August 2026 Grocery Challenge

Matron_Midge

spent £13.74 on yogurt, sultanas, couscous, garlic powder, lemon juice and smarties. All essentials 🤣😜

MrsFrugalLiving

Hello All 😊

August week two done.  Allotment and pots at home starting to provide some veg now which is great to avoid the supermarket.  Still trying to eat down the freezer, but I keep adding to it which isn’t helping!  I can’t seem to cook small portions 😂

Lidl £31.78 and Home Bargins £6.37 = £38.15

Lidl -bread & croissant free, salmon, grapes, blueberries, grapefruit, olives, kidney beans x3, oat milk x2, soya milk, yogurt, oranges, lemons, nectarines, vine tomatoes, avocado, rice cakes, kiwi, goats cheese, feta, mushrooms, limes, eggs, bananas.

Home bargains - scourers, deodorant and garden string!

Spend so far £85.11/£190

Balance £143.04

Suffolk_lass

Not sure what your balance signifies @MrsFrugalLiving but £190-£85.11 is not 143.03 - it is £104.89 over here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82098685#Comment_82098685

Greying_Pilgrim

@Suffolk_lass - I think the balance of @MrsFrugalLiving 's post just hasn't been updated - it tallies with her balance following August week 1, from her……4th August post?

I've popped in to update balances. We went to the retail park on a fruitless hunt for a sports item, in the big box sports store - luckily they had none of what we were after - loathe that store….. But we went via Leedle as we were out of yoghurt and they'd been out of stock for yonks, but I wanted to go there first in case we then had to revert to Sainsbugs. Anyway, there was yoghurt, and I got my free bakery spin item (a foccacia roll), and some smoked tempeh to try. I also re-stocked sunscreen as we're getting low.

Total (food) spend was £4.77. I'll update my siggie figgie.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

We went over to a shop that was the right side of town for fArmf00ds. I always find it hard to resist to 'pop in' to FF. Today was no exception. But they did have the 1ndus black eye peas 1kg pillow packs that I've only ever found in there once previously, so I stocked up with 4 packs @ £1.29 ea - they are by far my favourite pulse. I am now pretty set for pulses, certainly for 2026, and into 2027. Those will come out of 'bulk' funds. I also got a tray of 12 tins of plum tomatoes. I do prefer chopped, but 99% of the time, plum work just as well in the type of dishes I make, so I have no qualms in getting them. I'll count them in the August budget, as although the weather has slowed down their use, I tend to use alot of tins of tommies each month. I also got a 850ml bottle of r1bena for £1.59, and 5 of the 1ndus tins of red kidney beans that @kayannie told me about that are retailing for 19p each. This is a better deal than the FF own branded RKB's which are 3 for £1. Date is good until 2028 on the tins, although I did have to dig through to find undented ones 😉

£6.53 of August's budget spent.

£5.16 of 'bulk' budget spent.

I am now sitting on my hands for the rest of the day, and will not step out of the door again, this arvo! 🤣

Greying X

Suffolk_lass

Wow, that really is good value @Greying_Pilgrim ! But for the heaving cupboards and full freezer I would have made a trip but we are staying home and only buying stuff that we have run out of now. Milk will be a tomorrow or Friday thing I think

TravelCrystal

Good morning G.Cers

First many thanks @joedenise for the co op reminder. I had £1 off as my deal of the week and on the way back from an outing yesterday called in to see if they had any of the steak and chips offer you mentioned, and they did. Also snaffled a YS chicken steaks in breadcrumbs, total spent £4.95 with my discount. The steaks are currently in the freezer, suggested not to freeze the chips which are in the fridge with a use by date of the 16th so that’s Sunday lunch sorted this week.

Earlier in the week I spent £3.25, can’t remember on what, £1.14 on rolls and £3.44 in Lidl yesterday, sadly D.H was with me and insisted on some salad Caesar dressing😡I had to go in there for free veg, picked sweet red peppers, bought 2 bananas and a jar of pickle which they didn’t have the other day in the usual Lidl I go to and a free cake with my spin, however by the time I got home, maybe 45 minutes later and took out the peppers one of them had to be thrown out. Consequently that’s one reason I have my Ocado delivery coming at lunchtime as I do think the quality of fruit and veg is better, certainly lasts longer in our fridge.

I have calculated the cost will be £84.08 which in theory should last until the end of August, not much wriggle room to keep within budget, but I will.
I am expecting chilli and hoisin sauce, baked beans x 4, 3 bottles of wine, 1.5kg of chicken breast fillets, lots of fruit, veg and salad items, not tomatoes as we have plenty in the garden, 3x large milk for the freezer, bleach, burger buns, kitchen rolls and a tub of ice cream.

Total spent this week £90.16, total to date £192.85

Emergencies only for the rest of August 🤭

Enjoy the sun watching, those that are participating. D.H has purchased several pairs of the glasses and apparently we are having a get together later with the neighbours.

It’s going to be a hot one

Enjoy your day

T.C

On delivery a gain of £1.70 so £191.15 so far

MrsFrugalLiving

Oops! Sorry all got my figures wrong!
Well spotted @Suffolk_lass and yes @Greying_Pilgrim you were quite right I hadn’t updated my total (maths not my strong point) Balance now reduced to £104. 89 sadly!!

joedenise

@TravelCrystal - the chips freeze OK. I bought 3 lots and froze 2 lots of steak and chips. We had one the day after we bought them, the first frozen ones a couple of days ago and the 3rd lot will be had towards the end of the month.

TravelCrystal

Thanks for that @joedenise although I think we will probably have them on Sunday, of course if it’s as hot as it is today, we may not

34 here 🫠

T.C