March 2011 Grocery Challenge

Diflower

Very glad to see your news Angel, will be thinking of you.

Spiggle yes a horrible shock but still what a good thing it was found. All the very best wishes for whatever comes next.

On the GC front, still doing well. Small shop yesterday, just £4.50 - a 4-pack of Ripples was not exactly on the list, but if they're only £1 surely it's the law:)

The unChristmas dinner was lovely. I cooked the turkey in the morning, and spent ages taking it all off the carcass, I left some bits whole and sliced/chopped the rest. We had turkey, roast potatoes & parsnip, purple sprouting, carrots & sugarsnaps, and stuffing. And gorgeous gravy - the turkey came with giblets, so I did make stock, but the main flavour was from the roasting tine. I'd put in a carrot, half an onion, half a lemon and a garlic clove, plus the wing tips, which is how I usually do gravy anyway, but turkey does make a good flavour.
And the dog has the liver and all the odd bits in a tub to add to her meals, so we're all doing well out of it:)
The turkey itself is very good I must say (L!dl frozen), it's French and had a pop-up timer in it.

So lunch will be turkey & stuffing rolls/sandwiches, and tonight will be cold turkey, potato wedges, coleslaw and salad:T We have OH's boys for the weekend, they might get the option of a hotdog for lunch, but the elder one will choose turkey anyway.

Tomorrow I'll have a look at how much there is, thought I might freeze some chopped in the gravy, ready-made pie filling.

fedupandskint

£21 spent in Sanisbugs on milk, juice cartons, butter, ariel stain remover stuff on offer and whatever else I got for that in 3 heavy bags to lug home.

Just made some oatmeal parkin out of Delia's book to use up the oatmeal had for ages, next is nigella's chocolate chip cookies to use up long stored chocolate chips in the cupboard.

Ate 2 slices of leftover pizza for lunch with the other 2 slices for tomorrow.

Just deciding what to do next - cook a lamb curry to freeze, bake cookies, wash kitchen floor......

never_too_old

slbhill wrote: »

I have just popped on to update my signature. I did some very very careful shopping on Thursday, preceded by hours on end playing with Tesc0's price check thingy. There are a few people here who've asked about it so I'll go into a bit of detail - hope nobody minds!

Where it gets complicated is that Tesc0 will refund double the difference if your ENTIRE shop would have cost less at MrA. So if your bread would have cost 10p less at MrA but your milk would have cost 10p more then they cancel each other out and there is no refund. So the trick is to prepare, and split your trolley.

On the price check website ( http://www.tesco.com/pricecheck/ ) you can check the two costs for an individual product, or "browse by aisle" to spot real bargains. I did a LOT of this and made myself 2 SEPARATE shopping lists. You have to check the prices on the same day as you do the shopping as they're changed every day, and as far as I can tell you need to use the price check website because some of the others come up with different comparisons. I copied the info from the website & printed it so I bought exactly the right product at the right price - to make sure it was the comparable one.

There are a few things where the "double the difference" refund is bigger than the cost - so they're paying you to take it away :beer: Example was Banrock wine - priced at £10.49 a bottle :eek: at Tesc0 but £5 at MrA. So you pay £10.49, but are refunded double the difference - the difference is 5.49 so the refund is 2*5.49 = £10.98! BUT be aware - the refund is in a Tesc0 voucher and must be used within 28 days of issue. There is also a risk - prices do change often (both shops are watching each other and repricing daily) and sometimes things get excluded for no apparent reason. A lot of the stuff which I wouldn't have bought except for the offer I didn't unpack when I got home - I put it to one side until I got confirmation of the refund, so I could return it if I didn't get my refund The 4 bottles of wine in particular!!

So I have one list of stuff I want to buy which is cheaper at Asda, and one of other stuff. I go round Mr T's with my trolley split in half - to keep the 2 lists separate. I paid for the 2 lots separately. When I got home I put the details from my carefully selected trolley into the pricecheck thingy, and the following day they emailed me my voucher for more than 3/4 of my money back :j Of course the snag is that I have spent the money - it's come out of my account, even though I have this massive voucher sitting here ready for next month! In hindsight I should have split my trolley further and divided the "selected" lot into 2 batches so I would have got 2 medium vouchers instead of one huge one - it can only be used once, so next month I'll have to do a mega top-up shop at the beginning of the month to make full use of the voucher.

It's taken me a couple of days to work out how to account for it in the grocery challenge, but I think I've got it now!

Other hint for anyone who's going to try and work the system...
Particularly good deals are often things where Tesc0 has the product on BOGOF while Mr A is half price - I got cheese for £3.98, it was on BOGOF but I only bought one, didn't get the "free" one. It was £2 at MrA so my refund was £3.96 - meaning I got a block of cheese for 2p :beer:.

Anyhow, after pondering it, I am only charging the balance (what I paid MINUS the refund voucher) to this month's grocery challenge. More money than that has come off my credit card, but it will rebalance itself next month when I spend the voucher. It all gets very complicated. I kind of enjoyed it, it's like a game, to see whether I can beat Tesc0 on their home ground. Like most gambling, bear in mind that the house always wins in the end - I got a massive voucher, but I have to go back to them to spend it.

now let me get this right, i have gone through my supermarket and have 10 items ( branded) which are more expensive in mr t than asda.the products are the
cheese ( only getting 1)
pringles (only getting 1)
Rowntree's Pick & Mix (185g)( only getting 1
snickers 5 pack
PG Tips Pyramid Tea Bags (160 per pack - 500g)
Fanta Z Orange Zero Added Sugar (6x330ml)
Pepsi Max (2L)
TRESemm! 24 Hour Body Shampoo (900ml)
TRESemm! 24 Hour Body Conditioner (900ml)
i have put on my list a number of other varieties of this in case not in stock
and Nestle Cookie Crisp (565g)
if i just stick to this list, will i be covered?
thanks for everones time on this im having a dense few days:(

quintwins

i had a look and yeah your list seems about right

i think i can but just checking if i pay for my shopping with my voucher can i then submit my new receit for another?

slbhill

l.m.hart wrote: »

now let me get this right, i have gone through my supermarket and have 10 items ( branded) which are more expensive in mr t than asda.the products are the
cheese ( only getting 1)
pringles (only getting 1)
Rowntree's Pick & Mix (185g)( only getting 1
snickers 5 pack
PG Tips Pyramid Tea Bags (160 per pack - 500g)
Fanta Z Orange Zero Added Sugar (6x330ml)
Pepsi Max (2L)
TRESemm! 24 Hour Body Shampoo (900ml)
TRESemm! 24 Hour Body Conditioner (900ml)
i have put on my list a number of other varieties of this in case not in stock
and Nestle Cookie Crisp (565g)
if i just stick to this list, will i be covered?
thanks for everones time on this im having a dense few days:(

YOu really need to put them in the TEsco pricecheck website to be sure. I had a look and I think your Fanta Z is coming up "N/F" on the pricecheck website which means it will be excluded (no money back, but nothing taken off your voucher either). Your TreSemm is coming up as more expensive at Asda though, unless I'm looking at the wrong variety? The others all look good though.

Some people have been printing off the info from the website in case Tesc0 argue it later but I'm not sure I'd have the front to argue

quintwins wrote: »

i think i can but just checking if i pay for my shopping with my voucher can i then submit my new receit for another?

Yes you can. There is some chat on the thread linked to the Wednesday email about people "stacking" vouchers - getting one, then using it to buy more "money back" products and building up to an even bigger voucher! Seems like quite a gamble as well as a hassle - but potentially lucrative if you've the time and the confidence!

I nearly got very carried away buying stuff I didn't need just because it would have been a bargain Good job for the GC or I might not have reined myself in in time!!

WelshWoofer

Put my last 2 Mr T receipts into the price checker thingy yesterday and just got 2 emails back and I get nothing back:(
It was a normal shop both times though with no effort to make any money - seemed a bit coincidental that almost all things were exactly the same price at both shops though ?

Oh well worth a try I suppose?

never_too_old

slbhill wrote: »

YOu really need to put them in the TEsco pricecheck website to be sure. I had a look and I think your Fanta Z is coming up "N/F" on the pricecheck website which means it will be excluded (no money back, but nothing taken off your voucher either). Your TreSemm is coming up as more expensive at Asda though, unless I'm looking at the wrong variety? The others all look good though.

Some people have been printing off the info from the website in case Tesc0 argue it later but I'm not sure I'd have the front to argue



Yes you can. There is some chat on the thread linked to the Wednesday email about people "stacking" vouchers - getting one, then using it to buy more "money back" products and building up to an even bigger voucher! Seems like quite a gamble as well as a hassle - but potentially lucrative if you've the time and the confidence!

I nearly got very carried away buying stuff I didn't need just because it would have been a bargain Good job for the GC or I might not have reined myself in in time!!

thanks
your right if it hadnt been for this challenge i would have gone way ott, everything is justified, sweets for cinema( freebie) next week, cereal dd alternates between this and porridge, crisps are treat for dd and her bf tonight and cheese im sure cheese is one of the reasons i see ds often his gf wont buy strong cheese so he eats mine lol:D

jumblejack

jovi20 wrote: »

Cooked them all when I got home, Chicken & turkey both fine and dated use by end 11th, but the pork even though dated use by end of 12th just smelt and tasted really funny so binned that. Glad I didn't pay more for it!

Nooooooooooo!!!!!

This happened to me a fortnight ago. There were 2 packs of whoopsied diced chicken breast which looked decidedly dodgy. I bought it DELIBERATELY....
... the next morning, I opened it to check (it was sell by the night before but use by the next day!) and yep, it smelled off.
Off I trotted with them back to Tescos and...
... Asked for replacement NOT refund as I respectfully pointed out that they should have been ok to use that day and I had to drive all the way back to return them. The staff didn't bat an eyelid and told me to get 2 replacements. I made sure I got the best dated packs too, yay!!!

If it is off, whoopsied or not, they should give you the option of refund or replacement!

Hope to help!

Btw, we are off to watch Shaun the Sheep at the theatre later this afternoon (ds1 won family tickets, yay!). Normally I would have stacked up the treats but instead we have spent 40 mins baking together.
I wanted to use up some of my whoopsied lemons so we made lemon drizzle cupcakes (MUCH better this way as they only take up a fraction of time in the oven and are much easier to eat in a theatre!) and lemon biscuits.
Ds1 has enjoyed doing this as much as he will enjoy eating them later too!!

I'm off to make up some drinks for the kids and a flask for us! A bit cheeky really to sneak them in but as everyone jets off at the intermission, no one will notice.....

quintwins

tresemme is on 2 for £4 in a$da which isn't showing on the te$co check but does when you buy 2 i bought the salon silk, the exotic fanta is included so you could get it, i did another list cause i wnat more cheese:o so might aswell use the whole voucher, the stuff i'm getting today will hopefully cost me £5-£6 all in, but i'm being very careful to only buy stuff i need, might treat my boys to a happy meal when were over that way since all the rest of this weeks treats are gonna be free

wuvvies

hi,
im a newbie on here. i have some sort of grocery shopping problem!! although i make from scratch and bulk make and freeze i seem to pop to my local supermakets at least 4 times a week which i know is ridiculous.there are 2 adults and 2 children and a couple of times a week 3 children when my eldest visits. i have just started using a spending diary took on my pc which told me after 9 days i have spent 91 pound on shopping BUT there was nothing much in the cupbards and i needed to go again!i need to be organised as i work part time but funny hours and thats why i make lasagne and pies etc to go in freezer. i never buy ready meals as i always have my own meals in single portions for the freezer. i make my own bread cakes and biscuits.i just dont know where it goes. every sunday night i meal plan for that week and write a shopping list of what will see me through the week and then i shop to that list but end up going shopping another 2 to 3 times that week as well. help and tips required!!