June 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

@carboot_karaoke I always do a " summer lunch " when we have a crowd. A large chicken or 2 and a gammon cooked the day before and cut into thin slices. I make a quiche or 2 if I need to bulk it up. Then add baked potatoes, rice salad, coleslaw ,potato salad, beetroot, sweetcorn ,peppers, spring onions whatever I have as well as a couple of baguettes slices up. Everyone in the family has now adopted it as their easy go to when they are entertaining a crowd so it must have gone down well . It's simple, easy to put together, works for all dietary requirements and gives you plenty of time to enjoy the get together along with everyone else. It  comes in  at around £2.00 a head . Any leftovers can then go on for sandwiches  if anyone is still around later. Or lunch the next day. I hope you have a lovely time.

AnotherNewDay

Pennypincin said:

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.

I can relate so much to the 'treats' part of this! I also have no interest in cooking even simple meals in this heat. I'm going to join you in re-committing to healthy eating

carboot_karaoke

Thank you for your suggestion @Soontobeoap a summer lunch sounds delightful 😊 

@JingsMyBucket very good questions. The "penciled in date" is next weekend so wont be sure of the weather for another few days. In my mind l was thinking alfresco dining we have two gazebos in case it rains. But l know Mr CK would rather us eat inside away from his precious lawn 😂 In either case we have enough space and seating. 

TravelCrystal

@carboot_karaoke, I haven’t catered for that many people for a long time. I made coronation chicken at the weekend and I know from a 2kg chicken you could feed at least 7 people, just with any salad. I also cooked a vat of roast potatoes that I had previously frozen, only take 20 minutes to reheat. Something that can both be done ahead. Good luck with your party

T.C

Nelliegrace

June Grocery Budget £150 for two.

The usual shop at Aldi, I checked the Super 6 offers, tomatoes £1.79  £1.19 and apples £1.49  89p, the coffee beans were £2.29. The mini bananas 88p for 7, were a bit green so I bought a loose one for today. We have half a banana and half an orange each at breakfast. 
£13.72 spent

I have done a salad with a small tin of pilchards, a Spanish omelette with eggs from the hens, and had the cheese ration and chicken thighs from the freezer. DH made the daily kefir and another loaf this morning. 

Total Spent, £76.73

C_J

Hello everyone

I was out and about this morning (I had several bags of donations to drop off at the charity shop) and once again found myself in the vicinity of my third favourite community fridge during its one hour opening slot, and no queue of people. So I nipped in. The volunteers are always very good at sharing the produce fairly so that everyone gets something, but it works the other way too and when they are swamped with certain items they sort of force it on you whether you want it or not! I know they want it distributed so that they don’t have the hassle of throwing anything away - it is very hard to say no to them so I have ended up with a bit more than I needed.

I picked up a loaf of thick sliced Hovis granary, potatoes, onions, LOTS of cherry tomatoes, LOTS of large flat mushrooms, 2 punnets of ripe nectarines, some easy peeler satsumas, a big hand of fresh ginger, two packs of tiny (about 4ins diameter) cornmeal wraps (hot honey flavour, never seen this sort before), a pack of penne pasta made from yellow peas (that’s new to me too, interested to see what it’s like), a small cauliflower and two beautiful bouquets of yellow roses.  This Fridge does not ask for donations towards running costs as it is funded by grants, so all of the above was free. I now have to work out what to do with it all - the bread and wraps will be frozen for later in the week, I think I might cook the tomatoes into a pasta sauce, and the mushrooms will make a dish of garlicky mushroom and cream cheese pâté for a few lunches and probably a pan of mushroom soup too.  The ginger and satsumas will join some apples, lemons and honey that I already have to make some ginger fruit tea. I’m off to search t’internet for ways to use up the nectarines now (suggestions warmly welcomed!).

I then went mad in Tesco, but given how fortuitously under-budget I am for the month it seemed an okay thing to do. I needed tinned dog food, orange and mango squash, milk, butter, back bacon, two tins of sardines in oil (an occasional treat for the dog), some dried parsley and dried oregano but I also bought some own brand cream cheese with which to make the mushroom pâté, treated myself to some soft goat’s cheese, and a large boneless leg of lamb with Cornish sea salt and cracked black pepper which was a yellow sticker reduction (but still £14!). I do love lamb though and it will make lots of meals. £39.09 spent.

This brings my total for June to £72.25/£150

GSDMum

Good luck with your gathering @carboot_karaoke you've got some great suggestions. I'd go with the Coronation Chicken too. Smorgasbord can be very tasty and creative.

The last laundry detergent I bought was Ariel 'The Big One' which was on a special and new to me. I've just 4 pods left so it's time to restock. For several hours this week I sat trawling through the internet trying to compare the best and most economical detergent. What a mine field and practically impossible to compare 'like for like'. Seeing that we also needed to restock on bottled water due to the hot weather, I decided on a Tesco delivery which wasn't on my plan.

At the moment until 1st July, Tesco are offering 25% off if you buy 5 products from their laundry and cleaning product list. Cutting a long story short I went for Tesco's own non-bio capsules which worked out (using 2 capsules per wash as I'm in a hard water area) £0.19 per wash after the 25% off. Also bought 1kg of Vanish for whites, and 1kg Vanish for colours should the laundry need a boost, both were within the 25% off promotion. My thought process may seem messy but I think I'm quids in seeing that on rough average the branded detergents worked out around 38p a wash.

Today I spent £85.13, and I've now also stocked up on fabric softener, oven cleaner, tea and coffee, dairy, marmite, dog treats, salad and fruit, bread/rolls/crumpets for the freezer. I've not bought any meat as I've got enough of that in the freezer which is presently bursting.

I'm calling in my spending for June at £366. My average per month since January is now £377 and I need to bring that back to my target of £350 per month by the end of the year. Well that's my plan anyway.

Soontobeoap

@GSDMum thanks for the heads up re tesco cleaning products. I will check them out now. 

@themsthebreaks it's sounds like rough times are ahead. Fingers crossed all works out well for you. I don't come under very often so can I just congratulate you on managing that. I have a yearly target as well as one each month and so it rolls forward into the next months budget. Each month changes drastically depending on how many you are feeding , if you have any invites to go too which might mean one less meal to cook etc so I don't have same target each month but hope to come in roughly the same over the year if that makes sense. Hope this helps. Remember it's your budget and your goals. This lovely group is here to help with ideas and support along the way.


Added to total £5.50 for ice lollies and chips from Iceland in the Range. Thought DH deserved a treat for stripping wallpaper in all this heat.

C_J

What a worrying time this must be for you @themsthebreaks, I hope it works out in your favour. I sweep any leftover budget into savings, but earmark it for extra bulk buying or too-good-to-miss offers which might crop up over the year.

TravelCrystal

@themsthebreaks, hope it works out for you like @C_J said. 

I keep all my GC money now in a Chase account which I opened a couple of months ago, you get a little bit of interest on what is left over. Hopefully come the end of the year I can see what profit I have made. I add my budget amount in to it every month and just spend from there. As I am like Scrooge I love to see the pennies add up. If you go on the main Martin Lewis page you can see an explanation of how the account works, under banking 😊
Hope that helps 

T.C