well as extra crisps/treats due to lack of willpower. 

PipneyJane

PipneyJane said:

Good morning All

I have a small spend to declare from Thursday.  £2.55 spent in L!dl on 3 large sweet peppers (£1.79), a YS bag of lettuce (32p) and a YS bag of stir fry veg (44p).

This brings our total spend to £157.55/£165 leaving £7.45 for the rest of the month.

It’s going to be very tight.  I’ll need to do some serious meal planning to a) ensure we can live off what we already have in stock, b) that it’s summer tolerable, and c) that, if I do need to purchase something, it won’t push us over budget.  Also, that we don’t waste anything.  Hmmm….

To get through the next week, we’ll need eggs.  That’s £2.79, spent.  A hand of bananas, approximately 80p. And one carton of lactose-free milk (99p).  There’s a Sainsbugs Smartshop offer on small tubs of Greek yoghurt (which I use in potato salad), 62p.   That’s £5.20 “spent” before any of the fresh veg we have needs replenishing.  Hopefully the mushrooms will survive, but I may have to make up a few tubs of base to freeze.

- Pip

I think I’ll admit defeat.  You may remember, earlier in the month, we scored 4 tubs of Gressingham duck livers for £2 each in Sainsbugs.  Well, yesterday, DH persuaded me that the Meat Fund should have paid for them and that I shouldn’t apply my arbitrary shopping rule that any meat purchased at the supermarket comes out of the GC purse and not out of the Meat Fund.

£8 put back into the GC Purse and a 5p piece removed to go into the money box.

This reduces our June GC spend to £149.60/£165 leaving £15.40 for the rest of the month.

To anyone who is worried that DH and I will be in distressed circumstances if we break our budget, please don’t worry.  We’re both in well paid jobs, with plenty of savings and spare income each month.  We started our system of GC Purse, Meat Fund, Bulk Fund, etc, when we moved in together 25 years ago, because It meant that one person would inadvertently shoulder the burden of “The Housekeeping”.  While things were a bit tight when I was sick last year and DH was unemployed, I do the GC each month primarily for the challenge and because it keeps me accountable.

- Pip

TravelCrystal

Sorry @Soontobeoap re the cakes. I went to the dentist a few weeks ago and mentioned the lovely bakery just up the road. We always treat ourselves to cakes as a treat 😊 luckily we only visit the town around 5 times a year

T.C

Pennypincin

I've been buying lots of treats out of my money and not shopping properly.
I've £23.77 left and have wasted some of the food budget on fresh bits that I've had to put in the composter as it went off due to the treats and not eating healthy.
I'm going to try and stop being wasteful,do proper shopping and start again with the healthy eating tomorrow.
Somehow I need to.

JingsMyBucket

@Pennypincin try not to beat yourself up x. We all go through times or slumps where we eat unhealthily. Usually for me, it is definitely around my period or hormonal swings. Try to get back on the horse again and soon you’ll be off to the races. Sending hugs if you need them. 🙂 

Pennypincin

Thank you.