June 2025 Grocery Challenge

mandco

Various shops totalling £315.86 since I last posted  . That does include stocking up on free from items that were 20% off in Tesco, extra drinks & more icecream/lollies than normal as it’s been absolutely sweltering. Have had 4 no spend days since my last shop but do need lactofree milk & bread today and could do with some fresh fruit/veg too. This puts me at £761.47/£800 leaving £38.53 for the rest of the month which is going to be tight but possible if I can get them to stick the list of essentials only this week - will need toilet rolls & soap powder by the end of the week but as they will mostly be used next month and we’d have had enough to last till then if it wasn’t for the hot weather- I might add them to Julys budget.

Suffolk_lass

@C_J idea for use of nectarines is to chop three or four into a shallow pie dish and make a lime or lemon jelly and pour over. It acts as a bit of a preservative, and a delicious, refreshing end to a meal. The other pack I would slice into a jar (with a pop top), cover in a light syrup plus a little lemon to counteract the sweetness and pop them in your oven. Heat from cold to 120c. After ten minutes, remove and the top should pop (especially upside down). They will last a month or so then, until opened, then enjoy as a dessert

C_J

Thanks @Suffolk_lass, they sound great! I’ve also found a recipe online for a spicy nectarines chutney which looks interesting. I will be heading out to my favourite community fridge this afternoon, and given how many punnets of nectarines were being given away yesterday at a fridge not that far away, I wonder whether there may be more on offer today. If so, I may get some more to turn into chutney/relish/jam as well as preserving some for desserts. I will report back!

Suffolk_lass

C_J said:

Thanks @Suffolk_lass, they sound great! I’ve also found a recipe online for a spicy nectarines chutney which looks interesting. I will be heading out to my favourite community fridge this afternoon, and given how many punnets of nectarines were being given away yesterday at a fridge not that far away, I wonder whether there may be more on offer today. If so, I may get some more to turn into chutney/relish/jam as well as preserving some for desserts. I will report back!

Ooh yes, jam. Fab. Or compote, especially with gooseberries and blackcurrants 

Nelliegrace

I use my credit card to buy the groceries and get a bit of cashback with it. The card is paid off in full by Direct Debit each month from my current account, which earns interest, so any underspend on the month’s groceries stays in that account. The interest more than covers the small charges, Win, Win. 

Lots of lovely red cherries which the neighbours let us pick from overhanging branches. 

Soontobeoap

Another £19.97 spent in Aldi today.i have gone over budget but not too worried as it will take me well into the first week of July. Pleased to get mushroom 30% off and they were on my list too. I am cooking a gammon joint tonight so will stretch it as far as it will go. Today with new pots, peas and sweetcorn, tomorrow with egg chips and pineapple, Friday with mushrooms in and omelette, Saturday with pasta. Sunday is a roast lamb joint and Monday dish and chips. That's us to the end of the month. Good luck with your totals all.

PipneyJane

themsthebreaks said:

Hopefully, my final spends to report in June.

It’s been confirmed that redundancy notices will be issued at the start of next week, but no idea yet who will be affected. With that in mind, I went to the local Asian cash & carry yesterday, and spent £29.52 stocking up on pulses and spices. I then spent £5 at the Local Pantry this morning.

Total for June is £358.66/400.00, which leaves £41.34 of the budget left.

What does everyone do when they come under budget?

Do you add the remainder to savings, or next month’s budget? Or, does it just remain in the everyday budget? I was thinking of sticking it onto a supermarket savings card, but as I don’t know what’s happening with regards redundancy next week, I’m not sure what we do with it.

The other issue is, this last month, I have used a lot of the excess stock we already have in store. That has helped keep the budget down, but it may not work next month (although I would like it to).

Hope you're one of the lucky ones @themsthebreaks and not affected by the redundancies.  (Unless you really want to leave, that is.  In which case, I wish you a massive redundancy payment.)

To answer your question, when we have cash leftover, I usually roll it forward to the next month.  However, with £40+ leftover, I'd suggest using it to either boost your bulk fund or to spend on airtight/watertight storage containers, so that you can buy the larger bulk-sized packages and know they're critter safe.  For example, we only buy one type of flour: the 10kg sacks of chapati flour (aka Atta flour), which are currently selling for £7.50 in MrT's (75p a kilo), but are often on offer and cheaper than that.  To store it needs 2 of the largest Lock-n-Lock style boxes, like this one which'll take half a sack.  They aren't cheap, but they are worth every penny.  If I had a surplus I'd consider buying some more of them.

I have two shops to declare from Sunday:  91p spent in Sainsbugs, on a hand of 8 bananas; and £11.88 spent in L!dl, on 1L lactose-free milk 2x99p, mixed peppers £1.60, 800g mature cheddar cheese £5.45, and 12 large free range eggs £2.85.

In L!dl, we collected a "free" 3kg bag of fusilli pasta, utilising the coupon we got for spending over £100 this month.  Yes, you saw that right.  3kg.  I carefully checked the product number and was surprised that the extra large bags of pasta were included in the offer.  £3.79 saved!

11p of coppers has gone into the moneyboxes.

The above brings our total June spend to £162.50/£165, leaving £2.50 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

K9sandFelines

C_J said:

Thanks @Suffolk_lass, they sound great! I’ve also found a recipe online for a spicy nectarines chutney which looks interesting. I will be heading out to my favourite community fridge this afternoon, and given how many punnets of nectarines were being given away yesterday at a fridge not that far away, I wonder whether there may be more on offer today. If so, I may get some more to turn into chutney/relish/jam as well as preserving some for desserts. I will report back!

CJ I've just nabbed your chutney recipe, as I got lots of nectarines at the Bread and Butter thing too. I improvved with the sugar, she says you can use white . The only brown was Demerara so I chucked that in with some molasses. I left out the Kaffir lime leaves as didn't have any, and the chilli as want it to be more like a sweet mango chutney. I'll report back when I've taste tested. Might be tomorrow when it's cooled and been refrigerated.

I still have one punnet left that are good to eat as are 🙂

K9sandFelines

@C_J
Go easy on the chillies. I made mine with just ginger, and it's quite spicy just with that, and I can handle heat pretty well.

I decided to have the same meal again. Protein rice and veggies. I served a bit on the side to try, and it's lovely 😃.

C_J

@K9sandFelines Yes, please report back and let me know how your chutney turned out. As suspected there were more nectarines available today from the Community Fridge so I plan to make jam and chutney tomorrow or Friday.

My £1 donation yielded this from the Fridge today:

A few potatoes (I didn't need many, but they had loads if I'd wanted them)
Leeks
Fresh ginger
Garlic
Large pack of stir fry veg
Carrots
Bag of beansprouts
Little gem lettuce
Bag of rocket
1 pack of kale
Large vine-ripened tomatoes
Avocadoes
Bunch of spring onions
Lots of apples
Nectarines
Oranges
Lemons
2 bananas
1 x pineapple
1 punnet of giant blackberries
1 small loaf sourdough
1 potted thyme plant
1 large tub mango yogurt
2 small lemon drizzle cakes
2 Pret bircher muesli breakfast pots
1 Pret egg mayo sandwich
1 Waitrose chicken and stuffing sandwich
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pack of 4 vegetable samosas
1 pack sliced roast ham
1 pack pepperami chicken bites (these were forced on me!)

Less than last week I think, but still plenty and certainly all that I need or can use.

I'm using one of the chicken breasts with the stir fry veg for tonight's dinner, the apples, oranges, lemons, ginger and pineapple will be turned into various fruit teas (I already have some honey for this).

This takes my June grocery total to £73.25/£150