July 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Thanks @travelCrystal and @PipneyJane. Forgot to say that DH is not a fan of anything hot. He is also not sure about pork being reheated after it was drummed into us as teenagers. But I am determined to get 2 dinners out of it! 🤣
I am also planning for when the grandchildren come over. I have just found a recipe for " cookies" that you can freeze the dough and decorate and cook later. That will be a good activity as well as save money. I am determined that the snacks are not going to cost us as much as before. This time we have 3 children staying with us for 3 weeks so will be like a family of 5! I am also going to stock up on ice poles instead of lollies. Much cheaper
 Also looking forore ideas to fill hollow legs.

Naturelover22

Lots more spends this week ☹️

Fri Sainsburys £4.64
Lemonade, squash, tampons, lemons.

Fri Co-op £11.20
Meal deal £7 2 pizzas and 4 bottles of beer.
Ice cream, garlic bread.

Sun Aldi £50.56
2 pizzas, bacon, 500g pork mince, 1kg greek yogurt (bought wrong brand last week was twice the price!) Yogurts, peppers, baby potatoes, ham, chicken sizzlers (reduced) grapes, squash (drank a whole bottle in 2 days for 2 people in this heat) salad, cereal bars, malted wheats, toilet roll, chopped tomatoes x3, balsamic vinegar, tuna x4, passata, bananas, crisp, cat food x48.
The cat food was £10but this was still higher than I expected.

Need to carefully plan meals this week. Pleased to have stocked up on cat food as 2 trips this week were as we bought small box and ran out, then bought extra stuff in the shop too.

£200.61 out of £215

wishus

I've spent another £29.89 in Aldi, new total SPENT £121.95, REMAINING £28.05.

Tight, but at least my "month" finishes a couple of days early as I'll be on holiday. Then my August will start from the first Monday. 

Meal plan for the week:

Beetroot penne
Half and half chilli
Chickpea Dahl and rice 
Chicken or prawn* stir fry and noodles 
Fish and chips 
Cajun chicken pasta
Roastish dinner 

*Planned prawns then didn't put them on the shopping list.

Suffolk_lass

Soontobeoap said:

Well we did have roast pork in this heat! Trouble is that there is quite a bit left! I have found a recipe that looks lovely for sweet and sour pork which I will serve with egg fried rice tomorrow. If any one has any other ideas I would be very grateful. 🙂

@Soontobeoap in old-school style, we like it cold, sliced or diced, with pickles, salad and a baked potato with just butter. Simple, and apart from the baked potato, quick and easy

Soontobeoap

Thanks @suffolklass. It seems that is the way most of it is going 🤣. In Sarnis with apple sauce at the moment.

Pennypincin

I've somehow come £27.77 under for the food budget for last week.
I will start again this week with £40 and transfer the extra money into the bulk fund.

Nelliegrace

July Grocery Budget for Two, £155.

We shopped at Aldi yesterday afternoon as we were almost out of fresh milk. The price has gone up to £1.65 for 4 pints, it was £1.45 just a few weeks ago. Cream costs more but butter is still £1.99 so I bought one to freeze in weekly portions. I shall freeze some of the broccoli, the sprouts will go in a stir-fry. The onions will keep spread out in a mushroom tray in the cool garage. 

£20.23 spent.

mandco

The weekend shops definitely put a dent in the budget 
Tesco £188.32
m&s £11.32
Iceland £39.70 mostly bbq bits as we already have invites to 2 more 
boots £16.32 on toiletries - I get a lot of my basics from here as use the recycling scheme to boost my boots points
aldi £51.24 
that gives me a total of 306.90 to add which puts me at £606.90/£800 and we’re barely 1/2 way through the month    this leave me around £90 a week for the remaining 2 weeks which is going to be tough but I did buy a lot more of fruit/veg than usual as no one really wants hot dinners at the moment and I’m stocked up on most of the household/toiletries/pet food stuff so it’s mostly just food left to get.We will need bread & lactofree milk(they only had 2 cartons) in the next day or so but shouldn’t actually “need” anything else till the weekend. 

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines said:

Officially here now for the month.

No spends as of yet on any shops, apart from my own stores, which I've added to my signature.

Even if I go out, I only need food caddy bin bags, coffee, onions and herbal teabags.
Can't think what else.

I have however got some subscribe and save items on the way, one I couldn't cancel in time as it's being dispatched by Royal Mail; so that's going to put a bit of a dent in the total. It's a big soy sauce. Other times are agave, jackfruit, washing up liquid and cotton buds . So I've added these to my signature.

£11.28 spent on the items mentioned at Ald!
Forgot the onions, but realised I had frozen some a while back when I got that big sack.
I ended up getting zx coke as lack of caffeine in this heat was causing me to nod off. I got bananas ,garlic, colour treated hair conditioner ( I picked up two shampoos last time 🙄), beans (cannelini, haricot and baked), rice cakes and YS spinach and bean sprouts and the food caddy bags.
So slightly more than intended, but hoping I don't need much between now and the next Bread and Butter thing I'm not going tomorrow, but aiming to book a bag for the 22nd.

JingsMyBucket

thriftwizard said:

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. 

@thriftwizard the yoghurt is a total success! See the picture below. I bought him the simple model from Lakeland for only £25. https://www.lakeland.co.uk/31794/lakeland-multi-yogurt-and-soft-cheese-maker 

It comes with two containers so you can trade off if necessary. There’s also a strainer in case you want to make Greek yoghurt or soft cheese. He’s only made natural yoghurt so far but he’s very happy with it. He used Yeo Valley natural yoghurt in the green container as his starter.