August 2026 Grocery Challenge

Matron_Midge

£79 spent in sains - mostly fresh stuff and dairy (milk, cheese, yog) I picked up 2 reduced Charlie Bigham ready meals for 2 - still £5 each but they are good alternatives if we were fancying a takeout - into the freezer they have gone.

We are going to a neighbours summer party this weekend - 40 people attending. I’m making onion bhajees, raita and baking some sweet treats so picked up the ingredients for these too.

Suffolk_lass

We are off away in our camper van today; just three nights, so when I dropped the two large packs of single toilet rolls off at the food bank, I bit the bullet, drove round the corner and went into MNS - milk, cream and fruit purchased (plus hummus, chocolate, yummy biscuits and ice cream cornets; all the plus bits are the treats and entertainment pot - for consumption while we are away until Sunday!) £13 spent from the grocery budget - £162.05 so far for August. It feels too low - I need to check for missing receipts!

mandco

made a rookie mistake yesterday took the kids bowling for dd’s birthday and there was an Aldi next door so thought I might as well pick up a few essentials while we were there so I don’t need to go at the weekend- £37.37 spent about half of which was stuff the kids decided they “needed” 🙄

@Suffolk_lass hope you gave a lovely trip

Elizabeth49

Hi, catching up on last weeks spends before I go to the shops tomorrow 😊

£19.10 at M&S, greek yogurt x 2, chicken, pies, bread, bananas, magazine.

And £54.64 for my usual Sainsbugs delivery.

£222.33/ £350

So, I've got £127.67 left, which would be fine if it wasn't a five week month for us. I'm trying to see where I can cut back, so I did some baking this afternoon rather than buy cakes. I'll never win 'Bake Off' but it was fun.

K9sandFelines

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82106415#Comment_82106415

Where do you buy your vital wheat gluten from for your seitan please? I can only see to find it on Buy Wholefo@ds online.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good afternoon GC'rs

I went to get milk today from The co0p. As the 2 x pizza + a tub of branded ice-cream for £5 offer was on, I decided to see if there were any in stock. We dropped lucky and there were just 2 margarita pizzas left, and the chocolate ice-cream (think the other option may have been cookie dough??). So we partook of the offer, and picked up 4 pints of milk for the princely sum of £5.15. Even my kiddo was amazed at the "normal" price of the branded ice-cream included in this offer… I'm learning them in ninja mse ways, slowly but surely…. 🤣

I must admit, I don't normally buy pre-made pizza - I'm happy to make my own, but it is the holidays, mum needs a rest too sometimes, and we couldn't afford to have pizza out, so this is an economical compromise.

On the way back, we popped into leedles, to claim the last free bakery item, and to pick up some oven chips to accompany the pizza. I did forget to activate the 15% offer I had on the oven chips, but it's not the end of the world, and we'll need oven chips again before the holidays are over, so it'll get used.

£6.44 in total spent.

Off to update siggie figgie.

Greying X

Nelliegrace

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

17/8 DH went to Aldi on his way home from bowls and bought milk x 2 now £1.75, and strawberries 95p.

£4.45 spent.

I felt better today and he took me to Aldi for the weekly shop.
Milk still £1.65 x2, yoghurt 1kg £1.49, spread 500g on offer £2.15, evap 52p, mixed size free range eggs 99p, medium chicken £1.94 kg £4.15, SR flour 70p, salted peanuts 59p, sweet potatoes 1kg £1.19, carrots 500g 44p, wonky onions 80p, they keep well in the garage, cauliflower £1.18, red pepper 70p, super 6 offer easy peelers £1.09, wonky grapes £1.37, melon £1.65, nectarines 1 kg £2.35, 7 bananas 88p, oranges £1.39 frozen blueberries 400g £1.99, (£4.98/kg, the fresh wonky blueberries are now £10.32/kg).

Total £28.92

Total spent £108.26

I made a large, wholemeal, blackberry and windfall apple crumble and a batch of rock cakes when I had the oven on for the Sunday roast chicken. I have been picking and freezing small bags of free blackberries.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82107499#Comment_82107499

Ooohhhh…. Thank you @K9sandFelines. I treated myself to a box on Wednesday . (Personal money not GC.). Had a cuppa earlier. Tastes lovely but is a bit unsatisfying. I suspect that I’d eat a lot of fudge, if I drank it regularly. (It’s a bit like eating Pringles. All flavour, no filling up.)

I hadn’t planned on going shopping at MrT’s this week, but a friend kindly gave me an 8p-off-per-litre voucher for petrol. Since Alf - my car - was screaming “Thirsty” at me, I filled him up and then went into the main shop. I had a good wander around, comparing prices to those in MrS and L!dl, before purchasing the tea plus a few items that we don’t see anywhere else.

Guess what they had in stock? 400g tins of Glenryck brand PIlchards in Tomato Sauce! Haven’t seen those in months, and I’ve been looking! £1.65 per tin. Last time I purchased some they were £1.30. That was in 2024.

£17.94 spent on 5 tins of pilchards plus 4x1.5L bottles of quad-strength squash in blackcurrant and mango-and-orange flavours. The squash has gone up in price and is now £2.30/bottle.

While I went to MrT’s, DH went to L!dl and to Sainsbugs in his lunch hour. In L!dl, he picked up another free bakery treat (this time an almond croissant), and a packet of 12 slices of Gouda for £2.29 (on a 15% off, offer).

In Sainsbugs, he struck gold(!). During Wimbledon, did anyone else try the “Strawberries & Cream” flavoured, white chocolate Tim-Tams? (They were yummy.) Anyway, the branch near his office were selling them off for 10p/packet! 12 packets bought for home, so £1.20 spent.

Yesterday, I detoured to Sainsbugs on my way home from work. While we needed yoghurt, I also took the opportunity to use/abuse their Nect4r points offers on loose mushrooms - buying one - and 1kg “baby” potatoes and earning an extra 40p - 80 points - from Nect4r. £6.79 spent in total on 450g Yeo Valley Greek Yoghurt with Honey 2x£2, YS 100g Serrano Ham 85p,YS ham 90p, 1kg baby potatoes 90p, 1 mushroom 14p.

The YS ham will be perfect for both Monday and Tuesday, when we will need to have a picnic because we’re going to the Proms. I will need to buy some more bagels, some salad leaves, and some cream cheese.

This brings our total spend to £142.20/£180, leaving £37.80 for the rest of the month.

Should be do-able.

• Pip

K9sandFelines

You're welcome @PipneyJane . I quite like it too, but after this box will just stick with normal teabags. I'm not drinking as much of it as I do in the colder months. So maybe I'll try the cherry Bakewell flavour in a month or so when these ones have all gone.

BurnardDebt

@PipneyJane Tesco might not actually be the cheapest in this situation. There is an app, OptiFuelUK (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/optifueluk/id6773123227) which finds the cheapest place for you to fill up on your current route, and factors in how much extra cost of fuel it would take to travel the extra distance to stations slightly off-route.
Just tell it where you're going, and it will work it all out for you, and it will send the results to your sat nav.