Elite 11+ shopping and chat thread part 2½

davemorton

Hamburg.
Any recommendations please?
I was going to go to minatureland, but think it may be a bit busy, so HOHO bus it is now, but what else? Only have about 6 hours. Suggestions please.

Savvybuyer

Sunshinemummy wrote: »

20,000 :eek::eek::eek::eek:

You live a very active lifestyle in comparison to me... I get out of bed, walk to the shower, walk to the car, walk to the office, walk to meetings....I do walk to the loo and the kitchen... I have been walking in the evenings doing 10,000 steps with my average 5,000 steps a day that tends to make me 15,000.

20,000 steps is about 3 hours walking for me.... I don't think I could achieve that..... I'll go for the 15,000 and when I can bump it up at weekends... so you're on!

DS3 bought me a garmin smart watch for Christmas which is linked to my phone... I am still learning how to use it.

So we have a joint challenge, shall we start on the 1st January?

:D:D:D:D

God I do not believe I am agreeing to this :p:p:p

Starting on 1st January would be a good idea though - I've actually stopped my walking lately as it has been freezing cold. I might start again in the summer - I don't know if it counts if I do twice as much as I should in the summer and then do nothing in the winter. I don't know how much my walking around M will be, although I do backtrack on myself in stores with the normal disorganisation as usual. Despite saying that going to M yesterday would not really "fit in" with what I needed to do that day, I managed to do a "full" collection (as full as my set of carefully-picked stores allows). I covered my main store in two parts. That's right - although it's not MSE for me, I left the store part way through (much as my preference is not to leave something incomplete even if for under an hour) and travelled back to the store to complete the rest.

I knew there would be some change in M as some offers seemed to be ending each day in the past week and, of course, the post-seasonal items. It seems to me that different Ms are now very bitty on these items, you will have what you have available to you, and this is the time of the year that I am having to use more stores to pick up a good selection. I am also losing some of the packs of alcohol again from some stores, that I need for potential APG items, as some people are actually buying them in M:eek: rather than buying them in A as they should and getting 10% cheaper. I have managed to find what I needed, but only just - I think I would not have had one item at least had I stuck to last week's set of stores.

Regarding the post-seasonal items, if people want them, I think you are best just going to your store(s) and seeing what you find, as you will just have what is available to you rather than waiting for me to tell you what I have found, several of which won't be available in your stores now, as, by the time I am able to find all my details, most of the items will have gone. I am thinking, for example, of the Smarties tubes, including Pink Smarties. I don't care much for Christmas and use these as the only Smarties I buy all year as they last most of the year and are always the cheapest smarties I can find all year. I have not had any stock this time in M, although I think I had that before - the usual situation is that I don't find any stock of the products and then eventually, I go out to more stores and find one place that has one tube left or a store that has several more later on. However, this time - and many thanks to our poster on here on 26th December - I managed to obtain all I needed from Mr A and used Mr A's own currency to pay rather than paying cash!:T I think I probably missed stock in M as it seems they went onto the same 50p price there yesterday.

I have been trying to track what has happened to the post-seasonal items and, whilst my Ms were rather bitty, it seems that I have done rather well. I think I've found, either through having the products or through having others in a range and taking it that the other items in that range that I didn't have would have gone to the same price, nearly everything I had outstanding. Even if it took to the sixth store, where I was always going to end, to find the one item that I was really looking for.

I think there's a couple I haven't got - but one of them, the Cadbury Dairy Milk Classic Collection (460g) is £1.99 in Iceland and I doubt that's going to be better in M (famous last words) - if I were to take a guess as to what it will now be in M, I'd say half price - so, of its £4 last week, probably now £2? The large Maltesers Selection Box (213g), at least, has gone to £1.50 - and I take it that the Galaxy and Mars ones have done the same - however they are already beaten by A at £1.25. I did have problems (not as much as week's yesterday) finding the selection boxes last time - I guess last week's problem seemed to be greater than yesterday's even though it was the opposite, because, last week, I had "everything" at the outset and just the selection boxes to keep trying to find and trying to find, whereas this time I had several items missing at the start and then one or two more found at the next place, and then just carry the rest over, then find a few of those, so it didn't seem so bad, and then end up at a final store that happened to fill in nearly everything for me. I think I may have been good that that happened (purely by location and logistics of where I could visit) to be a quite a small store, as it had a lot more than most other places and obviously not as many people using the store and buying things out as they may be doing with some of the major stores.

The random item I have lost yesterday is the Ox Liver - just happens to have sold out yesterday from my main store and didn't turn up elsewhere for me (that one was the one item that, instead of last week's selection boxes, which actually took only store four to turn up, now was harder and I haven't found it at all but don't worry about it though as I can't see that it would have suddenly changed in price and I do sometimes have the odd item that I lose once but then pick up again a few days later and price was obviously constant). One thing that has changed though as the Oat So Simple Spiced Pumpkin that - I don't think it happened yesterday, I think it has happened at some point when I had lost it entirely for some time - has gone up from £1 to £2.45:eek:! As of course anyone would know that has been in the stores that have had it for the last few weeks:o.

There are items I don't have but they are online so I have picked the store that has the non-online items and it seems to have come up trumps with the alcohol pack for me. My other store, that is a little farther away, that has the online items and is the only other place at the moment where I have the same non-online items, I do not think it would have had the alcohol pack that I didn't have anywhere else now. So, I have, I think, gone the right place and the stores were selected the way they were for a reason. I did not find the Whole Salmon (I suspect someone's whoopsied salmon at 23p:T would be far cheaper in any event) and by the time I got to my last store that had a fish counter (my fifth store, just to divert you) unfortunately it was too late and nothing was out anymore:(. This was after failing to find it in the place that eventually had it for me last time, having had my two other stores with fish counters no trace earlier both times. There was nothing I could have done yesterday though - I went earlier to my first store, in order to give time to leave and come back and still finish at the normal time, and by the time I was able to go to the fifth place, there was traffic on the roads according to Google maps so I couldn't have made it to the store any earlier. I have got the other items I have there - I think I now have four different sizes of Quality Street, all of which have gone onto "reduction" and to see later which of them is the best to buy, although it will not matter anyway as you will just have the sizes that you happen to have (which, probably one in six, won't be the best one but is all you have).

At the end, the Whole Salmon turns out to be online, so I am saved by that, and it has gone up to full price anyway. So I have got the price from online and that item will be taken off the list:cool:. I bet they brought it out to the counter of some of my stores after I'd already left - I had one store and was nearly leaving one time, then went back in for ten minutes of something else, turned round - and the salmon was now with its price label on the counter, so they have possibly done the same again and brought it out around midday yesterday - obviously I had to be in other places throughout the day and couldn't stay at the same one place. Anyway, although the price has gone up - it seems the Whole Salmon £5/Kg. offer is no longer on - it seems all good as online has provided me with the information.

There are some further items to come on - the Walkers Oven Baked Crisps going to £1 in M (the Oven Fusions are full price it seems but they are T and M - why bother? - and Baked Crisps excluding Salt & Vinegar are Avs M wait for APG update first - and with Tomato Ketchup crisps in A?) - and some RTCs in the pet food aisle have gone even cheaper (some of them are not being labelled as "RTC" anymore though, they are being labelled as "reductions" which could make a difference, in other sections of the store where comparable items exist, for TBG as they no longer state that they are clearance items, we may find out whether or not TBG agrees with me - there's no express indication that they are clearance now in M, some of them, specifically the seasonal items, so it might be the system will not recognise them as clearance and will compare against them and it would take a human being to realise that they are, by implication at least, actually clearance items. For my part, if I see "RTC", or "Reduced to clear" or "Clearance", I will note it as that and it should not compare on TBG - and store-specific sticker knockdowns don't get noted for that anyway - but, if I see that something is just a "reduction", then I will note it for potential TBG, if A does not have it online and if T may have it (doesn't matter even if it's only instore as regards TBG as long as in a qualifying type of store), as it is just like an offer price to me - that's what I thought the reductions in previous weeks were - no statement of any reduction to clearance).

I think I have got a good set of stores on this collection. There will be further items somewhere which I am still not aware of, so there is always something still missing - although hopefully I am cutting a lot of that down by using stores with different ranges and choosing them to try to get all the ranges I need - there will be something I am still not aware of, that maybe just happens to be temporarily absent from those ranges or is an item in the range that the stores I use don't have. So I won't have everything; however I am I think as near as I can be and, of the items that I am already aware of, I have managed to find virtually everything I needed. I have now looked at HotUKDeals and I have got everything it has got at the moment (and a lot more) - although maybe they will find something I haven't got later and that'll be helpful additional information coming that way.

I had better post this now as the screen has just flashed on me again; the post is fortunately still there:eek:.

At least two versions of Quality Street Matchmakers have gone to 50p. M missed out on me buying them as I had no SELs in my earlier store. I then had SELs but no stock, which informed me that both were now 50p each. There may be a further version that I do not have anywhere, so that one I don't know about. I then had one of the versions I had in physical stock, but it wasn't the version I really wanted - typical, that one was another SEL and nothing, so I didn't buy any of them at all.

The cartons (Wine Gums, Jelly Babies and Licquorice Allsorts) are £2 each in M yesterday, so no good currently as they are £1 each in A. I got some from A on Boxing Day. I did things by half again (in fact I had my Aldis, sadly both stuck on 19p, with one of them with the Broccoli and Carrots but no Sprouts and Parsnips and the other store turned out to have the other products for me) - this time, one A gave me the Smarties and, by the time I discovered, late in the day as usual, I had just enough time to make it to the other store a couple of miles away where they had just the cartons for me (helped by lack of any SELs at that time) and didn't have any Smarties that I now didn't need in any event!

So I did very well and managed had managed to split the APGs in such a way that I spent the entire value of the vouchers I had with me and didn't have anything extra to pay. You can also use "card only" machines that way, even though you are not using a card. I didn't go for the Jelly Babies as they went down to 75p, and then reputedly to 50p, in M in past years. 75p was on again last year, so I am expecting at least that, although I had not happened yesterday. Two stores initially were teasing me - no SELs for just Jelly Babies but they scanned at £2. (I thought that was full price (it seems like it is to me!) - but it is called a "reduction" in one of my later stores along and full price is actually £4!) Back in A on 26th, the Licquorice Allsorts unfortunately were not 50p but were £1 in my store. As Poundland and Poundstretcher regularly have 500g of unbranded Licquorice Allsorts (possibly made by the same factory) at £1, that price for only a 400g carton in A seemed a bit dear. I did get caught by one of them though - having put one back and replaced it by Wine Gums, which do seem to work out better. Again, I have bought for the entire year ahead and will not be buying any more all year as whatever they are through the year will be much more expensive.

I did get a final pack - there were many more still left - of Shreddies from Poundstretcher at 50p a few days ago. They are all BB December 2017, the ones I have seen, so one final box will do as reasonable (I bet they could be kept a while beyond the BB but, anyway, the one I got fits well).

Just a final thing about my collection yesterday in M - I'm not really bothering with gift sets. I suspect that several of them, or even many of them, especially if they are now on rather hopeless* RTC in A, will now have gone "Unavailable" on a.com and, if that's the case, they will not appear on the APG anymore, or that will be so very soon, and therefore will not stand any chance of comparing (against anywhere whether M or otherwise). They often did not pick up M anyway, as far as I know. In any event, even on buying in M, if they've disappeared from the APG and are now no-go there, we are not going to get anywhere near as good as the 4p prices on some of them that we were getting on glitched sets before Christmas. More like pounds, on many of them, even on "reductions", in M. I may let some of the Academy of Colour lip sets etc. slip onto the list at £1:eek: (I think they went to 50p afterwards last time) in case anyone is interested in them, but any other gift product that had anything of equivalent in A (of the shower gel types etc., of which several were excellent vs T) is just nowhere near to making it to the list as buying in M - the only [Strike]viable[/Strike] option now - cross that out - is not even a viable option as they are going to be nowhere near as cheap as 4p.

viable
ˈvʌɪəb(ə)l/
adjective
adjective: viable
capable of working successfully; feasible.
[Oxford Dictionaries]

Exactly. It does not work successfully. It is a failure, as it is going to cost more than 4p. Getting them for any more money than that is unsuccessful at an attempt to save money.

Goodnight for now!

*compared to previously glitched net price

BIG_MOC

:A Savvy Sal :A

davemorton

A song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJ61jgFCMM
A beautiful song that can say more to more people than i ever could.

davemorton

And another, just because I love it, Joss Stone, great,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmduDP-JNLQ

Naebbirac

:A savvy sal:A
Sincere condolences to her family.
So sad.
N x

Serendipitious

Good morning all

elainemn

Good morning everyone.

Sunshinemummy

Savvybuyer wrote: »

Starting on 1st January would be a good idea though - I've actually stopped my walking lately as it has been freezing cold. I might start again in the summer - I don't know if it counts if I do twice as much as I should in the summer and then do nothing in the winter. I don't know how much my walking around M will be, although I do backtrack on myself in stores with the normal disorganisation as usual.

I think you should join us in the challenge.... I will be very adhoc with my walking...:D:D:D:D

emerald21

Sunshinemummy wrote: »

I think you should join us in the challenge.... I will be very adhoc with my walking...:D:D:D:D

You weren t drunk then lol

Good Morning all