Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

heartbreak_star

Many, many clothes are all made in the same place anyway and have different labels stuck on them, depending on how much money people are willing to haemorrhage on a label.

Also, you'd probably spend less money if you did buy more stuff at the supermarket

HBS (also poorly and grumpy!) x

chevalier

HI Alex
Have a look at this site
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

Even if you only change where you do the supermarket shopping you may still be able to save some money. Which you can put towards fun stuff?

I am guessing from your previous thoughts on the subject, that you use supermarkets as little as possible in the belief that their produce is inferior generally, and 'cheap and nasty'.

As the majority of us shop this way, I thought I would share some ideas with you.

Veggies - yep I would agree with you. If you have a good veggie market nearby (NOT a grocer), then you can get good quality fruit and vegetables for a lot less than a supermarket. And they always seem to keep longer too. On the other hand the buying power of especially the big 4 supermarkets, means that they get high standard stuff at a very cheap unit price. Here in New Zealand we have two standards for produce, local and export quality. Ie All the good stuff gets exported TO YOU!

Meat again it depends. But if you want new zealand lamb, why pay double for it at the butchers than at a supermarket? It will have come off the same boat afterall.

For local meat that is a toughy and where yellow stickers come into play. If you want good quality meat (and are buying it at the butchers), then also have a look in the evening at the yellow sticker section of your local supermarket. Often they will have their 'finest' or some other name top of the range meat heavily discounted as it is only has a day or two left before it is past its use by date. Still fine, and can be frozen for use later on in the week. And very very nice meat.

Then there is the whole branding issue. I will use chopped tomatoes as an example. Have a look at the tins. I can almost guarantee you that ALL the brands of chopped tomatoes are produced in Italy (or maybe they have all gone to Poland now, but it used to be Italy). So why would you pay 69p a tin for branded tomatoes, when you can pay 19p a tin for eg Tesco value branded ones. If you use two tins a week that is 52 pounds a year you would save JUST ON TOMATOES!!!

Some brands of things don't down shift well, so it is a bit of trial and error. My no compromise item is free range eggs - I will just get less of them if I am feeling the pinch this week.

I remember you saying that you didn't have a very large freezer. You can save the cost of the freezer in a year I reckon by having the ability to pick up cheap meat (ie that which is top of the range but yellow stickered) and then freezer it.

And no you won't get sick! There are literaly 100s of thousands of people who can only afford to buy meat AT ALL by shopping this way for it (and for fish too for that matter).

The other point about supermarket shopping is that it will probably save you time and petrol, over going to lots of different shops all over the place, which is a win for who ever is doing the shopping I would think.
Good luck Alex
and I wish you all a great, stress free Christmas
chev

EchoDelta

I love the £52 per year just on tomatoes thing! I'm going to start looking at all the value tins in the cupboard in a new loving way! :rotfl:

Alex, hope you are feeling better soon.

AlexLK

Igamogam wrote: »

For me its how people hold their cutlery...........especially when they hold it as if they where holding a pen:eek: I have to suppress the urge to go round tables in restaurants and give them a lesson......I could never be a waiter:D

BTW children who are learning to write and are LH should be sitting at chairs that are at least 2 inches higher then their RH class mates....I would say this goes for accomplished writers too as this helps the 'hunched over' sitting I am led to believe.

:rotfl: I've been known to be the same in regard to cutlery, you are not the only one.

That's rather interesting re. the LH and RH seating arrangements, though do feel at a loss as to why this is the case.

7roland8 wrote: »

Sorry to hear you are feeling below par Alex - hope Christmas goes off well. There are may of us with long term health stuff but we just have to make the best of it if we can.

Tut tut - here is a bit of a talk down to us!

Lots of clothes stuff in supermarkets I couldn't afford - let alone turn my nose up at.
Nothing wrong with their stuff actually. Might not have fancy labels but quite serviceable - its sort of 'don't judge a book by its cover' all over again.

Have you given your Elf flu yet? Some people do - with him in a little bed with tissues and medicine - of course he has to get better quickly!!

gallygirl wrote: »

Aw bless :rotfl:.

Roland: Thank you . Not my usual problems playing up, well sort of but at least I'm trying to remain positive and am still looking forward to Christmas. Unfortunately, I've ended up spending a lot of time in bed today and now can't sleep. :mad:

We have talked about buying cheaper clothes for our son as he outgrows them quickly.

Not given the Elf flu but a great idea, thank you. I have the next two days planned but have put this idea in a file labelled "Elf Notes".

AlexLK

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Many, many clothes are all made in the same place anyway and have different labels stuck on them, depending on how much money people are willing to haemorrhage on a label.

Also, you'd probably spend less money if you did buy more stuff at the supermarket

HBS (also poorly and grumpy!) x

Hope you get well soon, HBS.

I'm guilty so far as clothes are concerned but not as some wild follower of fashion who has to have the latest label. A pet hate of mine are obvious labels on clothes to be quite honest.

I realise I likely would spend more money using the supermarkets for most things.

chevalier wrote: »

HI Alex
Have a look at this site
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

Even if you only change where you do the supermarket shopping you may still be able to save some money. Which you can put towards fun stuff?

Thank you, not used the site before. However, we do not live close to many supermarkets so I imagine any real savings would be eaten by the extra fuel.

chevalier wrote: »

I am guessing from your previous thoughts on the subject, that you use supermarkets as little as possible in the belief that their produce is inferior generally, and 'cheap and nasty'.

Not really, I like to support the local economy and think it is important to keep small family run shops going. Call it doing my bit, if you will.

chevalier wrote: »

As the majority of us shop this way, I thought I would share some ideas with you.

Veggies - yep I would agree with you. If you have a good veggie market nearby (NOT a grocer), then you can get good quality fruit and vegetables for a lot less than a supermarket. And they always seem to keep longer too. On the other hand the buying power of especially the big 4 supermarkets, means that they get high standard stuff at a very cheap unit price. Here in New Zealand we have two standards for produce, local and export quality. Ie All the good stuff gets exported TO YOU!

Quite a few of our vegetables come from the man next door, so are extremely cheap and sometimes free. Do buy some things from other sources though.

chevalier wrote: »

Meat again it depends. But if you want new zealand lamb, why pay double for it at the butchers than at a supermarket? It will have come off the same boat afterall.

For local meat that is a toughy and where yellow stickers come into play. If you want good quality meat (and are buying it at the butchers), then also have a look in the evening at the yellow sticker section of your local supermarket. Often they will have their 'finest' or some other name top of the range meat heavily discounted as it is only has a day or two left before it is past its use by date. Still fine, and can be frozen for use later on in the week. And very very nice meat.

I buy meat that has been reared locally, would not think of buying New Zealand lamb as I don't like the idea of it travelling around the world before getting to my plate. Frankly, I can't see why it would be better than meat reared a mile up the road.

chevalier wrote: »

Then there is the whole branding issue. I will use chopped tomatoes as an example. Have a look at the tins. I can almost guarantee you that ALL the brands of chopped tomatoes are produced in Italy (or maybe they have all gone to Poland now, but it used to be Italy). So why would you pay 69p a tin for branded tomatoes, when you can pay 19p a tin for eg Tesco value branded ones. If you use two tins a week that is 52 pounds a year you would save JUST ON TOMATOES!!!

Some brands of things don't down shift well, so it is a bit of trial and error. My no compromise item is free range eggs - I will just get less of them if I am feeling the pinch this week.

If we buy something tinned, it's usually from Aldi.

chevalier wrote: »

I remember you saying that you didn't have a very large freezer. You can save the cost of the freezer in a year I reckon by having the ability to pick up cheap meat (ie that which is top of the range but yellow stickered) and then freezer it.

And no you won't get sick! There are literaly 100s of thousands of people who can only afford to buy meat AT ALL by shopping this way for it (and for fish too for that matter).

We don't have a large freezer and hardly use it as it is.

Not worried about getting sick from buying and freezing meat this way. So far as I'm concerned the dates are just a guideline.

chevalier wrote: »

The other point about supermarket shopping is that it will probably save you time and petrol, over going to lots of different shops all over the place, which is a win for who ever is doing the shopping I would think.
Good luck Alex
and I wish you all a great, stress free Christmas
chev

I agree regarding the petrol and time. We both do the shopping, though I tend to do the majority.

Finally thank you and I wish you and yours a great, stress free Christmas too.

EchoDelta wrote: »

I love the £52 per year just on tomatoes thing! I'm going to start looking at all the value tins in the cupboard in a new loving way! :rotfl:

Alex, hope you are feeling better soon.

:rotfl: I'll join you with my Aldi stuff.

Thank you and I do too.

Granariesgirl

Just nipping in to wish you all a very merry Christmas as I don't know if I'll be back to MSE before then.

I am off to spend les Fêtes in the land of Fromage & Vin...:D
Have a wonderful time & I hope Santa is very good to you!

xx

AlexLK

And a very Merry Christmas to everyone from me also.

I've not been so well these past few days and also rather busy as well as receiving some rather bad news work wise today. However, we've one Elf night left, a week off to relax and what promises to be lots of scrumptious treats to enjoy; so I'll try to concentrate on that for the time being.

GranariesGirl: I wish I was in the land of fromage and vin and hope the weather is not so bad there as it has been here today.

7roland8

Yes Happy Christmas back to you too Alex - hope it is happy and relaxing for you all.

AlexLK

7roland8 wrote: »

Yes Happy Christmas back to you too Alex - hope it is happy and relaxing for you all.

Thank you.

I hope it's happy too but relaxing, I don't think so! Well, certainly not on the "big day". We're going to my parents early; couple of hours messing about in Land Rovers, present opening, dinner, couple of hours playing cards then off to Mrs. K.'s family and I've no idea what they've got planned for us.

mum2one

Sounds lovely plans for Christmas days, hope Elf dosn't into much mischief on hos last ngt xx