June 2025 Grocery Challenge

LadyWithAPlan

Hello all, I had an evening side hustle so popped after to the Ald* opposite the overground £17..., looking for a FR Corn fed chicken which they had loads of so I do like a chicken every 4 days as provides me with loads meals and great soup stock.
Bought some nuts, some red spring onions (never seen them before 99p), the fr chicken, some greens

£34.11/£200 spent

I do have family here this weekend so will get some more speciality foods in as my DN  has loads allergies and has somewhat understandably become picky.  However she does love my cooking especially my experimental GF DF baking and so I can push her to eat things I cook

@Naturelover22 trying to track spends can be such a pain til you find the system that works for you. I use (& love ynab) as it does all the record keeping for me as well as making me focus through the month

t14cy_t

spends in morrisons/tesco/poundland and b and m, so 59/£100... oops. hoping olio is good this month!!

Soontobeoap

For anyone who is interested I received 12 jars of Sacla vegan sauce direct from SACLA today only paid £2.00 a jar ( £3.50 in shops when available) and date is July 2027. They also sent 2 free jars of vegan chilli pesto sauce for me to try. Even if it comes back into the shops I have scored a win. Love it when something like this happens.

On another note does anybody know where I can buy bulk cleaning products more cheaply than supermarkets.

TravelCrystal

Good afternoon all
My bulk meat has just arrived 
1x diced venison, 2x chicken livers, 2 x calves liver, 4 lamb and mint burgers, 4 pks pork and various combination sausages, 2 x dice beef, 4 x minced beef ( one in the slow cooker for tonight with pasta) 2 x diced pork, 1 x beef joint, 1 pork joint, 1 chicken. 2 rump steaks, 4 veal burgers, 4 chicken drumsticks and 2 minted lamb steaks. As mentioned before this will come from bulk fund. £153.94
I have calculated at least 50 meals from this. So at £1.50 a head, a great buy.
Looking forward to my supper. 
I don’t know if I mentioned the consignment of 12 bottles of wine also from the bulk fund, have arrived £136.88. Not such a bargain, still once a week consumption isn’t too bad 🤭

Have a good rest of the day all

T.C

GSDMum

Planning to shop in Aldi tomorrow for the first shop of the month, except we'd ran out of coffee so we took a detour to Morrisons after taking DH to the GP surgery. 

Went straight to Morrisons' 'sale' cabinet and picked up 8 portions of battered cod for £10. That'll cover our Friday fish suppers for the month, also picked up 175g sliced roast back bacon for £1.30 (half price), a £3 squeaky toy for the dog for staying home alone (he suffers terribly with separation anxiety), it's too hot now for him to sit in the car, also picked up his fav doggie treats, and a tub of double cream to go with the garden strawberries that are now ready. I did buy a couple of cream cakes, croissants, and deli cheese which was a bit of an indulgence... but why not! Also remembered to buy the coffee I went in for. Receipt came to £38.10. 

Still hoping to finish the weekly shop tomorrow at Aldi for dairy, fruit, veg, cereal, meat.... I'm aiming to spend under £60 there. 

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon Everyone,  

Just popping on to declare some more spends,  l visited Asda, Aldi, and Tesco today.  
Despite only going to the shops on Saturday 🙄. I was with children and rushing, so forget a few essentials, or they we're out of stock. 

I spent a total of £64.92 although £12.73 was non food items, washing tabs, kitchen roll,  blk bags,  freezer food bags and rubber gloves.  I also brought another jar of my coffee for £3.50 while it was on offer. 

Food plan 

Roast chicken 
Pulled chicken and black beans with baguettes 
Cottage pie 
Mince beef keema and rice
Chicken Pesto Pasta
Chilli and rice
Hunters Chicken and chips
Out for dinner
Chicken tray bake
Corn beef hash 
Tuscan Chicken 
Cottage Cobbler
Special fried rice

I should just need fresh veg,  fruit,  milk, and bread to see us through to the 14th.

New totals £158.21 / £446

C_J

Hello everyone, happy midweek! Hope you are all doing well.

I visited my favourite Community Fridge today and for the £1 donation received a staggering amount of food which I am now busy prepping/cooking/freezing/sorting:

1 Hovis granary thick sliced loaf
2 pots M&S sundried tomatoes and mozzarella 
3 pots Pret Little Stars yogurt with mango puree
1 pot Waitrose taramasalata
1 Waitrose coronation chicken salad
1 potted chive plant
1 Waitrose chicken salad sandwich
1 large tub M&S layered Mexican style dip
1 M&S classic selection mini sandwiches (ham, chicken, cheese)
1 elderflower and gooseberry yogurt
1 peach and passionfruit yogurt
1 large pack M&S mixed berries (raspberries and blackberries)
2 large packs M&S strawberries
1 pot Waitrose Italian ricotta
1 pack mozzarella
1 pack Waitrose cooked chicken tikka fillets
1 pack of chicken breast fillets
1 pack of 2 Tesco Finest Victoria Sandwich muffins
Asparagus
New potatoes
6 lemons
1 avocado
Red onions
Bananas
Spring onions
Mixed salad bag
1 pack celery
1 pack Waitrose breaded thin sliced ham
1 pack sugardrop mini cherry tomatoes
1 litre pink grapefruit juice
4 pints M&S filtered semi skimmed milk
Radishes
Bag of sliced mushrooms
Garlic
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Cucumber
Baby spinach leaves
Spring onions
1 pack large vine-ripened tomatoes
Large bouquet M&S pink and red roses

I have friends coming over tomorrow so we'll polish off some of the nibbly bits, salads and sandwiches then. I've frozen the chicken x 2 and the ham. There are so many berries and lemons that I might make some curd and jam on Friday.

The tomatoes and mozzarella will be added to some previously-frozen sourdough breadcrumbs, some crushed garlic, a drizzle of olive oil and some basil from the garden to make a delicious-looking bake thing which I saw Nigel Slater make on TV the other night (they are re-running his Simple Suppers series).

This takes my June spend to £15.32/£150 with probably nothing to buy for the rest of this week.

otb666

450/600 I have 3 shops left so on target.  I have been snacking on nuts and sultanas for my afternoon snack. I tend now to have hearty breakfast and midday meal then snack in afternoon. I am remaining at my 9 and a half stone in weight after going up and then coming down from 12 stone during covid and menopause. Hubby also coming down in weight from 18.5 now 16.5 as being on weight loss drug he eats a lot less.  I often do a fry up in morning using airfryer. or scrambled eggs on toast. I have moved away from processed foods and feel a lot better for it.  Sorry about giving unnecessary information but this place is like a confessional box for myself.  We did have takeout pizza tonight though as unpaid caring for elderly relative took its toll today. Could not believe elderly relative had 16 creams eclairs in their fridge plus custard creams Victoria sponges and loads of biscults but as they are in their late 90s obviously works for them  

goldfinches

Evening all, hope you're all doing well.

I'm very impressed by your Community Fridge haul @C_J, do let me know if the NS recipe tastes good. I never can bear the way he writes them with the amounts of the ingredients mixed in with the text, it always makes me think I'm going to miss something out by mistake and spoil the recipe. I'm definitely going to get to the Community Garage you pointed out to me this Saturday even if I have to forego my lie-in!

Anyway, I made a quick top-up run to M*rks on the way home from walking group today and spent £11 on 4x milk, mushrooms, 2x rolls, lemons, limes, radishes, cucumber, celery, lettuce and tomatoes. Of course they were out of fat free plain greek style yoghurt again so I'll either have to pop across the road this evening and make do with Mr T's version or go out for it first thing tomorrow and have a late breakfast.

The rest of this week's meal plan is

Yoghurt and frozen fruit for all breakfasts

Roasted aubergine, celeriac, swede and spring cabbage to be mixed with spiced bulgur wheat and then dressed with lemon juice to make enough salad for at least four lunches.
Cheese from the cheese shop in the covered market to add to lunchtime salads.
Also green salad for lunches.
And a coleslaw made with red cabbage and carrots and dressed with lime and poppy seed vinaigrette.

Dinners will be the rest of the bean burgers plus a roll and salad and then when they're finished I'll make a  mushroom and caramelised onion pissaladiere with the last of the jarred olives on top.

For this week's bake I made a gluten free chocolate biscuit recipe from the Biscuiteers recipe book I bought the other day in a charity shop and cut them out with a clever little cutter gadget I snapped up in yet another chazza yesterday. Here they are being sandwiched together.



And, after all that if you're still reading, my new GC total is £23.45/£150. Hopefully I'll only need yoghurt and milk for the rest of this week which ought to make the total look more thrifty next week.

weenancyinAmerica

@C_J - I am beginning to think I need to download your Community Fridge list as my shopping list for the week. It sounds wonderful to me. Wish we had something similar over here.