Do you have a secret trick?

JIL

General_Grant said:

Brie said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Nonnadiluca said:

I know this won't work for everyone, but having a 'shopping buddy' can help save money. I shop weekly with DD and, for instance, we get a large bag of potatoes and share it as neither one of us needs a whole bag;  we share a subscription for recycled loo rolls; we use one Lidl plus app for both of our shops and share the money off as individually we wouldn't spend enough to qualify; I often get money off vouchers for Tesco but again, wouldn't spend the £40 or whatever to qualify so get  both lots of shopping together and split the discount; if she's getting an ocado order she will phone and let me know what special offers are available on things I use. This helps us to save a bit of money and reduces food waste a bit too.

Sharing the loot in this way works really well! Whilst I don't do this myself, whatever I can't use goes on Olio and stuff is snapped up within minutes.

I've considered doing this with random strangers in shops especially for those large bags of stuff of which you only need 1 or 2.  Instead sometimes I've opted for opening packs and buying singles if that's all I want.  Works best if there's a bin of item by weight that is empty or only has dreadful looking ones in it.  So I'll open a bag of 3 courgettes, take the 1 I want and put the other 2 in the by weight bin. 

And yes I have been known to snap off some of the mushroom stems and recently got out my pen knife to remove a large portion of unwanted broccoli stalk - it would have doubled the weight of what I wanted to buy and would have gone directly in the bin at home as it was too woody to be eaten.  I also leave the vines from tomatoes behind too on the principle that if I wanted 1 I'd take it off a vine so why take the vine even if I want all 5 on it.  (not the packaged stuff in this case....) 

Were the loose courgettes priced the same by weight as the pack you split?  So therefore did you pay more or less per kilo for the product you paid for than if you had bought the bag of 3?

Broccoli - is priced for the product including the stalk.  If you didn't want the stalk you could have added it to composting material, knowing you had paid the correct price for the broccoli. If it really was inedible then presumably nobody else was going to pay top dollar for the stalk and the supermarket will have sent it to landfill.

It's up to the supermarket to have a word.

Theres worse things going on in the world. 

-taff

comeandgo said 

You walk about with a knife on your person?  

I do. Very useful things. In the hands of grown ups with common sense and a non murderous attitude.

Brie

comeandgo said:

You walk about with a knife on your person?    Ok, I understand the broccoli if it’s sold by weight, but think you opening packets to take out one is dishonest as the packeted items are different priced to open ones.  Also ,do you point out to staff at checkout that your tomatoes are the loose on vine ones, not the loose salad tomatoes?

Yes I admit it seems wrong but I'm being a bit bolshie I guess.  And yes I have always had a knife on my keyring.  It's previously been a tiddly swiss army one - the sort that has folding scissors and a pair of tweezers - the smallest they sell.  But I lost that one (long story....) so I now have a pretty little one with a (very sharp) blade about 2 inches long.  Nothing that would be classed as a weapon in case you are worried (and I know of what I speak).  And no I can't add it to a composter as I don't use one and have no food recycling bin either.  The tomatoes are obvious.  I'll check on the price of the courgettes.  

fyi - my mom said to me once when I asked about the knife she carried that a woman should always carry a knife.  This wasn't meant as a weapon sort of thing but as a mother she found it handy for cutting up apples so us kids could all have a separate chunk rather than taking a bite from a single piece of fruit.  Mom is now in her 90s and would still be carrying her knife in her handbag on her keys except she doesn't carry a handbag anymore and has no need for keys.  I think that all changed when she was 91 so fairly recent. 

RobM99

-taff said:

comeandgo said 

You walk about with a knife on your person?  

I do. Very useful things. In the hands of grown ups with common sense and a non murderous attitude.

So is an assault rifle but I wouldn't want one on the streets. 

-taff

I agree completely about assault rifles. You can't slice open a apcket with them though. Or, as above, cut an apple. What was I saying about common sense?

YoungBlueEyes

Calorie leakage applies to bottles too. Wine… Baileys… Limoncello… 😁

Longwalker

I few years ago I was in a shop looking at a jacket, one of those padded zip up ones and they were running an offer, its was something like £20 each or 2 for £30. I only wanted one. 

There was another lady looking at them as well. So I asked her if she was going to buy and was it only the one she wanted, she was, it was, so I paid for the two, she gave me £15 , we both won

Couple of weeks before Christmas I was in Tesco taking advantage of their club card offers on drinks, soft drinks etc, get to the checkout, no flipping club card . I was raging cos I was looking at around £40 saving, so I asked the lady behind me in the queue if she had a card and would she like my points - she got my points, I got the discount

Fortunately I have no shame when it comes to asking a complete stranger to share the deal 

Just for info, its perfectly legal to carry a folded blade no longer then 3 inches. And as whilst I have never snapped off stalks, I have opened bags of carrots , parsnips , onions to take the one or two that I want. Tesco bagged is the same price per kilo as loose for those  - sometimes cheaper 

mandy47

Brie said:

I've considered doing this with random strangers in shops especially for those large bags of stuff of which you only need 1 or 2.  Instead sometimes I've opted for opening packs and buying singles if that's all I want.  Works best if there's a bin of item by weight that is empty or only has dreadful looking ones in it.  So I'll open a bag of 3 courgettes, take the 1 I want and put the other 2 in the by weight bin. 

And yes I have been known to snap off some of the mushroom stems and recently got out my pen knife to remove a large portion of unwanted broccoli stalk - it would have doubled the weight of what I wanted to buy and would have gone directly in the bin at home as it was too woody to be eaten.  I also leave the vines from tomatoes behind too on the principle that if I wanted 1 I'd take it off a vine so why take the vine even if I want all 5 on it.  (not the packaged stuff in this case....) 

I work in a supermarket.
Do you realise the problem and waste you are causing.
We have a delivery, by weight, of loose fruit and veg. If we sell more than that weight because shoppers have split packs we have a stock discrepancy. Also we are not allowed to sell pre-packed items as weighted. Split packs have to be marked down or wasted. We can not sell them as weighted items. 
If we sell over our delivery weight we can get problems with weights and measurements regulations.
The alternative is to waste that item.

-taff

Why can't those items be given to a food bank/community fridge? Then there#s no waste. But I can guess why they aren't. No profit in it? Too difficult to administer?

mandy47

-taff said:

Why can't those items be given to a food bank/community fridge? Then there#s no waste. But I can guess why they aren't. No profit in it? Too difficult to administer?

Our store does give to local charities and food banks. No community fridge in my area.