A Challenge for October - Food and Household Items

[tigs]

Well, my first foray into coupon shopping was a roaring success! To be honest, I was expecting the self-service till to start wailing like a banshee and flashing at me when I put my coupons through - but of course it didn't. Interestingly enough, though, you still need to have your coupons 'verified' by a human - well, you do in Asda, anyway.

itsy, well done! I've only just caught up with this bit.

I mostly use till spits these days (thats the "coupons" that literally spit out of the supermarket's own tills, that you save till you shop there next time). I often have to get a human to put it through, because the scanner face is dirty and won't read it or something - and they always check whether you've actually bought the thing you're claiming the extra points for. When all the couponning first started, about 4 years ago now, people put through loads and loads of coupons for stuff they hadn't bought, and were *regularly* being paid to shop ... you can't do that now, or not so easily, but thats why humans get involved.

If you're following their rules, they *owe* you that money/those points, whatever it is

I never seem to get any till spits. I do most of my 'big' shops online, could that be why?

yep they are all in store deals

[itsybitsy]

Got a great deal today. Campbells Pasta 'n' Sauce was half price in Morrissons at 50p. I had some of my 20p off vouchers, so I got them for 30p! Winning!!!

[Theoracle]

One thing that bothers me is water supply, ok ok I know we've had some serious rain this summer but what if the shtf? I bought a cheap chest freezer, stuck it in the basement and have been saving bottles, filling them up and freezing them, the freezer cost £12 on eBay.

[JOE90]

Through the company i work for i just got a membership to the Company shop, its a small chain of shops that sell off cheap food from well known manufacturers. Heinz soups for 19p. To be honest i expected lots of dented tins and broken biscuits. But what i found was a viable alternative to my supermarket. Our weekly shop went from £80+ to £29. And that included doubling up on a few things. There are restrictions though, 6 of each item only and you do need to watch sell by dates, but i saved a fortune.

[Arzosah]

Just looked at Martin's weekly newsletter, and these two items stand out:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/ ... edral-city

Misprice at Tesco, which they'll correct when they can, so check/go super quick.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... ?t=4235365

Only £1 for 500g of prunes - they don't know how long it will be on for.

[ctrljay]

Have seen half price BBQ brigettes for £2.48. At Tesco. Another fuel source maybe.

Doing lump-wood as well for the same price!

[junmist]

So how did it go for everyone who tried this.

[Arzosah]

Ouch ... I kept meaning to find this thread. Well, I went on holiday for 8 days ... but even the rest didn't go well to be honest, I abandoned keeping a total. The things I did were:

- using any till spits I could from Sainsbo - they're my only big supermarket, and I don't have a car, so that was always going to be the biggest thing.
- I've opened up a new credit card, it gets double nectar points at Sainsbo, and single nectar points anywhere else you use it. And I use my nectar points on shopping as soon as I can nowadays - I let them build up ridiculously, then I realised I'd had them so long, they were being eroded by inflation!
- penny sale from Holland and Barrett - its possible I use it in a way they didn't intend I don't buy something else cheaper for a penny extra, I buy two of the same thing for a penny extra - so, 500g of cashews cost £8.89, I was able to buy a kilo for £8.90
- offers on toilet paper - I kept track of them, and they all the supermarkets I have access to were very tricksy about their toilet paper seems its being used as a loss leader.
- I have a small M&S food outlet locally, and I discovered when they put their offers on. You have to hover a bit, but I got a £1.39 choccy swiss roll, which I lurve, for 70p, and an equal bargain on the ciabatta.

Can't think of anything else must try harder.