New Challenge - Shopping Hauls - The Rules

So here we are again, a brand new Challenge.

This time I am having a week doing Shopping Hauls ... only unlike other bloggers and vloggers that do the whole 'shopping haul' thing I am limiting myself to £10 to spend in each shop that I visit during the course of the seven day Challenge.

So each day my money pot will get smaller,

and smaller,

and smaller,

and smaller,

and smaller.

Until by the last day I will have ten pounds left in my purse and have to decide how to finish the Challenge with a flourish.

The Rules

I can buy anything that I want.

If possible I should explain why I have bought what I have bought.

Each day I should shop in just one shop.

No shop may be repeated more than twice.

I may not go over my £10 limit.

I must try to follow the famous William Morris quote:  

 Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

I also want to point out straight away that none of these are sponsored blog posts ... I don't do that ... and the cash I am spending is my own.

So now the world ... or rather the shops ... are my oyster.  

A week of spending here I come ... and not a yellow sticker in sight.

Yellow Sticker Challenge - End of Challenge

All photos today courtesy of Google Images

So the Challenge is over.

Personally I thought it went really well and we both really enjoyed the foods that we managed to snap up on our travels.  I had decided not to go down the go out daily and buy things to eat that day or the next day route purely because we live so far from most of the shops that I visited.  And I really couldn't justify spending pounds and pounds on petrol to save pennies on yellow stickered food ... not good for my purse or  the environment

I will be doing a  Challenge where I do go out each and every day to buy my food for the day ahead  in a few weeks when I will be a bit closer to the shops and heading out daily for dog walks there.  So if that's what you like you have something to look forward to.

Anyway back to this Challenge.

I enjoyed doing it.

 I learnt that it pays to keep my eyes open for the yellow stickers in every section of every store or shop that I visit.  

I learnt to keep a slightly more open mind about trying new things and not just heading straight for the usual shelves in the usual shops.  

The one and only thing that got wasted was the mixed rice and quinoa thing that I bought from Marks and Spencer at the start of the Challenge ... and even that didn't actually go in the bin, the chickens got to enjoy it along with their corn one morning, so not totally wasted.

I liked that Alan totally embraced the rummaging through yellow sticker food fridges, picking out foods that he wanted to try and that had I been alone I might not necessarily have bought.

I like that our freezer now has a good stash of foods, mostly meats, that will last Alan a good couple of weeks after the end of the Challenge, continuing the money saving for quite a while.

And I love that when you go on to Google Images with the search-line 'Yellow Stickers' ... amongst   the results you get some of your own photos and a picture of a sticker of a yellow Croc  :-)

Final Figures

Spent in total   £94.99       Original Prices  £164.85      Saving a total of  £69.86

So it's not been the cheapest of Challenge weeks, but thinking about it I do have lots of meat in the freezer for future meals, we both have non-food items that will last and last and we have eaten very well all week.  So I will forgive myself for spending almost a hundred pounds over the course of seven days!!

And now I'm taking a couple of days off and then it's straight on to the next Challenge .....

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Yellow Sticker Challenge - Day Seven

I hadn't meant to go shopping again for Yellow Stickers ... I thought we had enough food in and so for the final day I was just going to waffle about the Challenge ... but Alan needed some milk and I was in Llandudno again, so  it would have been rude not to wander past the reduced to clear cabinet.

I struck gold - yet again!!

There was nobody else at the reduced shelves rummaging so at first I thought it might be pretty empty, but no, the reductions were only first reductions but there were some quality items to be had ... so I had them  :-)

A couple of packs of breaded plaice, one of which we had for our tea last night with oven chips and veg, some posh looking Wagyu burgers and some Aberdeen Angus Beef Meatballs, along with some ready roasted chicken and some Pesto and Mozzarella Chicken Breast Fillets all for Alan.  He will be eating well long after this Challenge is over.

Then calling to the bakery section for a packet of buns I spied the little 'Lovebugs' cakes on the bread and cake reduction shelves ... well it was Valentines day, so I had to ... didn't I ?

Walking back through the fruit and vegetable section I saw there were lots of reduced packs of various fruits and vegetables, but we didn't really need anything that was there so I was about to go and pay for my other goodies when I spied these Clementines.

A 98p saving was not to be sniffed at when I knew we had only two little lonely and drying up tangerines left in the fridge.

Finally I remembered the stationery shelves had had lots of reductions on my last visit so I had a wander over there and I found this ...

... a plastic briefcase style wallet with notebooks and all sorts of bits and bobs that would come in useful when doing officey type things at the caravan.

Not a bad buy for just £5,and the wallet itself will be great for keeping all the caravan paperwork and bills in.

So again visiting Asda I managed to get some foody and non-foody goodies at yellow sticker prices.  And it shows it's good to keep your eyes open when you are out shopping as you never know what you are going to come across.

Back tomorrow with the final figures and some Challenge waffle ... I know you like me waffling on  ;-)

Figures

Spent in Asda  £20.51   Original Price  £32.78    Saving me £12.27

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Yellow Sticker Challenge - Day Six

We took the dogs for a long walk on West Shore in Llandudno the other night and had to call at Tesco on the way home for some petrol for my car.  Well ... it would have been rude not to pop in and see what yellow stickers goodies were waiting for us ... wouldn't it  ;-)

Alan rummaged in the cheese tray.  Bits and bobs of cheese from the Deli counter are weighed out,  wrapped and put into a big tray on the reduced shelves every day.  He snaffled himself a little wedge of Wensleydale for 94p, only a 31p saving, but it all adds up.  Pity it's a white sticker rather than yellow ... but hey ho !

He also chose a pot of this puree type thing.  

It's almost a hummus texture, but the flavour was not to my liking at all too lemony/vinegary.  I don't like tangy foods.  He's made good use of it though having dollops on lots of his meals since buying the pot.

Something I did like were these cinnamon and raisin bagels.  These have kept us in tasty breakfasts for a couple of days, and were a bargain at just 65p.  With my homemade orange marmalade they are delicious.

Something else we both enjoyed was this baguette for just 49p.  We didn't notice at first that it was a Salt and Black Pepper baguette and was very peppery.

But it went wonderfully with the Mixed Vegetable Masala I showed yesterday and saved me from having to cook any rice.  Yes ... I tore it up instead of slicing it neatly, I'm a messy sod  ;-)

So for a last minute dash in and grab some bargains type of shop we did pretty well.  It wasn't a big saving, but it was money off, and the things we managed to get complimented other things we had already purchased and everything was very tasty - so a good result!!

Figures

Spent in Tesco  £2.78    Original Price  £4.30    Saving me £1.52

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Yellow Sticker Challenge - Day Five

Another day, another yellow sticker haul ... once again from good old Marks and Spencer ... but a different branch this time.  I usually shop in the Llandudno store so it was nice to go somewhere different and have a mooch around the aisles.  And also this time a nice balanced little haul with something for both of us.

I like that in M&S they leave the YS reduced foods on their original shelves and you have to peruse the aisles until your eyes alight on the yellow label you're looking for.  There's rarely a bunch of folk chunnering around and you can read the labels, weigh up the pros and cons and decided in your own good time whether this is something that you want to spend your money on.

Well that's how it was in the Prestatyn Marks and Spencer yesterday  😃

For myself I got a Mixed Vegetable Masala reduced from £4 to £3.35 ...

... and for Alan a Piri Piri Chicken dish, this was reduced from £4 to just £2.60.  

I also got him some more packs of roast chicken, this time just two packs at £1.50 each reduced from £3.

I bought these to try. 

I haven't tried any of the new Marks and Spencer 'Plant Kitchen' vegan range yet, so I thought a sausage butty might be a good start.  I've hear some good reports from the range and I did have one of their vegan Christmas style sandwiches one day when I was out and about in December which was very tasty.

So I've not bought masses of shopping up to now on this YS Challenge, but after clearing out the fridge and freezer last month everywhere seems to be filling up again very quickly with all these yellow sticker bargains.  I know myself very well and soon I know  I'll be suffering a backlash from all this shopping and being out and about at the shops, and I'll be wanting to get rid of stuff and stop shopping for a few weeks.  

Oh well I guess that will save me even more money!!

Figures

Spent in M&S  £11.05    Original Price  £17.00    Saving me £5.95

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Yellow Sticker Challenge - Day Four

I struck gold ... or yellow I should say ... in Sainsbury's for Alan the yesterday.  I usually do well for meat products at the large Sainsbury's in Rhuddlan, near Rhyl and yesterday was no exception.

They were probably only first reductions and to me still seemed expensive when compared to the vegetables and grains you could get for the same sort of money, meat is dear and in my opinion with good reason, so if you eat it you should be prepared to pay the prices, but a nice yellow sticker reduction always softens the blow a bit.

Alan was tempted to eat the super large steak, along with half the tub of mushrooms (something else I don't eat) for his tea last night and he really enjoyed it.

I got stuck into something I already had that you might have seen at the end of the last Challenge when I went out to re-stock the freezer.

It had a yellow sticker so fell  nicely into the guidelines for this week.

Two nice salmon buns and a cup of coffee, filling and tasty.

Figures

Spent in Sainsburys's  £27.24    Original Price  £39.78     Saving me £12.54

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Yellow Sticker Challenge - Day Three

Another day, another shop, this time Asda.  

I needed to go into Llandudno on an errand so on the way in I called to the large Asda there.  The only reductions in the fresh food chiller were not the sort of food we eat at all ... not even for a bargain price.  So I had all but given up hope of any YS purchases that visit when I spotted the ambient trolley at the back of the store.  

There wasn't much on it really and a few people were glancing over and then walking away.  But I decided to pick up the zip seal bags, these always come in handy eventually and I also picked up the box of Porridge Sachets.  Not something we usually use as we buy our porridge at the value/basic range in large bags.  But I thought for half price it would be good to try these single serve sachets ... just to see what we have been missing.  I don't know why these were on the shelf and reduced to half price as they have months left on the date and there's nothing wrong with the packaging.  

Not that I'm complaining of course  :-)

Then as I walked up the aisle to go and pay for my two bargains I spied a trolley full of loaves of reduced price bread, so I nabbed a loaf to pop into the freezer ready for when we've used up my first YS bargain from the other day.

And then on the way out I spied a display of reduced to half price menswear ... and I returned to the checkout with a much needed hat and scarf set for Alan.

YS toast for breakfast this morning.

And two little faces in the doorway watching me photographing the food  :-)

Figures

Spent in Asda  £9.96    Original Price  £19.55     Saving me  £9.59

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