August 2025 Grocery Challenge

t14cy_t

C_J said:

Hello everyone, I'm just back from my favourite Community Fridge where there was an incredible amount of food for my £1 donation - I politely declined lots of things as I just won't get through it all. However, I have:

Bag of salad potatoes
4 large garlic bulbs
Red onions
1 pack red chillies
Bag of baby spinach
Pack of asparagus spears
Bag of baby carrots
Fresh parsley
Salad tomatoes
Bag of mixed baby salad leaves
2 little gem lettuce
Punnet of chestnut mushrooms
Red and green apples
1 ruby grapefruit
2 avocadoes
1 punnet strawberries
1 pack of stir fry veg mix
1 mango
2 Tesco Finest blueberry muffins
1 small loaf of cinnamon and raisin sliced bread
1 pack Waitrose sliced roast chicken
1 large sliced loaf Jackson's wholegrain
1 tin chickpeas
1 butternut squash
12 Hello Fresh chicken stock paste sachets
1 pack of 4 Tesco chicken tikka kebabs
1 pack Tesco prawn toasts
4 pints semi skimmed milk
1 pot M&S tarka dal
1 pot M&S hummus
1 pot M&S tzatziki
1 pack of 4 M&S coronation chicken mini pies
1 pack M&S watermelon and feta salad
1 pack M&S battered cauliflower florets with a side of rice and sweet and sour sauce
1 M&S coronation chicken sandwich
1 M&S cheese and onion sandwich
1 M&S prawn sandwich
1 bouquet red roses

I'm having the prawn sandwich for dinner tonight, the remaining sandwiches and M&S salady/nibbly bits are for a picnic with the grandchildren tomorrow. I'm particularly delighted with the milk (in date for the next 5 days) as the builders are back tomorrow and I'll need to make lots of cups of tea! I'll airfry the battered sweet and sour cauliflower for tomorrow night's dinner. I've frozen the prawn toasts, tarka dal, stir fry mix and chicken tikka kebabs to have early next week. The salad potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes and sliced chicken will be added to stuff I already have for a salad, probably on Friday.  The spinach, red onion, chillies and chestnut mushrooms will make a nice curry which will be frozen for another time. The carrots and butternut will be turned into soup. It's pretty much a week's worth of food, which never ceases to amaze me

August total so far £40.14/£150

WOW!!!! well done. xx

Suffolk_lass

I have to concentrate on processing food we have picked from the garden as my freezers are almost full. I would have a bit more space if I had managed to defrost the produce freezer before this year's harvest began! I might use the good solar energy to make some into ready-to-reheat meals but to do so, I shall need more containers to store them too!

It should be tomatoes today and tomorrow, plus plums and Bramley apples this afternoon. My jars are clean and waiting for cooked (barely stewed) unsweetened fruit to provide winter loveliness and keep the costs down then.

@TravelCrystal I started buying water ice lollies instead of ice-cream when my husband was on a fat-free diet - they are a great alternative to ice-cream with portion control built in!

TravelCrystal

Thanks for that @Suffolk_lass, sadly DH doesn’t do ice lollies, I do. Thinking the weather will be cooler soon, only tend to have ice cream in when it’s hot weather. Definitely needed this summer.
I’m always amazed @C_J how much you get for your £1 at your community fridge, good on you.
Just using the last of our current supply of tomatoes (some still ripening), for our tabbouleh tonight to go with homemade chorizo, mushroom and pineapple pizza.

Have a good evening everyone 

T.C

Changeyourlife25

£435.98 /£600

JingsMyBucket

Morning everyone. Thank you for the commiserations and warm thoughts. @weenancyinAmerica, hang in there. Sending you some hope as well. 

My current spends are up to £316.62 / £400 spent. £83.38 remaining since I last posted 10 days ago (!). 

I was in Glasgow earlier this week and got a few special items I can’t get in my town such as bagels, Finn Crisp rye crisp bread, good quality sriracha, and a couple other items. I’m going shopping this morning to replenish some basics and will update when I return. I’ll also catch up on the thread then too. 

JingsMyBucket

Back from shopping. It was nice to get back into my routine after being away for a while. 

£32.44 at Lidl for bananas, tomatoes, strawberries, regular sausages and chipolatas, XXL pack of smoked salmon they’re having in their sale right now (300g for £5.99), ham trimmings, Philly cream cheese, 2 blocks of butter, oatcakes, granola, and 2 bags of frozen gyoza. I also had two free bakery items — an apple turnover and a demi baguette. I’m going to make soup tomorrow and we’ll have the demi baguette with that slathered in butter. 

£23.14 at M & S for lemons, clementines, nectarines, garlic, 2 packs of Italian style sausages (£6.50), YS mozzarella balls, 4 pints of milk, a small cup of Greek yoghurt, 4 cans of baked beans, and coffee beans. 

£372.20 / £400 spent. £27.80 remaining for the rest of the month. 

We have a lot of vegetables since a friend of Mr. Jings gave him a load of harvested veg while I was away. Lots of beans, a pumpkin, a few zucchini, loads of potatoes, and some other items. We still have veg left from the past couple weeks too. I’ve just pulled out a pork shoulder roast from the freezer to cook for Sunday’s dinner. We can roast some of the gifted potatoes and quickly fry some of the runner beans to make a whole meal. 

C_J

I did a quick trip to Aldi this afternoon and stocked up with a month's supply of dog food tins, a sack of their worker dog dry food, and box of their cat food sachets which I use occasionally to zhuzh up the dog's evening dry food meals.  I treated myself to some camembert too as I had a hankering for cheese, and spent a total of £35.74.

August total is now £75.88/£150 but a lot of my purchases will be used in September.

JingsMyBucket

Annoyingly, as I started cooking this evening I realized we only have 3 onions left and I’ve already used half of one. 🙄 Arrgghh. I have some onion heavy cooking to do this weekend so I’ll need to head out tomorrow to M & S to get a kilo bag. At least I can combine that trip with a couple chores: glass recycling and soft plastic recycling. 

otb666

500/600 I am calling it for August as I go from 23rd to 23rd. I am surprised to have come in 100 under as this is so unlike me but as we have been very busy this month put it down to that. Also the farm shop has been shut as they went on holiday so had to use frozen veg up from freezer.
I must try and use food in my freezer more otherwise its pointless just sitting there happily costing electric to keep it frozen.  Hubby bought some chicken this week and I reminded him we had some in freezer but he said he always forgets to put in fridge night before. 

I will use up my frozen stores before buying fresh in going forward.

joedenise

@otb666 - to avoid things like that I keep of a copy of the menu plan on the fridge door so that I can see what I need to get out of the freezer, if anything, for the next day's meals.  Saves having to move things around too much or using the microwave to defrost things - not keen on nuking chicken though unless it's in one of my HM ready meals.