August 2025 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Cheshire

I'll need milk in the next day or so, but will try and wait as we have blue milk in so can use that if necessary. Hoping to go to the community grocery on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. 

Meal plan for the next week
Sun - Roast beef, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, carrots and green beans
Mon - filled pasta, sauce and pan fried vegetables with leftover garlic sausage chunks
Tues- Eating out 
Weds- Spanish Chicken & rice
Thurs- Fish & new potatoes (smoked haddock and cod/prawn fish cakes)
Fri - lamb, couscous, salad & hallomi
Sat - duck stir fry, rice or noddles and prawn crackers
Sun - Fish & Chips (going to Blackpool Airshow)

I need to check my veg stocks but I'm confident I can make it all with limited shopping. 

RandomOne

Thanks for the feedback on Aldi @Soontobeoap and @mandco i appreciate it. I think I'll stick to Tesco this month as i dont need much meat, just mainly fruit and veg. Then in September I'll try Aldi. 

@Nelliegrace we travel about 20 mins in the car to the supermarket. We do have a Morrisons in our small town, but thats so expensive these days, it's worth driving the 20 mins to Tesco. 

mandco

Home bargains £23.39 - £18.84 on household/medical supplies(starting to restock the medicine cabinet ready for winter) & £4.55 on cheese slices & some chocolate 
aldi £43.15 - £7.97 on household this included a small joint for a roast today and a few large bars of dark chocolate as it was finally in stock though they only had 5 bars left - for some reason there seems to a be a shortage of the dark this year? Always plenty of the milk available 
asda £28.28 - £3.50 household - going over my receipt to post on here I realised I’ve been over charged on 6 items vs shelf price not worth the hassle & cost of going back to sort but definitely need to remember to check at the till in future.
£38.46 in Sainsbury’s - can’t find the receipt so haven’t broken that down . Anyone else having issues with the nectar app since they changed it? The weekly price offers you now have to add to get it rather then being done automatically but they aren’t always being applied - apparently if they don’t you’ll get a voucher within 72 hrs for the difference to use if your next shop but I ended up putting some stuff back as it wasn’t essential and didn’t want to pay full price upfront. Probably sounds a bit petty as I would have gotten the money back but I’d rather save it at time of purchase rather than being tied to a future shop.
Total of £133.28 to add 

otb666

@elsiepacplease put me down for £600

wishus

Joining in please with £150.

Naturelover22

Hi all,
We are aiming for

£310 for the full month of August. 2 adults and 2 cats.

Within that amount £60 is for cats.
We had half planned but last minute family visiting so pulled together a meal for 6 adults and 2 children when we don't often entertain, so the shops have already had too many visits from us this weekend! 

Friday

Asda

Cat food £7.98

Saturday

Aldi

Cheese

Garlic bread

Pasta

Paracetomol

Salad

£9.40

Co op

Chicken

£7.28

Co op

Tonic

Lemonade

Ice cream

Grapes YS

Butter

Pop dots

Cucumber YS

Raspberries YS

£11.36

£36.02 spent already.

JingsMyBucket

Morning all. Yesterday I visited Lidl and M & S after our monthly farmers market with friends. 

£24.91 at Lidl for tomatoes (1.49), 2 heads of white cabbage (1.73), 600g tray of strawberries (2.59), mixed bell peppers (1.52), 2 blocks of butter (3.98), bacon (2.29), sausages (2.49), goat cheese (1.95), frozen chicken dippers (1.49), and 2 containers of 15-count eggs (5.38). 

Mr. Jings wanted the cabbage so he can try his hand at sauerkraut again now that it’s warmer. He tried during winter and our was just too cold to get a ferment going. 

£13.05 at M & S for bananas (1.00), garlic (1.10), YS bag of 4 avocados (1.25), YS dinosaur kale/cavolo Nero (75p), a lemon (45p), red wine vinegar (2.00), some reduced sugar wine gums (1.75), and coffee beans (4.75 — they’ve risen in price again).

£168.34 / £400 spent. £231.66 remaining.  

Okay, hands firmly back in my pockets until about Thursday or Friday to refill the fruit supply. Here are some dishes on the menu for this week incorporating leftover chicken and stray elderly vegetables that need to be used up. 

ROUGH COOKING PLAN

• Chicken, rice, and salad (last night)
• Chicken soup (lots of rain this week!)
• Antipasto pasta salad 
• Vegetable, cheese and sausage tart (sautéed cabbage, limp lettuce and dinosaur kale)
• Yoghurt pound cake (we have a lot of homemade yoghurt to use!)
• Mushroom and spinach rice; not sure what meat to serve with it yet
• Roasted sweet potato chunks / cubes (to have as sides or to add to salads)
• American breakfast sausage 

It raining cats and dogs over here in our part of Scotland. I hope everyone stays dry today. 

Quantaqa

So far this month I've spent £80 from my Grocery Fund, leaving £100 left until the 25th.  I've also done a bit of a stock up of the freezer using separate money that came from a refund of a hotel break we cancelled, a spend of about £45.

Rough plan this week:
M - Left over Sunday roast + veg/potatoes
T - Eating out (Niece's exam results day)
W - HM Pizza
T - Lentil Shepherds Pie
F - Lentil Shepherds Pie

Lunches 
DH - Greggs Fakeaway Bacon and cheese turnovers, Batch Lady 'McMuffins'
Me - At home this week.  Lorne Sausage roll today.  Rest of the week Sandwiches.

I've had a cold the past few days and used up the last 2 lemsips in the medicine drawer so DH has started restocking for the winter.  Two new packs of Lemsip now in the drawer and later this week we'll try and get some other bits:  Cough syrup, strepsils, hankies, painkillers.

@JingsMyBucket, it's raining here too, has been heavy all morning.  Stay safe and cosy everyone

Suffolk_lass

@Nelliegrace I get milk delivered, which I know costs more, but it keeps me out of the shops. Our nearest is 1.5 miles and a Coop for this region. My normal big places to shop are minimum 4.5 miles but some are 15 miles and only visited when I am dropping the bi-monthly big river delivery of toilet rolls off at the foodbank.

Only the milk deliveries direct debit so far this month - £7.50, and the the shop after visiting my Auntie on her birthday - fruit mostly at her local M&S S-F for £19.60

Nelliegrace

@Suffolk_lass, DH gets extra milk on his way home, but then he is tempted to buy cakes and cookies. He “loses,” the receipt, but leaves crumbs and even wrappers in the car!