From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

I've unlocked just 2 of my 10 prices for this week coming beanie ☹️ And I'm scraping the barrel with those, I may not even bother purchasing the items this week anyway.   I didn't shop there last week, as there were no MrS's in any of the places we went ☹️ 

Greying X

Baileys_Babe

The majority of time the offers I get through nect@r are for items I buy regularly, I do have one offer this week for a completely random item which I will ignore as it isn't off interest to us. I save all the offers using the button at the top of the screen and that way if something catches my eye or I remember we need x, I don't need to faff around with the app or get annoyed at myself for missing out on my nect@r price or bonus points. I don't buy things just because it's a nect@r deal but if for instance I have gluten free pasta on my list and GF penne is a nect@r deal I would buy that this week and if next week the deal is on GF fusilli and I have GF pasta on my list that's what I buy.

Greying_Pilgrim

Baileys_Babe - I was doing the 'universal' accept thing, as i forgot to look at the offers once or twice, and lost points (I think), as a result.  But recently, I've taken the time to unlock only things that I'm likely to buy - in an attempt to perhaps 'shift on' the choice.  It doesn't seem to work, MrS are still offering things that I don't buy weekly.  Treacle is one example - I have bought a tin of treacle probably twice since I have had my n*ctar card - it's appeared in points/prices ..... many times.  Same thing happened when I bought some (heavily) YS'd curd cheese with pineapple - LG was with me and said they wanted to try it (they don't like cottage/curd cheese.....).  I bought it once, it didn't get finished, and yet it appeared for months afterwards in my offers.  

I often get points on milk, cheese, baked beans and chopped tommies - regular purchases, but the 'prices' offers are regularly on things I don't buy from MrS, or that are OOS, so I can't buy them anyway.  I suspect I am not the type of customer MrS desires......

A clothes wash is on.  We're supposed to have good weather today, although I'm a little worried it will be breezy enough for drying, as the garden no longer gets as much sun throughout the day ☹️

This half-term seems to have whizzed and lasted - in equal measure.  It seems an age since we were doing things and meeting up with our chum on the PD day, and yet here we are, preparing to return to school ☹️ It's going to be a costly half-term.  £2 here and £2 there, and a theatre trip for an - as yet - undisclosed amount. 

I forgot to add in the stay in the purpley hotel to our holiday costs, so total holiday costs are approximately £670, for the 6 day trip.  Although as I said, Friday was 'lost' to travelling, so really we only visited/stayed for 5 days.  And I've learnt that I really should trust my instincts more - LG is still at the stage where they will do more 'ordinary' things than I give them credit for - and we should capitalise on that.  Although if we let them, LG would stay on a computer/tablet/phone/TV the entire time - irrespective of whether we were in a down-at-heel seasidey town, or in LaLaLa lasvegas........ ☹️ BUT I take inspiration from the good people on here, and know that your children, Gkids, and all the young people you have in your lives are capable of being enthralled by pebbles on a beach one moment, and invested in zombie anihilation the next - so I have hope that we can navigate the path.  

Right, the washing machine has just beeped, so I'm off to peg out.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

Baileys_Babe

@Greying_Pilgrim said:

I suspect I am not the type of customer MrS desires......

I suspect MrS desires all customers 😉

I too get nect@r offers for things I either bought as a one off try or things I buy very infrequently.

I wish you good drying weather today, according to the forecast it is supposed to be damp all day.

Greying_Pilgrim

I'd like to think MrS welcomes all customers Baileys_Babe, but my trolley always seems suspiciously 'light' compared to customers around me - although often MrS actually gets the lion's share of my grocery budget these days 😉  Mind, I felt totally out of place in MrW on holiday too - with my three items.  The customer in front of me had filled a hand-basket, and the customer behind us had an overflowing 'small' trolley - tbf, the till operative still gave LG a token to pop in the charity choice box, despite our purchases totalling under £10.  

So I've pegged out, and filled literally every inch of washing line.  It's cold, but the sun is shining and there is a breeze that is moving the clothes 🤞There is, of course, still a mound of clothes to wash, but there is no point putting on another wash, as there would be nowhere to dry them.  At least I have mostly caught up, and I think everyone has clothes for the next few days, at a minimum.

LG has just asked if they could do some baking with DH today - do they read on here????? 🤣  So I've said yes, but not "right at this moment, just because I've asked".  But I will make it happen, as it's the sort of thing I would like LG to be doing.  Plus they've said they want to use some sweets that they bought on holiday to decorate the cakes - so that is showing initiative too.  

I'm going to 'recycle' the leftovers of yesterday's soup into something else soup-based for lunch.  There was more leftover, as LG ended up getting fed at their chums - which was super kind of the adults, although they thought nothing of it, as they like entertaining for a crowd, but you can bet Greying was touched by the gesture.....

Right, off to do a bit more.  Greying X

Cheery_Daff

I wouldn't worry about only having a couple of items in the shop - we all know regular top up shops are a recipe for overspending so I'm sure supermarkets love to encourage people to pop in for just a few things as well as a big shop! We have a small Mr W in the town centre, it's often the most convenient place to get milk if we're in town and saves us popping dangerously into the big and much cheaper supermarket, so we regularly just buy milk and a bag of apples in there. (And in fact once recently quibbled over the price of an avocado, twice in one week 🙈😂)

We still spent far less than we would have popping into the big supermarket, where no doubt we would have seen, and bought, plenty of other things 

I rarely even look at my nectar offers - we only have a small Mr S so mostly just buy milk and fruit occasionally. Never seems worth the bother but I suppose I should at least look!

kayannie

Before we moved to where we are now, I shopped in Mr S occasionally, but as it meant a 40 mile round trip, I only went if we were in that town anyway. I found that they stocked items I was unable to get elsewhere & their quality was good. Typically, just when we moved, a new store was built 10 miles from our previous home! There isn't a store anywhere nearer than 40 miles away from us now. 

I find the offers that L!DL send me weekly are usually either for items I buy regularly or for packets of sweets which I never buy. If I get a 15% off an item such as tea bags, then I'll buy it even if I don't actually need it that week. I find the L!DL freebie when a certain amount of spending in that month has been reached, the most useful. Reach £10 & get a free pastry - my DH looks forward to that! £50 for a free veg, etc. 

I've got my washing out too, it's blowing well & the sun's shining but it was pretty cold hanging it out first thing. 

I hope the baking goes well!

KA x

Greying_Pilgrim

kayannie - I tend to buy stuff if the offers are good on things I buy and can keep, but say like one week it'll be a good price for a box of 75 washes washing powder, and then the offer will be made again a week, or two later.  I know I talk about clothes washing alot, but I don't need washing powder every week 🤣  MrS played a blinder the other week, they had qu0rn nuggets on n*ctar price for me - but instore, the smaller bags were (general) nectar price for all, and it was cheaper to buy 2 small bags than get the one big bag on my "special" offer 🙄 No wonder we all have to hone our MSE skills to ninja grade on here! 🤣  And yes - my fingers were freezing by the time I'd finished pegging out this morning too!

Cheery - yes, top-up shops are budget destroyers aren't they?  I secretly love MrW - but more for browsing than purchasing, although the branch on holiday was really busy and there wasn't much scope to browse.  I suppose it benefitted from being a town centre branch - there was a MrL and a (huge) MrM, that I know of, but they were both out of town-ish.  We used MrL, as I knew what we needed from there, and although I over-rode the sat-nav (which was intent on taking us down leafy lanes with grass growing in the middle 🙄), I did get us onto the right road to visit the MrL store on our way to the accommodation.

So we popped out to get yoghurt, school uniform and fuel for the car.  We were successful with the yoghurt and I ended up buying enough for most of the month 🤞 and I bought several other bits and pieces - £10.23 on food and £1.89 on non-food.  MrS had no school uniform in stock - it's xmas party season now, apparently 🙄so I've done an online order.  We did also pop into MrA - I'm not a fan of their clothes (they tend to fit small, although their baby clothes were perfectly adequate), but whilst they had uniform in - there wasn't the right colour/size.  Still, I'm glad we had a look in-store, as LG had gravitated towards a potential xmas pressie in MrS, and I know that MrA is always cheaper - and I've spotted the item, and they are currently cheaper/have stock 😉

I will amend my siggie figgie and shuffle orf to prep some lunch.

Greying X

Baileys_Babe

I wish we had a Mr.W near by.

I shop in a variety of supermarkets depending on where I am, what we want and who has what offer on. In any shop I could spend less than a £1 or over a hundred. I stock up on regularly used items if the discount is good.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Lunch ended up being the tomato/lentil/vegetable soup heated up with a tin of baked beans, thinned out with a little more water, with some paprika paste added and some cooked rice stirred in at the end.  I also shredded up the little bit of cheese I had brought home from holidays (it was intended to be the sandwich filling on Saturday), and topped the soup with that. It made enough for 3 hearty portions. We also had the last 2 baps from a YS'd pack I'd got on one of the time-filling trips to MrT when DH attended a hospital appt.  

LG and DH eventually got around to doing the baking.  I think quite a few of the ingredients, and then quite a bit of the mix got splashed around the kitchen - but at least DH cleared it all up......  The buns have been made, cooked, cooled and decorated.  To make the most of the oven being on, I made a quick apple crumble too.  The apples were some left over from the summer holiday accommodation and one from a 'free please take' box locally.  

Tea was a curry plate, using a pot of cauliflower & chickpea curry, carrot dhal, mung bean curry and some basmati rice.  Pud was crumble and yoghurt.  

I'm currently watching the knitting competition.  Folk are very talented aren't they?

I don't watch telly very often - I'd missed that the xmas TV ads have started......... 😱

Ta for popping by.  Greying X