November 2013 Grocery Challenge

cocoloco

2childmum wrote: »

K9 = what amazing bargains! I never seem to get YS stuff - not sure whether it's because I shop at the wrong time, or because the SMs near me don't have so much stuff to reduce. Having said that there was some meat in the reduced section at Mr T on Monday but none of it had actually been reduced. When do people find is the best time to find the bargains?

I found that the best reductions are on approx 2 hours before closig time- like our As*a / Sainsbugs/ Tescimo closing at 10pm- they generally reduce stuff by approx 70- 90% at around 7:30-8:00pm.

M&S started to put out reduced food as well , but they wait 1hr- 30 min before closing time.

Sainsbugs / Tescimos / As*a also have early reductions in the early afternoon, but ususally for only 10-20%.

Hope this helps!

First_Trouble

Have some milk and HM bread that has to be used up so have decided to make bread pudding. Spent £1.62 in Mr T for big bag of raisins although they didn't have any mixed spice. I have all the individual spices at home except allspice should be ok to leave this out right?

Also spent £4.60 at the fruit and veg stall so tonight I will be busy making Vegetable Stew, Leek and Potato Soup, Cream of Vegetable Soup & Bread Pudding. Going to be a busy bee tonight!

meg72

2childmum wrote: »

K9 = what amazing bargains! I never seem to get YS stuff - not sure whether it's because I shop at the wrong time, or because the SMs near me don't have so much stuff to reduce. Having said that there was some meat in the reduced section at Mr T on Monday but none of it had actually been reduced. When do people find is the best time to find the bargains?

Just made a chicken and veg pie - I had so much filling I've also managed to make a small (2 portion) one as well (I had already make double pastry so I could freeze some) The trouble is the chicken was out of the freezer (i.e. already cooked) so I can't just put the pie in the freezer uncooked. If I cook it and then freeze it would that be ok? And what would I do with it when I defrosted it - would I just put it in the oven for a bit to re-heat or would the pastry burn?

I also have the no-room-in-the-freezer problem! But I reckon I could squeeze in a pie:)

Personally wouldn't refreeze chicken that has been cooked and defrosted, I think the rule is freeze once raw and freeze once cooked.

chirpchirp

Spent £22.79 of my £175 budget for the month at the co-op.

Not sure that everything went through properly though as I thought I'd picked up an offer and it's gone through at full price, maybe I didn't read the offer properly. I've tried looking at the website but can't see if it's on offer.

Also noticed that it says at the end of the receipt "Become a member and share in our profits pick up a leaflet in store" I handed over my membership card, does this mean that it hasn't gone through?

First_Trouble

cocoloco wrote: »

I found that the best reductions are on approx 2 hours before closig time- like our As*a / Sainsbugs/ Tescimo closing at 10pm- they generally reduce stuff by approx 70- 90% at around 7:30-8:00pm.

M&S started to put out reduced food as well , but they wait 1hr- 30 min before closing time.

Sainsbugs / Tescimos / As*a also have early reductions in the early afternoon, but ususally for only 10-20%.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for this. I should imagine that this time is also much quieter. I always get elbowed out of the way at the reduced section. Am I the only one that thinks there should some etiquette or am I being too polite

marris

well, did not stay away from the shops for a long time as could not resist free uncle Ben's rice
so went to Mr T got meal deal for £10, rice and some other stuff so it all came to £30,29 after all the offers came off went down to £20,13 had some coupons so went down to £11,06 - pleased with that.got another till split from Mr T £3 off 20 spent valid until 17 Nov + £1 Price promise (wonder what triggered that as all i had was on some kind of offer)
stopped in Co-op and spent another £7,57 (£4 on mixed mini haribo bags 400g £1 x 4 for my wee one) and YS lamb mince 475g £0,99 x 2 and got YS Shloer £0,77(BB 03/14) minus £0,50 coupon and YS Branston brown sauce £0,42 (BB 07/14) and YS Organic bananas £0,35 so money wisely spent.

cocoloco

First_Trouble wrote: »

Thanks for this. I should imagine that this time is also much quieter. I always get elbowed out of the way at the reduced section. Am I the only one that thinks there should some etiquette or am I being too polite

I'm relatively lucky that most people who getting the YS stuff are polite- including me!
Did have a problem in the past with an ethnic group, resulted in my local Tescimos stopped YS goods for weeks!!! :eek: :eek: :eek::eek:

Fortunately the problem stopped, hence me and other people getting YS stuff again!
PS- not beeing racist or a bigot, just stating simple facts!

want2Bfrugal

NSD for a couple of days now.

My cupboards are looking fairly bare and the freezer is looking about 3/4 full - so freezer has someway to go

Have finished most of the veg from the fridge and I plan to be very strict and try to keep out of the shops in the hopes it will force me to use what I still have in the house

Hubby is away for a few days so I plan to take the opportunity to use odd items from the freezer .i.e mash pots, veg etc. Hopefully this will help to have more NSD and also reduce contents of the freezer. I'm prepared to have some weird meal combinations :rotfl:

Faete

Faete wrote: »

I'm determined to make lunch to take to work - I was spending around £30 a week on picking up ready made sandwiches.

Fae xx

Another NSD for me - took a portion of chilli and rice with some salad into work - it was such a treat at lunch time - plus I knew exactly what was in it and that it was healthy and balanced.

BF has been left in charge of dinner tonight - I've heard him scrabbling around in the freezer - should be interesting.

Fae xx

Faete

Faete wrote: »

BF has been left in charge of dinner tonight - I've heard him scrabbling around in the freezer - should be interesting.

Fae xx

OMG! :eek:He's ordered two grilled peri peri chickens and sides - £18.00 - he says it will do for tomorrow's dinner and sandwiches too! LMAO :rotfl:

Fae xx