July 2026 Grocery Challenge

diminua

Coffee and pastry this morning for breakfast - £7. Eggs, salad veg, apricots, lemons and limes: £13.73, milk and elderflower presse: £4.55.

£193.03 spent so far this month, £56.97 left.

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Got a shop to declare from yesterday: £8.35 in Sainsbugs, where I purchased peppers £1.27, 756g carrots 52p, 1.224kg baking potatoes £1.10, 530g sweet potato 69p, onion bagels 2x£1.35, wholemeal wraps 75p, and cookies £1.40.

This brings our total spend to £161.50/£180 leaving £18.50 for the rest of the month.

It should be do-able. Payday is Friday-week. We will only need to buy additional veg and a 1kg bag of frozen fruit before then.

@Nelliegrace glad you got the birthday cake vouchers. It’s annoying that it required a phone call.

• Pip

C_J

I’m just back from Sainsbobs where I did (what is for me) quite a big shop - dog food tins, cat food sachets, Hellman’s mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, two different flavours of double strength squash, garibaldi biscuits, fig rolls, vegetable oil, bacon, cheese and some chocolate. £35.66 spent, but almost all the items were either general nectar prices or targeted lower priced offers on things which I actually wanted and which saved a couple of pounds.

July total is now £61.02/£150

K9sandFelines

£5.97 added to bulk buy fund (Laila Basmati rice)

£6.43 normal spends on agave, coconut milk and two tins of Jackfruit

£1 odd at the C@-op (will add when I look at my receipt properly) on a cauliflower and some carrots, as I needed to make coleslaw.

wishus

Bought more salad, dishwasher tablets, and loads of soft drinks at A*di - spent £14.59. Brings total to £99.35, £50.65 left.

Yesterday's personal disaster - boiled 5 eggs for work and forgot about them! Luckily the pan is okay.

Husband is off on a trip this weekend, so I'll probably eat pasta and cheese or fish at the weekend, keep it simple.

Other than that: meal plan is:

Breakfast - yoghurt and fruit

Lunches, salads, apart from today (had leftover BBQ sausage pasta with beetroot and cherry tomatoes)

Monday: lemon sole, crushed potatoes, peas

Tuesday: cheesy aubergine bake from The Fitness Chef cookbook

Wednesday: Margherita pizza from The Fitness Chef cookbook

Thursday: lemon chicken and rice from Pinch of Nom Comfort Eats

Sallyp2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82074142#Comment_82074142

lol you should suggest adult child goes shopping then … being an sdult. What do they eat when not at home?

Greying_Pilgrim

I've been out shopping. Went earlier today as there are roadworks inbetween us and the supermarket ☹️What we saved in time going earlier, we lost in my kiddo wanting to 'just need to look at….' 🙄

First stop was Leedl. There were more green boxes than I have EVER seen, available today. I unashamedly bought 2 - and denied no-one, as there were virtually as many left as we were leaving - and I'd seen people buying them too, so plenty for everyone. We now have enough carrots until next Christmas. I am going to have to get creative with tomato and carrots in salads. The contents are just too much to list, but I chose carefully and got most of the salad/veg/fruit items I had on my list anyway. In total I spent £28.22 in Leedle.

I then went to Sainsbugs and spent £13.21 on mostly meat-free things and eggs, cheese, onions and a cucumber (the one thing that wasn't in a green box!).

We then finished off in 'ome bargains. Most purchases were non-food, but I did get a bag of YS'd apples. 62p spent. There were apples in the green box, a 6 pack, but as the apples were YS'd I got a bag - if we fail to eat them in a timely fashion, they can be stewed and frozen for future crumbles - but I don't think it will be an issue.

In total (inc. green boxes), I spent £42.05 on food today and £5.37 on non-food (not inc in GC).

Re: the green boxes, I have had to throw out some of the Jersey Royals - a couple were rotten and several were green (I had a bag in each box). I have washed the rest of the contents to get rid of the smell from the other perfectly OK potatoes. I had a 4 pack of nectarines and one was bashed/mouldy on the bottom. They aren't ripe, so I trimmed off the mould and checked that the rot hadn't set into the rest of the nectarine. Then I ate the rest of it. It was very much the texture of a crispy apple, and tasted faintly of nectarine. Clearly not the best way to eat the fruit, but avoided waste (would have been OK in a smoothy too, I guess). As yet, there wasn't much else discarded. It remains to be seen if the citrus keeps, and there might be one suspect baking potato (possibly green) that needs checking.

Greying X

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

Sadly l have many spends to declare in total £119.83 was spent. £31.50 of that was on bulk items including two packs of toilet roll @£11.50 (not needed right now) to gain 250 clubcard points. Another £43.83 was for holiday items, paid for from a different budget and the remaining £44.50 was for general items, fruit, veg, salad, tins etc. We are away for the rest of the week and will access our food position when we return

Grocery Budget £177.35 / £400

Bulk Fund £55.34 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 232.69 / £450

Elizabeth49

All a bit of a mess this month I'm afraid as the grocery budget is spent and it's only the 22nd of July.😞

I think I know where it went wrong though. The A*di trip and the Morries delivery put a lot of stuff in the cupboards without really adding much in the way of lunches and dinners. Also too much spent at M&S and in local shops. So I'm hoping to improve and do better next month.

In the meantime:-

£5.85 and £7.10 in local shops, mainly bread, salad, and sandwich fillings.

£42.85 on Saturday in M&S, including a meal for visitors on Sunday.

£76.85 Sainsbug delivery also on Saturday.

£347.42/£350.00

wishus

Adding another £18.80 to the shop as needed some ingredients for the meals I'd planned this week. I am going to have to head out again though as I got the munchies and ate one of my husband's protein bars for the gym. Going to have to replace that! And erm, the other one I ate the other day. 😳

Total spent this month £117.43/£150 and £32.57 remaining. On the home stretch now. I'll make a trip to Shop Zero at the weekend to help really eke it out.