From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

A lovely sunny start with us - we're so blessed. The birds are just going bonkers with their tweeting and chirping. I've a clothes wash on, all 'everyday' clothes so hopefully they will dry well. I'm trying to make hay whilst we have sun, as who knows how long it will last at this time of year.

I'll peg out and then I need to move some money around, so will walk into Greying Town.

I'm pondering whether to out and out copy dfw321 with our tea tonight. We have the nut roasts that were from a batch made for the Solstice, and I'm thinking of cooking those with potatoes and mixed veg, and whilst the oven is on, doing a crumble to use up the last of the pears (one went mouldy), and apples that i got in the green box. I should also make a banana cake to use up the bananas that are in the freezer from some previous green box. That's the plan at the mo, anyway. Not really the weather for it, but then I'm not awash with salady type stuff either, and what I have, I'm using in sandwiches at lunchtime.

Right, the machine is beeping, so off to peg I go….

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

So, I had a lovely walk into Greying Town. Shuffled some money around and now the bills can be paid when they come in.

I had a quick look around the m&$ f00dhall - no YS'd bargains.

I got a few bits in hB - I'll tot them up just now, and I did also splash out on a sachet of 'nooch' in H&B, so that goes in the bulk spending, as it's a……. 250g pack and should last for several months at least. I know we've talked about the various own brands/brands of nutritional yeast, but it was interesting in H&B today, that they had the 'E' brand, their own brand and they also had BrAgg - which I think (don't quote me), is an american brand, as I'm sure they do seasonings, such as liquid aminos etc. Anyway, H&B own brand was the cheapest per gram and it seems to have good reviews, so 🤞

hB actually had brazil nuts back in stock! But interestingly they've leapt up in price, by a minimum of 30p a bag - if not more, and the BB date on these is October 2026, so it's not like it's a new harvest that the shops have been waiting for…… Were have those nuts been? 🤣

Urgh, right, better get shifting a tail-feather. Tatties won't wash themselves.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

So I gave myself a kick up the bahookie and went to prep the potatoes…… and then got sidetracked by a phone call, nothing serious, just one of those things. I did eventually get started after LG got home. I washed all the remaining maris peer potatoes - they are small and some of them have scab. So I used some of them to make roasties - and they worked quite well 😁 They stayed quite light, not really browned, but were definitely crispy. I prepped some of the Wilja too. I have more of them left - although they are sprouting and shrivelling badly ☹️ - but I washed 4 large ones (for baking) and peeled the rest to make mash. I left the less sprouty ones in the bag, but I will have to sort out using them, as I will lose more ☹️ I got the 3 nut roasts (as I thought), out of the freezer, only to find that they were actually lentil and red pepper bakes. No bother, similar vein, and just as tasty. I also microwaved some broccoli and some mixed veg. With a dollop of gravy, it was a 'proper' 😉 roast dinner. I have also made a apple and pear crumble for pud. In the end, I didn't make a banana cake, there wouldn't have been room in the oven. It was a bit of a faff for a Wednesday night tea, but I'm glad I made the effort, those tatties need using and 'good food' is never a bad idea, whatever time of the week. So thanks to dfw321 for the inspiration!

I haven't sorted out my siggie figgie. I must do that.

The washing came in pretty dry again. I'm so lucky.

I can't think of anything else MSE that I've done today.

So I'm off to find my receipts and update.

Ta for popping in. Greying X

Cheery_Daff

OoOoh, tasty dinner at your house greying! I confess I came home from work (via collecting the car from the garage) and had breakfast-for-tea 😬

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81899755#Comment_81899755

Nowt wrong with that Cheery! If it works, it works - and who says we must eat 'such and such' at a nominated time of the day? 🤔 😁

Shopping day today, I don't know if I'll even bother with MrS - their nectar offerings have gone so poor, and most everything else I get from there is price-matched with MrAl (which in turn is normally similar to MrL), so I may as well go back to MrL. I've noticed that they aren't offering discounts on "what you regularly buy", they are still offering discounts on stuff I purchased once in December for the FB - and haven't bought since. Plus I've noticed they are trying to promote brand purchasing - what a waste of time, I don't really buy branded stuff from there. I wonder if I did 'feedback' whether the ai robot at the other end would dismiss it as a middle-aged lady rant 🤔

Club tonight, so we'll be eating at different times, but I'm thinking of maybe doing baked potatoes in the SC for us all, as when I was prepping the potatoes yesterday, LG sounded quite enthusiastic when they thought we were having baked tatties for tea, so I need to capitalise on that enthusiasm! So we might all have baked tatties, but with different toppings possibly. I know I have some l/o sausage casserole in the freezer - it could perhaps stretch to 3 🤔 I think I put on the label, it could use the addition of more chopped tommies, so perhaps that and a side veg. There is crumble l/o for pud. I forgot to say, considering the crumble was 2 pears that were a little past their best, 2 jazz apples - which aren't the best for cooking, plus a random apple from the fruit bowl that had developed a 'grot spot', it was surprisingly tasty. I put porridge oats in the topping, just for a little change in texture, and mixed spice (do that usually), so it was a relatively cheap make.

I'm not sure I'll achieve much clothes washing today. I think the weather is due to turn colder and wetter again. However, the clothes baskets aren't empty, so……

Right, snap to prep, so I best shuffle orf. Ta for popping by.

Greying X

teapot2

Morning GP, I've been having some thoughts re nectar prices😄. Where I live there is only a smallish expensive coop and a not very good Mr As. Other smkts are available but at least a 20 mile round trip away and I don't have a car. So, once a month or so I get a shopping delivery of the heavier items usually from Mr S and then do top up shops locally as needed throughout the rest of the month. I've noticed when ordering online that there is a section on the website called 'favourites' which has items I buy regularly but also items I bought once maybe for a recipe or when I was staying in a hotel so bought a porridge pot for example. I wonder if the algorithm uses the so called 'favourites' to allocate nectar prices as some of these one off buys certainly appear annoyingly frequently in their offerings. So I've removed these items from my favourites list by clicking on the heart icon, only took a couple of minutes, and will see if that makes any difference to the items that appear in my nectar prices. Hope that makes sense and isn't too waffly x

Jellytotts

We had a load of vouchers come through for Mr M’s, products we’d bought once last year, DH sent an email asking why when they have access to the data of the stuff we buy regularly they were sending offers based on a one time purchase. They apologised, said they’d remove said item from our “list” and sent the equivalent of £5 in points to our Moore card. Worth a try to get something a bit more targeted at what you’re buying.

Greying_Pilgrim

teapot - I totally get what you're describing. My query would be is it because you have an online ordering account that you have a 'favourites' section. I only have an online n*ctar account (not app), and I can't see that I've anywhere to register my preferences or things I do buy every week. I'm thinking (possibly wrongly), that the algorithm (good word - thanks for saying that's what determines these things!), is soley going off my receipts. And it isn't even as if - say for example - that having bought a slab of cake for the FB donation at Christmas, that I have subsequently been 'lured' by either points or money off, to purchase it again. Most odd.

Jellytotts - that's a good idea, because it's not just once in a while, it's every week. Literally nothing on my 'prices' this week is what I want to buy and with the points, I think I bought 3 things that had points, and didn't bother with the St.St onions as the regular were on NP - and they are better onions.

So, I did end up going to MrS. I needed cheese, and to be fair, I prefer their 'value' blocks. They are the same price as MrL (and MrAl I think), but it just seems to taste nicer (I'm odd, I know 🤣 It's probably all from the same factory). I spent £13.02 - only unplanned spends were a loaf of bread and some qu0rn nuggets that were NP - they work well in our 'wrap boofay' meals, so I bought a pack.

Then I went to MrL. There were boxes today, but a quick glance showed that they were not VFM. I think there might have been 7 or 8, whereas there should have been may 3 or 4 boxes made up with the fruit and veg to make it worthwhile. Whoever is filling the boxes in our branch has run away with the idea that the contents should = £2, which isn't the idea of the scheme at all 🙄 A bag of tatties that have gone green are not worth £1.39, even if a bag of tatties retails for £1.39…. 🙄

I did get some YS'd stuff in MrL, all 50%. 2 loaves of bread (hope they're not mouldy 🫤), falafel x 2 (one conventional, one…… BBQ corn & sweet potato?? I think), and 2 punnets of quorn mini-sausages. I already have a punnet of conventional falafel, so at least I have enough for a meal for all of us, whether it's as part of a 'boofay' or just a buddha bowl or something. I bought some salad tommies from the PoTW, their walnuts were 10p off (now £1.65), but sultanas are now £1.29 a bag ☹️ In total I spent £20.54 in MrL. So £33.56 in total on groceries today.

In some ways I'm disappointed that it was that much - I've been watching c0c0's Un1verse on utoob, and she is a deliciously enthusiastic German lass who does budget challenges, eg for 50/80/100 euros a month (and uses storecupboard things), and I know that I have a way to go before I can shop for 1 banana, a carton of milk and a tin of tomatoes, and rely on that and what I have in the cupboards to feed us for a week! To be fair, she does also do the equivalent of 0li0, in her town - I think she's one of the organisers, so "free" food gets incorporated into the menu too, sometimes. However, I think I will still end up (just) over budget for February, which is a nuisance - even if we do have food that will (certainly) last well into the first week of March.

I will turn my thoughts to the March budget amount. It's 4 shopping days, and there is the start of the Easter hols, tagged on at the end. I want to be frugal - because anything I can save, or buy at a good price etc can be used for our little holiday. Hence why I'm a little disappointed that I've gone over this month ☹️ Even though £235 isn't a huge budget for 3.

Away to amend siggie figgie and give some thunks, some thinks and come up with a plan. Love Eeyore X 🤣

Cherryfudge

I don't shop online so I don't have the Mr S app, but I find exactly what others are reporting: N3ctar points are based on 'little luxuries', some of which I've bought once and wouldn't want again. The N3ctar app calls these 'offers', which, translated, means pay full price and you can have a few pence in points to spend later. In my mind, those aren't offers, they are promotions which may or may not come to fruition. Certainly they don't benefit me on the day. To me, they are asking me to lodge that 20p (or whatever) with them, so I can spend it later. That's no saving at all.

I prefer the 'Your N3ctar Prices' which represent actual discounts, which may or may not be useful.

Greying_Pilgrim

Yes, I totally agree with your logic Cherryfudge - it's just got now that the NP's aren't containing anything that I need to buy and it's happening regularly. Yet again, this week I purchased nothing from 'my' NP's - i did buy a couple of things that were NP on the SEL - so available to any n*ctar card holders. For example, one of my NP's this week was on St St black pepper - I bought some last week (or maybe the week before - I've just started using it this week), why would I need a NP on something like that 2 seconds after i bought it. I'm sure there are people who buy black pepper every single week….. but I ain't one of them - as evidenced by my receipt.

I'm so glad you, teapot and Jellytotts have taken the time to post. So glad it's "not just me" - as it often is 🤣

Greying X