After using all my February allocation of money up last week on my mad splurge (see HERE), for the rest of the month I have decided to spend 'non cash' ...... vouchers, coupons and points. This week it was the turn of the Nectar points, luckily we had managed to accumulate over £19 of these but for some reason I was only allowed to spend £17.50 of them, so I had to add an additional £2.48 of my £2 coin money to pay for the shopping.
So this weeks total spend on shopping is £19.98 but only the £2.48 came from the £10 that I have allocated to last me the rest of the month to try and keep the £2 Housekeeping Challenge money going for as long as possible, so now I have just £7.52 and my Tesco and M&S vouchers.
As you can see there is no Radio Times in amongst this weeks shopping as I took note of the brilliant suggestion in my comments last week to take advantage of a special offer. There was a card in last weeks copy that gives me eight copies for the amazing price of £1 if you take out a subscription, which you can cancel immediately after the offer if you so wish, so this is a real help with the budget this month (and next). I may or may not cancel the subscription and direct debit when the offer runs out we'll see, you do get 15% off the cover price and free delivery if you have a subscription. So while I'm getting my 12.5p copies I will monitor how much we actually use it and see if we would be getting value for money at the usual cover price.
Today we are off to the farm supply shop to pick up chicken food and go to our favourite garden centre on the way back to get some wild bird food and some seedling compost (yay...it's nearly time to start a planting) and we are going to make use of our loyalty card to claim our monthly two free coffees and our thrice yearly 'buy one meal get one free' deal. So a nice trip out together for something really useful and then a drink and a meal each all for the price of one meal (usually around £4.99) ..... can't be bad. It's nice to have a treat at the weekend.
Have a good weekend, whatever you're up to.
Sue xx
Well done you! I am hanging on to my M&S vouchers a little longer, but used £2.50 of nectar points this week.
ReplyDeleteFYI Nectar points can only be redeemed in multiples of £2.50 [ie 500 points at a time] which is why you couldn't redeem all of yours.
I don't buy the RT - I use the online service which I find easier to navigate when I want to check programmes, and it's free!
Weekend blessings xx
Aha....that's why I coldn't spend all my points, thanks for that Angela.
DeleteI didn't know there was an online service for the Radio Times, so thanks for that too (duh!! I should have guessed there would be), but I think I would miss the readers letters and the crossword, after all it's one of the few that I can actually almost finish, so I may stick to the paper copy....we'll see.
Sue xx
Have a lovely weekend Sue. We've definitely got a spring in the air today, its wonderful!
ReplyDeleteIt's looking that way here too up to now, once we get back from the farm supplies shop we have decided to clean up the greenhouse ready for using, a real sign of Spring to come and planting ahead :-).
DeleteSue xx
You are a real inspiration Sue. I really need to get on top of my spending too. *sigh*
ReplyDelete....and you're an inspiration too, I'm starting the 5:2 diet again next week (for good this time) and Lovely Hubby is joining in too.
DeleteThanks for all the info about it on your Blog, I've been having a catch up.
It's nice that we can all inspire each other here in Blogland.
Sue xx
we swapped out Tesco vouchers for rewards vouchers and used them for a nice valentines meal at Prezzo and the rest went on hungry horse vouchers to use for the family
ReplyDeleteI never shop in tesco but have a their credit card....all our spends go on there then the bill is paid in full every month that way lots of points and at least 3 meals out for free(ish as you have to pay for drinks seperately)
Sounds lovely, I'm beginning not to shop in T*sco unless I've actually got the vouchers to spend, we do the same with our credit card too.
DeleteSue xx
The way you're doing your food shopping really is an inspiration - thank you for continuing to post :)
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, I find posting is a good way to keep myself in check, thank you for continuing to read :-)
DeleteSue xx
I just saw your bottle of orange squash. Squash was only available in one store (one and half hours away)and was over $7 per bottle. We can no longer get it,but at that price it's no loss!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Lovely Hubby has switched to this instead of the bottled flavored water is was drinking, orange for cold drinks, blackcurrant for hot or cold.
DeleteSo expensive where you are it's amazing, if it were lighter I would send you some.
Sue xx
See you have bought your seed compost.... I have already sown my tomato seeds and am pricking out seedlings today.... Don't have a heated greenhouse and see from my gardening diary, last year I sowed them on March 6th, so am a little premature! You can follow my antics on my blog (which unfortunately your comment drop down box doesn't give the option for i.e. name/URL) at www.countryidyll.co.uk Roll on summer so I don't have to buy the vegetables. They seem to have crept up in price over the winter, maybe because the fields are waterlogged.
ReplyDeleteYes,. now I'm itching to get planting but it's still a little too cold. I think I will spend the time cleaning things up ready but hold off with the actual planting until the first week in March. My greenhouse is not just unheated it also has a 'through wind' on occasions, there are sooooo many gaps in the glass and frame, we have just got some duct tape to patch it up a ittle bit :-(
DeleteFolk can get to your Blog from here simply by clicking on your name, so no need to include your url at all, it's there EVERY time you comment :-)
When I was inn Sainsbury's last week I was handed a leaflet that said that I can now use all my Nectar points to pay for something, not just multiples of £2.50 ...... I hadn't realised that I could only use them that way. But the leaflet went on to say that it only applies in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's good to know for when we do go to Scotland to visit, Lovely Hubby's sister lives in his home town of Peebles.
DeleteSue xx
Buying the Radio Times, and going through it circling all the things we wanted to watch was a per-Christmas ritual while I was growing up, and one I carried into marriage. So, 3 years ago, just before Christmas I bought it, settled down in bed with a cuppa and three different coloured highlighter pens, opened the magazine and... Remembered that we hadn't owned a TV for six months.
ReplyDeleteD'oh!!!
Haha....absolutely brilliant :-)
DeleteSue xx
That food is everything I would buy, apart from the ham. excellent choices.
ReplyDelete