Grocery shopping - how handy is it?

Are you, like me, one of those people who wishes to handle the produce? Ensure that tins aren't dented when you pick them from the shelf?  At the same time, you're armed with a long list and barely a moment to yourself?

Mr Frugal and I have always liked shopping, choosing our produce but now we realise what we've been missing out on.  When I popped into our local Sainsbury's store, I received a till spit to receive £20 when I spend £60 on my first online grocery shop.  As we've been away, I thought it would be an idea to order groceries online instead of trudging grumpily around the supermarket.

I wish to purchase British produce, where possible and Sainsbury's handily shows all those items which are grown and/or reared in Britain.  Even though it was so easy to put things in the virtual trolley, it wasn't racking up as quickly as when I'm trailing up and down those aisles.  Maybe the key is that I wasn't swayed by "special" offers as much, or that lovely packaging as I wander past the chocolate... Sigh!

The cost of delivery, at £6 for a Sunday morning, was a little eye-watering.  However, we did have a voucher and it will save us trotting around the supermarket on our return from holiday.

What a great service!  

Get paid for shopping!

Do you purchase clothes online?  Do you insure your house/contents/car? Do you buy presents online?

If the answer is yes to any of the above, are you a member of a cashback website?  Cashback websites exist to refer shoppers to a wide range of companies and in return they get a referral fee which they then pass on to you, the shopper.  It adds an extra click to your shopping, but so far I've earned £980 in cashback from Top Cashback for purchasing items which I'd have bought anyway.  

For example, I booked a hotel room via Top Cashback for a city break.  I'd already checked which was the cheapest website for my intended hotel, clicked through via Top Cashback to Expedia, booked the hotel, gained £75 in cashback and Nectar points into the bargain!  It takes approximately 11 weeks for this to become payable, but hey, not bad for something I'd have done anyway!

You can choose for your cashback to be paid into your bank account by BACs, Paypal or you can request payment in Amazon vouchers, or such like.  In the past, I've used cashback for a treat which we wouldn't have otherwise had, new cutlery, rail travel to see friends... the possibilities are endless!

As you can tell, I'm really quite evangelical about cashback websites.  We have Avios credit cards too, so we do our shopping by paying with these - more rewards for our shopping!

Cutting down on unnecessary spending

I've just been doing an annual check of our spending and realised that I have two lots of insurance which covers the same thing.  The insurance covers my phone and anything in my handbag... well so does my home contents insurance.  One phone call to the "extra" insurer and I'm now on track to have an extra £120 in my pocket per annum.  Not to be sniffed at and I can put that towards paying extra on our mortgage.  Not loads, but better than nothing.

A recent mailing by my teaching union also suggested that I could save on my every day supermarket shopping.  I have to buy a supermarket gift card and every time I load credit onto it, I will get 3% off.  It's not as much as other supermarket offers through the same provider but we stand to save £60 per year.

That's £180 saved.  I'm feeling quite virtuous!

A freezer full...

... of food to eat.  I work in a school and the little cherubs didn't eat all of the carrots which they received for their break time snack, so I took some of the surplus to make my food go further.  I do feel a tad guilty but as they say, waste not want not!  Delia Smith has a wonderful recipe in her Frugal Food book for Carrot and Leek soup; it really is delicious and extra portions are currently wallowing in our freezer.  I also took the opportunity to make a batch of Spiced Carrot and Lentil soup which was lovely, but Mr Frugal was in charge of putting the "pinch" of chilli flakes in (given to us by a friend) and it now means that our mouths set on fire.  Mental note: do not allow Mr Frugal to go anywhere near this recipe in the future.  However, it was delicious and another couple of batches are in the freezer!  We have enough soup in the freezer to last us a few weeks.  It's also ideal to put into flasks for lunch whilst at work.

Also in the freezer is my own recipe of bolognese sauce.  I suppose it's more of a meat sauce with italian seasoning and bulked out by whatever veg is trying to walk out of the fridge; more carrots naturally, a bit of celery and mushrooms, oh and not forgetting the onions!  Mr Frugal also has an "own brew" of chilli con carne.  I'm sure that purists would die of fright with our recipes, but they're bulked out quite well, are tasty and use up many food items which we'd only throw away.

An update!

I've been so horrendously awful in updating this blog. Many apologies to all those people who hang on my every word.

So, what have I been doing since I last posted last year? Well, meal planning is key to my frugal lifestyle. If I don't know what I'm going to cook, then how on earth can I shop properly? I admit to never having meal planned until I started reading and contributing to MoneySavingExpert.com Old Style. It's thanks to MSE, meal planning etc that Mr Frugal and I are able to overpay our mortgage by £100 per month! Ok, so £100 per month is a mere drop in the ocean of our mortgage but there is no way that we'd have had £100 spare to chip away at our debts. Then again, our only debts are my car and the house.

Our dreams of a vegetable garden have been put on hold for now. We're gradually getting it up to speed, but no where near good enough to have a full blown veg plot! :( Having said that, we do have a number of strawberry plants so we're hoping to at least make our own strawberry jam. There's recently been a jam recipe in the Rosemary Conley magazine which looks easy. Having said that, my mum has introduced me to this recipe for microwave strawberry jam. Really easy, but doesn't necessarily keep for as long.

Until next time... I promise I won't leave it as long!

Green tomatoes... a glut!

Well, our tomatoes have not ripened due to the hideous weather (investment in a green house for next year is required...) and lack of sun so a mad search for a recipe of what to do with green tomatoes was required. Mr Frugal has just taken the first steps of preparation for this: Green Tomato Chutney. I got him a jam/preserving pan from Lakeland, so he's keen to use it out! He made a small batch last year, which was lovely, but added some chilli flakes. Having grown some chillis of our own this year, we're ensuring that they're not wasted!

Courgettes galore! And then more veg...

The sister-in-law has been to visit this weekend and brought with her a bag full of courgettes from her garden. Very generous obviously, but there are so many that you just can't eat them all before they go off! So, I've been doing some research into what I can actually do to ensure that they're not wasted.

Some ideas that I'm trying to choose between:

Prawn & courgette linguine
Ratatouille - ideal for a glut as you can freeze this
Courgette & Tarragon soup - also able to freeze this. I originally found it in a New Covent Garden soup recipe book.

As for the tomatoes in our garden, I'm still waiting for them to ripen. My fingers are crossed that we may well get at least ONE ripe tomato this year.