Hello. I was dead lucky last night at Tesco, lots of yellow stickers, some 75% off and some 90% off. I got there at 7pm, they hadn't brought it all out on the trolleys so I had to hang around for a while. Worth it though, there was plenty. A few people gathered, a lot of them wanted meat and ready meals, so they didn't bother me, I was happy to pick over the veg and fruit, and salads.
2pack Avocado's 19p. Wholemeal bread 10p. Raspberries 20p. Blue berries 20p. Grapes 20p. Strawberries 20p. Rice noodles 12p. Carrots 2p. Salad leaves 9p. Brassica veg 10p. Kiwi fruit 3p each.
Yogurt 15p. Mushrooms 15p. Houmous 10p. Pears 15p. Broccoli 10p. Cookies 25p. Cannelloni 62p. Pasta salad 21p. Potatoes 20p. Veg soup mix 13p. I picked up a few extras and gave some to my neighbours next door, and to my friend Brenda.
I've made a little video about my food shopping. It took ten minutes to make and six hours to upload.
Thanks for popping in, enjoy your weekend, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip
I love how you have homemade bag on the sides of your bags for all to see. what a great idea Ilona
ReplyDeleteToo right Ilona! they are not going to tempt us with their wares are they.I want to spend my money on more meaningful to me things x
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame Tesco got rid of their value toothpaste. They seem to have stopped quite a few of their value items over the last few years.
ReplyDeleteAgree, a bit annoying that. Whichever shop I am in I will always consider the cheaper option first. Mind you, cheap coffee is horrible :o( but Value baked beans are fine :o)
DeleteWOW. You did VERY well..
ReplyDeleteNo food bargains like that where I live, in the US...I think they'd rather throw it out....
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, here in Northwest Ohio, very few mark downs, may I ask what section of the country you live in?
DeleteWhen I was in the US recently(California) I was really shocked by how expensive the food in the supermarkets is....way more than here... Sarah
DeleteMany of our stores here ( WA state) pass the food on to the Food Bank. JanF
DeleteIf you're in southern California, you need to shop at the Persian markets. Cheap fresh fruit and veggies and wonderful fresh meat counters. Pat
DeleteWell done on your shopping and plans for your shopping. Here in Canada, the supermarkets seldom mark very much down, and not by very much when they do. We live in a northern rural area and the closest town is 27km. away and has two smaller supermarkets. When my son was a teenager and had a job at the supermarket, the boys were told to take outdated or nearly outdated food out back to the garbage dumpster. He wondered why they couldn't mark it down and sell it off, or let the staff take it home at a reduced price. They were told to put the food into the bins out back and throw real garbage over it to make sure it was inedible. One time he saw a homeless person digging through the bin, looking for food, and couldn't bring himself to toss the extra garbage on top. Store owners will say they destroy this food to protect themselves from liability, but I doubt it. The first family to open the supermarket in town always marked stuff down, let staff take it home or would call up a needy family to make good use of it. There was a time not too long ago, that local people who had chickens or pigs or even dogs could call the supermarket ahead on a certain day and pick up over ripe produce and bones (from the meat cutting area) for their animals for free. The only condition is that you had to be reliable about picking it up regularly. This benefitted the animal owners and the stores as they got rid of what was truly waste. This no longer happens under the guise of liability concerns. So, vast quantities of compostable materials are dumped into bins out back, and real food and further garbage are dumped on top. There was a documentary in Canada about a large food chain superstore that regularly dumps vast quantities of good food, still packaged and no where near its expiry date, in bins out back, then locks the bins closed. The investigative reporters opened bin after bin to find nothing but perfectly saleable food, not yet expired,in these stores. There was no good reason given for the waste, when the store managers were questioned. These stores were in large cities where soup kitchens, food banks and a whole host of other charitable organizations could have benefitted from the food. Where I live, food is very expensive, and food that should be marked down is kept at full price until it must be thrown out. I grow two garden and freeze, can or dehydrate all the veggies that our short growing season provides. I usually have close to a years worth. Fruit is harder to come by as we mostly get rhubarb and wild berries, with crab apples on the side. Thank you for sharing. We all do whatever we can, and get inspired from one another. Mary Jane in Canada.
ReplyDeleteMorning Ilona, you managed to get a good stash of the YS food, well done; that should keep you going for a while. I would love to try this but restricted to internet food shopping as I am mainly housebound with ME and several other things You don't really get the chance for the bargains when shopping online. Enjoy x Love to the furry friends.x
ReplyDeleteGreat bargains, I haven't had much now for a few weeks it hasn't been very good, that doesn't mean I give up I keep looking, Sunday afternoons are best here.
ReplyDeleteI love that your videos have 'closed captions' which means that deffies like me can enjoy them. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteJ x
I never knew that. I just upload, I don't meddle with the settings.
DeleteWow that's a good amount of stuff! And I liked your sensible advice video too! Shop by price a good reminder
ReplyDeleteWell done here, great to see this and nice that you share some with your friends and neighbours. We share with our neighbours amazing how this works out so well especially when home grown tomatoes and courgettes appear on my doorstep from them. Win win.xx
ReplyDeleteWhat a great food shop and video. I always look for yellow stickers, the local co-op on Sunday afternoon is the best. Also purchased a soup maker, cut up a bag of carrots some stock and that was it done. Learning so much from Ilona. The money that I used to spend on food is embarrassing. I will never do it again. Also the take a way habit has stopped. My life has changed because of this blog. Best wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. Nobody really NEEDS a takeaway, it's a WANT. And a WANT that I can do without. I NEED to eat my own food at home because I know what's in it.
DeleteI love hearing about your 'Yellow Sticker Adventures', Ilona. May I ask how you did the 'Home Made Bag' Labels? Did you print them or buy them ready made or what? Thanks. Eilidh x
ReplyDeleteThe one at the back in big letters is made from vinyl. I used a stencil to make templates first then cut out the letters and stitched them on with a sewing machine.
DeleteThe other ones I made with fused plastic. I save different coloured plastic bags, cut out the shapes and letters and arrange them on a piece of paper. Then put another piece of paper on the top and iron it. It fuses the plastic together to make it thick enough to stitch on one side of the bag before I sew it together.
Thanks Ilona, a reminder about shopping carefully. We don't have a cash 'n' carry but I made a really good purchase online: 144 toilet rolls for £23. I will never buy from a supermarket again. It also helps that they are stored in a wardrobe so I can't be tempted to buy any clothes! Ha ha. We don't have any near 'mark-down' supermarkets but I have substituted Quorn mince/burgers and sausages and no-one has cottoned on yet. I spend a morning or afternoon at the weekend batch cooking for the week and to freeze (this time of year stews, curries and soups) etc so if the oven has to be switched on it is only once in the week: the portions will be microwaved or on the hob quickly, that is a big saving instead of putting on the oven every day. Amanda
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know if you think buying cheap overrides buying British ? If British produce is available (especially fruit and veg ) I just couldn't buy the foreign alternative , however discounted it was. I always buy British meat and fish. As you live close to one of the major UK veg producing area (Lincs) are locally produced veggies not available cheap in local markets? Loving all the helpful advice .Odette
ReplyDeleteLocal veg is available in the market. Our market is only open on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it's in town and I don't go to town very often, except if I go to the bank, then I go to other shops as well.
DeleteOur supermarkets also sell local veg, I look for the British flag on the bags. I will sometimes buy Dutch produce because that's not too far away. If I have to pay full price I look for local in season veg, I don't buy expensive veg that has come from the other side of the world.
I will buy any yellow sticker produce, no matter where it comes from. I reckon it's already here, and to pass it over and buy more expensive local would be a futile protest. My commitment to myself is to look after me first.
I'm pretty sure that Lidl sells a lot of British fresh produce.The meat I buy for my dogs does have British flag and also a lot of their veg and fruit but if I want oranges ,lemons,avocados or a melon I have to buy food from abroad x
DeleteThanks Ilona for your comment, fair enough, I understand your reasoning. I just find it a difficult conflict between supporting UK producers while on a budget. I tend to buy in season too, which is usually UK grown anyway. Odette
Deletewow - great bargains. I went to a supermarket yest morning (17th) and got a bag of satsumas YS @ 10p.I was surprised that they had been marked down so early in the day - when i got them home, I saw they were dated 16th - oops must have been left on the shelf from the day before by mistake. They were abs fine so I'm not complaining. Just shows you how subjective the dates are on the packaging.
ReplyDeleteYou have got some great bargains there Ilona!!,I just wish my local supermarkets had polite people going for the yellow stickers,instead of the greedy grab all people you get in mine.Im sure that alot of them take all their family,to surround the poor person who is bringing the stuff out and just scoop everything up in arms full.Pushing,shoving,shouting.No one else has a chance to get anything.Its got so bad in there,like i mentioned a few weeks ago,the staff that have to do it,have asked ...polite people..to go and tell customer services,report it,..so they know what situation they are being put in!,Its lovely to know that some people will share,like where you live.Debi,xx
ReplyDeleteI think that the manager of that supermarl<et should have a security person on guard when the reduced items are brought out.Sounds a bit risl<y Debi x
DeleteHi Flis,they have security at the door as you go in to the store...and thats it as far as I can see.Even then,about 2 years ago they said that my grandsons mate..who is in the marines now...had to leave his bike in the area where they stood.It wasnt allowed to take into the supermarket.When he came out,it had been nicked!!,So much for security!.Where i live i give up of trying to get things down to a few pence.Too many greedy familys grabbing what they can and pushing everyone else out the way.Debi,xx
DeleteOur local Tesco has a policy of line up at 7pm then each person can have 3 things until the queue is finished. After that if there isn't a queue and there are things left you can help yourself to whatever you want. Recently there wasn't any veg or fruit left and an elderley gentleman was putting things back so he gave me some. He said he had got too much and wouldn't eat it all in time before it went off. Wasn't that nice of him. All very civilised.
DeleteI believe it wsn't always like that at one point but the manager introduced it and changed peoples attitude.
lea
Oh,i forgot to mention,that my Grandaughter and me did a 12 mile walk today.I know it dosent sound alot,but we are doing more miles every Saturday and enjoying every second of it.This is a 14 year old who had to have a lift everywhere a few weeks back!!!.I know that i am not part of your walking group,and going a bit off the subject of your blog..But i thought that i would just mention it.And we took a packed lunch and didnt spend anything and saw beautiful countryside!!....My feet are aching a bit though,lol!!,Have a great Sunday everyone!,Debi,xx
ReplyDeleteWell done, Debi. Fantastic news.
DeleteThanks Ilona for your reply.I have mentioned you to her about the miles you did on your last break...when we got to 4 miles back to home...i mentioned you again,.did she want to get a bus?...I didnt want to but i thought i would give her the option...she said No..we will do it...Although you dont know it,you are giving help to a nearly 14 year old girl,who wants to be healthy and trim,so thanks for that!,Debi,xx
DeleteBrilliant video and unbelievable bargains on your shop. Inspiring as always.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit jealous of 19p avocados!! xx
ReplyDeleteI think everything is going up in price recently, I think they just jump on the bandwagon without any real reason. Salmon gone up 50% dont know why? Good comment about the toothpaste, read the ingredients. I recently saw a dentist and she told me toothpaste doesn't make much difference, it's the brushing technique that matters and the dental hygienists only use water to clean your teeth at a cost of £40!
ReplyDeleteHi Ilona, slice an avocado and stick the pieces down in a jar of salsa and they will keep for a long time in the refrigerator. Then you can pull out what you need. That's one of my tricks. Thanks so much for the great info!
ReplyDeleteWell done as always Ilona. Fantastic bargains and thinking of others too. Greta video.
ReplyDelete