August 2025 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

When I am running down the freezer or trying to do a much cheaper month I meal plan for as long as I can get to without buying more. Them I just buy the fresh stuff I need for the first 2-3 weeks.

PipneyJane

Changeyourlife25 said:

£222.38/£600

Couple bits in Iceland. 

Does anyone do meal plans for the whole month? Or are you just weekly meal planners ? 

I have to confess that I am a very ad-hoc meal planner.  I tend to buy basic ingredients which I can transform into multiple different meals. I usually only plan a few days ahead and that is driven by a) what meat in the freezer and how long it will take to defrost, b) what’s lurking  in the fridge and needs to be used up, c) what is scheduled to happen in the evenings after work (no point planning to spend 2 hours cooking a roast, when I’ll only have an hour at home before going to choir) and d) what we haven’t eaten recently.  For example, 250g of minced beef can become a Keema Curry, Bolognese Sauce or a Beef Chilli.  I only decide when I take it out of the freezer to defrost.

Having said that, it’s also important to think beyond the next meal and consider what can be done with the leftovers.  For example, the leftovers from a roast chicken could become a risotto one night and a stir fry the next, or a pasta dish, or some sort of curry.  The one guarantee is that the carcass will (eventually) be simmered up into stock.

Yes, I am only cooking for 2 adults, but almost every meal I cook gives at least 4 portions and I always dish them all up at the same time as serving that night’s dinner.  It’s the one way of ensuring that we have enough for our lunchboxes the next day, because my DH will happily eat double what I give him (and that’s after me giving him at least 50% more than I’m having).  

Hope this helps @Changeyourlife25

- Pip


PS:  I’m now sitting here debating what I’m cooking for the next few days.  We’re at the football tomorrow, so dinner will have to be fairly simple to cook.  I’d originally planned a stew in the slow cooker, but our next door neighbour gave me a load of fresh cherry tomatoes, which I could bake with feta and turn into a pasta sauce…Hmm…. There’s also the mussels I purchased in L!dl on Monday and had planned to eat on Thursday, before she presented us with a pot full of stew and another of rice, leftover from her brother’s birthday meal earlier that day.  

WickedLady4

I feel some of the pain, as I'd bought fresh food at Lidl when we got back from holiday but was then unwell. DH got to do my Community Larder shop and returned home with smoked salmon, mince, scotch eggs, melon and various other goodies so the mince has gone in the freezer and the rest is being consumed in vague date order. 
The Lidl shop has been put on the back burner for a bit!

Nelliegrace

August Grocery Challenge for Two, £5 a day, £155.

12/8/25, DH spent £7.91 at Asda on milk, cream, broccoli, nectarines and clementines.

Aldi had 1kg packs of coffee beans at £8.99 in the middle aisle yesterday. I bought two so it was an expensive shop. £40.19 spent.

Total spent, £79.72.

thriftwizard

Changeyourlife25 said:

Does anyone do meal plans for the whole month? Or are you just weekly meal planners ? 

I do weekly plans, with an eye to what has & hasn't been done lately, because I find shopping at our weekly street market very cost-effective, for fresher, more seasonal & less run-of-the-mill ingredients, and I can buy as much or as little as I need. We no longer have a market butcher, so I do buy from the town butcher or the supermarket (W8rose, so there's not much to choose between them price-wise) & base the week's menu around what's best value - not quite the same as cheapest! - from there. For all my best-laid plans, though, there's always something needed by Monday or Tuesday - unexpected visitors, or an extra-hungry OH, or someone making something special - which is just how it goes with a larger family, even though several of them live elsewhere now!

K9sandFelines

First spend of my GC challenge month

Home Barg@ins : £4.29 ( floor cleaner, YS peppers, YS easy peelers and cold sore cream ( always seems to go missing. 🙄)

Ald1: didn't pick up the receipt. I think I spent about £9.50 tofu x 2, baked beans, potatoes, rice cakes, corn cakes, sourdough, flour and bananas

£11.46 @ Amaz@n on peanut butter, agave, jackfruit X2 and coffee.I thinks someone recommended the coffee on here, so thought I'd try it.

£25.25 spent

carboot_karaoke

Changeyourlife25 said:

£222.38/£600

Couple bits in Iceland. 

Does anyone do meal plans for the whole month? Or are you just weekly meal planners ? 

I do a monthly plan because a week or two flies by too quickly.

I dont stick to it religiously swapping days round or if something comes up. 

In about the third week I'll begin planning the following month beginning with a freezer,  fridge and cupboard inventory to use up the things that have been lurking around for a while.  

carboot_karaoke

I did my pre holiday shop yesterday and picked up a few bits for the general grocery budget. 

Total spent was £85.23 but £63.83 comes out of another budget so only £21.40 to add. 

New totals  

Grocery Budget £204.49 / £380
Entertaining £83.83 / £70
Total £ 288.32 /£450

Also collected a bag of chicken drumsticks and two packs of sweet and sticky kebabs from Olio 😁

Suffolk_lass

@Changeyourlife25 I try to do a shop once a month in the SM, although I accept this is once every three weeks some months. My food plan will be quite generic, as in "meat" if I know I need some, (although I buy lamb by the half lamb, once a year from three fields away, and a premium frozen supplier calls at the house every couple of months) , or seasonal veg, along with specifics (carrots, onions, white cabbage, for example. I do add to a running Morries list on my phone as I notice things I need, but I don't necessarily shop there, and if I do, I don't necessarily buy the item there if it isn't on offer, or I might put one on the list and buy 4, if the are a 2-4-offer and a non-perishable.
My meal planning is very vague as we grow a lot of veg in the summer - so borlotti beans just harvested have been podded and frozen, and I should not need to buy any beans to go in chilli or casseroles this winter. The same with courgettes, which I make soup with in humungous batches for winter lunches. I think the confidence to vary recipes also helps, and we do that on the Reverse meal planning thread, focussing on what we have in that might work instead of "popping to the shop" and being tempted to pick up other "bargains". You might find a monthly pick and mix meal plan (with one big shop to support that, and little top ups for dairy or fresh veg) where you can choose from the list (knowing whether you are batching and freezing the second, like @joedenise) or freezing the leftovers and finding them much later (I have a turkey and ham pie in my small freezer that went in there last December 28th. It will be fine - I know this because we had the other one a fortnight ago. I love the freezer space it frees up when I liberate homemade ready-meals!

Welcome @littleacceb - lots of help here. It's a good idea to track for a month to understand how you shop and what your weaknesses are. For me, tracking the money helps, as did recording everything I wasted. When I started, I bought lots of things on auto-repeat. Others are the queens of bogof - always remembering the one who insulated her loft with the toilet rolls she could not resist (maybe 8 years before the pandemic) or the people who used a SM offer to price match that had glitches, and converted their spare rooms into "larders" for products they had no prospect of using. Stockpiling - or paying the supermarket to store their food, we call it. Get to know why you are spending that amount, and be honest about what your weaknesses are (I hoard)

TravelCrystal

Welcome @littleacceb, I feel for you with your different requirements.
Lots of help here, there are only two of us at home now so easier.
With regard to meal planning @Changeyourlife25 I do plan meals for the month on a sheet of paper and mark in the days there is something specific going on and make sure I have something simple, not to stress me.
But as others have said I swap them around and very often carry over to the following month for whatever unexpected reason.
For me I also have a list of what is in the freezers. I am very lucky and have a fridge freezer which has two drawers and a separate small upright chest freezer.
Since I have been bulk buying the meat I have found it both cheaper in the long run and flexible with what I can make.
I also list what is in the freezer and name them F1, F2, and F3 🤣 helps me find the raw or precooked item as I don’t mark my containers.
 I try and use meals I have frozen within the two month period, otherwise I am in danger of running out of room.
 Also like to stock up on staples, pasta, rice, flour, dairy and tins etc., always seems to be something to eat.
Each to there own

T.C