Cutting The Shopping Bill.

If you are looking at cutting back, one of the first places to look at is your monthly shopping bill. I do not advocate living on bread and water for a month. But a shopping trip can cost dramatically less by buying unbranded or own branded products. Aldi and Lidl are great for reducing the budget, but I do find I cannot do a full shop in there. Life is too short to visit 2 supermarkets per week, so I do 1 big shop per month in both then, top up in with vegetables.

Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise. Squeezy bottle 430ml £2.49

Tesco Own Brand Top Down Mayo 480ml £1.00

That is a saving of nearly 60%, plus an extra 50ml.

Both are creamy, but the Hellman’s is a little more whisked egg white consistency.

Heinz Tomato sauce, top down squeezy 460g £1.85

Tesco Tomato Ketchup, top down squeezy 460g 85p

Tesco Everyday Value, top down squeezy 590g… wait for it 18p


PG Tips Pyramid Bags, 160 £3.50 (2.18p / cup)
Tesco Original Bags, 160 £2.40 (1.5p / cup)

You can also stop buying expensive ragu sauces. 1 jar of Dolmio at £1.99. Instead buy two tins of chopped tomatoes at between 31p - 50p (buy the extra value they are fine) and add one small tin of tomato puree at 35p which will thicken in. A sprinkling of dried herbs and / or garlic bulb and the pasta sauce is done. Cost 97p.

Value pasta also tastes fine and the swop will not be noticed by family members. Nor will it be detected if you only add half the usual amount of mince to your spagetti bolognaise and top it up with porridge oats. Healthier too!

If you buy a lot of snacks then I would recommend PoundStretcher or Poundland. The Chap loves Wheat Crunchies which are normally £1.88 for a 6pk in Tesco but only 89p in Pound Stretcher. I have to walk past the shop every day to get to work.

Own brand washing detergents work just as well as their more expensive labelled neighbours too.
Persil Powder Non Bio 25 wash / 2.125Kg, £7!!
Tesco Powder Non Bio 25 wash / 2KG, £4

The list is endless to own brand alternative - spirits, biscuits, cereal, fish fingers, frozen veg, chips etc

However, if I can give just one piece of advice please do not buy own brand or cheap washing up liquid. Nothing beats fairy for value!

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

P.S. Living with The Chap does amuse me. He came home from work late yesterday about 9.30pm as  I was cleaning the poop from the litter tray. He takes one look at me and states "I was going to kiss you, but now I am not as you are holding a bag of sh*t". He was right I was. So I popped the poop in the bin and washed my hands. Walked back into the lounge to finding him waiting for me puckered up!! :o)

Win!

I did my shop last night and bought the big ticket items we needed / wanted.

Cast iron casserole dish                

Whiskey

Mattress cover

I also bought a pyrex dish with plastic lid (I chucked all my old Tupperware during the move as it just looked tired and stained, so now is a good time to restock at a discount)

The final bill came in at £163.59. I nearly fainted!

But this thrifty blogger got it down.

The promotional stickers I have been collecting reduced the casserole dish to £29.99 from £79.99 and the pyrex dish from £7.49 to £2.99.

I bought some minced meat 2 for £7 and that went straight into the freezer, I am not planning any mince dishes over the next week, but yesterday was a good opportunity to stock the freezer.

This brought the shop to £107.09, at which point I presented my other voucher of £9 off a £90 shop, bringing the total spend to £98.09.

And finally, I used some additional vouchers to get 50 extra Tesco points on the shop, so managed to clock up 169 clubcard points including some “green points” as I always use a collapsible pallet to store the items at the checkout – another Tesco purchase when they were on sale for £2 over Christmas (very useful when I was moving house) and I do try to do my bit to save the environment.

Tesco then gave me enough stickers for 2 more pyrex lidded storage containers and a voucher for 5p off a litre of fuel valid until 14^th March. So I will run my current tank down, then fill it back up next week to get full use of the discount.

The Chap was pretty impressed I have to say, he does not have to watch his money like I do. But I think it amuses him to see my penny pinching ways.

I appreciate not everyone would want the casserole dish, but I have wanted one for ages and a similar item from Le Creuset comes in at £115. Now that is way out of my budget.

As a full time worker and being in charge of the cooking, I am currently trying a new system. Not killing myself to produce culinary heaven every evening for my beloved.

Last night, after walking through the door, dinner was ready 20 minutes later. Chicken breasts sliced into quarters and dipped in beaten egg then coated in breadcrumbs. I fried them off (should have grilled but we still have not found the grill pan after moving and fitting the new kitchen) and filled some reduced seeded buns. I teamed it with a salad and some coleslaw.

Probably not the healthiest of meals due to the frying, but I am happy that we ate chicken breast and not reconstituted rubbish chicken burgers and the salad counts as good stuff doesn’t it?

I am never going to be Nigella in the kitchen, but I am giving TC considerably healthier meals now we live together. I cannot remember the last time a chicken nugget or microwaved burger was eaten by him now.

By the way he tucks in, I don’t think he will be complaining any time soon.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

A Little Bit Of Planning, Nets A Whole Lot Of Discounts

I am a big fan of a voucher. Most Frugal people are.

So as I perused my Tesco discount vouchers the other day I noticed there was one for £9 off a £90 shop. That is 10% off your total bill. Normally I would never use such vouchers as spending £90 one shop for two people is just ridiculous.

However, as today is Pay Day I have been planning to go and get some bigger ticket items with my shop.

I have enough stickers to collect a cast iron casserole dish in the Tesco promotion. RRP apparently is £79.99, I will be able to pick it up for £29.99.

Also The Chap asked me to grab him a bottle of whiskey, and I also want to pick up a mattress protector. I was planning to grab another double fitted basesheet too, but the cheapest in Tesco is £4.50, “grubby little shop around the corner from work” are doing the same quality as the supermarket for £3.49, so that was a bit of a no-brainer this lunch time.

I have planned out meals for the next week, taking into account we are out on Sunday for lunch and we always have a pizza mid week.

The freezer is crammed full of chicken breasts, but we do need some mince meat, and I like to eat fish one night.

When preparing for a big shop, I always work out meals for 7 days and ensure that I am buying if possible in bulk for daily use items such as toilet paper.

I also make sure I visit brand names websites to check for coupons. It is rare I am lucky, but it does happen often enough to make checking worthwhile.

Whilst there is a little processed food bought to grace the tables at Southfork, generally I try to keep it to 1 meal per week. Pizza night allows me to have one evening when I get in and slump on the sofa. It was last night as I watched Child of Our Time and Lighfields.

As a rule, I like to ensure TC and I eat a good mixture of meat and vegetables. However this does take a little cunning as TC would consider rice and potatoes as veg and looked at me funny when I fished out a cabbage from the last shop.

A little pre planning can save you a fortune at the shops and I am hoping that today I will return home this evening with a saving of well over £50 (from voucher use).

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

Ummmm, I Did Buy Them.

Firstly Hello and Welcome to my new follower. I cannot see a new name on the list of members. So please leave a comment to say Howdy! Thanks for visiting. x

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A theory suggests that a woman’s hemline rises and falls according to stock prices. Therefore, in good economic times we get miniskirts (60s) and during periods of recession hemlines drop to the floor (70s).

If this was the case, then I would currently be walking around the office with a 20ft train to my suit!

I have new theory, heels drop in height according to one’s age and experience

In my teens and twenties I tottered along in 6 inch heels and platforms (if appropriate) bearing burning soles and stiff calves in the pursuit of elegance and high fashion.

I also of course wore black velvet hot pants. (Oh the naivety and arrogance of youth!)

Earlier this week, I mentioned my work shoes were walking their way to the great fashion catwalk in the sky. I measured them, they are 3 inches high and for the last 12 months have been a little uncomfortable by the end of the day.

I might even have said “Ahhhhh” as I kicked them off in the evening.

Yesterday I found them walking their way outside to the bin, I think they took offence when The Chap said “Have you taken your shoes off?” whilst gagging the other night in the lounge.

Normally, of course I smell sweetly of purity, virtue, and rose petals. My feet, have other ideas…

So today, after trying on the same pair of shoes in Wallis for 3 days and egged on by a couple of site Visitors (I blame you Out Of My Window & Amanda) I decided to buy them.

They were perfect for my needs, under £30 and smart.

I also adored the little heel with the large surface area.

As I get older, I am really chasing comfort in work attire and the cobbled streets around our offices coupled with the 15min walk to the town centre did mean I wanted to be at ease during the stroll. 

High heels and stilettos do not promote this. Plus after breaking my kneecap 3 years ago, I get nervous about falling and causing more damage.

It appears that growing up for me these days does not mean getting taller but getting shorter and as I get older more experienced, my car insurance is not the only thing reducing in size....my heels are as well!

I am terribly concerned that another few years and I will be walking around in flat brogues and elastic waisted skirts! Lol

On a quick aside, there are a few good deals around this week. WH Smiths are giving away free sweets everyday with O2, this week our office have enjoyed Moshi Monsters, Fruit Shoot Jellies, and Guzzle Puzzles as we cold called our way through the county.

And finally, Tesco have a new voucher scheme on. I am not a huge fan of pyrex cooking dishes. I find them a little ugly, but I do really fancy the Cast Iron casserole dish for £29.99 with 10 stickers. Each sticker is given out with a spend of £20. So you need to spend £200 before you can buy the pot for another £29.99. That is an expensive way to buy a casserole dish!

However, if you do shop at Tesco this could be a month’s shopping for a family, plus of course you get vouchers with petrol purchases too.

I have as always put a call out to family and friends. So far I have 2 stickers, but my mum has secured another 5 today for me.

I think Tesco have now wised up to the fact vouchers are being traded, which is possibly why they have changed from vouchers to stickers. But, I have managed to peel them off when our office cleaner gave me one yesterday. I also checked the terms and whilst they cannot be sold there is no mention that they cannot be gifted to a family member or friend.

Frugally yours

Abigail

X

Where There's A Will..

Firstly, hello and welcome to my new follower Fostermummy. I've heard of you! Famous in the frugal blogging world. Thank you for visiting. x

A while ago, I mentioned that I had started collecting vouchers so I could purchase the Alessi cutlery currently on offer at Tescos.

Well, here is the finished article.

The full set of cutlery.

• 12 boxes of starter sets of cutlery. 1 small knife, 1 small fork and 1 soup spoon.
• 12 boxes of main course sets of cutlery. 1 large knife, 1large fork, 1 large spoon, and 1 teaspoon
• 3 boxes of pastry forks, 4 forks / box
• 2 serving sets. ( I may buy 2 more sets, tbc)

I completed the purchases yesterday after work as I got given another voucher £5 off a £40 spend on cookware and they let me use it at the same time.

The offer finishes on Christmas Eve but vouchers will still be accepted up to early January.

A voucher was given with every £20 spent in store or on petrol, and 5 vouchers were required to be able to buy 1 box for £4.99 (£7.49 for the servers).

Now that is an expensive way to buy cutlery! There was no way I was going to spend that much money, nor could I afford to. So from the first week of the offer I have been

• sweet talking cashiers
• Facebooking friends
• Putting wanted adverts on local websites
• Using freecycle
• Swopping homemade cakes for vouchers.
• And some of you readers kindly sent me some too.

Facebook worked really well and friends were sharing my post and then sending 20 or 30 vouchers at a time as they collected them for me from their friends.

I needed 145 vouchers to complete my set.

I have spent £149.70. Getting the vouchers alone should have cost me £2900 on in storre purchases, before I spent the £149.70 on buying them.

In actual fact I have spent no more or less than I usually spend in Tesco on food and petrol. Everyone else just helped me.

To buy a box of Alessi Nuovo Milano (24 items) on Amazon costs £200.00. I have over four times as many. That is a huge saving. And, I would never have been able to afford this cutlery before.

I have had to promise friends and family I will never change my cutlery again!

I do now have c. 190 vouchers left,

enough for over a full set the same as mine. If anyone wants them to use before 6th January 2013. Or even just half of them - please leave a comment with your email address and I will be very happy to send you some.

Thank you to everyone, including readers who sent me vouchers with no thought of asking for anything in return. I really appreciate it.

Mission Accomplished, I would say!

Just need to buy a table big enough to fit 12, and then a house big enough to fit the table.......:o)

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

Tuesday.

It has been a strange few days since I last blogged on Thursday. Hello and welcome to my new follower Jenny Freeman. Thanks so much for visiting x.

First of all…

KATE AND WILLS ARE BAKING A ROYAL BUN! Congratulations!!

So very excited when this news broke in the UK yesterday afternoon. Cannot wait for the 3^rd in line to arrive next year. Much discussion at work about boys / girls and twins as apparently extreme morning sickness is often associated with multiple births.

More good news is Christmas, is bought, paid for and sitting in my spare room waiting to be wrapped. Nothing was bought full price and I was especially pleased with some Clarins sets I picked up which I got 10% off. A saving of £6 across the two. But, the bonus was the free gift, which I then snaffled, and was just as good as the sets I had just paid for.

I am just waiting on something arriving from Ebay for The Chap, which should be here by the end of the week.

As I bought the wrapping paper in January when it was reduced (buy plain gold / red / silver rolls and they last all year -  10p for 3meters). I am ready for the weekend when I will start wrapping.

Christmas cards were also picked up in January at 50p for 10 from Tesco. £1.50 for 30 and that will be it for 2012 festivities.

So that is the good news.

We have had a some bad news this week, a relative has taken a very nasty tumble and is in hospital, battered, bruised and unconscious in Intensive Care. Everyone is flying around visiting and helping out, but it is very upsetting and the relative is a very kind elderly person. No-one should be in hospital this time of year.

This morning, I was late to work, by nearly 90mins as they closed the road. A pedestrian had been hit by a man in his car with his 3 kids in the rear. I had to turn back and completely retrace my journey to get into one of the offices. As I started to swear about commuting, the air ambulance flew overhead, and that shut me up. It really is serious when that arrives.

How quickly anticipation for the Christmas season can seem so shallow, and lives can be changed irrevocably. Not just the pedestrian and my relative, but also the man driving the car and those close to ones taken ill.

Around this time of year there is so much bad news and so many joyless existences. It has really come home to me over the past 4 days.

My Mum is very good at raising funds, and this year she decided that she would raise money for our local FoodBank. Surely a roof over your head and a fully tummy are basic human rights? Well she thinks so and I agree. It is criminal in today’s society, here in the UK people are hungry.

She attended the local Christmas Light switch on with a Bottle Tombola and made £140.

Our local Tesco on Saturday was asking for food donations to the FoodBank and was giving every customer a list of items it needed (all non perishable). I was not able to get much, but I did pick up a tinned pie, tin of peas and some tuna. Tesco then gave another 30% on top of my donation.

I think this is a great idea, but apparently it was only on for one day. I wish there was someway to ask Tesco to have a bin, in which shoppers could donate every week. Just a tin / week from 20% of shoppers would make a huge amount of difference.

So this week, give your loved ones a little extra squeeze from me and if you would like to help out those who are hungry in the UK. Please see here.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

£1.33

Things are very tight at the moment. Paying off my credit cards has meant that the savings have been severely reduced.  It is time for major belt tightening.

A difficult time compounded as I got another flat tyre last week. Same tyre as I replaced about 3 or 4 months ago. I went into work late on Friday, as I visited Mr Tyre in the morning and they put the spare on so they could look at the offending article.

Another blasted nail. And again it is located at the edge of the tyre so it cannot be repaired. Luckily I know that Mr Tyre have the cheapest tyres around me at £51 per tyre. So on Saturday I went off to have it replaced.

4 new tyres in less than 6 months, plus I know that the last original one will have to be changed early in 2013. According to the nice garage men, it has about 5000miles left on it.

The Plumber came round on Saturday to service the boiler and prepare the gas safety certificate required to let out my little flat. Whilst I had his undivided attention I also got him to have a look at the bathroom sink which was draining slowly. The waste pipe was full of the most revolting gunk!

He also re-programmed my heating so now no heating in the morning and no hot water. An effort to reduce the quarterly bills. Not that I will hopefully be paying them for much longer.

And finally, he checked the shower. It is completely bust. If it was up to me I would just live without it, and have a bath only. However, as the flat has to get rented then it needs replacing.

Sigh…. Always money to be spent that I can currently ill afford. But, it has to be done, so we are both hoping I can get one for about £60 plus fitting costs.

Oh, did I mention the telephone bill arrived £90…

So, I need to reduce my food bill in November.

I had a £15 voucher from Tesco, and spent some of Friday going through the store cupboards to work out what I had in stock.

This is how it got spent.

Pasta                                  .98

Eggs                                  1.19

Cheddar                            1.99

Smoked Bacon                1.64

1x Tin Butter Beans          .69

1x Tin of Peas                   .21

3x tin of sweetcorn           1.45

Chorizo                              2.00

Lard                                    .39

1x Courgette                        .46

Celery                                 .89

1 x Butternut                     1.48

Potatoes                           .99

1x red onion                     .15

1x onion                            .12

1x leek                              .74

Wholemeal Loaf              .47

1xjar peas & carrots        .49   

Total                                     16.33

Voucher                               15.00

Left To Pay                             1.33

This food combined with the freezer and store cupboards will have to last me until 29^th November with the exception of buying milk.

I researched my purchases using mysupermarket.co.uk to ensure that I was getting the best deal and so I knew what my final spend would be. For example  the website told me the cheese was on special Lake District Mature Cheddar was reduced to £1.99 from £3.98 for 350G. I only like cheese melted on pizza or used in cooking so that amount will last me ages.

I did buy a Butternut Squash.

I have eaten it before, but never cooked it. Looking at the size of the thing I am not sure what to do. I was thinking one third roasted and put into a quiche and one third to make some soup and one third mashed with butter. Unless, you have a better idea?

£1.33 is the sort of shopping trip I can get used to!

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

20 Pence Lunch & Swopping

I am always on the look out for cheap ways to each lunch at work with the minimum of preparation required, as intrinsically lazy and prefer to spend 10 minutes in bed of a morning rather than preparing a sandwich or salad.

As we know I am a big old fan of the Tesco Everyday Value range, all (bar one) of the products I have bought in this range have been excellent value for money.

So a new purchase of the Tesco Everyday Value Soft Cheese at 50p a pot seemed an excellent price, plus it tasted really yummy (just as good as Philadelphia). It lasts me Monday - Friday.

A lot of people seemed to be obsessed with yellow stickers at the supermarket denoting goods about to go out of date and heavily reduced. I am no exception. However, it is rare I manage to find the discounts some of my blogging friends seem to happen upon.

The one place I always get a bargain is the bread. There is always something reduced. Yesterday I bought 4 huge burger baps for 39p. c. 10p each.

I simply put the baps straight into the freezer when I get home.

Come the work morning, I stumble out of bed, stagger to the kitchen and grab a frozen bun (on a Monday you have to remember the cheese as well). Stuff it into the handbag in a plastic bag and by lunchtime it is defrosted. Half it, stuff it in the toaster and then spread with the above cheese whilst hot.

Consume in the break room, accompanied with free office tea and gentle moaning noises of enjoyment whilst clock watching.

SWOPPING
According to The Chap, I am currently turning a little Rainman-ish when it comes to Tesco Alessi Cutlery Vouchers - see more information here - obsessively collecting / counting my vouchers.

I have already bought 9 sets of knives and forks, and needed to obtain 140 vouchers to achieve my goal of 10 of everything by Christmas. A total spend of £132.27. Buying the whole lot retail would cost approaching £1000. Over £800 is a good saving, but only if I can get the vouchers for free.

And I have, by fair and foul means, Facebook allowed me to ask friends all over the country to collect them for me and they are all kindly posting them.

But, I have also used freecyle (donations currently totalling 60 vouchers) and a cashless exchange post. In fact tonight I have been out and collected about 20 vouchers in exchange for 2 homemade Nigella Lemon Syrup Cakes, which cost aprox £1 to make.

A little blinging of the packaging also helps the swopping process and creates some goodwill.

Current total stands at c. 120 vouchers and counting.

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

Frozen Food

I had a guest to stay this weekend and wanted to feed her frugally and tastily on Friday evening.

I found this..

A new addition to the Tesco Everyday Value range (oh, read this if you get a minute. Tesco customers were too embarrassed to buy the old Tesco value range, that is why it has been rebranded)

The joint weighs 560g and is supposed to feed 2-3 (true if the 3rd person just fancies a vegetarian meal) and comes in at £3. It's nearest rival is Iceland's roast from frozen chicken which is £3.50 for 520g.

I was a bit dubious, being completely honest, and did worry what it would be like. However, I have to say it was juicy and a proper roast (no reconstituted rubbish) and browned up a treat in the last 20minutes once I removed the packaging.

I then bulked it up with some potatoes, extra stuffing, sugar snap peas and mini corns (they were reduced to sell last week). Pudding was treacle sponge with custard. Sometimes, only such comfort food will do. Besides "S", must have enjoyed it as both our plates were squeaky clean.

S also has started me on the big tidy! Ready for the new tenants (assuming someone wants to rent Chez Thrifty!) So every evening I am trying to pack one box or clear one area. Today I turned up to work with 2 carriers of clothes for the British Heart Foundation

(OMG, and I caught a man shop lifting a pewter tankard! Can you believe it? I saw him pick up the mug and then it was gone. So I guessed he must have dropped it in his carrier bag. I was so incensed I followed him round the shop staring at him and the carrier until he got the message and pretended to tie his shoe lace whilst removing the tankard. I then retrieved it, gave him the evil eye and proceeded to tell the staff who were not interested at all!)

And finally... my mum rang me this afternoon she went to Tesco today and spent £20, yet managed to charm extra tokens from the Cashier. I now have enough to get three boxes of Alessi cutlery and we are only a week in! Whoo Hoo!

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

You Have Got To Love A Deal

I thought I should let you know, I got really excited on Thursday when I went to my local Tesco. As you see they have started a new promotion running until the 24th December.

Alessi cutlery.

I love Alessi items, and think they are functional, fun and a design classic. I only have a few items of theirs, mainly that were given as gifts.

I like the ice cream bowls I was given a few years ago. Look at the cute heart shaped spoons!

So you can imagine my delight when I realised the new promotion is for Alessi cutlery. I loved the knives I bought using the Tesco promotion a few months ago. So new cutlery would be ideal.

I calculate I want a 10 piece table set with 8 pastry knives and then 2 sets of serving spoons.

That means I require 70  vouchers. And to obtain 1 voucher you need to spend £20.

Well of course this thrifty girl is not going to spend £1400.00 on obtaining the vouchers.... crackers money.

But previous experience tells me you can "charm" additional vouchers from the Cashiers. Well, since Wednesday I have spent probably £30 on petrol and food combined and currently have 11 vouchers already.

After cheekily asking every time I go if I can have a voucher, or can I have some extra. I even yesterday got given 1 from the lady behind me in the queue.

Friends and family, plus The Chap and his parents have all been roped in so by Christmas I can have a new set of very expensive cutlery and serving spoons for the grand total £69.86. They should last a life time.

Watch this space for an update.

Frugally yours
Abigail
x
P.S. Oh and if you happen to have some spare vouchers going you do not need ....... :o)