September 2010 Grocery Challenge

gdyr1945

Not very happy today! Had delivery from Dan Ap. Food and although the bread mix was ticked as though in the box IT WAS MISSING! The main reason I had an order this month was to get this product. Don't know what they will do as this is only my 3rd order with them. Having a refund of the £1.98 isn't what I want; I want my 7kgs of bread mix.

Hoping new freezer will come tomorrow so I can have 'fun' sorting everything out. Have already told other half he can take notes so I will have an up to date list. Just have to remember to add or subtract things as the weeks go by. Don't think I've ever been so organised:A before. My 'usual' method has been to decide our meals about an hour before we eat and, as I know, you will all realise this has often lead to a lot of waste. Really trying hard to make proper weekly meal plans and lists.

I am convinced things can only get better. I am lucky in that our children are grown up and not living at home and we do not have any debts to worry about.
Good luck to everyone, give yourselves a big pat on the back for a)trying and b) all the support.

Morganarla

Spent another pound today.. On a basics pizza. Couldn't resist, it's been far too long and hard a day!

sistercas

Jevvers wrote: »

Btw did anyone else see Watchdog talking about supermarket tactics like buy two for £2 when the individual items are only 99p each or sbury bigger pack better value rice which works out more per kilo? Cheeky swines! I had spotted a few of this sort of thing last time I was in tseco - thanks to my mse training I think I managed not to fall for any but I do find shopping takes twice as long when you have to work out price per kg all the time!

they are naughty arnt they

i think being part of this site means we all check and double check
I know i do , i have noticed however that they try and make it as awkward as possible by having a product priced in kgs and then the same thing but different size in grams ! why do that? the only reason i can think is to make it harder for the shopper . anyway my maths is quite good now thanks to checking all the prices

[Deleted User]

Went to Ikea yesterday and spent £25.41 but it didn't come out of my food budget so thats still intact .but today I will be going shopping for basic food and fruit and veg so my food purse will be used .The stuff I bought from Ikea included four nice smelly candles in jars and a vase and some picnic beakers plus a floor standing uplighter and some bulbs for my sitting room so I think I had quite a good bargain day there.i had never been there before and was suprised at how inexpensive it was.The candles will become small christmas presents for my neighbours along with the glass vase for a relation so really I had got some 5 gifts that only cost me £9.75 the rest went on my light and some electric bulbs.I was very pleased with my buys.my pal bought me a nice coffee whilst we were there and we had free refills .+Today my food purse will take a hit as it will be my second shopping day this month.eating out of the freezer is definitely saving me some cash though.

sofababe

Managed to spend £7.98 in Mr A yesterday on veg and a pot of cream to go on a donated crumble from my daughter's MiL. Thanks Penny:beer:

Hopefully I'll be able to come in on budget as I think I'm only going to need fresh F&V and possibly cat food before the end of the month. Fingers crossed.

pipersky

Hi everyone

Checking in to update

Spent £45.08 on Tuesday on online shop from Mr T
Spent £17.70 at Didl, AIdi and Mr S yesterday on fruit, veg and bargains!

Off to uodate sig - have a good day everyone...

nat21luv

hi guys, i wanted to tell you all about the cheap chicken i bought from te$co...

i bought a market value whole chicken from te$co for 1.99 seeing as im trying to save money. to my horror i was washing the chicken and turned it over to reveal a huge dark purple bruise that covered its wing and surrounding area. i couldnt face cooking the poor thing that had obviously been mistreated so i emailed te$co customer services stating the chickens condition with photographic evidence, how appalled i was to see the chicken had been mistreated and that i was even sold it. this is the reply i received....


Dear Natalie

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for contacting me regarding this matter and please allow me to apologise for the delay in getting back to you. We do endeavour to reply to all enquiries as quickly as possible, and I’m very sorry that I’ve let you down in that respect.

Also, please accept my sincere apologies for the amount of disappointment this matter has undoubtedly caused. I understand that you placed your online order in good faith, however we've failed to fulfil your expectations on this occasion. Having studied the attached photograph, agreeably the quality of the chicken we delivered to you was completely unacceptable and I too would feel equally concerned about the welfare of these animals.

I believe the most powerful way we have secured improvements in animal welfare is by informing and empowering our customers to choose more humane and welfare-friendly products. We've doubled our orders for premium chicken, which means there will be far more Free Range, Willow Farm, Finest and organic chicken available for shoppers. This will bring the proportion of higher welfare chicken Tesco sells up to around 30% of total chicken sales, an increase of 70% compared to this time last year.

Tesco Willow Farm Chicken also demonstrates we are serious about giving customers the opportunity to support higher welfare poultry production at prices that more people can afford. That said, large number of our customers are on a tight budget and rely on lower cost foods to feed their families. We believe it would be wrong to remove these options for them. We will continue to offer a choice of chicken, whilst explaining clearly the welfare and environmental benefits of each product so that customers can make an informed choice.

We insist on high standards of animal welfare across our supply chain, and believe this has driven up standards across the industry. All our UK meat, poultry, eggs and farmed fish suppliers must be members of independently audited and certified farm assurance schemes. We also have a dedicated agricultural team to ensure that farmed animals are reared for Tesco in a humane and compassionate manner, as well as independent auditors who carry out third-party inspections to ensure our standards are being met.

In addition to this, we invest in research and specialist advice to drive improvements on animal welfare. For example, over the past six years we have committed more than £1 million to support research - in particular through Oxford University's Food and Animal Initiative which develops sustainable farm systems that provide benefits to animal welfare, and shares its knowledge with farmers and the general public.

Thank you for your comments. I do hope that we've gone some way to assuring you of our commitment to animal welfare. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me at online@tesco.co.uk


so i wanted to let you know i wont be buying a market value chicken(as they cant guarantee its welfare) in future so i'll just have to up my budget a bit!

greent

nat21luv

did they refund you at all? It's quite a waffly reply that puts the emphasis back to the consumer. If they were that concerned, they could get rid of battery chickens and eggs totally

I wouldn't buy a mkt val chicken from a taste point of view equally as a moral point of view. If you can stretch to the willow farm ones, they are SO much nicer. You need less meat because it's so tasty and then rubber chicken it for all it's worth! I even pick the carcass again after making stock and the little crumbs that come off so easily then are perfect for risotto (can recommend the oven method in the recipe index - easy and lush!) I try and buy as big a chook as I can, working on the basis that propotionately there'll be more meat. (and if you ever see a corn fed chook whoopsied, snap it up - yum yum!)

nat21luv

greent,

yes they did refund but that wasnt my main concern. i dont normally buy a chicken that cheap but doing the downshift i thought i'd be brave! i will definitely stick to willow chicks in future. whoopsied chicks are hard to come by but im going to sainsburys tonight quite late so maybe tonights the night for a whoopsie?!! ('every little helps' )

[Deleted User]

nat21luv wrote: »

greent,

<<yes they did refund but that wasnt my main concern. i dont normally buy a chicken that cheap but doing the downshift >>

You were lucky to get a reply and a refund .My DD sent a letter of complaint to Tesco's when her DD found a piece of tooth filling in her 'billy bear' slices it wasn't the little girl's as she had no fillings at that time she was only 4.My DD never had a reply or apology.She had returned it to the store as well.Needless to say she has never shopped in Tesco's since.
I have just returned from the shops and have spent £17.74 so in total I have spent £20.00 since 1st September on food which I am very pleased with.Got quite a few whoopsied veggies as well from Sainsbobs.I also got 4 limes for 10p reduced from £1.99 has anyone frozen these, and do they freeze as well as lemons do as I don't really want to use them just yet but at 10p I can't resist a bargain For some reason they had quite a lot of oranges as well but they will be used up over the weekend