July 2025 Grocery Challenge

AnotherNewDay

Naturelover22 said:

@Nelliegrace those apricots looks delicious, have you had a good harvest this year?
My plums are coming on well, we usually get alot to pick!
@AnotherNewDay interesting to see your cat budget. This month I have fully tracked our cat spending and I have been very shocked! 

@Naturelover22 -it is usually within budget, but it isn't always that low! I think I must have topped up on wet v close to end of June as I only needed to buy a box of 48 sachets once. If you want a better idea, I think I have separated out the cat budget since Feb at least.

JingsMyBucket

Hi all. There’s been a whole lot of plussing and minusing going on here due to refunds or discounts. My tally as of now £449.09 / £400 spent. £49.09 over spent

That’s surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be. I also thought I was going to declare today but we’re out of bananas and I’ll be on the high street tomorrow so may stop in somewhere. 

Hey @elsiepac let us know if you're okay or if you need help putting up August's GC post x. 

Nelliegrace

@Naturelover22, perhaps 5kg. The frost missed the blossom this year, but then windy weather brought down a lot of unripe fruit. 
We have a good crop of plums and apples in the garden this year. 

t14cy_t

Mrs_Cheshire said:

I went to our local community grocery yesterday (this one is newly opened but I've used the flagship one previously, they were offering free membership and a lindt bunny to the first 100 people this week). 
Got the following
6 carrots 
4 vine tomatoes 
a large handful of cherry tomatoes
rubicon black cherry & raspberry sparkling water
soreen chocolate orange lift bars
macaroni cheese (frozen meal)
2 rice Krispy squares bars 
4 flavour sachets for meat (2 chinese, 1 bbq, 1 garlic and herb)
pack of apple pies ( unfortunately they tasted stale so were binned)
and something else I can't remember 
Cost me £5 

They have different pricing for people who want more items too. I'm going to try and go once per week and base the following weeks shopping on what I pick up. 

well done for going! i go to the larder when i can thats over where my daughter lives. its brilliant and the people running it are so nice!!

t14cy_t

declaring £140/£200 this month. this has been achieved by using olio, going to b and m first thing for bargains and visiting a community larder. i treated us to an approved food stock up for snacks too. very happy with that. i run my budget £200 then £100 for each month. we are a 2 adult household with a large elderly dog and 6 elderly chicken and a rooster.!!

carboot_karaoke

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

remmie

Sorry I've been AWOL, I've totally lost the plot this month. OH has been doing a few shops  no receipt  cant remember what he spent. I need to get him more on board with this.

So, unless a miracle happens and I can get straight I'm afraid I'm bowing out. I'll see you all on the August challenge and hopefully have more success.

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?