Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

michaels

Would I not need to have something better to do with my time for this use to be sub-optimal? I live in a nice house far beyond what i could afford if I did not spend the time being very careful with my spending, we all chose what is important to us in terms of time and money. I'm glad you are able to live the lifestyle you choose without having to spend a few minutes extra ensuring your shopping is 20% cheaper than it would be if you just chose items without checking prices first.

For Spirit, I checked online what was on special at Tesco before I went to Sainsburies and I then checked out these items seperately from the items that were on special at Siansburies. At the checkout Sainsburys add up the total of what your shopping would cost there and at Tesco and give you a refnd if the tesco total is less. Normally the things that are cheaper at Sains balance out the things that are cheaper at Tesco but there is nothing stopping you doing multiple transactions as I did.

GDB2222 wrote: »

Poor Spirit! You were up at 4AM worrying about Michaels' post.

It seems to be something about how he partially optimised his supermarket shopping, at the expense of sub-optimal use of his time. There's no point learning the details, because the offers will have changed next week. So, this all requires an enormous amount of study to keep on top of the game, although it seems to give a great deal of satisfaction to the people involved.

vivatifosi

I do think you have to be incredibly organised as a person to do what you do michaels. I would love to be able to optimise my spending more, but the whole weekly thing I just couldn't do. I do spend a lot of time researching big purchases as well as keeping a mental note of when bogofs happen in certain stores. I stock up on those items on a 3 month cycle: toilet rolls; washing up liquid; tinned foods, etc... However I can't get further than that. I've started using my Mr T vouchers for magazine subs to get more vfm, but most of the time I don't even use my item-specific coupons, even though they are targeted to my spend, because I just don't get round to it. I think what I'm trying to say is we don't all have your level of self-discipline.

ETA: if I was that organised as a person I would of course have thought to borrow a satnav for a long journey I took recently, where I turned up late after getting repeatedly lost. I'm just a muddle along sort of person really.

lostinrates

I am struggling to stay any semblance of organised, The shopping thing though terrifies me. Its the kind of thing i should ge my head round.


I have to go to the greengrocer today ( where veg is better and cheaper than al, the supermarkets when i check) and the supermarket or a health foid store. Sm wins because patking is free there.

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

Would I not need to have something better to do with my time for this use to be sub-optimal? I live in a nice house far beyond what i could afford if I did not spend the time being very careful with my spending, we all chose what is important to us in terms of time and money. I'm glad you are able to live the lifestyle you choose without having to spend a few minutes extra ensuring your shopping is 20% cheaper than it would be if you just chose items without checking prices first.

I'm sorry, Michaels. On re-reading my post, it seems to have rather a sarcastic tinge to it, which wasn't intended.

What I meant is that this sort of extreme money saving is a bit of a hobby. It saves a few bob (a lot of bob, maybe), but it requires a fair bit of organisation and effort, and not everybody is cut out for it.

I tend to be careful (perhaps overly-careful) with large purchases, but the day-to-day stuff is a bit out of control.

Just at the moment, I need a deal on Carte Noire instant coffee. A while ago, when it was on special offer, we bought 16 Kilograms (80 jars), but that's nearly all gone and the price has shot up.

lostinrates

Our new floor slab goes in today, hurrah, hurrah. Its going to feel really different when the floor level is closer to the finished level. ( atm, we are having polished concrete untill we have chosen and can afford floors, so level will not be quite right.

Spirit_2

michaels wrote: »

For Spirit, I checked online what was on special at Tesco before I went to Sainsburies and I then checked out these items seperately from the items that were on special at Siansburies. At the checkout Sainsburys add up the total of what your shopping would cost there and at Tesco and give you a refnd if the tesco total is less. Normally the things that are cheaper at Sains balance out the things that are cheaper at Tesco but there is nothing stopping you doing multiple transactions as I did.

In summary - to check my understanding & make this idiot proof:

Check and buy cheaper tesco items at sainsburys and they price match.

Complete puchase in basket A.

Buy cheaper Sainsbury items at sainsburys .

Complete purchase in Basket B.

Disaggregating the shopping makes the total less without having to go to two Supermarkets. Presumably this benefits is lost if you order the shopping on-line due to delivery costs?

Micheal - I see it as a talent and expertise - resourceful, purposeful and motivated. That it is how you choose to use your discretionary energy/resources - I agree with Viva you need to be systematic and organised for this.

On to the application of this at in the Spirit household I think I could get benefits financially from this and know we are currently wasting money. It will be trade off with none money values

The challenge is that I like what we do in that we mostly shop in shops locally with only occassional online supermarket forays to waitrose - my shops are farmshop butchers, market garden, hardware/agricultural merchants/ the co-op/pharmacy - and M& S if I call in when passing. A combination of ethics, time poor, lovely village, familiarity and annoying health and absolutely deriving no pleasure whatsoever from queuing, filling trolleys, following a circuit of aisles, putting loads into the boot of the car

When my brain has worked this week I have concluded that it might be time a for rethink on life so I work less/ earn less and spend less and pick up some of your skills to make this doable without undermining the things in/ or way of life that I like.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm sorry, Michaels. On re-reading my post, it seems to have rather a sarcastic tinge to it, which wasn't intended.

What I meant is that this sort of extreme money saving is a bit of a hobby. It saves a few bob (a lot of bob, maybe), but it requires a fair bit of organisation and effort, and not everybody is cut out for it.

I tend to be careful (perhaps overly-careful) with large purchases, but the day-to-day stuff is a bit out of control.

Just at the moment, I need a deal on Carte Noire instant coffee. A while ago, when it was on special offer, we bought 16 Kilograms (80 jars), but that's nearly all gone and the price has shot up.

I cannot remember what that tastes like. I like the percol instant but also, much to my surprise, the big standard morrisons one. I cannot stand kenko or dowe egburts, which both taste salty to me. Oh, i also like the one described as parisian.


I gave up coffee. While a go, but its crept back in. I rarely make real for myself though. And have to give up again for my old head.

JonnyBravo

GDB2222 wrote: »

Just at the moment, I need a deal on Carte Noire instant coffee. A while ago, when it was on special offer, we bought 16 Kilograms (80 jars), but that's nearly all gone and the price has shot up.

Blimey. You drink a LOT of coffee or you bought it a looooooong time ago. So it's perhaps not so much the price has "shot up" more that a couple of decades have passed. Have you looked in the mirror to check which it is

lostinrates

Spirit wrote: »

In summary - to check my understanding & make this idiot proof:

Check and buy cheaper tesco items at sainsburys and they price match.

Complete puchase in basket A.

Buy cheaper Sainsbury items at sainsburys .

Complete purchase in Basket B.

Disaggregating the shopping makes the total less without having to go to two Supermarkets. Presumably this benefits is lost if you order the shopping on-line due to delivery costs?

Micheal - I see it as a talent and expertise - resourceful, purposeful and motivated. That it is how you choose to use your discretionary energy/resources - I agree with Viva you need to be systematic and organised for this.

On to the application of this at in the Spirit household I think I could get benefits financially from this and know we are currently wasting money. It will be trade off with none money values

The challenge is that I like what we do in that we mostly shop in shops locally with only occassional online supermarket forays to waitrose - my shops are farmshop butchers, market garden, hardware/agricultural merchants/ the co-op/pharmacy - and M& S if I call in when passing. A combination of ethics, time poor, lovely village, familiarity and annoying health and absolutely deriving no pleasure whatsoever from queuing, filling trolleys, following a circuit of aisles, putting loads into the boot of the car

When my brain has worked this week I have concluded that it might be time a for rethink on life so I work less/ earn less and spend less and pick up some of your skills to make this doable without undermining the things in/ or way of life that I like.

Spirit, do you know any farmers in your area who send meat to be butchered? With. Country sized freezer for good quality meat its cheaper than farm shop/waitrose excluding whoopsies, but you can find same welfare meat. We buy rare breed pork, local angus, and lamb this way. Its why my freezer is big enough to double as a panic room......when a cow goes to the butcher we get a box of mixed cuts, (30 kg or so) when a lamb goes i buy a whole lamb or hoggitt, and i am also content to buy a whole pig. It does mean we buy that type of meat like....annually. I get a bit protective over using my favorite cuts. And put off using my least favourite, or try and use those up at the beginning. Meat buying months are obviously expensive, because its the almost annual budget for that type of meat. ( i do still need to but mince through the year, and sometimes stew g steaks or similar.

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

Just at the moment, I need a deal on Carte Noire instant coffee. A while ago, when it was on special offer, we bought 16 Kilograms (80 jars), but that's nearly all gone and the price has shot up.

For future reference, use mysupermarket:

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=carte noire instant coffee

one click and it will tell you who is cheapest today. Just click on the product you want. Assuming you want the 100g (second picture) clicking on it tells you that it is reduced at Tesco at the moment.

You also get to see a little graph showing prices over the last year, so can see it has gone up by 7% in the last year.