As you can see I am already drinking YS stuff ... I think our local Tesco found some of the old label Everyday Value items lurking in the warehouse. The trolley of yellow stickered bargains by the front doors was full of them the other night, so I picked up a few bargains.
And now the rules. Every Challenge has to have a backbone of rules to keep me on the straight and narrow .. so off the top of my head the rules for this one are:
Every meal for the next seven days is to contain at least one Yellow Sticker item.
Hence forth Yellow Stickers will be know as YS.
I'm sick of typing it in full already :-)
I will photograph all my purchases.
I may eat anything I want ...as long as it had a YS when it was bought.
I may not clear the YS shelves in one fell swoop and buy all my food in one go.
I can however buy one day's food in one go.
I must try and visit at least four different supermarkets/shops on different days during the course of the Challenge.
YS items may be whole meals, as in Ready Meals or the ingredients for meals.
I must not sharpen my elbows and enter into scrummages with people that may need the food more than I do.
If this all goes pear shaped ... I must not sulk :-)
The Challenge starts on Monday.
Sue xx
Some excellent bargains already to start you off, Sue. I'm looking forward to reading how you get on. I like the rule about not sharpening your elbows....on the few occasions we've been shopping in the evenings, when the YS are reduced for the last time, it's definitely a bit of a scrum - but then it is a bit of a deprived area.
ReplyDeleteIt's usually in our local Asda that the serious scrummages and skirmishes take place ... I think I'll avoid final mark down time at this branch for this reason.
DeleteWe do really well at the Coop when final reductions are made. Aldi do half price red stickers too. Only scrums I have witnessed at mark down time are in the city and according to the staff, it can get ugly! With all the ill health, sick paypay and redundancy we have endured these past two years, yellow sticker shopping has allowed us to eat really well. We have set ourselves a challenge to become mortgage free by the end of this year so will continue to live really frugally and this includes YS shopping. Your challenge will keep me inspired and motivated! Still read your blog regularly but haven't had much time to comment recently. Thank you for sharing your challenges with us x
ReplyDeleteI'm realising that I will have to count red stickers as yellow stickers if I shop in the Co-op. I forgot about the colour difference there!
DeleteThanks for still reading, I hope things are okay at yours, and that your mission to be mortgage free is on track. Xx
Interesting rules - I love them!
ReplyDeleteI've never noticed a scrum by the YS shelf but I just look when I go, I don't go to look, if you see what I mean. And it's not a particularly deprived area really.
xx
It's mainly in Asda at final '10p mark down time', and where Asda is it is an area with lots of benefit recipients. I would not take away food from those that genuinely need it, just for the sake of a Challenge.
DeleteI can't wait to see what you can get in your area Sue, I live in a village with only an expensive shop I'm not in walking distance of any larger shops. So I call at the Co-op on Sunday's when they close early and go to look at their final reductions and then one day midweek when I need milk and bread I go to the small town about 4 miles away it's about every 10 days and I look for final reductions. I have never seen any elbow pushing but our shops aren't huge ones like you get in a City. xx
ReplyDeleteI have to travel for shopping ... and bargains. We cannot walk anywhere from our house, we're on a busy main A road with no pavements or verges to safely walk on and lots of blind bends that make walking on the road extremely hazardous 😕
DeleteOur nearest shops are in the small town/large village of Llanrwst 4 miles away. There we have a Spar, a Co-op, a couple of charity shops and lots of Welsh independents. Other supermarkets and larger shops are 8 miles plus away. We don't live near any cities.
My 'own' Tesco YS area isn't a scrum as stuff comes out at different times during the day, or maybe it's because I'm never there at final mark down. Was in a different area last year though, on the Sunday almost 4pm mark down and was horrified, not just by the scrum/almost fighting that went on, but by the reaction of the staff who were standing by and laughing. Made me feel v upset and vowed not to go there again at that time. Savannah
ReplyDeleteIt's the same at our Tesco, I think I will mostly try and aim for 2nd mark down time.
DeleteLate night shopping can be good, we used to do quite well visiting there after being at the cinema. They have a couple of big wheelie trollies that appear after round 7ish and they keep adding to them, although by this time the chilled reduced section is usually pretty barren, save for a pair of kippers or two !!
I'm almost tempted to venture out late at night just to find out if Asda or Tesco really do mark downs like other people seem to find but Bro in Law goes in evening and says they still dont have things reduced.
ReplyDeleteBut then when i think of driving 12 miles there just to check I think........No stay at home in the warm!
Yes the thought of 16 miles to Asda at seven o'clock on a wet windy night doesn't do it for me either. I will be going out at sensible times and being content with reasonable reductions 🙂
DeleteI love your last rule,
ReplyDelete“ If this all goes pear shaped.......I must not sulk” .
Looking forward to reading the results. Have a good weekend.
Sue
I have been known to have a major paddy if things don't go my way. :-)
DeleteThere would be no 'scrums' here. The most things are reduced is 30% and it could sit there for days 'til it rots before they reduce it any further. I have to say though that a lot of foods never make it to the store floor when they need to be reduced, they go straight to the food bank, and homeless shelters. I'm okay with that as they need it far more than I do. We also have some organizations here that go around the supermarkets and restaurants at the end of the night and pick up all the food and take it to the homeless shelters.
ReplyDeleteI will be quite happy to buy things with a 30% reduction, and I'm VERY happy if I know things are going to a Foodbank or equally good cause. I actually handed a lot of bread-stuff back once at our local Tesco when a member of staff started bagging up the bread left on the trolley. When I asked him where it was going and he said to a local Foodbank I gave him back all but one loaf from my trolley.
DeleteThere but for the grace of God etc
I've only just found your new blog and am so pleased you started blogging again. Over the last two years, as a result of reading and being inspired by your blog, I've now acquired two allotments and turned 1/2 my garden over to growing fruit and veg. Sadly we can't keep chickens here as they are classed as an exotic pet!!! We are meat eaters here but I never buy unless it is yellow stickered. I also now have a sealed pot ( one of those tins you have to use a tin opener for )into which goes all my loose change. I'm looking forward to your new challenge having spent most of Saturday catching up with you since October!! Fiona x
ReplyDeleteWelcome ... I never stopped blogging just moved locations, although yes this blog did start in October :-)
DeleteIt sounds like you've been very busy, I think the Sealed Pot is one of the best things I have ever done. Putting £2 coins into it is the secret to a decent amount at the end of the year. Good luck with yours.
Chickens exotic .... I'll not tell my girls that they'll be wanting posher food ... haha :-)