July 2026 Grocery Challenge

K9sandFelines

£1.89 spent on YS items - broccoli, apples and donuts at the Co-@p

burtha

Morning all . Playing catch up as this months been crazy busy . Then add in a sickness bug last week ,so fun .

Anyway added up my food spends for July and come in at 242 . , so thats not too bad considering I had a emergency top up shop for my eldest son family at the weekend.

currently i have 4 courgettes, a cabbage and 3 bananas sitting around that I need to do something with soon , managed to chop and freeze other fresh stuff after last weeks illness. And my youngest son seams to have eaten the content of the freezer, so maybe some cakes to sort tomorrow and some meat bargains to find asap to restock. Currently down to the last 2 packs of mince and 1 pack of chicken breasts .

Greying_Pilgrim

Just back from a quick top-up shop. We were short on sliced bread - and whilst we could have limped through until tomorrow, I'm going to go to a town a few miles away in the morning, and I don't know whether I'll be able to get to their Leedle.

There were lots of green boxes in Leedle today, but I didn't bother - lots of things that were in the boxes last week, and nothing really appealed.

I spent £11.39 (have updated siggie), on; wholemeal bread x 4, wholemeal wraps x 1, mini tortillas x 2 (on offer), teabags, milk (4 pints), and 15 FR eggs.

I think I've about £5.50 to last me until Friday. I think that is doable. We've food in the house, a few 'nice', treaty things (I'm thinking crisps, one or two unhealthy chocolate coated cereal bars 🙄). I was just going to say that we've the makings for some puds/cakes too, but I've just remembered I forgot to buy baking fat in Leedle😳

Greying X

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

I hope everyone is having a frugal July and if not its only 3 days till the slat is wiped clean 😂. There have been 56 comments since l was last on the forum 😲 my apologies l haven't been able to read them all.

We were away last week so a lot of my spends were from a different budget my final (hopefully) July spend was £49.37. Again several items weren't immediately needed, but earned me additional points with Tesco clubcard challenges.

Grocery Budget £226.72 / £400

Bulk Fund £55.34 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 282.06 / £450

I know roughly a weeks worth of food has come from another budget but I must admit this seems a bit low. Think i'll revisit my bank statement to see if I've missed something.

Nelliegrace

Grocery Budget for July for 2 Pensioners at £5 a day, £155.

Red Cross Parcel while the cook is poorly. M&S tinned chicken soup 60p x 2, Veg and chicken £1.10, Scotch broth £1.10, and baked beans 75p x 2.

£4.90 spent.

Just £4.24 left.

Total spent for July £150.76

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082257#Comment_82082257

That is really annoying @Suffolk_lass .

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82082516#Comment_82082516

Well done @path_to_1m. I am impressed by the reduction in your spending!

I have a small spend to declare: £1.67 yesterday in L!dl. DH purchased a bag of babyleaf & rocket salad 89p and a hand of bananas 78p.

This brings our total spend to £177/£180, leaving £3 for the rest of the month.

I’ll probably spend some of that £3 tomorrow on an aubergine. We have multiple courgettes needing to be harvested and I really want to make ratatouille..

Meal-plan-wise, dinner tonight is HM Carrot & Cashewnut Roast, served with salad leaves and HM tabouli. Tomorrow night, we’ll have Corn Pone (leftover chilli baked with a cornbread top).

Roll on payday on Friday!

• Pip

Blackcats

final spend of July today and I really, really, don't need any more shopping because I really, really, really do want to re-purpose my £31.08 underspend to something more exciting and with more longevity than carrots etc 🥳

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82083865#Comment_82083865

I hope you're on the road to recovery @Nelliegrace. Sounds like a good value care package, not just a croix-rouge package 😘 Hopefully the chicken soup works its restorative magic.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, stoopid me has bust the budget ☹️ I mean, if I wanted to be anal about it, I could have divided today's spends up with 'bulk' purchases, August's budget and what we'll use in the remainder of July. But heck, it's just easier to lump it all together, and say I've gone over, and work out if it's worth it, would I do it again, etc etc.

Basically I bought some YS'd things in her0n f00ds; 2 x 6 pack hotdog rolls 23p ea., 1 x 47p sandwich rolls, 1 x naan breads 4 pack 70p and a £1 bottle of garlic mayo = £3.11 (should have been £2.63!). Then in bee&Em, I bought 3 x schwartz p1zza express branded pasta sauce mixes @ 29p ea, and some rtw udon noodles, which I expected to be 45p per pack, but rang up at 2 x 10p per pack. £1.07 spent. So I went back into the shop and got 10 more packs £1 spent. I went into aldee, and bought 2 x crisps for picnics and 1 x sultanas - £3.67 spent. We did pop into the community food waste place. It's usually far too expensive (they've gone down the subscription model 🙄), but they've brought back the waste food - £2 donation for a bag - for the hols. I had a look and could see some veg that I could incorporate into meals, so I paid £2. Grand total spent was £10.85.

I'm about £5.32 overspent I think.

Would I do it again? In hindsight, most of what I paid money for in her0n was subsequently available in some form at the food waste place (and I'm even madder now that I know I got overcharged for the bread!). But we will use everything I bought, and won't need to buy eg hot dog rolls in August. I didn't know the udon noodles were on offer - the SEL was still 45p. The noodles are good until November, and I want to experiment more with 'brothy noodle' soups/curries, as my kiddo delights in eating with chopsticks. As these dishes can be packed with veg too, I regard that as a win. It made sense to stock up. The snacks from Aldee probably could have stayed on the shelf, but we are taking picnics out and about this summer holiday, and it's a cheaper way to eat than buying lunch out. I also jumped on the sultanas there, as Leedle have been OOS since…… forever. The veg from the food waste…… mmmm, it was OK, I got courgettes, as I can see them going into the dish I thought I would make using one of hte p1zza express packet mixes, and I'll use qu0rn over chicken, and courgettes will be a good addition. It was £2 reasonably well spent, and trumped the green boxes available in Leedle this week.

I think I don't regret going over by £5 - but I shall be disappointed in myself if I spend anymore cash on food before Saturday. We have enough.

Siggie of shame updated 😔

DARN! I've just realised that I've been over-charged in her0n! I don't know if their till can't do YS'd stuff, there were lots and lots of over-rides on the receipt, but one of the finger roll packs has gone through at full blasted price. Mea Culpa, because I was totting up as I went around, but bought the finger rolls from by the till (where YS'd things are stacked), and the guy on the till just started putting things through before i had chance to tot up what my final total should have been. Annoyed at myself for paying 'stoopid' tax.

Greying X

Matron_Midge

I’m declaring July at £513.16/£400. Huge over spend however, as you know, I work with an annual budget and my spend differs from month to month. I also have a £200 slush fund which I dip into and replenish if I don’t spend all of my £400.

I now have a freezer full of meat, washing liquid/dishwasher tablets to last until at least October and I have stocked up on loo/kitchen rolls this month too - all pricey items. It was also a 5 shopping day month for us. I shall hopefully go under budget in August and I have menu planned until 12th august so all I should need next week is milk, fresh bits and bread 🤞🏻🤞🏻

See you over on the august thread.