Free Coffees ... and Comparison Shop

 

Enjoying our free coffees at Burnside Garden Centre last week.  

We tend to go about once a month so it made sense to join the loyalty scheme and, occasionally, qualify for two free coffees a month and money off our shopping.  We just managed to get there on the last day of the month to claim October's free drinks, lets hope we aren't so last minute this month.  😊

After yesterday's post you just knew I would have to check up on what the £3.50 challenge shop of 2023 would cost me right now didn't you.  I did, and while the grand total was £3.48 back in March of 2023 ...

Yesterday if I had been going to Sainsbury's to do the exact same shop it would have cost me £5.41.

Now that doesn't seem to be a huge amount of money, but, as Nelliegrace pointed out on yesterday's post, we should bear in mind that these are the most basic of foods and usually bought by people that can't afford to splash the cash on just anything that they fancy.  So a £1.93 rise can be the difference between riding out a full week of eating or scrimping even more than usual.

It was an eye-opener, but sadly one that I expected.

Looking at price rises and wanting to do everything that I can do for myself to keep eating well on a budget is one of the reasons that I now find myself rescuing every available freebie that I can.  Bringing leftovers from any snacks or meals that we eat out home with me to use in future meals and recipes.

I realise how very lucky I am that whenever we go out Alan pays for coffees, snacks and meals.  If it were left to me I would rarely eat out as I struggle to find things that are suitable, and while I realise that the prices include the premises, staff etc etc as well as the cost of the food, I still baulk at the prices of something as simple as a toasted teacake and in my head there is the thought that I could have bought a pack of four for that price and a jar of jam.  But Alan has always really enjoyed eating out so it is something that we do.

But claiming the free coffees, and rescuing the bits off mine ... and now occasionally other peoples trays ... help me to rationalise things for myself.  I'm doing whatever I can to keep myself sane at the moment.

What have you rescued recently or claimed for free, or is it something that you just don't do?

Sue xx

Too Many Notebooks ... and Old Challenges

 

I was sorting through my stationery drawers the other day, and NO in great big letters I do not need any more notebooks of any description until I reach at least 100 years of age.  Nor do I need any pens or pencils if all the ones in the drawer are in good working order.

Anyway one notebook really caught my attention, it was full of loose bits of paper alongside many, many filled pages.  It turned out to be the one I kept while I was doing a number of my Challenges on my other blog.  

Eat for £25 a week, eat for one pound a day, two pounds a day etc etc.  But the most interesting challenge was the Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge, that I actually only did back in April of 2023.  I ended up dropping everything else that I was doing and reading through all of my notes.

Sorry that the photos are so blurry, but I'm sure that you get the gist of it.

It really got me wondering if that would be possible right now.  I honestly think not, but I think I will go onto the Sainsbury's website and see how the prices compare with this months prices.

Now while the paper exercise of the challenge looked very promising, with lots of food being able to be bought for the budget, the actual Challenge itself panned out more like this.

The Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge

Sue xx

Enjoying Mother

 

'Mother', the Christmas cacti is in full bloom and looking amazing.

She's a very old lady, originally owned by Alan's great-great-great Scottish Grannie, but every now and then she really surprises us, and this 'almost on time' blooming has done just that.  She is obviously loving being sat in Alan's hallway window and getting so much light on her old leaves.

She spent many days over the course of the Summer sat outside on the patio drinking up the sun's rays, and then enjoying cooling showers from the hosepipe before returning to her happy place.  Maybe that has helped rejuvenate her even more than usual.

Happiness can be as simple as enjoying the pretty flowers on a treasured plant.

Sue xx 

My Food is Dated ...

 

My food is dated ... that is the food that I bought over the weekend has now had it's Best Before dates written in marker pen on the front.  Now I can actually see the dates on it without having to resort to reading glasses and turning the light on, on these dark late Autumn evenings.

Not that much of this food is going to be eaten for a while!

It's all been added to the bottom part of the food cupboard, ready for bringing out when virtually everything in the top part has been used up.

I spent random moments over the course of a weekend earlier this year, sorting through all my foods and adding the dates to the packs, and only left the things that were either out of date or that needed using up during 2025 in the top cupboard, everything with a longer date went into the bottom part of the cupboard.

Over the course of the last few months I have put some newly bought things into the bottom part, and taken some things out as I needed them, but always I have been mindful of the dates.  I decided over the weekend that I will concentrate on eating up the foods in the top part of the cupboard this month, ready to move things from the bottom up to the top in the New Year, or maybe before if I make lots of space.

Christmas has now arrived at Greggs ... and the new festive cups are lovely cheerful.

We stopped at the services on the way back from visiting Mum yesterday, for our usual strange Sunday lunch.  This time I got a free vegan sausage roll off the Greggs app and we treated ourselves to a doughnut each for pudding.  Don't worry Alan didn't go without, he was over at Subway buying himself a ham and chicken salad roll while I was taking this photo.

Last night I was so lazy, and because these lovely chips were in the fridge I simply had a couple of chip butties for my tea.  In a bid to stop that happening again, I set to this morning dividing the remaining chips into little bags to pop into the freezer.

I now have seven portions for the freezer, safely bagged and stashed, and a few of the little odds and sods which I will have alongside a 'beef' burger on a bun for my tea tonight.

I am wasting nothing.

Even the trays that the chips came in are being repurposed,  I am going to use them as trays for open freezing other foods on.  Better to reuse than simply recycle, for as long as they last.

Sue xx

Wants, Needs and Treats

We called to Booths for a coffee on Saturday morning.  Unusually Alan didn't have a bacon bun for his breakfast, he had a cream scone ... now that surprised me.  😄

I needed some eggs and some white pepper, but walking down the fridge aisle I spotted these chips on a '3 for 2' offer again, so I picked up three packs.  Each pack will be split into three and will be frozen for adding to future meals.  A third of a pack along with something else is just perfect for me.

At the tills I was looking at the Christmas Country Living multi-pack offer and Alan talked me into getting it.  He then proceeded to pay for all the shopping, including a Christmas gift for my brother ... and there was me only the other day saying that I was doing nothing for Christmas yet.  The magazines won't be read until 1st December, it would just be wrong!!

Then we went around the corner and into Aldi.

Now I didn't really need anything except bananas, something green and some cat treats, but I think all the talk about the budget and prices going up must have been on my mind because I bought a few tins and packets to stock up next years cupboard.  Alongside something else for Christmas, a couple of little Christmas puddings.

Of course not everything will last, and one of the tubes of 'Stackz' has already gone.  There were very quickly munched through while we had a glass of wine last night whilst watching The 1% Club on tv.

I should hide the chocolate from myself, which is quite an easy job to do these days as I seem to be in the habit of losing all sorts of stuff at the moment.

I'm going to try and get into the habit of keeping all food receipts for future pondering over.  With the speed at which prices are going up they should make for interesting reading in a few months.  I'll stick them into a notebook so I don't lose them!

I thought that I actually got quite a lot for my £20.65 in Aldi, indeed even the guy on the check out mentioned that,.  But thinking about it, it's mostly because there's no animal products or wine in amongst the shopping, doing without those is always a good way to save money.

Sue xx