Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

I'm annoyed. 
As a rule I don't use any loyalty cards as I've never purchased enough to make enough points to be able to spend/use them.  I tried once at Sainsbobs, it took two years to reach their minimum spend, then I was 200 miles away getting an easter egg for mum so thought "I can use this" - handed it over and they said "this isn't your home store", so I've always found them a nuisance, a faff, a hinderance + they hold up the queue while people in front are looking for theirs.  And when you try to use them you have to perform gymnastics of being in your "home store", spending enough, buying enough items, having enough on the card. 

They say "You can take your receipt to customer services and put your receipt on there" if you've forgotten your card, but, for the amounts I spend, that's simply not much use/benefit. 

I walked into Mr T the other week and some woman was trying to get me to take a Clubcard and I said no.... 

It seems their latest wheeze is to offer "clubcard prices" on some goods (which I thought wouldn't be relevant to me).

Just loaded up the Mr T website to check their current price of my fizzy pop ... and it's £8.50/24 ... or £6.50 with a clubcard.  *sighs* ... so now I'm going to have to go through the rigmarole of getting one just to get that lower price... a price which has historically just been available to all shoppers when it's priced like that.

caronc

Yeah they seem to be doing more of those, until fairly recently you used to get money off vouchers with your quarterly club card statement which I suppose was much the same thing just more faff.  I have notice their non-club card offers have reduced quite a bit. 

Brambling

I hope you enjoyed the sweet n sour Caronc 🙂

My great niece in her first year at uni has tested positive but other than no sense of smell tells her mum she's ok. Her mum did have a panic when she told her that she was out of inhalers and wasn't allowed to get one, but mum fixed it 🙂 more worrying is my 96 year old uncle who's in hospital for something else and has been in contact with it on the ward, so can't come home. My poor aunt at 90 is finding it very difficult and is feeling very isolated, lonely and worried as she can't visit, they've been married 72 years and this is the longest they've been apart.  Unfortunately she is so deaf you can't talk to her on the phone and he has dementia so doesn't understand what's going on. They've never had carers or help other than a gardener, my aunt has been his carer.  

My neighbour brought my garage key back and as thanks for letting him use it I got two bottles of wine 😁 and he will repair the facial boards when he does theirs

lunch was beans on toast, dinner the last of the gammon with bubble and squeak and veg 

Farway

Nice result there Brambling, free wine plus beans on toast + B & Sq, that's living CFO to the max

Bummer on the Clubcards, PN, not that I use T*sco but something to bear in mind.

W8rose used to send out coupons to card holders but since they hit the rocks that seems to have dried up, around here anyway.

Not that the coupons were of much CFO use, the typical spend £500 and get 10p off type [my slight exaggeration there], plus my Co-op div card is useless since they stopped the divi

The only card I find any use these days  is my Ice£and one, but works in a reverse sort of way, pre load with cash & get a free quid for every £20 put on, and sometimes get card holder extras but not often

Sun's out & it's bin day, that sums up today round here

Meals are going to be suck it & see, tentative plans are

Lunch, use up last of the sausages in a sarnie

Dinner, I fancy fish & chips but not going to chippy so it'll be HM.

I have frozen breaded cod fillets somewhere and plenty of spuds, seems easy enough but I'll see how I feel neared the time

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
As I mainly use Tesco for my shopping I get a reasonable amount back from my Clubcard points every quarter. 
Sounds like a good neighbour Brambling
We enjoyed the sweet and sour - another for the "make again" list.
Sis and nephew tests were negative so it's just been an ordinary lurgy that my nephew had
My groceries are due soon and then if stays dry some garden tidying is on the agenda for this afternoon.
F&C here too for dinner, though haddock for me. My son will have his usual chippy.

PasturesNew

I'm annoyed.   Why is it that shops increasingly make it impossible for you to do simple things you've always done?
I thought "Right, 4rse into gear, get to Mr T, get a clubcard"... so off I went and arrived. Didn't have my glasses - no worries, I've got a spare pair in the glove box (£land jobbies).  Into Mr T - get a trolley, not a basket, as the aim is to get 2x24 cans of fizzy pop.  Inside the door - Clubcard display, two women..... 
Ah ... but it doesn't work like that.  You can't turn up, fill in a form, rip the card off and go shopping.  No, you have to download an app, or fill out a form online.  Well, I don't use apps and wasn't about to thoroughly embarrass myself trying to see my phone in front of an audience, so I declined.  But that was it .... can't buy fizzy pop at the lower price as it's now "clubcard deal" instead of being a regular price drop/deal of the week like it's been for donkeys' years. 

Trundled round and bought random dry/tinned foods.... 3x spagbol, 3x peas, crumpets, jam, 2x salmon paste, 2 bananas, pack of flatbreads, 6-pack doritos, coffee, baked beans, 2x creamed rice.  Spent £9.  Plan was to get some frozen burgers just before going home. 
EDIT: Oooh and I forgot... I also picked up a hot Cornish pasty and ate that straight away. I took the first bite in the car park, then thought I'd drive to a viewpoint to eat it, but the traffic was so heavy I ended up eating it as I was driving.   They're handy, at £1.60 full price (got a lucky break once and got one for 40p reduced as they have to sell them off if not sold within 2 hours on a hot cabinet).  I spotted them on the way in, then went back and got one just before I went to the till so it didn't get cold while I was shopping, plus there's always the slim chance if I go back in a bit they'll be reduced, but they weren't today. 

So, off for a big drive round to a short list of "houses that aren't ideal, but might as well do a drive by + some are overbudget too".... 

I also went to the OOD, see what they had.  I had hoped they'd have jelly sweets they had two weeks ago but I didn't spot them... and emerged with 0 purchases.  "In my own home" I'd have certainly walked out with a case of 8 Homepride Slow Cooker sauce pouches, £4 for 8 and some other things that I could use in my own space, but not right now. 

Then it was time to get burgers/chips... same issue though, I get chips from one shop and burgers from another.  But I couldn't get to the burger shop as traffic was mega heavy.... so I changed plan and thought "Go to 1celand then".... local area was gridlocked..... I turned the engine off at one point waiting for it to move.... nowhere to park, so came home.  By this time I couldn't face driving up to get chips at L1dl.  1celand shuts at 6pm, else I'd go there 7-8pm.  Who knows.  So angry/annoyed/twitchy I will probably not do anything about it now.   I was also going to get eggs and cheese at L1dl. 

I HATE shopping...... and am missing the days of being able to go out easily to a shop and bring back "supplies" of items enough to last 3-6 months as I'm currently only buying "what I'll need or want in the next 2-3 weeks". I want/need bleach.... in my own home I'd simply buy 2-3-4 bottles on each of 2-3 occasions and be stocked up, here I just buy one bottle at a time and it's from the furthest shop, which I'm very rarely at now.  4ldi 39p bleach is MUCH better than, say, Mr T cheapo bleach. 

Farway

What a PIA PN, but it seems you get a couple of key fobs for easy scanning once signed up.

Morries do the same thing, makes it fairly easy as no fumbling for card as the fob is on your key ring along with car keys etc

App sounds like a tracker thing although I suppose it can be switched off, or once you have card just uninstalled from 'phone as the key fobs or a real plastic card have your details in the barcode

Maybe as XCFO comes along choccies could be on the card offer?

PasturesNew

For tea I had the final two slices from my last loaf + half a tin of spag bol + some cheddar.  40p/can for that spag bol and it's definitely passable, it's even growing on me.  I bought three tins today   A nice cheap little "cupboard filler" for CBA days.

Sitting here now scoffing a pack of the doritos.  I bought them at "full price" which is 6 in a pack for £1.50, or 25p/pack.  When I was in the OOD earlier they had cases of the same brand but "hot" ones and they priced up at 30p/pack... I sniffed to myself and thought "cheaper at Mr T full price".  You do have to be price aware when looking for bargains.  Not everything's a bargain.... like in £land, the food aisle is rarely worth visiting for anything as everything there can be bought easily enough, elsewhere, for <£1. 

Brambling

You also have to be careful in £land as sometimes the packs are smaller, that includes toiletries 

Last day at work for a week and nice and quiet for a change 😁 my colleague lives in Croydon so goes into tier 2 restrictions midnight as they come under London, hopefully we're far enough away to avoid it.  My sister is still hoping to come up next week for a few days but it will obviously depend on both of us still being medium risk 

lunch was the last portion of soup, dinner fish Kiev from the freezer with a big plate of LO broccoli and carrots

PasturesNew

Had a midnight snack... one tin of rice pudding + 3 big spoons of jam. Eaten cold from a large mug  
I do like that 20p creamed rice.... if I had "my own house" I'd be stocking up now with 6-8 of those.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300770441