July 2021 Grocery Challenge

goldfinches

My veg box has arrived and I'm honestly a bit disappointed by it. Quite a lot of the contents are very obviously days old to the point of being unusable and for the price I don't think I got good value.

Here are the contents as they arrived this am.



Most of the basil had gone black and slimy, all three tomatoes have got rotten patches, the chard was very limp and the peas and beans had quite a few mouldy pods.
I paid £35 and £4 delivery for the peak season box from Natoora and they claimed it would be "the fruit and vegetable varieties at their best, right now" and would give "phenomenal flavour".
I don't think I'll be ordering from them again.

joedenise

I'd definitely be putting in a complaint and asking for a refund as so much of it is unusable - that's very expensive for what you've actually received.  It wouldn't have cost anywhere near that from a greengrocer!

goldfinches

joedenise said:

I'd definitely be putting in a complaint and asking for a refund as so much of it is unusable - that's very expensive for what you've actually received.  It wouldn't have cost anywhere near that from a greengrocer!

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure about complaining but I have taken some photos of the unusable bits so I might give it a go.
I had definitely decided not to order again from this company and instead have a look at the other veg boxes that deliver in this area because staying out of the supermarket is definitely the key to keeping my spending within budget.

Before the pandemic I used to shop every day for what I needed for the following 24 hours which worked really well for me whereas now I seem to be reacting to less frequent shopping by snatching up everything I think I might conceivably need for the next fortnight. 

It's a pity that there wasn't a discount for a first order from this company, I'll certainly look out for a deal like that for any other companies I consider trying in the future.

ancientmum

I'm sorry to hear about your cat Smoosh.   

I've started to get some courgettes from the allotment but beans and peas have been massacred by slugs/pigeons.  The carrots and beetroot seem to be coming along nicely.

I've spent £17.90 this last week, on basic fruit and groceries from  Adli or Sains.  I scored some pastries and mini pizzas from Olio, which is helping to make the money stretch a bit further.

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

How are you coping with the heatwave?  I sent DH to work this morning with a note stuck to his lunchbox: “Salad.  Do not microwave!” In case he didn’t notice that his lunch included a large helping of potato salad.  (The rest was roast chicken and roasted red peppers with mushrooms which are nicer cold but would have survived a quick zap.). 

I am well behind in declaring shops.  We did our “Big Shop” in L!dl on 10th July; £42.75 spent stocking up on groceries and fresh veg.  This was followed by £1.49 spent in A$da on the two items we didn’t manage to buy in L!dl:  YS red peppers (£1.02) and a large head of broccoli (47p).

Sunday, we went to MrT’s.  Last week, we received a mail shot of time-limited money off vouchers.  The first was spend £50 get £7 off, which expired on Sunday.  It took quite a bit of planning to use/abuse this voucher.  Fortunately, they had a 2-for-£11 offer on my hair dye (usually £7 each) and a £1 Clubcard price on DH’s porridge sachets (he takes them to work for breakfast).  Also we needed to stock up on dried chickpeas and dried kidney beans.  A further £3 went on a large tin of pink salmon.  And we bought a quiche for lunch plus a tub of potato salad, which weren’t exactly essential, plus a YS “baby” Piri-piri chicken (£2.38) for roasting at home.   The total before the voucher was £67.54.  Once you factor in the voucher and the £22 I contributed for 4 hair dye packets, the GC purse paid £38.54.  There’s another two spend-£50-get-£5-off vouchers for this week and next, which I doubt will get used.

All of the above brings our total spend for July to £119.03/£161.20 leaving £42.17 for the rest of the month.

- Pip

nannygladys

Hi everyone
No spends from me, went to the lottie tonight and got raspberries, which I gave to Dd1 as I have frozen loads already, four courgettes so I gave dd1 2 of those and picked some peas, as there wasn't enough for even a meal for one I froze them with another some amount I got a few days ago. So happy about that, tomorrow should be a non spend day as well.
Nannyg

Suffolk_lass

@goldfinches how disappointing and what a rip off! I'm about to go shopping to my local Morries (bacause my fridge is bare after my accident last week).

If I were you I would challenge your local greengrocer or market stall holder to make up a seasonal box for you for for £15 or even £20 and compare that. Our greengrocery stall in the market does Friday mornings and although his choice isn't great by the end of the day, his bargains are. I would be asking for 50/50 fruit and veg, asking him to include some beginning of the day premium stuff and some end of the day bargains (and look to collect at the end of the market).

If you can't collect, not sure if you are aware of the Morries Food Boxes - here is a link (they include delivery BTW) and worth a look

goldfinches

@Suffolk_lass - thankyou for your suggestions. I'm having a bit of a think about it at the moment as I'm really wondering if it would be better for me to take up an allotment and grow my own especially since life clearly won't be back to normal until at least this time next year.
Anyway, meantime, I spent £7.20 at M*rks on milk, yoghurt, red lentils and giant couscous which makes my new total £143.94/£124 with a daily average spend of £6.85.

nannygladys

Another no spend day for me, so still lasting out.I seem to have rather a lot of rice and pasta, it's a good job I like them (not together though)

I grow quite a bit on my allotment, the f&v can be grown organic and its fresh, yay!!! I also give away stuff to my dds and grow the more expensive fruit and veggies. Also I find it relaxing in a strange way even though it's supposed to be good exercise! So if you do go down that route, and I do recommend it if you have the time and want to make a go at it. You can also grow loads of different things in containers around your garden or yard as well and I do a bit of that as well. 
Nannyg

boultdj

And I'm now over, up to £159.16, it's the extra pop for other half as he will not drink water, on the plus side I've been able to pick the first small bunch of grapes off the vine in the greenhouse, first year we've grown them as the plant was a gift last year.