July 2025 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, overspent this month as I'm currently on £657.87. I'm trying to make it to the end of the month without spending to much more. Going to do some baking over the weekend to make some cookies and cupcakes for the kids as they are constantly looking for snacks. 

Mrs_Cheshire

CJ what area of the country do you live in? We have community groceries in Manchester which have varying prices for the amount of food you want. You pay a yearly £5 membership fee and then each time you go it's Standard shop (12 points) ……… £5.00

Medium shop (18 points) ……….. £7.50

Large shop (24 points) ………….. £10.00

Extra Large shop (30 points) …. £12.50

Some items are 2 or 3 points depending on their value. 
I've not been for a while but will have a look whilst I'm off work over the summer to help keep the bills down. 

@PipneyJane I've moved about 3 miles up the road, so not far but bills are considerably more so need to be careful with grocery spends. 

K9sandFelines

Spent £1.25 on teabags at the co-@p.

I do need Asevi floor cleaner; but I'll try and find an alternative, until my next month's grocery challenge.

GSDMum

Tesco delivered this morning £113.13, bought quite a lot of store cupboard items. This brings my spending to £416.02, way over my target of £275 for the month - £130.98 over to be exact.

I'd planned to spend £275 for July and August, making £550 combined, for the two months. This means I've now got £134 for the month of August. I've booked a Tesco delivery on 29th August (Friday before August Bank Holiday weekend), which will be included in September's budget. Freezer is still full, and is the fridge... I can only try.

Good luck everyone! 

Mrs_Cheshire

GSDMum said:

Tesco delivered this morning £113.13, bought quite a lot of store cupboard items. This brings my spending to £416.02, way over my target of £275 for the month - £130.98 over to be exact.

I'd planned to spend £275 for July and August, making £550 combined, for the two months. This means I've now got £134 for the month of August. I've booked a Tesco delivery on 29th August (Friday before August Bank Holiday weekend), which will be included in September's budget. Freezer is still full, and is the fridge... I can only try.

Good luck everyone! 

August bank holiday weekend is the weekend before - Bank Holiday Monday is on the 25th. 
Why don't you join us on the reverse meal planning thread. Lots of ideas in there on using up what you already have in. 

PipneyJane

Mrs_Cheshire said:

CJ what area of the country do you live in? We have community groceries in Manchester which have varying prices for the amount of food you want. You pay a yearly £5 membership fee and then each time you go it's Standard shop (12 points) ……… £5.00

Medium shop (18 points) ……….. £7.50

Large shop (24 points) ………….. £10.00

Extra Large shop (30 points) …. £12.50

Some items are 2 or 3 points depending on their value. 
I've not been for a while but will have a look whilst I'm off work over the summer to help keep the bills down. 

@PipneyJane I've moved about 3 miles up the road, so not far but bills are considerably more so need to be careful with grocery spends. 

Manchester is one of my favourite cities @Mrs_Cheshire.  I used to have to go up there a lot for work.  There was always something else to discover.  One of my favourite places to stay was the old hotel at Old Trafford cricket ground.  I’ve not stayed there since it was rebuilt, but 10 years ago, for £40-odd a night, you could get a room with a balcony overlooking the playing area, and just sit and fantasise about what it’d be like on a match day.  

I have some shops to declare from the last week:  £5.14 spent in Sainsbug’s on Sunday (on Satsumas 99p, cookies £2.40, and Robinson’s fruit shots £1.75 Nectar price); followed by two shops on Monday:  £1.69 in Lidl on Maasadam cheese slices, and another £4.45 in Sainsbugs (on a 4-pack peppers £1.24, single mushroom 8p, 1.2kg baking potatoes 97p, 450g Yeo Valley Greek Yoghurt with Honey £2.25).  On Tuesday, DH purchased a pack of Tortilla wraps in L!dl on his way home from work, because I’d forgotten we needed them for Tuesday’s dinner.

The single mushroom was so we could get 40 extra Nectar points.  The Fruit Shots is because we’re doing the MacMillan Mighty Hike tomorrow and, while they give you plenty of water, DH prefers his flavoured.  I only discovered that L!dl do their own version, when I went in on Monday.  We couldn’t buy most of Monday’s Sainsbug’s shop on Sunday, because we were out for the day and only purchased things to share with friends at a board games session. 

Somehow, despite my keeping a paranoid watch on our GC spends, somehow the GC purse is £1.70 lighter than expected.  I don’t know if that’s because there’s a receipt that I’ve missed/lost or if there was yet another £2 coin contributed to the Running Away Fund moneybox, plus someone not taking back all of the money spent when out without the GC purse.

Anyway, the above brings our total spend to £135.40/£162.50, leaving £27.20 for the next week.

It should be doable.  We will need milk - have a L!dl+ 15% off voucher - and some fresh veg.  Thankfully the days have cooled down a bit, so DH will eat hot meals again, instead of complaining.  

Meal Plans

Dinner tonight is pasta with homemade pesto,
Saturday:  possibly Nadiya Hussein’s “Ham & Cheese Crown”.  (I make a half quantity.)  It depends on how I’m feeling after the walk.
Sunday, it’ll be Chole Paneer (a chickpea and paneer curry), which will use up the last lump of paneer from the freezer and some of the chickpeas I soaked earlier this week, froze raw, and will pressure-cook tonight.  
Monday Chicken Risotto, using HM stock, fresh mushrooms and a chicken breast from the freezer.  
Tuesday Bread & Cheese Pudding.  (A savoury bread-and-butter pudding made with cheese, sweetcorn and tinned tuna.)
Wednesday  Carrot & Cashew Nut Roast
Thursday Some sort of stew in the slow cooker.  (I’ll be in the office all day.)
Friday we’re out.

All breakfasts are cereal and all lunches are leftovers.  Most of the above use recipes which feed 4, so I’ll dish up the excess into lunchboxes at the same time as serving our dinners.

- Pip

Soontobeoap

£39.17 spent over several shops since I last posted. Last month I worked down the freezer and have continued to try this month whilst also buying in stuff for the school hols in August. Not quite sure I have gone the right way about it as it has resulted in lots of shops for little bits and pieces to use up the last bits! These inevitably result in buying extras like ice lollies and biscuits! Still last 2 months have been better. £39.17 spent overall.

Pennypincin

£4 spent on fresh fruit.
I'm not sure how it's going to pan out as things are a bit different this weekend and until next Friday.
I will likely be eating out more, so will more than likely need to pay out of other money.

C_J

@Mrs_Cheshire I am in deepest darkest rural Oxfordshire. We do seem extremely well resourced with all kinds of community fridge/pantry/larder/etc facilities, and I recognise how lucky I am to have several excellent ones nearby.

Today I had a Pret bircher muesli bowl for breakfast, an egg and cress sandwich for lunch, and a whipped goat's cheese crunchy salad with a cheeky side of chips followed by a peach and nectarine yogurt for dinner - and every single thing was practically free (well, £1 from the larder ).

I've been preserving things too - yesterday I dehydrated several punnets of mushrooms and blitzed them into powder which will store very well in a screw topped jar and is delicious in a risotto. I've also finely sliced a whole load of celery which will be dehydrated overnight, it's great to add to soups and stews. Nothing gets wasted!

carboot_karaoke

Incredible @C_J l love your list of goodies and resulting solutions to use it all up ☺️

As for the CK household, another £56.87 spent on sandwich fillings, snacks, fruit, salad, veg, and meat.

New totals 

Grocery Budget £446.74 / £450
Entertaining £103.32 / £120
Total £550.06 / £570.

Just £19.94 left in the kitty 😬