December 2009 Grocery Challenge

Flat_Eric

franby64 wrote: »

Spent £7.21 today and the Co-op has helpfully given me a £4 off £40 voucher!

I find it hard enough to spend the £2 off £20 vouchers - I have to carry it all home. The trouble with this one is that I don't really want to commit that much money and I definitely won't be able to carry it home.

Maybe I'll try and think of as many essential, expensive but light and small items as I can - or maybe I'll just bin it!!

I hate these buy so much, "get some" money off vouchers. Sainsbugs sent me some vouchers to get triple nectar points when I spend £50 or more. Fat chance. not sure what I did with these but I don't have a use for them. My typical spend in Sainsbugs is around £20, £25 at the most (its a metro one that is my local store, thus limited choice, few basics etc). I also had vouchers from Tescadiddles. A bit more flexible, spend £50 get £5 off and there was even one voucher that gave you £7 off when you spent £50 (but this expired yesterday). I get really frustrated because I feel I must spend the £50 to take advantage of the voucher even if there is nothing I need and I just stock up on loo roll or cat food (So the money gets spent) but then I worry that with the offers, it will take it under £50, will no longer qualify etc thus order more. To be honest, I would rather they offer 10% no matter what you spent or free delivery.

mark55man

Last shop before we all break for xmas (Friday) - Mr S, Mr L for a total of £46.

Need to check where I am with my total as OH bought a few odds and sods the other day. Will update in signature when I got me calculator out

angelatgraceland

I always seem to want to shop when the vouchers have expired and lose out. Nestle cereals multipaks are still a good buy in Waitrose and have approx £2 worth of vouchers on the backs. Only Waitrose seem to accept vouchers these days so I don't go too far with it as they could stop accepting them like everywhere alse seems to have done.
Got a lovely joint of pork reduced in there yesterday-far nicer than Ive bought elsewhere and for once the crackling came out nice! I will topup my shopping at Waitrose Christmas eve as they will be almost giving it away in the meat and veg departments judging by last year! Got an Asda delivery arriving Saturday pm with £10 off of a £50 shop. They hadnt notified me-its just that I logged in and checked my evouchers!
Had the pork today as I cheated for Sunday lunch yesterday-Mr W had cooked too many chickens so I bought one reduced(cooked) and we had it between 4 of us with sliced(fresh) crusty bread. Not a Sunday lunch for most people but it was quick and cheap and I was cold and tired!
Spent £9 in Iceland today-their milk is only £1 for a 4pinter and that is indeed pints-good value. Also some eggs mince pies and cheese. Their mincepies are 18 for £2.
I will probably make some too but as I like homemade so much I always overindulge.
Made some linseed and sesame bread today so had that with the roast pork, peas and baked potatoes. We don't normaly bother with deserts as Ive tried to get the kids away from sweet stuff over the years-tho my youngest is now nearly 16-still kids to me-and they all indulge in too many sweets when they have some cash.
Bought some Quality Street last week-yuk-they are not how they used to be-just tasteless sugary things in wrappers-surely its not my imagination that the fillings seem to have become all more or less the same gooey mess?
Got dd a lovely photo frame (Kodak)in Argos today-online it said out of stock so I was surprised they had it when I checked and discarded the one I had reserved(Bush/Alba). Not got the things for Christmas dinner yet but I will get a turkey crown and half a duck I think. Didnt bother with a cake-we have a Stollen and Christmas pudding and I cant remember a year when we ate cake and pudding!

scotsaver

poppy-glos & cw18 - The Morrisons advert was on TV last night, the Choc fingers are Buy 1 get 2 Free at £1.39 - hope that helps.;) Also noticed on the same advert that Choc Oranges are also Buy 1 get 2 Free at £2.36 so I think I will be popping along there later.:o

I've updated my total with yesterdays spends, got almost half of my GC left but that's because I will be doing the bulk of the shopping next week which includes Xmas booze, turkey etc.

Got a Ham Hock/Shank going into the Slow Cooker today, never cooked one before but I picked it up in our new Morrisons after I'd heard it talked about on here - hoping to have the meat off the bone tonight with some Cauliflower cheese and then using the stock to make some Soup for tomorrow night.:D

Have a good day everyone.;)

Winged_one

I added my M&S purchases from Fri to my sig.

And last night, I had to get some bread and beer, and the parsnips were only 50c per bag so I got those (would have been getting them at the weekend anyway, for almost 3 times that). €15.

And I went across the road to get the wine in Lidl I had forgotten - €30 for 6 bottles which will keep us going a few weeks.

XSpender

Oh dear, oh dear gave in to a chinese takeaway last night so have updated the sig with this and my missing Mr M receipt. At least the chinese has fed DH lunch today as well.

I am now well £15 over my target and still have the ham, veggies, cheese and dairy to get for Christmas. There is plenty of stuff to eat in the freezer I just need to get my rear into gear and defrost something for tonight's tea.

It would help if I did a freezer list too as I am now using the freezer in the garage as well as the kitchen one and I forget what we have bought.

poppy-glos

scotsaver wrote: »

poppy-glos & cw18 - The Morrisons advert was on TV last night, the Choc fingers are Buy 1 get 2 Free at £1.39 - hope that helps.;) Also noticed on the same advert that Choc Oranges are also Buy 1 get 2 Free at £2.36 so I think I will be popping along there later.:o.;)

oh dear, i didn't read the shelf very well then... how annoying two for the price of six!
thanks, glad you'd told me rather than standing in the shop being told it and looking quite silly!

x

BigMummaF

thisismoneysaving wrote: »

....
Does anyone have any nice savory christmas snacky recipes they wouldn't mind sharing with me, please??
TIA xx

Have a look for MrsMac's recipes! There's cheese & m@rmite breadsticks among others & tortilla, dough balls & loads of others...should be on the front page of this thread.

franby64 wrote: »

Spent £7.21 today and the Co-op has helpfully given me a £4 off £40 voucher!

I find it hard enough to spend the £2 off £20 vouchers - I have to carry it all home. The trouble with this one is that I don't really want to commit that much money and I definitely won't be able to carry it home.

Maybe I'll try and think of as many essential, expensive but light and small items as I can - or maybe I'll just bin it!!

Could you perhaps 'sell' it on to a neighbour or something, for say £2? I know a fair few people sell vouchers on fleabay etc, but I've never fathomed out how it works And I like the suggestion made by Flat Eric, cuz I rarely have a spend of more than £30 in any particular store these days cuz my storage space is very limited.

thisismoneysaving

Morning all!
I had a massive whoopsie spend-up last night in Tesc0s. Best buy being two fresh lamb leg shanks down from £8.60 to £1.63!!!! :j
As well as lots of veg, fruit, loaf of bread, potatoes, other meats, pate, ham, etc etc...
All in all we only paid 'full price' for milk, rice, some dried herbs and a bag of apples for our whole weekly shop.
It was £43 in total - off to update sig...

BigMummaF wrote: »

Have a look for MrsMac's recipes! There's cheese & m@rmite breadsticks among others & tortilla, dough balls & loads of others...should be on the front page of this thread.

Oooh!! thank you!! Why on earth didn't I think of that?! :p
I have printed out cheesy buscuits, cheese & marmite twists and currant loaf (no, not savoury, but it looks nice!:D) and dog biscuits!

Has anyone ever made their dog a cake?? How'd it go? I'm thinking about doing one for mine for xmas... am I crazy?! :o

Do you think I could replace the marmite in the cheese & marmite twists for tomato puree or something else?

Sorry about all the q's.. you guys are the BEST! :T

yummyhoney

so far today i have spent €53.22 in aldi and €26.43 in dunnes but dunnes i used my vouchers so not going to count them,,prob be another spend later as new shop open near us and kids want to go for a look,,no way i'll get away without buying them somethin:rolleyes: