July 2025 Grocery Challenge

Naturelover22

Hello, thank you for administering the thread elsipac.

Budget this month is £215

For 2 adults, 2 cats, food and cleaning.
This will be a tighter one as we have extra expenses this month.
Will need to do planning and actually carry out the food plan which is more of the challenge!
Big shop tomorrow in Aldi so I will post about that tomorrow.
Good luck all

PipneyJane

Good evening All

DH took the housekeeping out on his way home from work this evening and then went grocery shopping.  He did have the shopping list. £44.71 spent, as follows:

• £17.89 spent in Sainsbugs on onion bagels 2x£1.37, yeast £1.55, mustard powder £2.30, Yeo Valley yoghurts 4x£1.50, spring onions 50p, 200ml Greek yoghurt 80p, rocket £1, loose broccoli £1, Choux buns £2
• £19.86 in L!dl on Cashews 4x £1.49, smoked salmon £3.81, prosciutto x£1.61, jersey potatoes 99p, crème cheese 2x95p, butter 2x£1.99. 
  
• £4.83 in a different L!dl on Chorizo 3x£1.61
• £2.15 in shrapnel that’s gone to the moneyboxes, including a £2 coin.

The above brings our total spend to £44.71/£162.50 leaving £117.79 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

wishus

Good morning all. Officially July!
I think I might save money because it's too hot to eat most of the day!

We did try the Pinch of Nom on a budget creamy chicken and tarragon pasta last night. I used chicken thighs instead of breast and the bones and skin have gone in the freezer for future soup and crunchy salad toppings. 

OH declared it delicious and said it was the best pasta dish we'd ever had. 

carboot_karaoke

Budget creamy chicken and tarragon pasta sounds delish @wishus l need some new ideas can you post the recipe please.

I have another 3 spends to declare...l know . Constantly buying fresh salad, fruit to manage the heat is making me spend more. Total of £22.13 from our normal grocery budget for chicken thighs, baked potatoes, drinks, yoghurts and salad that's already been eaten. A further £8.65 was spent from the entertaining budget on garlic baguettes, sweetcorn,mozzarella cheese for nachos, BBQ sauce and fizzy pop.

New totals 
Grocery Budget £159.82 / £450
Entertaining £28.47 / £120
Grand total £188.29 / £570

Changeyourlife25

£353.26/£450  

Ouch! One day into July and the damage is already done 🤭

Farm shop spend £158.60 
Morrisons spend £194.66

I got sooooooo much stuff though! As well as baking supplies, Fun treats, soft drinks. 
Includes the delivery and bag charge. 

I have a bit of a menu plan going on
so I’m hoping with all the fun bits included in the shopping it’ll keep us away from take aways and I also have lots of nice stuff to take out with us, so we can avoid the trap of spending when outside  

I got quite a lot of meat also which gives me much more flexibility in my meal planning
and I’m also thinking of doing a barbecue! 

As well as some lovely bits of cheese for a ploughman’s and general mouse habits 🐹

£96.74 left for the month 😱

Suffolk_lass

@PipneyJane - I was wondering why your husband does not buy butter in Sainsbugs as he goes there anyway and buys two packs elsewhere for £3.98 - Sains do their OB 500g pack for £3.95

themsthebreaks

I need to revise my monthly grocery budget, from £400.00 per month down to £320.00.

I don’t know how feasible this is, but I’m going to try £75 per week, plus £5.00 per week at the Local Pantry.

So, my first spend of the month was today with £5.00 at the pantry, leaving me with £315.00/£320.00

Changeyourlife25

Changeyourlife25 said:

£353.26/£450  

Ouch! One day into July and the damage is already done 🤭

Farm shop spend £158.60 
Morrisons spend £194.66

I got sooooooo much stuff though! As well as baking supplies, Fun treats, soft drinks. 
Includes the delivery and bag charge. 

I have a bit of a menu plan going on
so I’m hoping with all the fun bits included in the shopping it’ll keep us away from take aways and I also have lots of nice stuff to take out with us, so we can avoid the trap of spending when outside  

I got quite a lot of meat also which gives me much more flexibility in my meal planning
and I’m also thinking of doing a barbecue! 

As well as some lovely bits of cheese for a ploughman’s and general mouse habits 🐹

£96.74 left for the month 😱

Another £3.56 adding bits to the Morrisons order 
(tomatoes and cucumbers)

£93.18 left for the month 

GSDMum

Had my planned shop today at Lidl, milk, eggs, butter, cream, phili cream cheese, fresh orange juice, tonic water, sparkling water, ex large chicken, xxl pork loin chops, chicken wings, roast ham slices, cod fillets, smoked mackerel fillets, bacon, eggs, lemons, doughnut peaches, cherries, plums, avocado, jersey royals, maris piper potatoes, couple packets of biscuits, French stick, and 2 Belgium buns for our morning coffee.

The chicken will do several meals, thinking on the lines of HM chicken nuggets with potato wedges, chicken paella using stock from the carcass, chicken pasta bake if I can squeeze the chicken enough. If I cut off the crown and roast it, that will make a roast dinner, and some coronation chicken type salad.

Spicy buffalo wings for Saturday evening, pork chop and wedges for tonight's dinner, cod fillets for Friday.

Thought to plan for shopping again in a week's time, except I've forgotten to get DH his fruit and fibre cereal and a couple of cartons of wet dog food. So I might pop into Morrisons (nearest shop) for a few items before weekend.... it'll be tempting though not to pick up a few extra bits.

Today I spent £76.69 / £275 = leaving £198.31 for the rest of the month. I'm topped up with laundry stuff, dishwater tablets, loo rolls, and cleaning stuff.... except I'll need some Calgon type tables soon. I'll need to investigate which tablets are more economical.

JingsMyBucket

Evening folks. I did my first shops of the month today. 

£2.99 at Savers for a bottle of Listerine. 

£5.20 at Iceland for a carton of 18 eggs and two packages of freezable ice pops to beat the humidity. 

£6.29 for a quick spin around M & S for bananas, green beans, cilantro, a lime, butter, and a can of mackerel in olive oil. They were out of sardines completely. I figured I’d try something new. 

£14.48 / £400 spent. £385.52 total remaining.  

I’ll do a proper shop later this week for supplies to cook Mr. Jings’ birthday dinner next week. Oof, his birthday is this Saturday and I still need to find a card for him!