July 2019 Grocery Challenge

Scrimps · 22 June 2019 at 8:41PM

£200 again for us.
2 adults and 2 kids under 2. Includes everything except alcohol and kids are mostly in reusable nappies with only a little bit of formula milk.

I'm taking the cat food out of the budget though and having separate fund of about £50. I thought the cats had started eating tinned food but it was just neighbourhood cats sneaking in the cat flap and eating it all up. The elder boy cat continues to struggle to have an appetite so we'll continue to buy him raw food and doubly delicious pouches, both of which blow our budget. I still have a store cupboard we will be clearing down of tinned pulses and rice/pasta etc.
Really hope I can do this in July, June didn't go very well on any of the budgets

taka · 22 June 2019 at 10:47PM

Can I be put down for £161.20 (£5.20 per day) for July please? Thank you!!

Suffolk_lass · 23 June 2019 at 7:17AM

elsiepac wrote: »

Budgets updated to here

My new month starts on 26th which is Wednesday. I'm provisionally saying £200 but there is a small possibility I'll be moving house to a slightly more expensive but very lovely place if I'm accepted by the landlord with a guarantor, scary stuff. If I'm not then I'm going to really focus on getting my spends more under control and try and get some little savings built up because this (very stressful) week has really highlighted to me how crap I am with money and I do not like this feeling.

One thing I want to do is stop having so much stored. I guess it's one thing being well stocked up but I keep a lot in my kitchen and I don't think I need to keep so much.
So for July (whether I move at the end or not), I am going to try and actually use what I have here and not panic if I get near the end of something. Because half of it has sat there for ages anyway so why am I storing it?!

Ooh good luck with the new place to live Elsie - fingers crossed for you.

Re storing the food, I am like you and keep good stores but sometimes it gets a bit out of hand and I re-post on the Old-style thread for eating out of your freezer and cupboards (link here).

The mindset for me is that I am paying the SM to store their food.

Using it up only works if I make in-my-store meals and pare back what I buy to the very basics (mine are different to you as I am not vegan) with a list stuck to the fridge of the grocery things I need (composting bags, liquid soap not in a plastic bottle and sumac are on my list at the moment). I will need fresh fruit (bowl and berries) and my staples of yogurt, butter and milk but I am using more frozen veg (beans I froze last summer when I grew a glut still take up nearly a drawer

).

I was thinking of only buying food that is not in plastic and letting this drive my list. Is anyone else doing this?

getmyacttogether2016 · 23 June 2019 at 8:07AM

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I was thinking of only buying food that is not in plastic and letting this drive my list. Is anyone else doing this?

Did some of this yesterday and ended up paying more than food already packaged. To keep costs down I also bought ready packaged. Didn’t buy any this time but single pepper 55p, pack of 3 £1.09ish.

GMAT

Saver.The.Taste · 23 June 2019 at 10:08AM

Hi would you please put me down for this challenge, going to cut my June budget down so from 1/7 to 28/7 i'm going to go for £126, cutting down my previous budget by 50p a day, slowly slowly save the pennies!

thriftmonster · 24 June 2019 at 8:25AM

Morning all,

I spent £33.27 yesterday so a total of £55.30 for the week. It's all been meal planned to use up some stuff we have in already in the freezer etc. I have overnight guests on Friday as well so will send ds2 up to the old house (which we still own ) to see if there are any gooseberries for a crumble. The neighbours are very helpful in ensuring none of the fruit goes to waste!

elsiepac · 24 June 2019 at 12:34PM

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Ooh good luck with the new place to live Elsie - fingers crossed for you.

Thank you - I should hear this afternoon - eek! :eek:

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Re storing the food, I am like you and keep good stores but sometimes it gets a bit out of hand and I re-post on the Old-style thread for eating out of your freezer and cupboards (link here).

The mindset for me is that I am paying the SM to store their food.

I do like that thread - I mostly keep the stuff to make up meals so it just fresh veggies and herbs that can round things out. If I did end up moving I'm not sure if there is a full freezer in the new place, so I'd deffo need to run the freezer down again! It's not too bad as I recently emptied and defrosted it again, so it's not rubbish in there for years, it's batch cooked stuff, frozen veggie meats, ice lollies and veggies really.

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Using it up only works if I make in-my-store meals and pare back what I buy to the very basics (mine are different to you as I am not vegan) with a list stuck to the fridge of the grocery things I need (composting bags, liquid soap not in a plastic bottle and sumac are on my list at the moment). I will need fresh fruit (bowl and berries) and my staples of yogurt, butter and milk but I am using more frozen veg (beans I froze last summer when I grew a glut still take up nearly a drawer ).

I do the grocery list on the fridge thing too! My compulsion is ALWAYS to buy at least 2 of everything though, I am always worried that if I run out of something I won't be able to afford to buy it again when I need it! Lucky you growing stuff! I would have a bit of room to experiment in the new place I think, but it's quite a big garden to maintain as it is so not sure if I would be brave enough. I probably won't even get it so I need to stop thinking like this lol! Hard to focus until I find out though!!!

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I was thinking of only buying food that is not in plastic and letting this drive my list. Is anyone else doing this?

I'm definitely cutting down more but I do find, as getmyacttogether said, that it can be more expensive for some products, precisely like the peppers mentioned. I do have little reusable drawstring bags now though which I take in, and it makes me try and get stuff loose more, like carrots for example.

Doom_and_Gloom · 24 June 2019 at 3:24PM

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I was thinking of only buying food that is not in plastic and letting this drive my list. Is anyone else doing this?

I do my best to buy package free.
Earlier I bought one pepper, 50p. Meanwhile you can get a bag of 3 for £1.10 or a bag of 4-6 for £1.20.
Again earlier I bought loose mushrooms that are 20p more per kg than the cheapest wrapped in plastic version.
Annoying yes. However only having what I need in can help with the budget.
Sometimes I buy reduced items wrapped in plastic but to me the waste of both the plastic and food inside is a worse thing.

ChihiroSen · 24 June 2019 at 10:18PM

May I be added for £200. It is just me, but I have absolutely no supplies so I want to fill my pantry.” Thanks

dan958 · 25 June 2019 at 12:34PM

July will be my first month doing this. I am looking to spend £120 a month (including all other items such as cleaning supplies etc)

I will probably update this at the end of each week to show my progression over the month. Once I have my 'baseline' down, I can spot for areas for improvement. So even if this month is a bust, it will help me progress.

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July 2019 Grocery Challenge

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