June 2026 Grocery Challenge

Suffolk_lass

As it was raining, I tried again at the food bank, dropping off 60 toilet rolls. They have been sitting, waiting for me for a fortnight - it meant I did the month's big shop in Sainsbugs, but then on the way home I trotted over to Morries and collected everything I could think of that I had forgotten - a running total for the month is £110.56. I haven't added the bits from Marks and Sparkles yet though - I must find the receipt!

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82021125#Comment_82021125

Yes 😊 well spotted 😊 Although in the end, I forgot to add a dash of Hendo's anyway! 🙄 Doh! No matter, the pasta sauce was delish, and cooking it in the slow-cooker worked well. The recipe, even with my 'tweaks' is a keeper for me - and although I used some qu0rn pieces (as I had half a bag in the freezer), I could use tofu, or do grilled halloumi or cube some feta to top. I added spinach farfalle to my pasta sauce.

Greying X

Nelliegrace

Grocery Budget for June for 2 Pensioners at £5 a day, £150.

According to the calendar, Summer started on Monday, so the weather has turned cold and wet with thunder storms today and tomorrow. I defrosted a small beef joint for Sunday and cooked it as a pot roast to keep it from shrivelling to nothing. I filled the oven with baking. I have plenty of salad things to have with cold beef, but made tomato, red lentil and sweet potato soup to have something hot with it. I made a sourdough loaf in the bread maker.

DH bought milk x 2 from Asda on his way home from bowls, they have medium oranges x 5, 2 for £2 still. £5.30 spent.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon GC'rs

I'm back from the shops - Leedl and Sainsbugs today. No green boxes, and no real bargains.

I did buy some of the 'posh' jam in L, as with the app, it was 99p a jar, which for plum and for blueberry is not too much for something a 'little different'.

I noticed in our L store that the strawberries in PoTW had been restocked with the wrong size punnets. The punnets on offer for £1.19 (?) were 225g, whereas there were several boxes full of 400g punnets - and of course the strawberries looked better in those punnets. I did notice several people select those punnets, before I noticed the discrepancy. I know the PoTW changes tomorrow, but I personally hate it when things are in the wrong place and you end up paying more than you expected. I though first of all, someone had put a 400g punnet in the wrong place - perhaps when noticing strawberries were part of the PoTW, but when I looked closely, there were 2 large boxes of the larger punnets - obviously put there by the store.

My only YS'd purchase today was some mushrooms in S. Some of their produce - that they'd slapped a yellow sticker on - was not holding up in the heat. Swiss chard that had yellowed, and asparagus that had just 'died' (if you've ever smelt gone over asparagus, you know exactly what i mean 🤢).

In total I spent £41.38 today. no alcohol, no real treats, just 'bits' to hopefully put together to craft some meals.

Greying X

PipneyJane

L!dl must be running paranoid about losing customers. We got another “Spend £40 get £5 off” voucher yesterday, plus received a “free nuts” voucher on Monday. Perfect timing because we’re nearly out of everything. I have a follow-up appointment for my wrist tomorrow morning and will be heading to L!dl after it to stock up. (I’m waiting for the new week’s vouchers to drop, tomorrow. Fingers crossed they’re for things I actually want.)

One small spend to declare from this afternoon: £3 on a 4kg sack of large white onions from a local greengrocer. There were 26 in the bag, so that’s pretty much all of June’s meals covered.

This brings our total spend to £9.20/£195.30 leaving £186.10 for the rest of the month.

@dollypeeps hope your mum continues to recover well from her broken hip.

• Pip

ETA @Greying_Pilgrim I share your frustration with misplaced strawberries. Whenever there’s an offer, I’m constantly checking that the item I want to buy is included. The stock number should be listed on the voucher (if it’s in the app) or on the sign in the store. It’s too easy to make a mistake because stuff is not necessarily placed under the correct signs.

C_J

Good afternoon everyone, hope your week is going well.

I am just back from my favourite Community Fridge where we all got rained on as we queued up - but it was very much worth it as the requested £1 donation yielded this:

2 large baking potatoes
1 bag baby new potatoes
Enormous sweet potato
Carrots
Onions
Beetroot
Asparagus
Tenderstem broccoli
French beans
Small green cabbage
Red chillies
Rainbow stir fry mix
Spring onions
2 large bags spinach leaves
Cherry tomatoes
Cucumber
Button mushrooms
Bag of watercress and rocket salad leaves
Easy peeler/satsumas
Pink grapefruit
Pears
Apples
Strawberries
Pomegranate
Bananas
1 ready made beef lasagne
1 pack carbonara fresh ravioli
M&S avocado, feta and grain salad bowl
Ready made chicken pad Thai
2 pints organic whole milk
1 pot banana overnight oats
4 blueberry muffins
Tub of taramasalata
Egg and cress sandwich
1 loaf of cranberry and pecan nut bread
Loaf of thick sliced Hovis granary bread
500ml bottle olive walnut oil (just read the label properly! Now I need to read up on what to do with walnut oil)
Jar of Colman’s English mustard
Pack of olive oil crackers
Large bag brown rice
Pack of mini shortbread cookies
Pack of polenta
Box of 8 sachets chocolate protein drink powder
Bunch of red roses
Potted mini rose bush (not sure if this is an indoor one, or if it can be planted outside)

I’m just settling down with a cup of tea to do some menu planning from the above.

This brings my June total so far £26.87/£150

Elizabeth49

Hi, some spends from the weekend. £21.77 from A!di, mostly stock up stuff, coffee, jam, frozen fruit and veg, as I don't often get there with it being on the other side of town.

Then £49.51 for my Sainsbugs delivery, the total was actually £56.79, so hitting the £50.00 minimum for free delivery, but that included £7.28 for second class stamps, which come from a separate budget.

Total so far £71.28/£350.00

Soontobeoap

Another £14.29 spent in Aldi today. DH is in charge of breakfast items .we shopped 3 days ago but today needed juice ! I don't thinkc I will ever get shopping down to once a week.🤦. Doing well with freezer and store cupboard for evening meals though.

joedenise

@C_J - walnut oil is very nice as a salad dressing which is what I use the bottle I got a while ago. Haven't used it for anything else as yet so be interested to know if you find anything it can be used for!

Greying_Pilgrim

Pipney_Jane - I am in awe of your Leedl coupons. I know I've not long signed up (just before the scheme changed), but I don't have a massive budget - even slightly more that you, actually - and yet I get nothing remotely useful in terms of coupons.

Certainly none of the X off a Y spend type coupons - unless I cash in my points for either a £3 or £5 voucher ☹️ And I haven't had anything 'free' since the scheme changed. The only coupon that might be useful for me this week is 15% off wraps - I do buy them. But I've been given a 15% coupon for filtered milk (have never bought it from Leedl or anywhere else), 15% off r0wan hill sliced white bread - I never buy it, always buy the wholemeal, and 15% off frozen French fries - again, I never buy them. Considering the scheme monitors 'what I purchase', I'm getting even less 'tailoring' than sainsbugs achieve - and they are, frankly awful.

Is the only way to complain about this crapness, via SM?

Greying X