From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, I've set the tatties off in the SC ✅

I managed to grab the washing off the line, just as the rain started ✅ The tops have actually done well, they're not bone dry, but even the collars are pretty dryish, we had a really good 'blowy' breeze this morning.

I've amended my siggie figgie ✅ I'm in arrears with the food budget ☹️

I sent off 'feedback' to n*ctar ✅ They quite clearly state that you won't get a response, so I don't suppose for one moment a human ever gets to read it, and it automatically goes to 'File 13' 🙄

I need to make myself some lunch, and work out whether to make another batch of sausage casserole to use up one pack of the qu0rn sausages. I'm slating the other for sausage pizza, as we all love that now 😁

Greying X

Blackcats

GP - I think you might have mentioned that you prefer not to have the MrL app? I do find that it's money off coupons are very good matches for my shopping and are usually things we are likely to buy more frequently than black pepper 😉. There is often 15% off the milk, yoghurt and the butter we use. I suspect its data trawling algorithm is more set up for regularity of purchase. There are the freebies too based on £10, £50, £100 etc spends.

You deserve a pat on the back for keeping your grocery spend so low for a family eating good food for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the month! 28 days for 3 meals a day for 3 people! You've provided 84 meals each this month or 252 meals for the 3 of you. Even my shoddy maths tells me that's under £1 per serving. Amazing!

Greying_Pilgrim

Ay up Blackcats - funnily enough I have been mulling it over. I'm not totally sold on MrL - I used to do 80%? of my weekly shop there, but n*ctar isn't proving particularly rewarding, so it may be time to re-prioritise. Much the same as many moons ago I used to do 80-90% of the weekly shop at MrT's, but they ditched their valoo lines (in the original blue & white stripe days), and just got costlier. I still have a CC, but my use of it is minimal. Getting fuel the other day is probably the most cc points I've accumulated in an age! 🤣 I hadn't thought about the price per portion angle, and of course not all the food we consumed was bought in the month of February, plus there were at least 2 if not 3 (el cheapo) bottles of red wine purchased in that figure too. But that is why we have store cupboards and freezers isn't it, to keep food for use further down the line. And given that I would watch a utoober who did an episode on "meals for £1/$1, it is very kind of you to point it out 😊

Tea went swimmingly. I put the tatties in the SC, and they were cooked by the time I needed the first one for LG's tea. I used the sausage casserole out of the freezer, as a) it was only a small portion and b) I will make a meal sized sausage casserole tomorrow and freeze it - then that's another meal ready for March. I added a tin of tommies and a tin of baked beans to the saucepan to pad out the portion from the freezer, and I also added a couple of disks of frozen spinach to it too. LG lapped up their tea, and when I asked what they thought of the tattie - they did a "chefs kiss" sign. 🥰 I am so relieved. I know that I could be sat in front of you in 3 months time, wailing LG "doesn't like baked tatties anymore 😭", but at the mo, I am so pleased. I mean it opens up so many meal opportunities - both now and for the future, when LG is cooking for themselves etc. A baked spud can be a good meal, can't it?

DH and I cleared our plates too 😇and that is 3 sprouty tatties, and a tub of sausage casserole decluttered, so 👍. There is the remains of the crumble to declutter in a while too 😁

I think I'm going to go for £195 for my grocery budget for March 😬 It's a challenge, right? I was minded for £200, but I "docked" today's fiver overspend…….. I need to start off the month getting a grip of the potato situation, before I have to chuck anymore wrinkly, sprouty tatties out. It's a shame, as the wilja are a nice tasting tattie, and they are superb mashers and bakers. I'm not overrun with ready made meals - as I have been using the ones I had in February, but there are one or two bits and pieces, and again, if i get to and make the casserole tomorrow, that is one extra thing to add. I do have quite a few processed bits and pieces. Not ideal, but at least we don't rely on eating them all the time, and I do try to combine them with vegetables etc. Tomorrow is shaping up to be quite the cooking day. Just as well, as I don't think it'll be washing weather.

Ta for popping in, and making me think about things - always appreciated. Thank you.

Greying X

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - I've not shopped properly at Sainsburys for a couple of years now, collecting my points mostly from their credit card and the occaisionaly top-up shop on the way home from the train station. I tend to spend points on the meal deals a few times a year. I had a particular sandwich mid-last July and then again the end of August. I've been offered points on that sandwich every week since! I've not been getting lunch from them for all of the winter as it's quite a walk from work, so I'm not sure what crazy algorithm thinks I'm going to buy that sandwich again anytime soon!

ETA - 1 pound a meal is amazing GP! Last year when we were still cooking all our meals, I was happy with 2 to 3 pounds a meal so I'm in awe at your housewifery skills!!!

teapot2

@rtandon27, funnily enough 2 of the items which I've removed from my 'favourites' on my Mr S online account were sandwiches which I've only ever bought once each in the dim and very distant past so in my view they hardly count as 'favourites' and don't merit the lure of extra points to repurchase!

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks rt

So that begs the question - fellow n*ctar card holders - is the algorithm for MrS particularly shonky, and a card already weighted in the favour of the data collection, even more so with offers you can't use. And is MrL definitely better - I'm not looking for perfection, after all, that is not the purpose of "loyalty" cards, but does MrL at least give you some….. incentive? reward? - as in useful incentive/reward that you can actually use, in return for your time and information?

I realise that sometimes the stores will work with manufacturers to get you to try new products with a coupon/discount/voucher - that has always gone on, but MrS keep on trying to get me to buy the latest 'new & improved' washing liquids - LG is going to be a sucker for all these marketing gimmicks 😬 - but you know as well as I do, the difference is nearly always negligible, and you're paying more for fancy packaging.

The one nuisance of MrL is having to have your phone with you for the app - or you have to know your mobile number off the top of your head, I suppose.

Greying X

redofromstart

I would say the MrL app coupons are 50% useful for me, 15% off things I do buy regularly most weeks. This week I had free: doughnut from the spin thing, a birthday doughnut and some asparagus for having spent over £50 in the month, plus 15% off pretzel, nuts and cat stuff which I buy on every visit.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81901430#Comment_81901430

Thanks for responding redo. Those percentages are better than MrS are currently providing me with 🫤

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Grrr - shouldn't have started the morning looking at my updated n*ctar prices….. 🤣 What a joke. Possibly the only useable one is a discount on cucumbers. But hey, guess what, there's a cucumber shortage, MrS - you had signs all over your grocery dept yesterday informing your customers! So the likelihood of there being any in store next week…… 3,2,1…. 🙄

Three of the things I only bought because they were YS'd, so wouldn't buy them proper price/slightly discounted, and one offer is on cheese that I bought….. one time, at Christmas 🙄

I get why (if you have the stores available locally, I appreciate many folk don't have such choices) you should mix and match your loyalty cards/apps, but I would already be up to 3 'apps' on my phone 🙄 and that's just for grocery shopping. Take no notice of the ramblings of a luddite.

We've a strong chance of rain and only a light breeze today, so I may well have to resort to dehu use 🫤 as I'm getting behind with the washing to be ready for next week 🫤

Tea will be sausage pizza, accompaniment as yet unknown.

Just keep swimming, make savings where you can…….

Greying X

Jellytotts

Checked my nect@r prices this morning and its milk, teabags, butter, squash and easy peelers, all fairly useful for me. I pop in once a week for a few GF items I prefer from there but never had any offers on those.

Rain due here later but there’s no breeze and heavy cloud so no whirligig action today. I might try and cut the grass though - what a treat.