July 2025 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

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.

themsthebreaks

I had a food delivery today, which came to £117.59, leaving £92.90/£320.00 for the rest of the month. I’m a bit scared of the amount remaining, considering there is still more than two weeks to go before August. £320 is the lowest I have budgeted on groceries for a very long time, and I may have to revise it upwards. However, on saying that, I did get a lot in today. Both freezers are full, and If I shop from stores, it should last us. The only things I will need to get is fresh vegetables, cooked meats for lunches, some sort of bread product / rolls. I do need flour, as I forgot to put that on the shop. There are three Tuesdays left in the month, so I will need to deduct £15 from the £92.90 for the Local Pantry. They have previously had lots of vegetables available, so I can only hope they do so on my next visits.

This morning, I used up the remaining vegetables in the fridge, and I had fresh come in on the grocery order - enough for this week.

I made a vegan courgette gratin, some butternut squash mash, chopped up the broccoli to steam later for dinner, and chopped the rest of the cauliflower to do both a cauliflower cheese, and vegan cauliflower cheese. I also did a stock-take of the kitchen freezer, and tomorrow I will list what’s in the other one, then do a meal plan based around that. It would be great if I didn’t need to spend any more, but I'm not sure that’s realistic at the minute 😊 We will see.

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

Welcome back, @Mrs_Cheshire,  Did you move far?

I have a small shop to declare from today.  Went to Sainsbugs.  £11.88 spent on 1kg small brown lentils 2x£2, 450ml Yeo Valley Yoghurts 3x£1.50, Sweet peppers £1.95, 632g loose carrots 44p and 450g loose broccoli 99p.  Also bought the paper, but that gets purchased with a subscription voucher.   (Unlike MrT’s, Sainsbugs gives you Nectar points when you pay with a voucher, unless you’re paying with Nectar points.)

This brings our total spend to £121.24/£162.50, leaving £41.26 for the rest of the month.

@themsthebreaks, the key thing for you is to meal plan.  You have a full fridge and freezer; how can you use up the contents?  Also, what is happening over your next three weeks?  Any late evenings?  Is there anything that you can prepare in advance to mitigate those?  HTH

- Pip

TravelCrystal

Just a quickie 
Many thanks @wishus for the chicken in cream cheese sauce recipe. We had that for lunch today and it was delicious, served with french beans, broad beans and Charlotte potatoes from the garden.
We have been eating salads all week, praying for the rain now.
Sorry if you are a sun worshiper 😊

T.C
Hopefully cooler tomorrow 

themsthebreaks

Thank you @PipneyJane Yes, I definitely need to meal plan. We have a pre-planned theatre trip on the twenty-second. I will make sure to prepare something simple that night. Only one of us eats breakfast, so it’s going to be lunches / pack lunches, and our evening meal. I have plenty of chicken in the freezer, and plenty of pulses in the food cupboard, so there should be enough for both meat based and vegan meals. The meat eaters will eat vegan, but they do prefer their main meal to be based around meat.

Soontobeoap

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. 🙂

TravelCrystal

@Soontobeoap you could make it in to a risotto, make a pie and put under mashed potatoes, vegetables and tinned tomatoes in the pie or a stew in the slow cooker or make a barbecue sauce to go on it, or put it in the freezer for another time 😊

PipneyJane

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 you could try this Southern Style Pork & Beans recipe from the BBC.  It’s quite yummy.  I do mine in the slow cooker, with cooking bacon instead of gammon.  And I have made it using leftover roast pork.

HTH.

- Pip

C_J

I quite like shredding some leftover roast pork (use two forks) and mixing it with a little homemade barbecue sauce to make pulled pork baps.

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.