Hello me hearties. It's a bright sunny morning, makes me want to go out. Makes me think of all those lovely walks I am going to do this year. I've got a spring in my step.
My yellow sticker dash last night proved very fruitful, I got £24.82's worth of food for £6.20. Howzat for money saving. This little lot will last me a couple of weeks, along with other bits and bobs I bought, till receipt at the bottom. Quite a bit spent was for the cats, mainly Bugsy and his treats.
There's diced onions, broccoli, cauliflower, spring onions, carrots, potatoes, rice noodles, egg noodles, houmous, salad leaves, potato salad, watercress, mushroom pasta, brussels sprouts, pancakes, and a 30p cake. Gotta have a treat. 75% off most things. Of course a lot of it won't need cooking so a saving on gas will be made as well.
Everything here is all out of date as from midnight last night. I shall inspect my fridge 2 or 3 times a day, and will eat what will go off the quickest, first. After all the salady stuff, if I think I might not be able to eat the rest in time, I will cook the veg up into stews and freeze in margarine tubs. These are my ready meals.
The places I don't go are Sainsburys, and Marks and Sparks, far too expensive. Morrisons is at the other end of town so is the big Asda, I have no need to drive that far. I have looked in Farmfoods, the mainly freezer place, they don't have much that I would actually eat. We get a leaflet through the door every so often, there was only frozen veg and Quorn that I would actually eat, all the rest is processed, ready meals, full of sugar, junk. No thanks.
Anyway, I'm sure you have your favourite foods and places to shop, which will be different from mine, according to how many you shop for and what the rest of your family eat. I must say, shopping for one is very easy.
I'm off out now. Too nice to be in. Thanks for popping in, have a nice weekend.
Toodle pip
Fantastic Haul, I shall be doing my regular yellow sticker shop tomorrow that is when I find the best bargains.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your wine as you say, you don't drink much and we all deserve a treat.
As ever I am envious of your haul, but glad you got it. Have a great day.
ReplyDeleteI have started to shop on Sunday afternoon, I scope out the reduced section and if they are doing the final mark downs make my selection and then finish my shopping. If I am a bit early I do it in reverse. I do not often buy the prepared veg but last week picked up some 1Kg root veg soup packs for 19p. I can not beat that price from scratch so it was on with the soup pot and several meals into the freezer.
ReplyDeleteHi. Sunday afternoon is a good time, around 3pm. I usually do the yellow stickers first, then pick up a few other things after. Then go back to the veg department to see if they have added anything new to it before I go to the checkouts.
DeleteWell done Ilona, I live in East Sussex and we never get yellow stickers as low as you do even at the end of the day. I do often get yellow sticker fruit and veg, and some times fish as I don't eat meat hardly at all but I do eat fish once or twice a week. I never buy junk food and always cook from scratch so at least I know what goes into the food I eat. I love making hearty veggie soups and stews and like you I batch cook and then freeze portions so I always have a quick ready meal to just pop in the microwave. I like to hear about your shopping escapades and marvel at the wonderful discounts you find, I just wish we had them here in the South. Glad that Bugsy is continuing to eat, even if he is fussy, my cat is ultra fussy but bless I wouldn't be without her. Sue H.
ReplyDeletea great yellow sticker haul, it certainly helps
ReplyDeletesammie xx
You had a great shop! I am glad Bugsy is eating something for you. I somtimes
ReplyDeleteboil a little chicken or beef without onion or garlic(my vet says no good for kitties) and pour over my finicky kitties food. This sometimes encourages
her to eat. I live in San Diego ca so we do not have as many mark downs as you. Have been following for a while. Hope you enjoy the sunshine.
Patti
i live in germany and here gives not so radical reduced food.
ReplyDeleteenjoy your wine!
have a great day,
regina
The shops in my parts don't seem to have the same very low reductions as your area. Coop in Bourne was good for bread (down to just pennies) but I'm gone from there now. Peterborough does reduce but not so much. Tesco's knock down goods are almost always more expensive than what I can get fresher from elsewhere. I do buy my parent's meat from their reduced stand from time to time. Virtually all my fruit and veg comes from Spalding market (and a little fruit and veg shop from Spalding) - an old fashioned place. If I'm in Peterborough, the market calls me. I don't drink but used to make home made wine for everyone else. Still make cordial in the summer and some brandys in the winter for people. Great haul! Natalie
ReplyDeleteWell done Ilona! When is the best time to go, do you think?
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline. Every store is different, but, as a general rule, they start marking down after lunch, then again about 5pm, then again at 7pm. But you might go into an M & S food hall in the morning and they have knocked a bit off food on the last day.
DeleteYou need to go to your nearest store several times, at different times in the day. Watch what the assistants do. Ask them what time they mark down. It's all about being in the right place at the right time. Like a lottery, some you win some you lose.
Good yellow sticker finds! I like to find what I can in reduced section. Last week I found hamburger at a really good price for 9% fat so got a couple packs that will last the 3 of us for awhile. We eat few packaged meals altho I buy frozen vegs and chicken nuggets for quick meals. I'm always looking out for deals when shopping. Stock up when there's sales is a good idea. Not always coupons for items I need. Happy weekend! It's still freezing here and our inch of snow is slowing melting away!
ReplyDeletegrandmbeckyl.blogspot.com
VERY well done....Quite envious, off where I live, yet to find any grocer/store which does this to this extent.
ReplyDeleteI get the odd loaf bread/muffins and such at half off, and pleased at that. You are lucky and skilled at this.
Well done.
Yellow sticker is great for slashing the grocery bills. But, when I checked the reduced price items in our local shop, items were not looking good at all. Leaves were starting to rotten. Fruits were way too mushy.... Your picture looks nice. It depends on the store I guess.
ReplyDeleteHi. I sometimes see ys food which is past it. There were avocado's which were too squashy. Might take them if they were 5p each, but 25p was too much.
DeleteI always check on reduced produce at my local markets and buy when I can, but I have NEVER seen anything like the markdowns you have at your shops, as a regular thing! Maybe there's something fundamentally different about the way food is being priced in UK and US? Anyway, more power to your pennies, Ilona!
ReplyDeletefantastic shop, I have not found anything like it where I live so usually stick to Aldi which is cheaper than the veg on the market at moment. I dont do processed food much, but I like tin tomato soup.
ReplyDeleteHi Ilona
ReplyDeleteWhat a great haul! I sometimes get a haul like this from Tesco and it can save a lot. Between xmas and New Year I got a basket full at Tesco that was the cheapest ever-items going for under 10p! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Jules x
its a 30 mile round trip for yellow sticker bargains , the Coop 5 miles away has turned into a posh deli since its revamp last month and now has practically nothing other than bread on yellow stickers , its hideously expensive now. So we have to shop around when we do go to town
ReplyDeleteHi, yes I am lucky that I am not far from town, Aldi, small Asda, and the discount stores, and Tesco is about four miles away. I can nip there in less than ten minutes. If ever I move it will be near a supermarket, ha ha.
DeleteYour best comment was "Shopping for one is easy" and I'm pretty sure I would enjoy your diet Ilona on my own. Shopping for two means having to buy accordingly as we have different tastes sometimes. I budget pretty well and go to Lidl & Aldi and depending where our route takes us use the others for the products we prefer and mostly when on offer. I always look at the yellow sticker bargains too. Well done you! Rae x
ReplyDeleteThe effort is worth the time Ilona. Unfortunately for me my only 'mark down' supermarket is a 15-mile round trip so as I am 'on the spot' i.e. around the corner from an Aldi twice a week it is easier, and cheaper, to shop there. I also have a Lidl store very close and between the two I find them both good value; how anyone in this day and age can afford to shop at Waitrose and Marks & Spencer is baffling to me (must be footballers' wives!). With some time to kill I must admit to window-shopping in Waitrose and to be perfectly honest I didn't find much to tempt me anyway; very 'cordon bleu' and needlessly excessive ingredients - not my thing at all thankfully. Amanda
ReplyDeleteHi. We don't have a Waitrose here, but when I have looked in the store over the bridge, I was amazed at their prices. Who pays that much for food.
Deletejust had another look at your great shop,
ReplyDeleteand noticed there are some lovely green onions bunch, which look perfect.
Did you get those on yellow sticker too? how much? If so, it too is a terrific find.
Hi. Yes, the spring onions were 12p a bunch, reduced from 49p. I took two bunches. I could have had a lot more, there was plenty, plenty of everything in fact. I only take what I can eat.
DeleteI have to say that I'm envious of how many yellow stickers you get! :)
ReplyDeleteI live in the US and though we do have yellow stickers.. there aren't usually many things you want to buy and many times they aren't actually much better.. for example they'll have hummus that's normally 4.99 be yellow stickered at 4.00 instead. I rarely see anything that's less than a dollar. Only things I find are occasional bananas, apples, and bread for .99. :(
I'm an aldi shopper once a week, adds got too pricey and the mark downs are no where near as good as yours. I can do aldi in 30 mins and area takes an hour. An hour is too much time I hate supermarket shopping so smaller is better for me. I go without the kids or else it cost me so much more. I cook from scratch, bake and freeze. The kids like to join in with the cooking and baking learning skills.
ReplyDeleteHi llona,just wondering what you do with things like the potato salads and hummus that you cant freeze,do you eat them way beyond the use by date or spend a couple of days eating the same thing?
ReplyDeleteHi nicky. I have half a tub of houmous, and potato salad left, I will be eating these today, that's nine days after they have gone out of date. There is nothing wrong with them. If it doesn't smell rank, and doesn't have mould growing on it, and tastes ok, then I eat it.
DeleteYes, I will eat the same food for two or three days, or even four or five, varying it slightly, mixing things up. Lunch might be salad, and dinner steamed veg, then doing it the other way round on the following day.
I check the contents of my fridge two or three times a day, making sure I eat what is going to go off first. I used one of the tubs of chopped onions, and separated the other into four portions and froze them. They will go into soups and stews.