A trilogy in seven parts.....hypno's latest efforts

Yorkielass

to be organised with food shopping - I know you've already done it this time but do you used mysupermarket? I don't normally get things delivered as only Tesco deliver here :mad: but I find that Sainsburys actually comes out on top for me normally and I have a new love for Sainsburys basics products (much better than Tesco value generally in my opinion), there's a thread on the shopping and grocery thread with people's opinions of good and bad and I've now got a list of extra things to try next week, sorry if you do all this already .

I've spent about 18 months 'developing' our food shopping strategy (only 2 mouths to feed though and generally we are both in together for dinner 5or 6 nights a week which does help I know) so we:

• Do a monthly shop for dry goods, pasta, orange juice etc etc put list into mysupermarket, check offers and buy from the cheapest - now usually Sainsburys who annoyingly don't deliver so get OH to come and help and try and stop him finding other stuff :rolleyes:
• Do a meal plan and list and go to the Sainsburys in our town each week on my own! early evening and get the fresh stuff we need and often manage some good reductions, meat for freezer etc. Try and buy everything for the week, even if it means tinned fruit towards the end.
• Were really bad with pack ups but since our circumstances have changed with OHs funding finishing I've managed to get him to go to pack ups, which I make each morning :rolleyes: often with reduced bread and other things on offer so that's a big saving.
• make extra of things like curry, mashed potato and freeze the extras for later.

My next mission is to use up all the leftovers, and in particular part used/going off fruit and veg, that's our worst thing at the moment. Going to go and make a pudding to use a few bits up this evening and starting next month I'm going to track anything we do waste in my sig to hopefully help me stop doing it in a similar vein to the 100 day challenge on cosmetics.

Sorry for a really long post :o

hypno06

Yorkielass wrote: »

Sorry for a really long post :o

Don't apologise! It is really helpful to have the input!

I have not looked into mysupermarket - but I will do so before my next shop.....

I generally spend less by shopping online, so I can't get carried away with the impulse buys. When I did this every week a few years ago, our grocery budget was nicely under control. Then I had a couple of bad deliveries, and I let it slip, just doing the odd one or two when I remembered..:o

I am going to try and do a mahoosive shop at payday time....including washing powder, dishwasher tabs, shampoo etc - the expensive stuff....then a smaller weekly shop for food/catfood etc.

I need to get back a bit O/S and buy white vinegar/soda crystals/stardrops - these are things that have fallen by the wayside in the last year or so after the initial MSE oomph!

We do have pack ups - both children and the student, and OH have packed lunches without fail - I am the worst culprit for not doing it and slipping in the occasional :rolleyes: shop bought lunch. I am trying to be more strict with myself, and it is working better than before.

Mealtimes are somewhat erratic.....everyone working different long hours and lots of sports activities, but with a bit more organisation, use of the slow cooker and more batch cooking, I can tackle this - it is a case of me making more of an effort, because it used to be something I did without any problem at all!

So...generally speaking it is bad habits creeping in.....which I need to eliminate! As a result, I hope to eat healthier/better, reduce waste, and stick to my budgets a bit better!

Just need to be organised.......will mooch round O/S for a bit of stardrop induced motivation!!

Yorkielass

Mysupermarket is really worth using. I got cashback through quidco when I registered and used it and you get ipoints every time you do an order (I can't find them on quidco now but I'm sure they'll be somewhere).

You can import your favourites from Tescos so it saves time rather than starting from sctratch and you can interchange between Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Waitrose (before you start it tells you who delivers to you). If you click on say Asda it will change all your shop own brands to their equivalents.

The running totals for each shop are shown at the top, and if there's an offer it alters the total accordingly, which Tescos doesn't do so that helps keep track. Then there's swap and save which shows things you can swap and save money (e.g. something on offer, own brand etc) and there's Martin's downshift challenge you can use to shop to 'value' brands too.

You then export the shop and it takes you to Tescos (or wherever) and then apply codes and check out in the normal way. Or you can print out the list and even print it out for 2 shops, e.g. if you want mainly Sainsburys but there's a few bits that are cheaper in Tescos you can have 2 lists.

There are some good dooyoo reviews on this too, worth the time to fiddle with a bit I think.

hypno06

Sounds well worth a couple of hours of playing about with!! Roll on next Thursday for my shopping list!!

beanielou

*Random post*
Last ever ER,
'Previously on ER' was emotional enough:eek:

lucielle

Good news on the ironing. My pile is starting to grow. However I only have 2 odd socks. Go me!
L

hypno06

Have never watched ER, beanie......sorry!!

Lucielle, I still have the odd sock job to do......I pledge that it will be done by the end of the weekend.....promise! But I have kept on top of the washing/ironing so far (ok, it is only 3 days, but hey we all have to start somewhere....baby steps!).

Have had a quick look at mysupermarket - Topcashback are giving £4 so will sign up through them.....every little helps! Thanks YL!!

ShelleyC_2

beanielou wrote: »

*Random post*
Last ever ER,
'Previously on ER' was emotional enough:eek:

I'm recording it as don't think I can cope with it on a Thursday night. Might watch on Sunday afternoon with box of tissues

skint_spice

Thanks for the mysupermarket sign up tip, I wouldn't have thought to look!

hypno06

I have signed up to the grocery challenge for June :eek: I have put in a budget of £400 which is way over where I want to be (I want to be closer to half that) but whenever I try, I fail, so I thought I had better start off more realistically, and then if I come in under budget I can lower the target next month.

DD has a birthday in June too, so this gives me enough for a birthday meal or takeaway (hopefully!).

Have also set my sig up for NSDs and £10 a day challenge - I do far better at them when I have to confess in my signature for all to see :rolleyes: