From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

I'vve got two loads supposedly drying in the summer house but I think tomorrow they are coming in and the dehumidifier will be put to work!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

A damp start with us, although it is not currently raining. I have a wash on.

Tea last night was wedges (yes, again 😱), fish fingers and baked beans. I made an apple crumble for pud, and we had it with the last of the vanilla flavoured ice-cream.

I'm getting annoyed with the MrL app - folks are reporting, both on MSE and in the comments section of one or two 'frugal' vlogs I watch that they are getting vouchers for 'free' things. I would have qualified for the free veg by now - and that's with switching some of my spending away to MrAl and MrS because I was going there. I don't see the point of being loyal to any one supermercado, but the changes to the MrL scheme have definitely worked against me - I purchased more instore before I had the app…….. OK, a 15% discount is not to be sniffed at, but yet again, I'm getting offered discounts on things I bought recently (and still have to use), or things I don't need.

Ho hum.

Greying X

redofromstart

I haven't had any freebies either GP, and I am similarly miffed about it.

Jellytotts

I didn’t think it was freebies any more as such but using your “points/coins” in payment of stuff. I can see on my app that I have 360 points and what items I can trade those for.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82001673#Comment_82001673

You are right, but in addition, some people have been having vouchers for freebies. Some people have mentioned free veg (not hang overs from the 'old' scheme), and I think someone mentioned that their next freebie is for cleaning products (iirc 🤔). The vouchers are appearing on their apps. But like you, mine just states what points I have, and what offers I could 'trade' those points in for. Then the list of the 15% off offers. Certainly nothing 'free' mentioned. I would say it is because I don't (currently) spend masses in MrL, but other people on the GC thread, who don't have huge budgets, have received 'free' vouchers. I will freely admit, I am a long-term MrL shopper, but only a recent app user, so perhaps it's my fault.

Greying X

Grumpelstiltskin

GP did you check the app. last Thursday?

My son checked his and he had a 'Mystery Box' he clicked on it and he had a free cleaning product. So I checked mine and I had a Mystery Box which said something like 'only visible today' when I clicked on mine it kept saying 'There is an error try again later'

I contacted Lidl and on Friday they replied apologizing and giving me a free bakery token that includes all bakery products not just the cheaper ones. So it looks like if you didn't check on Thursday you missed the freebie.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82001737#Comment_82001737

I thought I did - but can't swear that it was Thursday, may have been Friday. I thought I did check, as I know the changeover day is on Thursday, and I had the alert to say my points had been added - aren't they now added the day after you shop?

I certainly saw nothing different - my page automatically pops up at 'Reward of the week', and you click on it, and it's just all stuff that you have to swap your tokens for. In my case, it's 5 products from the instore bakery, or a pot of jam - costing anywhere between 50 and 140 tokens.

Greying X

Grumpelstiltskin

GP Yes the points don't show up until the following day.

You wouldn't have missed the Mystery Box, it was large on the first page.

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82001867#Comment_82001867

In that case, I'm going to say that I did check on Thursday (as I went shopping on Wednesday), and that I didn't have a mystery box 🙁

Lunch munched. A 'made up' sort of minestrone, that used some l/o pasta sauce, a few frozen veggies, 2 Easter shallots (!), 2 sticks of celery, a garlic cube, a tin of black-eyed beans and the last of the m1n1ons pasta. I have to say, eating pasta bananas and m1n1on goggles, did make lunch more fun…….

Can I ask a question, of anyone that has an 'electric' coolbox - and I mean the 12v/230v ones, not one of the more sophisticated in-vehicle fridges that you can buy which are different beasts altogether. I realise that you are supposed to 'pre-cool' them before use, and then they keep the contents at a temperature which is below ambient - but seems to differ (depending on price/brand) from something like 15 degrees, to 20 degrees below ambient. So my 'daft' question is; if you're using it, and you've started out with it pretty much as 'cold' as can be, but during the day, in the car/tent, the ambient temp has risen, is it possible to get the temperature 'back down'. Say for example, you put a picnic in there, put the box in the car, used it during the day (so no food to spoil), but on the way back to your tent/hotel you pick up a pint of milk, for tomorrow's breakfast, will the cool box re-cool - especially if you are able to hook up to 230v, over leaving the box in a car on 12v? The thing is, I get the use of these cool boxes eg to transport a picnic, or to pick up your food shopping in the summer from the supermarkets, but I'm curious as to how……. 'fridge like' they are. I realise they are never going to be as good as a fridge - I'm trying to establish how close - or far apart they are. The 'dumb' cool box I had, which was supposed to keep things cold for 3 days, (seemingly as long as it was 75% ice and you didn't, you know, like open the lid or anything 🙄), didn't and actually warmed up/defrosted ice bocks/ice cubes, pretty quickly in well under 24hrs. If I'm using the cool box when we are travelling, but using motel accommodation, I would like to be able to keep stuff like a little bit of milk, a bit of marge (equiv), a sandwich filling of some description eg a small piece of cheese or a 'sausage' roll - probably only a day's worth at a time - not like 4 pint carton of milk, 900g of cheese and a 500g tub of spreadable butter. I wondering whether 'modest' amounts of food would keep (safely) cool enough - or would it wholly depend on the outdoor temperature - which is difficult to control, particularly when the coolbox would have to be transported in the car.

I suppose I'm trying to establish how useful 12v coolboxes are for ongoing use, not just for day-trips/supermarket shopping.

The weather forecast was totally wrong for us, but I'm pleased I took the punt and put a wash on/out and I popped some of yesterday's washing out too, that hadn't been on the line at all/hadn't totally dried in front of the dehu/overnight. We've got a lovely drying breeze and sun at the mo.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Thinking about it logically, I am not sure anyone can actually answer the question I posed ^ as we all use cool boxes in different ways, It is most likely - for the trip I've got in mind, the coolbox would be in the car (12v) during the day - with no guarantee that we can park in shade if the weather is hot - and we would only be able to 'cool' the box more (if that's possible) by hooking it up to 230v in the evenings - and depending on noise levels, I'm not even sure if it could be run off eco mode overnight.

If it keeps cool to the level I need (which I appreciate will not be fridge cold), then that is good, but if it is not really effective for anything else bar bringing frozen bits home from the market town across the way, when I've shopped in h3r0n, then it will be an expensive bauble. As things stand at the moment, we've been able to carry a picnic lunch, or a few bits for self catering with the cool bags we have. And I found out last time, that when travelling, it pays to chose which type of cooked pizza you take frozen for your tea, later in the day, as mushrooms don't defrost easily, and you end up ditching your tea 😕

If there is one thing I dislike about myself, it is that I try to view things from every angle, and deem £65 as a lot of money. I don't want to make a mistake again (the branded passive cool box was a very expensive mistake and it went to the chazzer). The upshot is, in trying to research everything, I end up doing nothing 🙄 Silly me.

Greying X