September 2026 Grocery Challenge

Soontobeoap

Still away in the camper van. Today's evening meal was corned beef hash made with tinned corned beef and tinned potatoes..so easy and delicious. I will be making that oneore often at home. So quick and easy.

carboot_karaoke

Hi everyone apologies l haven't been posting much this month.

Since my last post I've had another 7 shops (hangs head in shame) totalling £23.81 from the bulk fund including cleaning products, washing tabs and some multi vitamins for me and the kids. Another £122.66 was spent on food and snacks. New totals

This month is the first time in ages I've had to fill my car with petrol twice, over £125 🥵. So although my food spend is on target the fuel budget is blown

Grocery Budget £288.46 / £400

Bulk Fund £57.30 / £50

Grocery Challenge £ 345.76 / £450

carboot_karaoke

Welcome to @navelorange1 I would echo the comments of everyone else, this is a very welcoming and helpful community.

I have always found a food plan to be helpful, or perhaps batch cooking to cover those days you don't feel like cooking.

But the start point is always working out where the money goes.

RedRose61

Hi everyone. A couple of final things to add onto the grocery challenge. I count cleaning materials in my totals. I bought some floor cleaning wipes £12 and coffee for my machine £15. Both will last a couple of months but as I am under because we were away for a week, I’ve counted them for September. I can see my Christmas stockpiling adding to the next few months but I prefer to spread it out.
Declaring for September £209/£270. £61 underspent.

Pennypincin

hello everyone. Apologies for being awol again.

Welcome to the new people.

I've somehow spent £19.80 in Iceland, then £17.05 in Tesco filling the freezer, with a couple of chilled bits after I defrosted and cleaned the fridge freezer.

I've £3.15 for the week, if I budget weekly or £143.15 left for the month, going into next month.

I should have plenty of freezer stuff with the odd items I'd possibly need.

Edit to add, I'd spent what's left of last months money (£5.84) on a a few odds and ends in Tesco and Morrisons.

Plus I'm really going to try and stick to budget as I've really struggled to and shopped impulsively for a while.

Finstickle

I can't stop spending!

I'm going to declare for September and then the new regime starts from now!

Since my last post I've done:

£7.88 in wholefood - trying TVP mince and soy curls for high protein, low cost, veggie cupboard staples. Got a lot for the money so would be good if I can use these instead of quorn etc

£8.55 - specific items I needed that Lidl didn't have and I was in a different town where Waitrose is the alternative

£23.35 - Lidl - mostly items for a weekend away in the campervan

£24.97 - Tesco - various

£72.71 - Asda, big shop which arrived Sunday night after we got home to ensure we were fully stocked for the week.

Total:

£476.79/£350

(second worst month all year, I need to have a light October)

PipneyJane

Evening All

I have two spends to declare:

• £2.80 in MrT’s on Saturday, spent on 90g Rocket & Baby Leaf Salad £1.30, 2x avocado £1.50
• £3.79 in Sainsbugs yesterday, on Tortilla wraps 99p, mushrooms £1.15, 4-pack garlic 87p, 5 bananas 78p

That’s it for us for September so…

I’m declaring at £139.90/£180 leaving £40.10 to roll over to October

• Pip

navelorange1

I’ve spent too much to take it out of October’s budget. I’m at £378.75 this month which seems crazy to me. My kitchen only contains a normal amount of food, it’s not stock piled. I don’t even remember what I bought in the first half of the month. I’ve noticed that when I get home from work after a 1.5hr journey I really don’t want to cook, so I’m going to try prepping 2-3 dinners at a time. Today I prepped two bowls of tinned red salmon, sticky rice, veg, some leftover tomato sauce and soy sauce.

LotsOfTea

I had an Asda delivery today which came to £45.20 (with £20 off for new customer bonus). I used it to stock up on a few heavy things like tinned beans, bread flour and bottled water. We've had a few instances over the years of the water going off for a day (thankfully nothing longer) so I like to keep a stash of a few big bottles. I'm not going to try and keep the gallons that seen to be suggested as emergency stores as i don't live in a warehouse but a few big bottles seems sensible.

I've done really well this month but that's mostly because we've had so much in stores to use up so we'll see how we get on next month.

£200.31/£300

library0602

Closing here for September, with a win and a fail, we had an unexpected expense this month and instead of using our credit card, we used what was left in our grocery money. The win being no debt and I’ve had to be very creative with what we had left in the pantry and freezer which I actually enjoyed, but I’ll have to build up some of what I used up.

See you all in October

£400/£400