May 2024 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Firstly, a warning: if you have built up a balance of Nectar points, try to spend some to see if there is a problem with your account.  Yesterday afternoon after collecting his car from being serviced, DH went to the big Sainsbugs nearby.  We’d decided to spend some of our points by buying a couple of tray tables.  The checkout would not allow him to pay with Nectar points.  He talked to Customer Services and to Nectar.  “Sorry but there was suspicious activity on your account in November and payments have been blocked!”

No attempt to tell us there was an issue. No letter.  No email. Nothing in the App.  (Although I have a vague memory of having to log back into the damn thing, late last year.).  Not even a printout on a receipt.  Silence.  We’ve accumulated several Pounds worth of points since then.  

The solution given is to get a new Nectar card, activate it by purchasing something for more than £1, wait 24 hours for the card to activate in their system and then register it on his account.  At that point, he can request our points balance to be transferred over.  Talk about clunky!

After justifiably ranting and raving about this for an hour, DH went back to Sainsbugs to buy “something”.  Amazingly, he found Chicken Livers in their fridge, 400g for £1.50.  (Our butcher has been unable to obtain them.).  3 packets purchased; £4.50 spent.  Two packets are now in the freezer, while the third will be made into pate today, once the duck and goose livers from the last two Christmas birds have defrosted. They weren’t big enough to make into pate. 

(NB:  the tray tables were abandoned at the checkout.  We’ll buy them once the Nectar card is sorted.)

We have another spend to declare from yesterday morning.  On the way home from taking his car to the garage, DH had to pass L!dl, so picked up some smoked salmon to go in yesterday’s lunchtime bagels.  £2.99 spent.

This brings our total GC spend to £70.82/£160 leaving £89.18 for the rest of the month.

I’ve also refunded DH the £2.20 he put in last month, to cover our overspend.

- Pip

Pennypincin

I've got a spend to declare.
Tuesday i spent £1.80 on reduced fruit in Morrisons, yesterday I spent around £10 on some more laundry powder and liquid that was slightly reduced.
An 80 wash box of Tesco non bio was £6.80 and a 30 wash bottle for less than £2, so my stores are really good for laundry detergent for a while.
I also bought an aubergine on offer in Tesco.
I will need to get a few bits for a bbq on Monday, but it will come out of other money rather than food.

Frugalistamama

First spend of the month, I spent £56.28 on a sainsbob's delivery which comes tonight I used I had £4.25 worth of substitution vouchers so I used those to discount the shopping. Yay.

Find I save money doing delivery even though it costs £2 extra as I can keep reassessing my order to see if I really really need it. 

Also usually top up in the week these days which allows the weekly delivery to be under my £80 per week budget. 

56.28/£400

Daywon

£5 for the next week please. 

Must use up everything in before buying more. 

NeverendingDMP

84.86 spent so far of the 160 I've allocated us for food and dog food. Basics in food to get us till Tuesday. Dog food, Treat tea as we have two star pupils in the house today and  a few toiletries. 
Still need top up shop for packed lunches and teas from Tuesday and milk, dishwasher tabs. Really need to try to stay under my budget this week. Had a quick comparison with the mum's at school and we are spending more than them but we are five and they were all families of four so suppose its about right. 

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi Could you put me down for £450 again please

thriftwizard

Ooof! A slightly eye-watering £105.83 spent over the last couple of days, between the butcher, the supermarket & the market this morning. A fair chunk of that was something I only need to buy about once a year (balsamic vinegar) if that, but it does make a difference to a number of things I regularly cook. Also I re-stocked frozen veg, as we're well into the Hungry Gap now, although allotment no. 1 is still producing leaves & leeks & my new potatoes have come up. (Allotment no. 2 is mostly producing flint! But I'm slowly getting a few things into the ground, and the little greenhouse is worth the rent on its own.) Stores are reasonably high in general.

So that leaves me £293.59 for the rest of the month; £73-ish per week for the 3 of us, plus DD1 for the odd overnight stay. Should be do-able...

Mrs_Cheshire

So far hubby spent £92.04 in Mr T's - no idea how he spent that much ( it includes a bunch of lilies and some chocolates for our anniversary). I spent £27 on cake/cookies for our son's birthday at Cos!co which I'm including in the grocery budget. I've got some vouchers for Mr M to use so will shop there for a next few shops as I can watch the spends easily online

PipneyJane

PipneyJane said:

Good morning All

Firstly, a warning: if you have built up a balance of Nectar points, try to spend some to see if there is a problem with your account.  Yesterday afternoon after collecting his car from being serviced, DH went to the big Sainsbugs nearby.  We’d decided to spend some of our points by buying a couple of tray tables.  The checkout would not allow him to pay with Nectar points.  He talked to Customer Services and to Nectar.  “Sorry but there was suspicious activity on your account in November and payments have been blocked!”

No attempt to tell us there was an issue. No letter.  No email. Nothing in the App.  (Although I have a vague memory of having to log back into the damn thing, late last year.).  Not even a printout on a receipt.  Silence.  We’ve accumulated several Pounds worth of points since then.  

The solution given is to get a new Nectar card, activate it by purchasing something for more than £1, wait 24 hours for the card to activate in their system and then register it on his account.  At that point, he can request our points balance to be transferred over.  Talk about clunky!

…

- Pip

Well… That was a COMPLETELY ERRONEOUS advice.  DH has just been onto Nectar, to set up this transfer and was told that his old account is unlocked and that he doesn’t need to do the transfer.  He was obviously talking to a complete muppet when he phoned them on Thursday.

If you have to talk to Nectar, use the chat facility on their website.  You get a sensible human not an AI.  

- Pip



ETA:  DH went back to Sainsbugs and successfully spend some Nectar points to buy those tray tables.

keggie

First shopping day of the month. Will make enough for portions to go in the freezer.

£40.99/£250