The Reduced section: Your best bargains

TurnaroundSue

Pink-winged wrote: »

In Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping there's a link to Secret Reduction policies that may help.

Pink

Thanks Pink - will have a look at that tomorrow - could help me tremendously in my plan

TurnaroundSue

Morwenna - have you been doing this long? and if so, how much do you think it saves you on your monthly budget? Hope you don't think I'm being nosey, just interested to see if my efforts will be worth it!!!

Pink.

Hi TurnaroundSue,

I had a root around for you and found this thread that should help so I've added your posts to it to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

Kaz2904

In Weston super Mare I find it's only really Asda that you can get super reductions from. The others seem to keep everything at nearly full price.

gozaimasu

My local Tesco usually has quite good reductions, particularly on bakery items. Just recently though, they've started reducing things by a really absurdly small amount. For example, they'd reduced some cakes from £1.49 to £1.48! Only 1p reduction!! Maybe they were hoping that we'd see the yellow reduction sticker and grab them without looking at the actual price.

sammy_kaye18

Hi All

Jsut wanted to add as an employee of the 'coop' that in the mornings we have to mark down by 25%, midday it goes to 50% and at abotu 5/6pm we mark down by 75% - so our store always has items about 6pm all marked down to 20p and 10p - mostly bread rolls, veg, fruit and meat but there are always lots of use by the next day items so i would recommend to anyone who lives near one to try then.

IT is always handy and i manage to keep a fully stocked freezer (ok its small but still brimming) with meat, veg and bread rolls. Handy to have and check out.

(also added to say that if there is deals on - ie bogof) it still applies on reduced items!!

cupid_s

Our tesco and asda are great for reduced things, but sainsburys is a bit rubbish. Half the stuff in our freezer was yellow stickered. One time in tesco I spent about £30 on meat and fish, and when I added up what it should have cost based on the original prices, it was about £140!

Stephen_Leak

I always check out the reduced shelves at my local ASDA. Sometimes they are a bit empty, sometimes they are full and sometimes nothing on them sparks what I call a "Ready Steady Cook moment".

Last time, all I got was a couple of naan breads, but one of those was broken and reduced to just 10p. They will go perfectly with a couple of the batch cooked servings of curries in the freezer.

My all time best "raid" was just before Christmas. Not only did I get a pair of those little smoked salmon mousse parcels for the starter, but also a pair of venison steaks, which I did after Christmas, garnished with a cherry tomato. They've delivered the presents, so you can now eat the reindeer!

Angelina-M

TurnaroundSue wrote: »

Hi - Yesterday I went to Morristons and bought a load of goodies (in fact 2 carrier bags full) and my total bill was £10.83. On the way home it got me thinking to see if I can only live off things that are reduced/on BOGOF for the rest of the month and see how I go. I will plan my meals around the things I buy reduced/on BOGOF. I will allow myself bread/milk at full price as these normally do not get reduced (but will try and buy them reduced if I can).

I have quite a lot in the freezer also so I will see how this challenge will go and keep you posted. Anyone want to join in then please feel free.

I started doing this twenty years ago and its one of the reasons I was able to give up my job and stay at home with the kids. I had been taught that the way forward was to meal plan, everyone said this, books, parents, friends etc but I just turned it on its head and started making meals from what I could find in the reduced section.

This idea is one of the main reasons for doing my blog. I'm building up a picture of how I was able to live better and healthier with less money. I was able to save a fortune by planning meals around the food section. I changed my mortgage and switched bills onto better deal plans and soon I was saving more than I was earning at my job so I left and never went back!

I am comfortable now but I still go straight to the reduced section and grin like a cheshire cat driving home if I get a good haul!

balmaiden

Yep, another one who lives from the reduced section. My local supermarket is the co-op and I pop in most days when I know they will be reducing and keep my freezer stocked with bargains. I then meal plan from my freezer which works for me.