From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81975935#Comment_81975935

Thanks sweetie 🤣🤣🤣 X

Blackcats

Well done on biting the app bullet. I huff and puff about MrT's cardforclub but I quite like MrL's because the offers are useful and usually relevant and the freebies are actually free with a good choice available within the free category. It's possible to feel very clever when maxing out the free offer. Remember to put your highest value free item through separately otherwise the cheapest item will go through as free. So you might chose a £1.99 bag of spuds but if you also put through 39p bunch of string onions then the 39p item will be free. Go on - ask me how I learned this lesson 🤦‍♀️

Don't forget to tap activate on the offers you receive that you want to use (yep another lesson learned the hard way).

You sometimes get virtual scratch cards too - they are worth wiggling your finger over - I just got 50% off raspberries or strawberries but sometimes it's £'s off a shop over a certain value. Or sometimes there's a wheel to spin for similar type offers to the scratch card.

Some nice recipes on the app too.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thank you Blackcats - that is all very sage advice, that I shall try to follow. I would have put the Spring onions thru with the tatties too, mind…… 🤪 I have activated 2 of the several offers I "think" are because I am new. I have 14 days on the free veg and the free bakery item offer, there are some other %age offers, but they are to be used in 5 days. Of those, there isn't anything attractive, but I will double check before I let them expire.

Thank you for all your help. I know this is 'bread and butter' for all you bright, young things, but it's a different way to shop for me. And yes, long may it be 'relevant' offers. I mean, I get sometimes you try something on promo, and find you like it, but MrS have just lost the plot with my n*ctar account. The amount of stuff they're pushing as 'offers' that i've not bought for months…..

I came on to mention kitchen endeavours. I have opened and weighed out the mozzarella cheese that I need. I am thrilled to report that the Stam. st bag is easy to open, and it gives a wide 'mouth' so that you can clearly see the contents - and I have found NO mould. I have slightly checked that the remaining cheese is OK, and have got the air out, sealed the bag, and put it into the freezer for another day - as per the suggestion of…… Bailey's_Babe? LotsOfTea? Blackcats? Anyhoo, 'tis done and I'm hopeful now that it'll cook nice, and make a nice cheese & tommie pizza. I have par-boiled the baby tatws that I got in the green box from MrL. They are going to be swell. They taste champion. Not like 'new' potatoes (International Kidney) per se (and they aren't bagged as such), but you know if you grow your own, and you have your early tatties - maybe not week 1 or 2, but still 'early' - well, that. The taste was (almost) homegrown. So they will roast up lovely.

I have made an apple crumble. The apples were actually 'free from the garden gate', plus some MrL box ones - I'm not sure if I had some cookers in one box (see to thing I may have), or whether I got a glut of apples - either way, i stewed them up, and they are in the bottom of a casserole dish, and I've topped it with crumble mix (or crisp topping, if that is what you go by).

Right, best fire up the stove and get the tatties roasting and the crumble cooking.

Ta for popping in, and for helping me. Super appreciated.

Greying X

peb

Currently (and this changes) once you are past the opening offers the freebies are, per calendar month,

£10 spend - free sweet thing from bakery (my monthly pain au chocolate)

£50 spend free veg. You'll see for example that SA gets a large bag of spuds. I get the family pack of mushroom. Make sure you put it through first and "pay' as it's the cheapest veg

£100 spend free chocolate bar (I get dark for ganache)

£150 spend free nuts/dried fruit

£250 ten percent of next shop, does not include alcohol

I rarely get to the £150 shopping there for dad and I, I've had 2 £250 spend in a month.

The coupons are a week with the occasional £5 off £30/£40 sometimes being less.

There's usually another promotion on - I got 2 x 50 percent off coupons which I used on easy peelers (could have had grapes) and apples (could have had baby potatoes.

The offers are released Thursday, Sainsbury's are Friday and coop Monday. I tend to shop Friday/Saturday and take account accordingly.

I refuse to shop in Tesco which is the size of an airport after COVID and I don't have big Morrisons/ASDA particularly local. I WFH so don't pass shops like I used to and I don't have the time/energy to go further afield.

HTH

peb

Oh, the veg boxes were being brought out today just after I paid (!) and looked excellent - I did think of you with the avocado I saw peeking out of one. However I'd got mushrooms with 50 per cent off and soup has been made

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81976266#Comment_81976266

Thanks peb - your post helps a great deal. Thank you. I think your point is absolutely valid - sometimes the boxes are worth it, sometimes not, and sometimes if you went in for a specific item, and found it YS'd then bliss. I'll take 50%; YS'd qu0rn cocktail sausages, or family pack mushrooms or a pack of cheese and onion 'sausage' rolls over a "not for me" green box, any day of the week. And, as it happens, I think the avocado I got the other day in the box is going to be a dud ☹️ It was a large avocado, supposedly 'ripe and ready to eat'. It is still ROCK hard, and I mean rock hard……… I'll give it another couple of days, but I don't think it'll be edible.

Tea was OK. I'm not too sure if my oven was playing up, like it sometimes does. Nothing was crispy. The mozzarella on the pizza took an AGE to do anything, and in the end was neither browned, nor ultra stringy/melty. Was it a bit melty? YES - in fact, in someways, it was 'manageable' melty, but it wasn't what we've had before, using balled mozzarella. BUT, it was edible, and provided a meal - and there still may be the oven to blame, for not being hot enough. I don't know what the problem is, it is the 'Padron Pepper' of the cooker world……

We're all resting to see if we have room for apple crumble and vanilla flavoured ice-cream.

Thanks for the help, guidance, hints and tips everyone. Super appreciated.

Greying X

Grumpelstiltskin

GP Not all of the Lidl fans are younger than you, I will be 82 in 8 weeks time, it is I think the best supermarket deal but as others have said you need to be on the ball to make sure you get the best value.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81976357#Comment_81976357

👍🤣👍 I hear ya! X

lucielle

I always activate all the offers, just in case I put something in that might have an offer on it.
L

Cherryfudge

That's very good news on the MRI result. I hope they can find a solution for him though.

Congrats on getting the app! I can see much discussion will follow, and I'll be following, as the group brain notices so many things.