a month without supermarket - new challenge for 2011 starts at post 1013

rach

thought you might like this, in response to the recent kerfuffle about tesco deliberately inflating prices before cutting them to 'half price'

tinselfairy

My update.....

Each time I've found an alternative source for a supermarket item I've written it down in a notebook so I remember where I bought it from and how much it cost me. For one I have a dreadful memory and secondly I love lists!

I still have a few places to investigate and am hoping that I will find even more alternatives. I am only using Sainsbury's for pasta sauce, as we all love the mushroom pasta sauce they do, and organic milk. We have 3 Co-ops in walking distance along with a fruit and veg shop so they are getting the bulk of my business, if only they stocked organic milk I could cut Sainsburys down to one visit in a blue moon. I have emailed them to ask if they would consider stocking it so who knows.
Still can't give them up completely, baby steps will get me closer though.

rach

i just went to the local shop and bought:

1 litre semi skimmed milk 50p (shops are having a milk price war!)
1 load kingsmill wholemeal bread 89p
400g olives in a tray (yum) £1.39
jar of cherry jam 89p.

i thought that was all very reasonable.

rach

i just went to the local shop and bought:

1 litre semi skimmed milk 50p (shops are having a milk price war!)
1 load kingsmill wholemeal bread 89p
400g olives in a tray (yum) £1.39
jar of cherry jam 89p.

i thought that was all very reasonable.

katmad99

sounds like everyone's doing well!!

so far so good for me, except OH had to go to asda as it was his turn to buy loo roll (we need big cheap packs - house full of students!)
I have not set foot inside any supermarkets except lidl when i was 'stocking up' but dont think i'm going to be going there much anymore really.
Having a really good time finding out where i can buy bits from that i would have never thought of before now.
Had to buy rice milk and Pure spread from the wholefoods shop today at it came to £5 for two cartons of rice milk and one tub of spread which was a bit much really but only about £1 more than tesco/asda etc (rice milk is so expensive for something that is essentially just rice and water! i dont even get the flavoured ones!) and i didnt really mind as the money was going to a local shop, which mainly stocks locally produced orangic products.

also using my new 'cotton on' bag from !!!!!! for shopping which is fun, i love saying no when they ask if i want a bag!!

Looking forward to another trip to the market/butchers on wednesday, going to get some more veg and check out the price of a whole chicken!

little_miss_thrifty

tinselfairy wrote:

My update.....

Each time I've found an alternative source for a supermarket item I've written it down in a notebook so I remember where I bought it from and how much it cost me.

I really want to try and source everything i used to get from a supermarket, from alternative places now, not go back there for the odd item; ie, i thought that our local health food shop may stock Nouvelle toilet rolls, but it doesn't do any, so rather than go to T's or Co-op, i just bought 45 rolls off of Ebay!!! I sat down with my calculator and my DH said "what are you comparing now?!

Every little helps...me, not them

COOLTRIKERCHICK

little miss thrifty...what did the loo rolls price work out at ?

i must admit even though i have bought and sold on ebay for 2 years.....i still forget to have a look for household items.....

dont forget peeps.... if there is a b.i.n items...... go through quidco.... and you will get 14p cashback... not a lot.... but its money all the same....

Penny-Pincher!!

Last few days we have bought:

Eggs
Milk
Bread
Yogurts
Pears
Apples

little_miss_thrifty

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

little miss thrifty...what did the loo rolls price work out at ?

i must admit even though i have bought and sold on ebay for 2 years.....i still forget to have a look for household items.....

dont forget peeps.... if there is a b.i.n items...... go through quidco.... and you will get 14p cashback... not a lot.... but its money all the same....

The loo rolls worked out at £3.38 a pack of 9 rolls(including the p+p). I looked on T's website and they don't sell Nouvelle 9 packs, so i took the average price of the other 9 packs (£4.08), so in total saved £3.50.
I forgot to look on ebay for household items until someone on this thread reminded me!!
I didn't go through quidco (forgot again!!) but i did go through Nectar, so got points on the BIN instead.

rach

little_miss_thrifty wrote:

The loo rolls worked out at £3.38 a pack of 9 rolls(including the p+p). I looked on T's website and they don't sell Nouvelle 9 packs, so i took the average price of the other 9 packs (£4.08), so in total saved £3.50.
I forgot to look on ebay for household items until someone on this thread reminded me!!
I didn't go through quidco (forgot again!!) but i did go through Nectar, so got points on the BIN instead.

please could you post or PM me the ebay store name, as searching for nouvelle or toilet rolls didn't come up with anything.

thanks

bought a large (double size) jar of jam in poundland today and shampoo on bogof in wilkinsons. i know not independants, but not supermarkets either!! down to 2L of uht milk so need to find a source for that over the weekend. if all else fails i will biu powdered at the weigh shop as that will do the job for porridge and yoghurt...

and i bought my shopping trolley, put the wheels on in the cafe (little independant place run as a training centre for people with learning difficulties, downs syndrome etc) and put all my purchases in it. i love it