Waitrose Essentials

MrsStepford

B'sKitchen wrote: »

How interesting that some of you save money shopping there! Can you share your tips and tricks?

I used to order from Ocado from time to time, but the min £40 order made me feel oddly guilty, as I rarely spend that much in Aldi/Lidl, unless we stock up on alcohol or/and meat.

My nearest supermarkets, Sainsbury's, ASDA, Lidl and Morrisons are all just over a mile away. I don't drive and if I wanted to buy something bulky, a trip round the ring road by bus or taxi would cost £2 - £8. A lot of people don't factor in fares or fuel when looking for bargains.

Just renewed Ocado SmartPass (74.99) and I have worked out that as long as I have two deliveries per month, it pays for itself. I have NO idea why Ocado does it but other supermarkets have followed suit. ASDA charges me £5 per month and if I don't save on delivery, they will give me a voucher annually for the difference.

Ocado doesn't do this, but it offers a big range of products with 10% offj, just for SmartPass customers. Ocado price matches to Tesco, so if items in the shop cost you more than they would have done in Tesco, you get an evoucher - even if it's only 1p. Carrier bags - Ocado gives you 5p for each of their carrier bags which you recycle back to them and also 5p for single use bags from other supermarkets.

Substitutes - usually you'll know if something is out of stock before the delivery turns up but this week I ordered Essential Waitrose lean venison mince and got a Hampshire Game venison minute steak instead.

Anniversary present - SmartPass customers get an annual thank you evoucher worth up to £10 on chocolates or wine, so I just tried Booja Booja chocs on Ocado

Flash sales get you up to 50% off selected products as you check out, but remember it's only the products which have a special offer under them which are on sale. Ocado reminds you if you have incomplete offers but on fresh produce, you have to do the price per kg or 100g legwork yourself.

The quality of Ocado own label is really good, easily as good as Waitrose and often cheaper. They don't do their own value lines but do carry a lot of the Waitrose ones. In fact they have more Waitrose stuff than my nearest Waitrose !

Regardless of supermarket, the biggest tip is to shop the special offers (I always do them first) just like French women of yore based their menus around what was in season and cheap, base meals around offers and bulk buy if you can. Ocado lets you bjy up to 20 of each item on promotion.

When I do an online shop with Ocado I also have another page open for ASDA and compare prices. I make sure \i get the deliveries on different days so that if something is out of stock or I run out of something then I can add it.

meer53

Essential Waitrose lean venison mince :rotfl:

Sorry but this made me laugh ! No offence meant Mrs Stepford.

A._Badger

Though I tend to agree with the earlier poster who suggested Waitrose fruit and veg is usually superior to Aldi's (I agree, it is), the price for the superiority can be high. A week or so back I saw fresh peas at 99p in Aldi, a few pence more in Morrisons and, the following day, £2.50 as a 'Waitrose Essential'!

Essential to Waitrose's bottom line, perhaps!

B'sKitchen

MrsStepford wrote: »

Regardless of supermarket, the biggest tip is to shop the special offers (I always do them first) just like French women of yore based their menus around what was in season and cheap, base meals around offers and bulk buy if you can. Ocado lets you bjy up to 20 of each item on promotion.

Thanks for taking time to share!

This is always in the back of my mind, though for some reason it's really hard to execute, e.g. I feel like the things we usually buy are never on sale or are cheaper in Lidl/Aldi anyway. I would definitely like to change the way I meal plan though, to base it on sales and not what we feel like eating.

Btw Booja Booja truffles are life! Sooooo good!

MrsStepford

meer53 wrote: »

Essential Waitrose lean venison mince :rotfl:

Sorry but this made me laugh ! No offence meant Mrs Stepford.

I know what you mean, as in lean venison mince being an Essential for Waitrose and Ocado customers.

However, venison is commercially farmed in New Zealand a lot now. ASDA used to do some great venison burgers and they are now doing wild boar steaks. Iceland does 'exotic meats' and nearer to Christmas, Aldi and Lidl will most likely have frozen reindeer steaks and Hungarian pheasants.

I'm all for innovation and quite happy to peer into freezer and ask Mr Stepford if he would prefer gammon steak or wild boar steak.

pumpkin89

MrsStepford wrote: »

I know what you mean, as in lean venison mince being an Essential for Waitrose and Ocado customers.

I've enjoyed the joke but actually the lean venison mince is Waitrose 1 (their premium range), not essential Waitrose.