July 2025 Grocery Challenge

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

themsthebreaks

Thank you @PipneyJane 😊

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 🤣

Changeyourlife25

£789.39 / £600


I’m ok with this, it’s too much but I know where I’ve gone wrong, lack of planning and overspending on Te5co whoosh orders, and accidentally got the household budget mixed in, also snacks when out have come into the budget.
I have however smashed it at beating the take away habit and have saved enough with the PAD challenge to wipe off one of my debts this month!!  I’ve also completed my first month of NSD challenges! Whoop! 

Small victories…. Even though that’s pretty big victories! So where I’ve been lacking in the grocery challenge I’ve won in other areas!  

Last months huge meat orders I did are being carried over to this month with loads left in the freezer, DS1 and I are just writing down a freezer inventory and I’ll start planning for next month! 

Working_Mum

Hello everyone, 
where has this month gone!!

I'm declaring June at £285.36  for food and £71.24 for household / dog etc. Overall I'm quite happy with it - the food budget included a couple of Book Club meet ups where I took a food contribution - they happen regularly so maybe they should have their own budget!

The household budget is an overrun because I stocked up on dog food in the first week of the month - so I'm chalking it up as a timing issue. I've managed to eek it all out until today though so I think a budget increase may be in order for my hungry pooch!

Will subscribe the August thread.

Wishing everyone a smashing weekend, your contributions to this thread have kept me focussed in the dark days - I used up hm Moroccan couscous with a v ripe avocado and 2 home grown figs for lunch yesterday so that I didn't have to go to the shops   

((WM))