Apart from being cold, July has definitely been a quiet month in terms of grocery shopping in our household. I have been so swamped with work over the past 7 weeks, and including weekends, that I have not had the time or the energy to do as much grocery shopping as I normally do.
I bought groceries from Checkers and Pick ‘n’ Pay this month only. I went to Checkers one day after work and then I went to Pick ‘n’ Pay the following day, also after work. The fact that I had been so busy that I actually had to go shopping after work was less than ideal for me. I am tired after a whole day at work and I often feel rushed to get the shopping done before the shops close and then to get home before I am too exhausted to unpack and put everything away.
I did not go to Meat World for any meat or to the Apple Tree in Alberton for fruit and veggies last month. As it happens, I had enough veggie staples, which for us is potatoes, onions and carrots, to last us for at least two weeks. I would have liked to have gone to Apple Tree in Alberton but as I was at work most weekends last month, that just wasn’t possible. Luckily as well, our freezer was more than sufficiently stocked with enough meat to last us for the whole month ahead. I also had several left-over meals and meals that I had cooked in large batches in our freezer so as I was preparing the shopping list I realised that I wouldn’t actually have to do that much grocery shopping in July anyway, which was a relief, considering how little time I had on my hands.
In terms of specials that I’d found, Pick ‘n’ Pay had good specials on no name brand sugar and long-life milk, Protex bars of soap, sandwich ham at just over R50.00 per kilo (or R5.00 per 100 grams), Pedigree meat pouches at R16.00 for 4 pouches (normally they are about R7.00 per pouch), oil, coffee, tea, Ouma rusks, Tropika juices, dishwasher tablets, cookies, eggs (R34.00 for a tray) and puff pastry. Those are just some of the specials that I’d found which I needed or wanted to buy for us for the month ahead.
In terms of specials at Checkers, they had good specials on Lancewood 1-litre yoghurt tubs, Alpo Purina dog chunks at R 149.00 per 8kg (normally this bag is over R200.00), a variety of ready-made meals reduced to clear for R10.00 / R13.00 / R20.00 per meal, reduced to clear ready-to-roast veggie bags at R20.00 for a very large bag and Husky tinned dog food at just over R17.00 per tin (normally they are about R23.00 or more each). I bought less at Checkers as they simply had fewer items on special which we needed for the month.
Overall, I spent about R330 less in July by shopping specials. On an even more positive note, I spent overall less than what I had budgeted for groceries in July simply because I bought less.
And on an even more positive, and frugal, note I’ve decided that I will be cooking up a storm and getting super, super creative this month with whatever we have in our pantry and freezer. This is partly to compensate for the small amount of grocery shopping which I did in July to get us through the month, and also because I want to save that bit of money which I did not spend on groceries and put it to better use.
So join me in the Pantry and Freezer Challenge in the month of August!
Read more about it in my post Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge.
Loading ...
No Pings Yet