Grocery Challenge - February 2012

angelatgraceland

Barbeduk wrote: »

Just to update spent £5.09 in mr m on milk, bananas, apples and mushrooms. Also bought packet of half price sweets for dd; her BFF had been showing off about the sweets she was taking to brownie panto so felt couldn't send my poor girl with a couple of biscuits! :rotfl:
Anyone else noticed the loose apples are priced per kilo, packaged apples per fruit, so you can't compare prices? Bit sneaky methinks, glad I have taken the majority of my custom to !id!
Have a good weekend all

Apples-I found exactly that in Coop but they do have a scale on the fruit and veg section for customer use-do hunt for one! My packaged apples were slightly over the kilo and 5p less at £1.50 I think
I did my shopping today in case of bad weather and I did put some thought into it. I stocked up on Kngsmill 50/50 in Iceleand which is £1.70 and used Kingsmill vouchers(just google it-its the 30p ones)so the bread worked out at 55p per loaf!
McCain oven chips in Coop are 2 packs for £2.50-its the small bag of STRAIGHT chips. I had 2 50p vouchers towards them so they worked out at 75p per bag. Bought my milk in Iceland at £1 for 4 pints-I get the full cream version and add a pint of water to it so 5 pints for £1.(tip some in your previous nearly empty bottle to make space)
Coop I bought the 3 for £10 meat-2 chickens and a pack of minced beef-they are now in my second fridge. No room for bread in the freezer as its chocoblock again!
Topped up generally on fruit and veg-no junk foods apart from the chips and spent just under £50. I did treat us to some Muller corners which were on offer in Coop.DH thought it was good as I had loads of stuff and he had guessed at £70. I made a veggy curry today in the SC with lentils chickpeas kidney beans and split peas. I was good and soaked these last night. Approx 5 very good portions for about £2 total:j:j:j. Last night I made pasta salad with just boiled and cooled pasta with mayo stirred in, some grated cheese stirred in and some chopped salad as well-onion,cucumber,tomato,red pepper. allow 100g per portion maximum on the pasta. Another cheap alternative to sandwiches. I made enough for 3 servings. DS had one for tea yesterday, One for lunch today and I will prob have the other for lunch at work tomorrow. Costs pence to make(about 50p per portion) compared to the price you would pay in the shops for the tubbed up version!:D

mummyyof5

2.29 in MrS..spaghetti cheesestrings on offer and nappysacks
1.00 on sugar in poundland
1.98 in B@M for milk and diet coke


Have to go shopping tomorrow...was hoping to put it off till Monday but OH is going away with the coach for a week..supposed to be bad weather starting tomorrow so hoping to go early and get back before it starts.

XSpender

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Xspender, when I forget to take bread out of the freezer, I take it out when I am making the sandwiches and take out however many slices I need, separate them and leave them on the side for about 10 minutes, by that time they have defrosted enough to make the sandwich and by the time they are being eaten, they are fresh as new

Thanks for the tip.:) I still didn't take the bread out last night so a shocking £6 spent on lunch for me & DH.:o:o

tracey12 wrote: »

I have cooked potatoes in the slow cooker. I just pricked them all over, put some oil and salt onto each one, put in the slow cooker on high for 6 hours. The skins don't go crispy and they do taste different then if cooked in the oven but the insides are soft and fluffy.

HTH

Tracey

That's great Tracey. Thanks. I love a crispy skin but half an hour in the oven would be better than an hour and a half:)

There were 6 things on my shopping list for Mr T/S tonight but DH wanted to go to Mr M so ended up leaving there with a few extras:eek: Bought some crisps, 2 cath cheddar 1/2 price, sweeties for me and fish for DS.

Got a till spit for £3 off £40 but will give it a miss as I do not want to be seduced into spending more on offers I don't need. After shopping in Ald1 mainly last month everywhere else just seems so much more expensive.

Will visit Aldi tomorrow for fresh stuff and lunch stuff. I am not buying enough stuff for lunches and we run out by Thursday:o

Have a lovely weekend everyone x

debbiedeejay

Weekly trudge round Mozzies totalled £44.12:( but using £10 of Xmas saving and stamps and MOC I managed to bring it down to £29.82:j.

But had to head back a few hours later(it's a couple of miles away from where I live) as I had struggled to open the semi skimmed milk,giving DD2 a drink of it,and she just spat it out. It had a really really strong of electrical,burning smoke odour to it and apparently tasted like it too. The silver cap was attached to the green lid so am now worried in case something may have contaminated the milk as I am worried it was not completely sealed.

Took it back - lady on customer service,listened ,was lovely, polite and all,agreed there was a problem but no apology, and asked if I wanted another (well yes please) and then told me to get it myself - hang on it was like a ghost town in there(hour to closing) and I could see staff all over, plus milk is never near the front of the shop is it? - but I went - but feeling a little silly just walking out with the milk explained to a group of 3 staff cleaning around the tills that I was the lady bringing the spoilt milk back - the supervisor just said yep that's fine,I explained the problem and asked if I could leave details as I was concerned.

Supervisor said she spoke to CS so knew it was being returned and was told to go back to CS and a form could be filled in - again no apology.

So I trotted over to CS asked about the form(milk to be sent away to some lab and report back) - it was dug out and dutifully filled in and quick of the milk I had swapped it with to see if ok and CS asst said she would check hers when she got home and then I went.

Again -no flaming apology:(

All I would I like is "I am very sorry you had to return this item,let me sort this out for you" or "am sorry you had to return this,I hope CS is dealing with your problem" from the supervisor

Customer Service at Mozzies needs some re-training me thinks - or maybe I am being a bit picky????:(

artypaws

Hi everyone - today was the last day of my January budget and I have declared my totals for January in the last thread and would like to set a budget for Feb for £320 - heres to a great month

ModestyB

Evening all, Did my first food shop of the month today and spent £33.63. This was for 12 x 1ltr cartons of milk, 10 tins of beans, 2 tins custard, mushrooms, chicken pies, BE s/f chicken, (on offer £1.49 half price) bag of sausages, large jar coffee, dog treats and a few other things that DH dropped in the trolley! The main thing I went for was some bread flour and yeast. The loaf I baked the other day turned out lovely so I'm going to start baking my own.
The flour was £1.02 and the yeast 93p for 8 sachets. Is this a good price? This was all from Mr S. btw. Most of the stuff I buy from there is the basic range.

angelatgraceland

I get my bread flour from Lidl at 60p and the yeast I buy in the Mr T or somewhere-the orange packet-itlots in it-about £1 but you need to measure it out in teaspoons-its cheaper in the longrun though. I think its Allinsons. youve n ot paid a bad price though-you have time to look around before your next purchase.

LondonDreamer

ModestyB wrote: »

The flour was £1.02 and the yeast 93p for 8 sachets. Is this a good price? This was all from Mr S. btw. Most of the stuff I buy from there is the basic range.

angelatgraceland wrote: »

I get my bread flour from Lidl at 60p and the yeast I buy in the Mr T or somewhere-the orange packet-itlots in it-about £1 but you need to measure it out in teaspoons-its cheaper in the longrun though. I think its Allinsons. youve n ot paid a bad price though-you have time to look around before your next purchase.

Mr A and Mr T both have bread flour for 60p as well.

Allinson's yeast in the tin is much cheaper than the sachets, as mentioned above. The yellow tin is for handbaking and needs activating before use, the green tin is a bit more expensive but is instant and can also be used in breadmakers.

Cheapest supermarket instant yeast that I know of is actually at Waitrose - Dove's Farm 99p for 125g (about 18 sachets) in an orange box.

meanmarie

Spent €24.58 today, away until Sunday so hopefully no more spends until Monday at least

Marie

angelatgraceland

LondonDreamer wrote: »

Mr A and Mr T both have bread flour for 60p as well.

Allinson's yeast in the tin is much cheaper than the sachets, as mentioned above. The yellow tin is for handbaking and needs activating before use, the green tin is a bit more expensive but is instant and can also be used in breadmakers.

Cheapest supermarket instant yeast that I know of is actually at Waitrose - Dove's Farm 99p for 125g (about 18 sachets) in an orange box.

Thats the one! Doves farm! Thats the one I am currently using-last for ages!