July 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

@Remmie by having your eye on it all despite lack of receipts I expect that you have saved some money on grocery's. I have the same problem with my DH. Been doing this 3 years and he has just started to realise the importance of receipts! 🤦. He has also started looking at the offers in supermarkets when off to find bits on his own, occasionally decides not to buy something ( treats) because they are too pricey and has started telling me when it would be better to get things from Aldi if we do a branded shop at Sainsbury's and I think of throwing something into the trolly that we could get cheaper. He has just begun to see that the money we saved on food can go towards more outings, holidays and nice things for the house which is why I started on this forum. Your DH will get there in the end I am sure. Just stick at it.

A very kind lady at craft group have me some apples on Tuesday. I keep forgetting to take a tub with me on dog walks but will take one today to pick some blackberries to go with them.

£43 spent with approved food for crisps and oat bars etc for GC visit. I got the order for half price and most of it is still in date so pleased with that. Problem with having bought much at once will be rationing it to one pkt a day and bars for picnics. I will put some away not to be discovered untill later. This shop will also go onto August as it will not even be opened until then.

One more Aldi shop for us to do today. I will record that later.

As others have said. It is getting harder to stay on last year's budgets. Almost certain that we will not manage to stay within our normal yearly budget and I have been even more frugal this year. I really don't see where I could cut back more. I think I will have to raise budget next year but will see how we go


Edit : 12  blackberry and apple turnovers made. 2 eaten, 2 cooked ready for tomorrow and 8 uncooked into freezer. 😊

JingsMyBucket

One last spend to declare. I just spent £5.10 at M & S for bananas, a YS quiche Lorraine, and 3 cans of baked beans (45p each). 

£454.19 / £400 spent. £54.19 over spent

I’m declaring for the month now. We have a Tesco order coming tomorrow evening that I’ll count towards August instead. It was originally scheduled to arrive Saturday morning but we had to rearrange it due to a scheduling conflict. 

JingsMyBucket

Soontobeoap said:

Edit : 12  blackberry and apple turnovers made. 2 eaten, 2 cooked ready for tomorrow and 8 uncooked into freezer. 😊

Ooooh @Soontobeoap those sound good. What kind of dough do you use for them, short crust or puff pastry? 

Mrs_Cheshire

I need to seriously review my budget for our family. Can't believe we've spent £735.38 on groceries this month. 
Quite a bit of the spends will come from our fizzy drink habit and the amount of snacks the kids go through. 

PipneyJane

themsthebreaks said:

PipneyJane said:

themsthebreaks said:

Well done on your MacMillan Mighty Hike, @PipneyJane. How far did you walk? 😊

Thank you.  We did 14 miles, @themsthebreaks.  It took us 5 hours and I’m not certain who was more knackered at the end, me or DH.

- Pip

That’s great, @PipneyJane. We love going on a hike, and I’m always shattered at the end 😊

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I spent £5 at the Local Pantry this morning, so I’m declaring £306.60/£320 on groceries in July. Considering how much I’ve spent previously, I am amazed by this. I have used up stock, and that will start to deplete, so my costs likely won’t be the same next month, but there have been no complaints at mealtimes.

Random question, but how do people increase the size of their text when posting?

Format is one of the symbols above the comment box, @themsthebreaks.  The sixth one in from the left. Looks like a backwards P with a bar beside it.  If you click on it, you get the option of 

Heading 2

which is the only large text available.  (Don't know what happened to Heading 1.)

HTH

- Pip

C_J

Another £1 to declare from my visit to the Community Fridge today.  Some of the following has been frozen for later in the week, some passed on to my daughters, and some will be used up in the next couple of days.

Potatoes
New potatoes
White onions
Brown onions
Spring onions
A few carrots
2 fresh beetroot
1 cauliflower
1 pack kale
1 pack prepared butternut squash
1 bag edamame bean and beansprout stir fry mix
1 iceberg lettuce
1 bag mixed baby salad leaves
Large tomatoes
1 pack radishes
Mushrooms
4 flat white peaches
2 lemons
1 punnet blackberries
1 pack Sable black grapes
1 pack of 12 large thick slices fresh pineapple
1 large pack M&S King cherries
1 small punnet red plums
4 brioche burger buns (I still have 3 of the M&S burgers in the freezer from last week)
1 small Hovis farmhouse sliced white loaf
1 Jackson's small sliced wholegrain loaf
1 large pack flamin' hot doritos
1 pack of 2 Tesco Finest blueberry muffins (I've already eaten one of them while typing this!)
1 pack 6 crumpets
1 Pret chicken salad wrap
1 Pret roast chicken sandwich
1 M&S Greek prawn saganaki ready meal in tomato sauce with feta (will have this tonight with a little bit of rice)
1 Waitrose ham and chicken caesar salad sandwich
1 tub fancy deli style coleslaw
1 pack Waitrose sliced ham
1 pack sliced Italian mortadella
1 bouquet of a dozen red roses
1 pack mozzarella
1 pack burrata
2 litres whole goat's milk (will turn this into goat's cheese)
1 x 300ml double cream
1 pack of Tesco beef nests with a ragu sauce - I had no idea what these were, but full price they sell for £6.60!



July ends on £34.47/£150

t14cy_t

carboot_karaoke said:

Hi @t14cy_t  l keep meaning to ask about Olio. Do you collect the food from stores or peoples homes? 

you collect from a persons home that they have collected from a store. these people are food waste heroes, FWH. you can become one easily. have a look on the app, you wont be disapointed. xx

Naturelover22

I am declaring £303.97 spent, over target of £215.00 (2 adults and 2 cats)

This is closer to last month's aim, so I will reassess the aim for August. We also only had 1 takeaway this month compared to 3, 4, 5 plus in previous months.
I have added up how much we spent on the cats which was £62.67. So I have done my research and worked out the best value supermarket to get their food in, if we stick to this one and only buy the largest boxes we can save £6 on cat food next month.
At the start of the month we were doing 4 to 5 shopping trips a week and towards the end of the month dropped to 1 to 2 trips a week, which shows we have become more focused.
I'm pleased to have completed month 2 of the challenge without giving up and I am looking forward to month 3, see you in August!

@carboot_karaoke Olio is pretty good, but does depend on the food you like to eat. I collect a fair bit on there as I can pop in to places on my way home from work. People collect the food from the supermarket/corner shop and take it home and list it. You request to collect it and they will approve (sometimes there is high demand so you may miss out) Then you go to their house and collect it, many people have boxes outside the door and you can collect your items without having to knock. some stuff goes out of date the same day and has to be collected quickly, others will have a use by date which can be collected a day or so later. In my area there is LOADS of bread and bakery, a fair amount of vegetables and fruit. There is often prepackaged sandwiches and lunch salads too. I don't think I have ever had a quality issue with anything I have collected either.

Pennypincin

Apologies for being absent, I've been to the yearly church conference.
None of the food budget spent so far.
I've been fortunate to stay in the house onsite where breakfast and dinner is part of it.
I've had to put a donation as part of it, but come out of my own money rather than food budget.
Lunch plus treats have also come out of my money.
I may need to get a few bits when I'm back, but not much of the food budget will be spent.

carboot_karaoke

Thank you @Naturelover22 and @t14cy_t that's really helpful 😊 I will investigate further.

I have our final two spends to declare for July, today £1.50 for a loaf of bread and last Friday £14.30 for YS chicken breast, YS salmon, protein shakes, salad and cream cheese. Total spent £15.80.

Grocery Budget £462.54 / £450
Entertaining £103.32 / £120
Total £565.86 / £570.

I just about scrapped it with £4.14 remaining. To keep in budget we have just made up dinners from what we had available. Just defrosted an ensemble of various leftovers, curry, rice, cooked chicken thighs, soup, cooked pork mince. Not entirely sure what we'll make of it all but at least we wont starve 🤣