August 2025 Grocery Challenge

TravelCrystal

So, just back from Lidl with DH on bikes. He had to pick up a free cake and spend £3 so he could get free veg. Annoyingly they had the large bags of potatoes, had to get the smaller one as only basket on the bike, and that proved to be too heavy, light items only me thinks. 

I also had to get a free cake purchased with a small bottle of Prosecco for our guest tomorrow which she will drink with orange juice already purchased. Drank the fizz I had already purchased with the neighbours last night, hey ho.
Also bought a can of baked beans and some ginger ale.
Total spend £3.11
I am going to declare for August now as will not be going shopping anymore this month.
£191.21/£200 plus £108.07 bulk which will be added in to yearly total.

See you in September 

TC

K9sandFelines

£11.85 spent at Aldi over two shops.
Can't remember what was on the first shop apart from tofu, sourdough and YS salad

Second shop just now I got vegan mince, vegan cheese, wraps,.orange juice and coke.
Bought most of that to make burritos as just picked up mixed beans on olio, some nutmeg and a new to me shopping trolley. Just scrubbed it and hung it to dry outside.

Hopefully no spends now til Monday, when I have to go to get bloods done at the hospital 🤞🏻. I expect not many places will be open anyway or not til normal hours, with it being a Bank Holiday.

remmie

Another couple of spends to declare £42.31 in Al*I and £29.20 in Lids, bring my total to £270.24. I went to Lids for my free veg (broccoli) and scored a £1.50 fruit and veg box whilst there. The rest of the spend was on restocking for next month, although I will count it in this months spend. Next month I need to concentrate on meat bargains as the freezer is running down.

Pennypincin

Hi everyone.
I've got £16.88 left from the food budget and am going to put it into the bulk fund.
I'm going to need to use whats in the bulk fund soon as I seem to have gotten through the new stores.
I will have to do what I keep saying I will do and write a list.
I may get a delivery for it, although part of me is tempted to gradually pick things up from the budget shops 
I'm not likely to be going to shops for food shopping today.
If I do it will be for tai chi get-together today.

mandco

Another £215 to add  . £877/£800   This does include £4.50 for a m&s sandwich after my hospital visit expensive but I was staving and craving something  with actual flavour so worth every penny plus £3.50 for a pack of bakery cookies for dd as a thanks for picking me up. 
also picked up a few household non essentials that were on offer and not actually needed till September but including them now anyway & £30 for a bag of the cats expensive special diet food as we ran out and the subscription delivery for her food isn’t due till 5th September. 

My month finishes on Thursday so hopefully shouldn’t need much else before then so hoping to stay under £900- famous last words   

Naturelover22

Hi all,
I have been neglectful of my posting recently. Family illness (approaching end of life) and other contagious illnesses and dramas mean my eye has come off the ball a bit recently.

While only 1 supermarket trip this week, we have had 2 takeaways and I have bought lunch 3 out of 5 days, so not good at all! Taken these from a different budget though. Finding the time and energy for a basic shop would have saved alot of money this week.
We also overspend last weekend on socialising so we have technically already spent what is left in the grocery budget below, so we will need to top that up.

Thurs 21st
A*da £23.76
cold and flu tablets, lemsips, strawberries, ham, yogurt pouches x2, cheese, milk, biscuits, cereal bars, cat litter £2.18
YS yogurt, pancakesx2

Opened another box of cat food £7.98 on Thurs 21st.

Total £219.33 out of £310

K9sandFelines

Small spend of £6.45. Most of it was the remainder of the Jam Doughnut app credit, I had loaded.
I probably won't load it up for Iceland again unless there's some good offers. As it has to be £10 minimum I think, and I only really go in for one thing. Today I got 3 for £5 veg. Would normally only by the baby corn, sugar snap and carrots bag; but this way turned out cheaper. Also, got sandwich meat to freeze for when daughter visits. I was tempted to get all of those, but left some for others. They were 29p

JingsMyBucket

Evening folks. I went to M & S early Saturday morning with the aim for onions and bananas but also happened on various YS deals. It would have been rude to leave them behind! 

£18.43 on bananas (72p), 2 YS prepared salads (1.74 each), 1kg of onions (1.00), 2 YS packs of smoked mackerel (2.51 each), YS sliced salmon with Japanese sauce (3.94), 2 YS packs of raw chicken leg quarters (600g each, 94p each), and 1 can each of can sardines and mackerel in olive oil (1.20 each).  

Mr. Jings spent £3.00 today at Iceland for 2 boxes of Mr. Freeze ice pops. It was cold last week but the weather has turned again so we’re restocking on those simple delights. 

£393.63 / £400 spent. £6.37 remaining

That should leave us with a bit of money to buy bananas or berries. I’ve actually put in an order for Morrisons to arrive later this week but I’ll count it towards September because it’s a bulk restock of some items. Am I fudging the numbers a bit? Yes… yes I am… 

JingsMyBucket

@Naturelover22 oof, sorry to hear of your news. Sending you good vibes and hugs as you need them. x

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, over budget again for this month. I've not been able to get to the community grocery as much as I hoped due to other commitments. Freezer is still pretty full so I'm going to try and have a use it up month during September to create space for the winter months and also try and keep the food bill down. 
I usually meal plan weekly but do prefer monthly as I can make sure we don't have too many duplicate meals. I'm going to try and do a monthly plan for September so I know I've included the majority of the freezer contents. I can also plan the trips to the community grocery and give my husband a list of things to look for when he's there. 

Meal plan for this week
Monday - pasta bolagnese with garlic bread (2 tubs of sauce for the freezer)
Tuesday - Burgers, chips and salad
Wednesday - Spanish chicken & rice 
Thursday - Fish & chips (we're out for the day)
Friday - breaded chicken, mash and veg
Saturday - chicken pesto pasta
Sunday - Roast lamb and trimmings

Currently stand at £646.22/£600. Will probably need bread and maybe sandwich fillings later in the week.