Reduced bargains and yellow stickers shopping

joyful001

Whoa,I've learnt a lot from this forum. I love bargains and am always hunting for it.On Easter eve, was at Mr M. and got good bargains. Roasted whole chicken reduced from £5.49 to 99p,store made pizza from 2.50 to 49p.Bread at 09p,banana down from1.29 to 19p,salads from 1.00 to 19p ,scones for 19p.Was there again tonight ,and got kit Kat yogurt reduced from 1.49 to 25p,frubbies yogurt from 2.00 to 15p,corned beef slices from 1.00 to 15p.Not much of vegetable so have to get those from the open market.3 bowls of fruits for 1.00p.

tpsjrm

If you are looking in the reduced chiller cabinet for a hot lunch, don't ignore the deli salad tubs. All of the pasta-type salads can be heated in the microwave for a lovely warming meal. Got a 500gram tub of Jalapeno Chicken Pasta salad yesterday from Mr T's, reduced from £1.95 to 49pence. With some Value garlic bread, this made an excellent meal for hubby and I. I've even been known to heat up reduced coleslaw in the microwave, as a hot veg. Yummy with pizza! Just remember to put the contents into your own microwaveable dishes before you heat them, as the ones they come in aren't heatable - as I found to my dismay the first time I experimented!

eagle_eye

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

They seem to reduce things at different times. But i dont stick to a meal plan. i plan around the YS products i buy.

Some good points here. I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to do the cooking which I'm sure a lot of you have to do as well. Furthermore I have a lovely wife who is very inventive/creative in the kitchen and can come up with a meal with most things that I buy. - often at fairly short notice! So we rarely plan more than 1 day in advance - you can't if the bulk of your purchases are YL.

I have found that generally T's reduce the Fruit & Veg to 50% at 6 pm and further at 7 pm. The chilled goods will be done at 7-7:30. Also The deli will reduce items separately and then put them with the chilled items. Times of reductions will change if footfall is low, weather is bad or they may not reduce at all if there are few items to reduce.

At both W and T's they reduce goods expiring the next day by 25% or so last thing the previous night - more if there is a lot of 1 product left.

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

I dont always wait for them to be reduced further. Ie i bought some milk the other day which only had a 50p off reduction, but was still 20p cheaper than buying another cheaper one at full price. And milk is very rarely reduced. So i bought two and decanted them then froze it all. I also have to stop and think if it is a real reduction, or whether you could have bought the same item cheaper. I think you do have to be savvy about it as theres no point in buying a reduced loaf of bread and then finding that they were on offer anyway (ie BOGOF or £2 for so and so).

Didn't know you could freeze milk. Having said that it's quite bulky and our freezer is not big so would generally prefer saving the space for other items. I think you have to have a very good idea of what price you are prepared to pay for everything, otherwise you can easily be seduced by the reduced.

ImDoingItForMe wrote: »

I Im lucky i dont have to do this, but i want to because it means more money in my pocket for luxuries such as days out and holidays. Some people may mock, but as a single lady with a mortgage and absolutely no debt (no CCards either) i find the ones that do mock are the ones with financial problems.

Same here.

Uphill

I have been meal planning now for a couple of months but I completely messed up my budgeting this month and have been scrimping and scraping. I never YS buy as the area is usually full with people fighting over everything and I'm a little bit embarrassed of buying YS items

In AS*A today, they had lots of reduced cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and carrots which they had kept with the rest of the vegetables so I purchased these. I was really surprised at the reduction as I never usually look. As we had about £10 to spend for the rest of the weeks food, including feeding 4 cats, I was so happy that I could save some pennies.

Can't wait till I do have money now and I will definitely be having a good look at the YS section... and try not to be embarrassed

MavisTheMaven

One of my friends calls it, 'The Tramps Buffet', but I don't care - we can eat like kings for a pittance, like the time we had samphire risotto because I got some reduced to 20p. How posh is that?

Steve059

MavisTheMaven wrote: »

One of my friends calls it, 'The Tramps Buffet', but I don't care - we can eat like kings for a pittance, like the time we had samphire risotto because I got some reduced to 20p. How posh is that?

Personally, I find descriptions like that and another one I've seen on here, "Benefit Buffet", insulting and offensive. I'm neither a tramp nor on benefits, unless you're so right-wing that you consider the occupational pension I now survive on is a "benefit" because I don't work for it.

But, then again, Lynne and I have had trout on bacon with new potatoes and price-reduced samphire. With a very nice '3 for £10' white wine. And with an IKEA silk red rose and candle on the table. As I've said before, not having much money is no reason to be poor.

Wizzbang

People that use these terms- tramp buffet and benefit buffet obviously have more money than sense, or most probably more debt! Those terms are new ones on me, but they're the losers, they'll spend more of their lives being in debt to others and never owning what they have. Or working the rest of their lives, just to keep funding a more lavish lifestyle. Those who are thrifty will be the ones who are laughing, when they can live free- not tied to mortgages, debtors or anyone. I know who I'd rather be!

buzi

Just picking up on the yl embarrassment, i get embarrassed too but dont really know why i should!

matty17r

I never feel embarrassed having ys in my trolley I feel sorry for the other shoppers throwing stuff into their trolley and getting ripped off left right and centre. I like to walk out of a supermarket knowing that they have lost money on me.

eagle_eye

MavisTheMaven wrote: »

One of my friends calls it, 'The Tramps Buffet', but I don't care - we can eat like kings for a pittance, like the time we had samphire risotto because I got some reduced to 20p. How posh is that?

I love Samphire - taste of the sea!