2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Cherryjack

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Lost tinternet for a while:mad:

DM and I looked at some last week to get an idea of price - there's a small (independent) shed place where I saw one for £269 ..... then we looked at Dob*bie's who had exactly the same one for - wait for it - £650:eek: (although it was marked down to 1/2 price).

I think part of the problem "nowadays" is that nothing has a "real value" - so many places mark things up so they can do "fantastic" offers at 1/2 price or BOGOF etc when, in fact, these prices are more like the true cost of them in the first place:mad:

B*Q did have one almost identical which is currently £169.99 http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-buildings/sheds-garden-storage-workshops/wooden_sheds/-specificproducttype-single_door_sheds/6X4-Shiplap-Shed-11987580

I've not got one at all ... it's always been on my "wish list" since I moved in (nearly 5 years ago:o) but everytime I get close to having enough money, something else more important crops up - which is why I thought the coin jars would be a good idea as these are my "treats" (:rotfl:garden shed a treat!).

It's become more important now as a) I want to grow more stuff but b) now I've downsized the car, the "new" one does actually fit in the garage (it's a squeeze but it does go) but it means I can't have anything in there ...... imagine the scene of me currently having to put stuff from the garage into the car everytime I want to get the car in :rotfl:which is as much of a pain as it sounds)

Oh gosh.. i know, the prices can be really extreme in some places! its bound to be a dash and run when we see something on an amazing offer hehe.. watch this space!!:rotfl:
I had gone thru a stage of wanting a plastic one becuase the OH is lazy when it comes to painting the wood ones.. but they kinda look like big dog houses.. :-S really dont know where to start.. i need something medium of size. There is nothing stopping me painting a wood one and they do look so nice

The old one is being taken apart in the next few weeks and the contents cleared (it was the previous house owners)..

Another thing to consider is putting a new one together and getting something to put it on (slabs??)... wonder if i need to pay someone:eek::eek:

rubytuesday

What a beautiful day it's been - had a lovely walk round the park.

Managed to list three things on eBay - it really takes for ever and a day! - The photos wouldn't load at one point.

One bid already.

Purple Orchid you really are a savvy shopper!

twiglet98

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Just trying to figure out whether it's worth using my Mr T vouchers tomorrow to stock pile (have a £5 off £40 or a £7 off £50 one).

I've been looking at their website and I just can't believe their "normal" prices ..... Douwe Edberts coffee (I know, DM got me "hooked" on this - have just opened a jar of something else and it's awful in comparison:o but I never buy at full price) is £6.59 and it's only £4.50 in Mr A.

How on earth can they justify a difference of over £2 on a jar of coffee - when they're identical products?

Does anyone actually pay these prices?


Seriously wondering whether it's worth going now as none of the stuff I wanted to stock pile seems to be on offer (the only time I shop at Mr T)...... mmmmmmm

Rising, I would go to Mr T to make use of the vouchers, it's a shame to waste them, and then use the PriceCheck to get the difference back if the TOTAL shop would have been cheaper at Mr A.

It's really important NOT to include special offers or whoopsied items in the same basket as Mr T's horrifically overpriced items - ie normal price - as the Price Check is on the total cost of the basket and a few whoopsies and half-price offers can cancel out the better prices you could have got at Mr A on the other items. Takes a bit of thinking but it does become second nature to just put through two separate transactions, one for Mr T's 'normal priced' items that I know will be cheaper at Mr A, and therefore will qualify for a Price Check coupon for the difference, then the divider on the checkout for the whoopsies and special offers that probably would not be cheaper elsewhere. I just ask them to put these through as separate transactions and have never been asked why, but you could easily be shopping for a relative or neighbour, you're not doing anything that isn't allowed! Remember to put the receipt details into the Price Check website within 28 days.

I did lose interest in the price check scheme for a bit, I work stupid hours and it does take a bit of time inputting it all, and it's hardly worth bothering if most of my shopping is special offers and whoopsies, but last week I wombled six receipts from the car park, abandoned trollies and a couple from the floor (desperate measures), and got a total of £7.51 back in pricecheck coupons, so well worth the 10 minutes it took to type them all in. Have just put another 10 wombled receipts in, as well as my own (use multiple email addresses as they limit you to 10 per month, I think, per email address) and cross fingers there will be some coupons for next week. Look out for unclaimed clubcard points on wombled receipts too, maximum they are meant to add is 2 per day but the occasional lovely customer service person will put 3 through.

I loathe Mr T, their ethics, their attitude and their sheer incompetence, with a passion I can hardly put into words but they are much closer than any other supermarket - 8 miles each way. Alternate Saturdays I travel further to get animal feed and as I'm already half way, I head on to the next town to visit Home Bargains (for tinned tomatoes, tuna and 'Nicky' loo rolls, Morrisons for the fudge flavour Options hot chocolate that none of the others seem to stock any more, Poundland for sugar and milk, Lidl for gammon and bacon, and Sainsbury's for any offers there. Takes a couple of hours but works out far cheaper than getting it all in Mr T!

purpleorchid

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Just trying to figure out whether it's worth using my Mr T vouchers tomorrow to stock pile (have a £5 off £40 or a £7 off £50 one).

I've been looking at their website and I just can't believe their "normal" prices ..... Douwe Edberts coffee (I know, DM got me "hooked" on this - have just opened a jar of something else and it's awful in comparison:o but I never buy at full price) is £6.59 and it's only £4.50 in Mr A.

How on earth can they justify a difference of over £2 on a jar of coffee - when they're identical products?

Does anyone actually pay these prices?


Seriously wondering whether it's worth going now as none of the stuff I wanted to stock pile seems to be on offer (the only time I shop at Mr T)...... mmmmmmm

hi rising
i had over £20 worth of SSM vouchers and a few others that bumped my order up to and over the £40 mark. also if you look on amazon they sell douwe egbherts on there. i noticed a 1kg tin, which is 280 cups for £25.61.

hth
Luv P
xx

Erme

As you all know I came off here for a wee while.....ethics basically...

Anyhow need knowledge so if someone could PM me some links I'd be most grateful


Anyhow I got a kenwood chef KM201 off the charity shop yesterday with K beater and whisk for £24 :j :j :j ...couldn't afford it but had to nab a bargain . Made the most amazing meringues in it yesterday. Can't get the nob nearest the narrow end to work and haven't checked the end cap (only took it off last night - figured that out and saw a load of oil coming out of it)...whisk just needs hot water to clean it after...sorted.

Of course the nurses on B ward got the meringues. PG I had just enough icing sugar left. Downloaded the instructions (And a huge recipe book for it) from some site I can't recall what.....for 50p - sorted and it's all in MS....(stewart) so should be good

Did you realise that in the seventies they had a can opener and a pea huller for it? wow.....

Looking forward to mashing tatties in it another day. Need slicer and like juicer so I can put current worktop stuff in the cupboard (no room for food processor and juicer on there) but they are £80 each. Unless the food processor will go where the popcorn maker currently is LOL.

I read on which some KC's last 70 years but I don't think mine will last that long. Yes it it noisy but that's normal for KC's....and takes up the whole work surface but still

E

rising_from_the_ashes

twiglet98 wrote: »

Rising, I would go to Mr T to make use of the vouchers, it's a shame to waste them, and then use the PriceCheck to get the difference back if the TOTAL shop would have been cheaper at Mr A.

It's really important NOT to include special offers or whoopsied items in the same basket as Mr T's horrifically overpriced items - ie normal price - as the Price Check is on the total cost of the basket and a few whoopsies and half-price offers can cancel out the better prices you could have got at Mr A on the other items.

Thanks Twiglet .... I'm like you and hate the thought of wasting the voucher - I didn't know Mr T did a price check (shows how often I shop there;)) - I do use the Mr A one and have learnt the lesson of any offers bringing down the overall price from them too!

I don't know if I'll have enough to separate the offers out into a separate bill but will see how it goes!:D

Purple thanks for the Amazon tip for the coffee - that would be far too big a tub for me (would take me over a year to get through it!) but I'll ask DM and see if she wants to go halves on one!:T

Erme Congrats on the Kenwood - they really are fantastic machines:D DM has had hers for over 30 years so hopefully yours will last a good few at a minimum.:)

Igamogam

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I think part of the problem "nowadays" is that nothing has a "real value" - so many places mark things up so they can do "fantastic" offers at 1/2 price or BOGOF etc when, in fact, these prices are more like the true cost of them in the first place:mad:

This is so true which is why I very rarely buy anything at full price - mainly non food stuffs but even with food I will always try to get whoopsies when I can . In my opnion if something has 70% off then it is only worth that in the first place and with cheap imports the retailer is still probably making a profit even if they sell at 30% of the orginal price

Igamogam

Intersting stuff about price check with Mr T.I am going to look into that. Cant say I am a fan of the place and make it my secret pleasure to hassle customers service desk at least once a week - I know its not the person behind the desk and some customer service staff are better than others but for me if you claim to be the best then you should sell the best and treat your cutomers accordingly. I usually complain about quality of food stuffs and have no problem returing things that have deteriorated before their due date. I am very polite about it BTW I too womble receipts for the points! Nice term 'womble'!! We dont have a Mr A very close so no point.

As for shopping around we are in a rural location and would have to drive to each shop so waste of fuel and time IMHO. It would be impossible on foot. So if I am near one of the others I will pop in and see what they have. If I wanted Pland I would have to pay for parking! Seems to defeat the object. I did do my own basket comparison with Mr M and Mr T once - i.e the stuff that we use and want - the difference was a few pence and only because there was an offer on one item. So for me its planning and not wasting that keep food costs down. Oh and using AF

Thrifty_Sister

twiglet98 wrote: »

Rising, I would go to Mr T to make use of the vouchers, it's a shame to waste them, and then use the PriceCheck to get the difference back if the TOTAL shop would have been cheaper at Mr A.

It's really important NOT to include special offers or whoopsied items in the same basket as Mr T's horrifically overpriced items - ie normal price - as the Price Check is on the total cost of the basket and a few whoopsies and half-price offers can cancel out the better prices you could have got at Mr A on the other items. Takes a bit of thinking but it does become second nature to just put through two separate transactions, one for Mr T's 'normal priced' items that I know will be cheaper at Mr A, and therefore will qualify for a Price Check coupon for the difference, then the divider on the checkout for the whoopsies and special offers that probably would not be cheaper elsewhere. I just ask them to put these through as separate transactions and have never been asked why, but you could easily be shopping for a relative or neighbour, you're not doing anything that isn't allowed! Remember to put the receipt details into the Price Check website within 28 days.

I did lose interest in the price check scheme for a bit, I work stupid hours and it does take a bit of time inputting it all, and it's hardly worth bothering if most of my shopping is special offers and whoopsies, but last week I wombled six receipts from the car park, abandoned trollies and a couple from the floor (desperate measures), and got a total of £7.51 back in pricecheck coupons, so well worth the 10 minutes it took to type them all in. Have just put another 10 wombled receipts in, as well as my own (use multiple email addresses as they limit you to 10 per month, I think, per email address) and cross fingers there will be some coupons for next week. Look out for unclaimed clubcard points on wombled receipts too, maximum they are meant to add is 2 per day but the occasional lovely customer service person will put 3 through.

I loathe Mr T, their ethics, their attitude and their sheer incompetence, with a passion I can hardly put into words but they are much closer than any other supermarket - 8 miles each way. Alternate Saturdays I travel further to get animal feed and as I'm already half way, I head on to the next town to visit Home Bargains (for tinned tomatoes, tuna and 'Nicky' loo rolls, Morrisons for the fudge flavour Options hot chocolate that none of the others seem to stock any more, Poundland for sugar and milk, Lidl for gammon and bacon, and Sainsbury's for any offers there. Takes a couple of hours but works out far cheaper than getting it all in Mr T!

Just what I was going to suggest Twig - the only way I will shop at Mr T's is if I have got a pile of vouchers in my mitts! I have also been known to womble a 'few' receipts and gave up for a while as ots so tedious inputting the info. Mr A's is sooo much easier - methinks that Mr T might be trying to put us off doing it. Succeeded for a while as well:D:D:D but my latest little lot have produced over £6 JTD vouchers which I will take great delight in using:T:T:T

Thrifty_Sister

Igamogam wrote: »

Intersting stuff about price check with Mr T.I am going to look into that. Cant say I am a fan of the place and make it my secret pleasure to hassle customers service desk at least once a week - I know its not the person behind the desk and some customer service staff are better than others but for me if you claim to be the best then you should sell the best and treat your cutomers accordingly. I usually complain about quality of food stuffs and have no problem returing things that have deteriorated before their due date. I am very polite about BTW I too womble receipts for the points! Nice term 'womble'!! We dont have a Mr A very close so no point.

As for shopping around we are in a rural location and would have to drive to each shop so waste of fuel and time IMHO. It would be impossible on foot. So if I am near one of the others I will pop in and see what they have. If I wanted Pland I would have to pay for parking! Seems to defeat the object. I did do my own basket comparison with Mr M and Mr T once - i.e the stuff that we use and want - the difference was a few pence and only because there was an offer on one item. So for me its planning and not wasting that keep food costs down. Oh and using AF

Not being near a Mr A is no problem - T's still pricecheck and you can use it to your advantage. If you use a site called mysupermarket.com you can work out which products are the best buy. For eg if you wanted to buy orange juice the site shows the 'specials' at A's, if the product is £1 there but £2 full price at T's then you will get a voucher for £1 - BUT ONLY if you are careful to not buy too many reduced items which will wipe out the difference. Believe me, it is very satisfying when you present your voucher :D:D 'Some' of us have been known to split our shopping and just buy these specific products on one receipt to maximise the voucher produced (maximum is £20 JTD - used to be DTD which was brilliant) :D:D