July 2026 Grocery Challenge

RedRose61

Final spends for July.

£2.68 for fresh salad vegetables before our main shop at Aldo. £3 for toothpaste at Poundland.
Today’s big shop is £42.47 at Aldo. I had to buy instant coffee, filter coffee, razors and sunscreen. This was in addition to all of the usual groceries for the week’s meal plan.
Unfortunately I then had to go into Morris*ns because they didn’t have any polish, thousand island dressing, quark or frozen peas!
Anyway, that’s it now for July. Declaring at

£283.66- £6.54 remaining.

It’s been quite tight this month but as others have said, I’ve had five big shops. I’m really happy with the progress that I’ve made with being more mindful about what I buy and not being too impulsive. I’m going to reduce my budget again by £10 next month which should be doable because we’re away during late August. See everyone on the August thread and thanks so much for all of the advice and insightful comments.

K9sandFelines

£11.17 spent in Ald! - handwash, frozen cherries, tofu, cauliflower, mushrooms, a banana for snacking (as the ones in plastic have speckled already), soya milk,.orange juice, plant menu chicken style pieces and lettuce. Think that was everything !

Some things I couldn't get and a few things I forgot. But they will keep til next time.

Then in H@me Bargains I spent £2.49 on a sack of onions. I was going to get a sack of potatoes too; but I figured as they are sat in plastic, I will wait a while til the weather is cooler, as I'm not eating that many at the moment anyway.

I also took advantage of a trial from a company called Vidrate. I can't remember how much it was, I'll add it when I find it. 30 flavour sachets to add to water and they all have added electrolytes, or caffeine boost , vitamins etc. They will last me ages as Ive had one in a litre of water and it was overpowering. So, half a sachet should be enough in future.

I also got 8 x 250g of Vietnamese coffee on Too good to go which will last me a few months. So, as I've hit the bulk buy limit, I am going to cheat a bit and buy them from myself as they get used. The total was 20.98

PipneyJane

I have one final spend to declare for July: £2.99 spent in Aldee on a packet of their 40-tablet Magnum all-in-one dishwasher tablets. I’ve never used them before, but I was listening to the episode of BBC’s Sliced Bread podcast where they talked about Dishwasher Tablets and, since Aldee’s came out second behind to the really expensive Fairy ones I use (circa 30p/tablet), thought they were worth a try. (It’s from Series 10, if the link doesn’t work.).

Aldee had 2 different all-in-one dishwasher detergent products: the Magnum tablets that I purchased for £2.99 and a 37-tablet gel version for £3.99. Sadly, the Sliced Bread episode didn’t say which one was the Nearly-as-good-as-Fairy-Platinum product, but since we only had £3 in the housekeeping, I decided to try the cheaper one first. If it works well, I won’t bother trying the other one. At worst, I’ll have wasted £2.99, not £3.99…

I’m declaring for July at £180 exactly.

The 1p that wasn’t spent has gone to the shrapnel money box.

See you in August.

• Pip

Greying_Pilgrim

@PipneyJane - there was THIS little expansion article off the website that didn't specify which Magnum tablets, other than they said they worked out at 8p each. How does that stack up with the pack sizes? 40 x 8p = £3.20, whereas 37 x 8p = £2.96 🤔 I don't think I've helped, have I 😔

edit - I've just noticed that the episode was from August 2024, so there must have been some price inflation - and the 8p a tablet wouldn't apply today, would it? And presumably fa1ry aren't 27p a tablet 🤔 Sorry - I don't have a mechanical dishwasher, the hubster gets the gig.

Greying X

t14cy_t

declaring final total of £94/ £100 spent for july. olio has been amazing this month so freezers still full!

mandco

avoided my usual weekend supermarket shop and mostly stuck the buying the absolute essentials using up items from the freezer/cupboard total £104.56 Declaring for July at £866.25. £66.26 over That’s not as bad as i expected but only because i was really strict this week.

Greying_Pilgrim

I'm declaring July at £237.82/£232.50 - so £5.32 over 🤨 Not absolutely where I wanted to be, I really thought I was going to come under this month. But I think, if my maths is right (NOT my strongest suit!), that's about 2.3% over target, which is kinda within an acceptable tolerance.

I do like to think about things, and although I don't think I've done any major miss-steps, in hindsight….. and it is in hindsight, I think I probably shouldn't have bought 2 green boxes (there were loads, and loads of them), when I did. Whilst I accept the food in a £2 box is not pristine, but some of the contents were already unuseable, and there were a couple of things I didn't process quick enough (including a cauli, that i'd intended to put in a curry). When you tot those up, against the 'usual' loss of a tangerine/easy peeler and a banana that's gone too far (as in liquified 🤢), then I spent £2 too much. Also, in hindsight, I should not have bothered getting a bag from the food waste scheme. I've already ditched several things - I had some vac-pack beetroot which (to be fair), was still in date until Thursday, but it was 'aged', the brown (no where near purple) beetroot were OK, but tasted of absolutely nothing, and so I composted them, they just had lost all their 'beet-rooty-ness'. I should have walked away and kept the £2 in my pocket. So there is £4 that I 'regret' spending - especially as my over-spend could mostly be attributed to those 2 things.

But I'm learning as I go along, and overall the Nelliegrace-full-grocery-system™️😁 of £2.50 pppd is working for us.

Who knows where things will be in a few months time, perhaps I will be waxing lyrically about 'only' over-spending by a fiver……😬 But I'm greatly enjoying having the GC target, and learning from you wonderful GC'rs as we bobble along, all trying our best. Thank you. And see you all over on the August thread.

Greying X

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82086423#Comment_82086423

@Greying_Pilgrim you have helped. The price differential between the two Magnum products is 2p per tablet. The cheaper product came in a cardboard box and is solid, while the more expensive was in plastic and contained gels. I will report back, once I’ve used a few. (We only use the dishwasher every 2-3 days.)

• Pip

JingsMyBucket

Morning y’all. I’m so glad I stuck to my budget this week and month. On Thursday I went to M & S for a few essentials and spent £3.50 on bananas, garlic, 2 cans of baked beans, and 2 pints of milk. 

Total £349.87 / £350 spent. £0.13 remaining. I’ll take it!

K9sandFelines

I need to add £3.99 for the Vidrate sachets I mentioned last time, and £43.33 on a Tesco shop. I had get some bigger things like oil that I use when I make cake. It will last a few months. And some other bits.

Cat food (not included) and some bits my DD1 needed ( also not included).

So, £47.32 to add to total and 10 days to go 😱