July 2025 Grocery Challenge

mandco

Spends totalling £97.08 to add that includes quite a lot of snacky/ready meal type bits I wouldn’t normally have brought as struggling a lot more than I expected post op so needed quick and easy options for lunches/dinners. Hoping I’ll feel well enough by the weekend to go and do a proper shop.

JingsMyBucket

I have a few spends to declare from yesterday before the birthday dinner. 

£32.20 at M & S for bananas, various kinds of YS reduced hummus, milk, baked beans, microwave rice, a small grain salad, a tube of tomato paste, canned mackerel, 2 bottles of sparkling mango juice, 1 bottle of ginger beer, 1 bottle of raspberry lemonade, and a couple canned cocktails. 

£9.86 at Savers for 2 packs of cough drops, air freshener, and waxing strips. 

£18.85 at Tesco by Mr. Jings for beer, cider, full fat organic milk, and natural yoghurt. I bought him a yoghurt maker for his birthday so he’s going to try a batch this week. 

£195.94 / £400 spent. £204.06 total remaining.  

The drinks and alcohol were for our dinner last night but we didn’t really use most of them. We could have probably shaved about £25 off our spending yesterday but oh well. We now have various drinks to last us through the hot spell coming this week(end). I’ll likely go to Lidl tomorrow to restock on eggs and meat. 

JingsMyBucket

@K9sandFelines I don't count the supermarket voucher discounts towards the GC. I consider it free/bonus money. 

@mandco  try not to feel bad about buying more convenient food for yourself while you're still recuperating. Just keep trying to feed yourself vaguely healthy and comforting food to keep your spirits up. Hope you feel better soon. 🙂

PipneyJane

@K9sandFelines good question re supermarket vouchers.   

Historically, yes, I added them to the GC Budget for the month after they were issued - thus increasing my (then) £120 to, say, £126.50 - and included whatever I spent them on in my calculations.  

I don't do that any more.  These days, we tend to save our supermarket vouchers for when a favourite wine/whisky/beer is on offer, making it cheaper to stock up.  I've also used them for purchasing bed linen, towels and Lock-n-Lock style food storage boxes.

HTH

- Pip

Soontobeoap

£7 98 spent in Aldi today on cereal, ham, bread and lollies. Will add to signature

Changeyourlife25

£466.57/£600

£23.44 at the corner shop on some random bits and bulk buy atta flour.

£87.16 at the Chinese supermarket , more freezer bits and some snacks  

C_J

A trip to my favourite Community Fridge today yielded this for the £1 donation they ask for:

1 bag M&S baby new potatoes
4 large baking potatoes
Red onions
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Asparagus
Tenderstem broccoli
Organic watercress
Cucumber
Aubergines
White mushrooms
Vine tomatoes
Romaine lettuce
2 avocadoes
Spring onions
Bananas
Punnet of Waitrose strawberries
2 peaches
2 nectarines
2 pears
2 green apples
2 oranges
Rhubarb sticks
1 pack cut flat leaf parsley
1 potted coriander plant
1 bag Waitrose mushroom stir fry mix
1 Pret hoisin duck wrap
1 :Pret egg mayo sandwich
1 pack crumpets
2 Tesco Finest blueberry muffins
1 loaf Hovis sliced granary bread
1 pack M&S sliced ham
1 pack paneer
1 pack of M&S ready to cook chicken breasts in a Greek herb seasoning with a side of whipped feta
Handful of Hello Fresh chicken stock paste sachets
1 bouquet mixed white flowers


The stir fry mix probably needs to be used up first so I'll have that tonight. I have a recipe to use up the paneer, spinach and tomatoes (it doesn't come out as sludgy looking as their picture!) for two dinners next week, the wrap will be tomorrow's lunch and the egg mayo sandwich will be Friday's lunch, the Greek chicken will be dinner for Thursday and Friday night with a side salad; the romaine lettuce will be cooked with garlic and oyster sauce (which I already have) to make this for Saturday.  Plenty of ingredients for soups, and I still have the Italian herb flavoured sausages in the freezer from last week which I need to use up. I was thinking of using the asparagus in a risotto but I don't have any risotto rice - does anyone know if I can get away with any other kind of rice? I have sticky jasmine rice which might work......

My July total now stands at £9.67/£150. I will need cream (for the strawberries!), milk and dog food before the weekend.

thriftwizard

Wow, @C_J, that's amazing! I wish ours had fresh stuff but all I've ever seen there are highly-processed baked goods. 

I did try to post earlier in the month but it didn't "take" and I was too busy to try from a different device. Hope this post - and my saved signature total - will register! I spent £27 at the market on Friday, on fresh fruit & veg, but we didn't need anything from the butcher, baker or supermarket as I was away & the others just wanted salad & eat-it-up stuff. I have also done the non-perishables run down to the city & spent £95.26. I did spend some money today but will add that tomorrow, as I'm in a rush & the receipts are in a different room!

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

I have multiple spends to declare:

• £13.37 in MrT’s on Saturday, spent on 1.5L Squash 6x£1.85, 750ml bath foam 67p, pasta bakes 5x69p
• £17.73 in L!dl on Saturday, spent on YS steak pie £3.35, baby Jersey potatoes 83p, cherry tomatoes 99p, 1L lactose free skimmed milk 2x99p, Geta £1.89, 800g mature cheddar £5.45, VitC 99p, Oxy stain remover £2.25
• £5.48 in Sainsbugs on Sunday, spent on chocolate cookies 90p, bananas 99p, salad £1.10, houmous 99p, YS ham slices £1.50
• £5.773 in L!dl on Monday, spent on YS quiches 2x£1.44 (was £3.29 each, less 40p offer each, less 50%), 12 large FR eggs
• 50p spent by DH on his way home on Monday to buy more spring onions

We also banked £4.22 of shrapnel in the various piggy banks, including 2 x E2 coins.  (We have a house rule: never spend a £2 coin.)

This brings our total spend to £94.73/£162.50, leaving £67.77 for the rest of the month.

It looks tighter than it feels.  There are a very few things on the shopping list: almost permanent entries for spring onions, baby new potatoes, sweet peppers and some sort of salad greens. I plan to go to L!dl tomorrow for those.  If I spend £10, I’ll be surprised.

The warm weather is actually making it harder to meal plan, since my DH doesn’t want to eat hot food.   I really only have 3 salad recipes in my repertoire:  potato salad, a warm French lentil salad, and a tomato-less tabouleh.  I seem to be rotating our way through those, adding tinned fish to make them into lunches.

Once the England match finishes tonight, I’m going to attempt to make Chorizo, Cheese & Onion Pasties.  On Sunday, I cooked up half a kilo or so of potatoes that had started to sprout and mashed them.  We had some of the mash to accompany the YS steak pie on Monday (mentioned above).  There was quite a lot of mash left over.  Normally, I’d use it to either make gnocchi or to top a pie, but both have been vetoed by DH.

- Pip

otb666

375/600 got 225 left for final week as go from 23rd to 23rd might turn this month into my 5 week month as have enough for 2 further shops even though i have already done 3 shops. Adi seems to be hitting £70 now and veg shop £17.  Although i eat a family sized pizza today and was surprised how much protein it contained 60g was only replacing the emergency one as been in there since February. Noticed a average cereal box was nearly £5 in Aldi which really shocked me.  They were in the branded isle they do where they are branded but are expensive and weird flavors I just walk pass that isle now.