July 2025 Grocery Challenge

GSDMum

Blackcats said:

@GSDMum I was initially very impressed that you were being measured for a crown - thought you might be a minor royal or a carrival queen.  Sorry about your tooth - that was an expensive carrot! 

   Ha ha... never thought about that type of crown. lol

wishus

I have to amend my total again. I bought some beautiful avocados, a pineapple and cherries from the market yesterday, plus due to the weather I have spent on ice cream and pop. 

£92.06 spent so far.
£57.94 remaining. 

That's not much...😬

JingsMyBucket

Happy Saturday morning folks. Yesterday I went shopping and restocked on fresh vegetables, fruit, cold cuts, and various items for cool lunches and dinners.  

£44.84 at Lidl for broccoli 99p, a bag of 6 avocados £1.49, bananas 78p, bell peppers £1.43, romaine hearts 89p, 1kg pork shoulder steaks £7.49, sliced ham £3.69, fancy sliced ham £3.87, sliced topside beef £2.09, butter £1.99, goat cheese £1.95, Brie £2.25, 4 bags of plantain chips £3.16, canned black beans 69p, potato chips 87p, 30 eggs £5.38, 2 bags of frozen shrimp £4.78, and berry fruit tea bags £1.05. 

I add up my shopping while going around the store but I was still slightly shocked when I hit nearly £45 including Lidl Plus discounts. 

Speaking of Lidl Plus, the lady in front of me asked if I could scan my card since she forgot hers. I was glad to help her out and her £48 purchase contributed to my monthly Coupon Plus total which was a nice boost! 

£17.80 spent next at M & S for a large tray of strawberries £3.90, YS salad bag £1.25, YS hummus 75p, halloumi £3, 1kg yoghurt £2, canned lentils 70p, 3 cans of sardines £3.60, and olive ciabatta rolls £2.60. 

£258.58 / £400 spent. £141.42 total remaining.  

I don’t normally list out prices on my posts but I did this time almost as an exercise to prove to myself that I’m not crazy regarding prices. Hah! It does feel like the bills are going up for a regular shop. I mean, we haven’t had shrimp in about 3 months and it was on sale at Lidl with Lidl Plus. Next week I’ll restock on the usual chicken but this feels a bit frustrating. 😕

Well, Mr. Jings also started his first batch of yoghurt last night in his yoghurt maker so if that turns out well, we could likely cut our yoghurt budget precipitously. Let’s see how it turns out. 

Keep cool out there everyone! 

thriftwizard

Do please report back on the yogurt, @JingsMyBucket! I have a cheap & cheerful yogurt maker with lousy controls - it doesn't respond to the buttons at all, more than half of the time - and when I tried a more expensive one, its temperature control was way off, several degrees over the temp I'd set, as measured with a probe, which resulted in - curds & whey? - which didn't taste right at all. Hence my experiments with "Mesophilic" (room temperature) milk ferments, but I'm not disciplined enough - or my life is too chaotic - to keep them going.

I'm about to add the £27 spent at the market yesterday; I have just spent a little more at W8rose but that's "family contingency" i.e. food for DS1's dog, which we're minding for a few days whilst they attend a wedding - in Hungary! They forgot his wet food; it's very expensive compared to cat food, which, sadly, he infinitely prefers! But I daren't challenge his delicate pedigree digestion with the wrong diet...

C_J

I went out early this morning, before it got too hot, and stocked up on 2 x 1.5 litre bottles of my favourite orange and mango squash and a large pack of risotto rice from Tesco. £7.00 spent.

Whilst out I popped my head round my second favourite Community Fridge during its short Saturday morning opening window, and came away with:

2 tubs of Galbani burrata
Uncooked beetroot
Courgettes
Shallots
Carrots
Celeriac
Yellow peppers
2 oranges
Pak choy
A bag of cut flat leaf parsley
Mushrooms
4 chocolate doughnuts (for the grandchildren when they visit this afternoon)


The burrata still has a week left on its sell-by date, so I will use one in a salad for Monday's dinner, and the other with some pasta and vine tomatoes on Tuesday.  I'm going to run the celeriac through the food processor to slice it thinly then dehydrate it in the Ninja to make celeriac crisps for snacking on. Not sure yet whether to cook the beetroot to have with the salad, or whether to dehydrate it to make some beetroot powder which I can keep in a screw-top jar to add to risottos or home made hummus in the future. Maybe both. I've got plenty of veg in the fridge to make a mushroom stir fry, which will be dinner tonight.


Current July total £16.67/£150 which I am really pleased with, but I am still reeling from a bag of risotto rice costing £3.30!

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

I have multiple spends from this week to declare. I needed a few things from Asda to complete a few mid week meal dinners, carrots, broccoli, chickpeas, bread and some reduced puddings for the kids £3.67.

Also spent £1.97 at home bargains on toothpaste x 2 and throat sweets.

Two Tesco shops came to £78.91 lots of salad, fruit, veg, protein products and meat.  Total spent over the four shops £84.55

New totals
Grocery Budget £319.77 / £450
Entertaining £67.13 / £120
Total £386.90 /£570

I felt fairly confident with my larger than average budget, but now I'm not so sure. Only £183.10 left for the rest of the month and we have more guests next weekend.  

JingsMyBucket

@C_J I found this burst tomato and burrata pasta recipe just this morning. HTH

 https://www.howsweeteats.com/2021/06/burst-tomato-burrata-pasta/

C_J

Thank you Jings, that's perfect!

Soontobeoap

A shop done today at Aldi. Hopefully see us through the week with what I already have in. DH was at football so I managed to go round on my own.. £19.86 spent. Egg and chips tonight for dinner

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, I'm back after having a few months off tracking whilst we moved house. Still loads of unpacking to do but the kitchen is nearly sorted. 

Could you put me down for £600 please. 

It'll be tight as I've already spent £394.46 but we've got fruit, some veg, bread, crumpets, meat and storecupboard stuff already.