Shopping is getting to be a full time job for an accountant

1 Tesco Plain Flour 1.5kg

2 Pataks Madras Curry Paste Medium Hot Jar 283g

14 Golden Delicious Apples Class 1 Loose

4 Pot Noodle Chicken & M/Room 94g

1 Red Bull Energy Drink 250ml

2 Tesco Nas Orange Squash 750ml

1 Robinsons Hi-Juice Orange 1 Ltr

4 Tesco Thick All Butter Shortbread Fingers 250g

1 Frozen Cooked & Peeled King Prawns 250g

1 T.Salt & Vinegarcrunchy Sticks 150g

1 Tesco Prawn Crackers 60g

1 Walkers Wotsits Cheese 12pk

3 Tesco Spinach Ricotta Tortellini 250g

1 Ready To Eat Peach Punnet

1 Tesco 12 Mini Savoury Eggs 240g

2 Boklunder Schulte Bratwurst 540g

1 Dove Deodorant Fresh Antiperspirant Deodrant 150ml

1 Raid Fly And Wasp Killer 300ml

1 Tesco Value Cooked Ham 125g

1 Tesco Value Table Salt 1kg

1 Tesco Non Biological Powder 30 Wash/2.4kg

2 Tesco Value Chicken Breast Fillets 1kg

2 Go Tan Nasi Goreng Mealkit 380g

1 Lamb Whole Leg 1.4kg - 2.4kg

1 Go Cat Duck Rabbit & Chicken 950g

2 Tesco Chocolate Chip Chewy & Crisp Cereal Bar 6 Pack

2 Tesco Value Dishwasher Tabs 30's

1 Clean & Fresh Washing Up Liquid 1 Ltr

1 Tesco Floral Liquid Rim Plus 3 Refills

24 Tesco Uht Value Skimmed Milk 1 Litre

5 Felix Fish Variety Pack 6 X 400g

TOTAL
£104.74

Same EXACT shop... using equivalent brands in LIDL.... £77.88

That is a saving of nearly £27.00!!!!!!!! Thats a new pair of shoes!

I have decided that I have to be more frugal with my spending, and am choosing where to buy things rather than just going to Tesco like I always have done.

A year or two ago I never thought about the price of things. The weekly shop come to such & such and that was that. I didn't buy value all the time, nor did I look and compare prices. I just saw what I wanted and put it in the trolley. I am finding with rising costs that this is simply idiotic these days. I was in tesco teaching DS how to work out which olive oil to buy and it struck me that I was actually working out the price per litre and then seeing which one was better value on a basic necessity like olive oil. This was really concerning.

When I was looking at it all, there were several thoughts going through my mind. Firstly was DS needs to be able to do this. He needs to be able to convert £1.25 per litre/kilo into mls/grams. He needs to work out how much per litre a 500ml bottle of oil costing £3.65 is etc.
Secondly, how cunning supermarkets are. For example there are 10 bottles of oil on the shelf. Some are 500mls, some 1 ltr, some 750. They all are labelled by price, but because of the sizing of the bottles, you still cant work out which is cheaper. They have 'tried' to make it easier by underneath putting the price per litre... but it is NOT uniform! Sometimes they put price per half litre or in mls, so for someone who cannot do basic maths, this is a minefield.
It struck me that they need to uniformly put the price per litre, or per ml or whatever and stick to it. But of course they are not going to.

DS and were looking at all these bottles of oil, and we were sat down on the floor in the aisle doing these sums. People were staring at us like we were mad. I said to DS "Which one looks the most expensive" and "Which one looks the cheapest?" He chose the Bertolli light olive oil as the most expensive because the label looks lovely. He chose the plain glass tesco bottle of oil as the cheapest because of the label too and also by the price tag. He was right about the most expensive. But wrong about the cheapest. Right next to the bottle of Tesco olive oil was another bottle which looked exactly the same size. It was dearer by about 25p though. However, when you looked VERY closely this bottle was 1litre of oil, and the glass one next to it was 750mls. The 1litre bottle was PLASTIC. It was exactly the same shape and size as the 750ml one, but was infact the cheapest. Now, just rushing through with screaming kids, Mrs Joe Bloggs would pick up the 750ml no doubt, because 25p is still 25p and would not notice that actually the other WAS cheaper.

I think this is like deception. It amounts to it. They cover the prices with jargon, put different prices, different sizes etc and it baffles one. Cunning. Obviously its their job to be, but I think it terrible. Going to such lengths as that to gain a few pence.

It doesn't stop there... you by loose apples because you see that the packaged ones are dearer. Then you keep doing that and what do you find, the packed apples are now cheaper!! so you go back to packed, then a few weeks later the loose are in again. They swap it to maximise their success and your loss.

Who goes shopping for a pint of milk and comes out with that pint costing £50. Its a time old saying, but I know I do! They swap the shelves, move products practically weekly to get you traipsing through the store in the hope that you will spot a bargain! How much more of this kind of thing that we don't notice? I always used to wonder why you could smell bread as you walked in the shop, but the bakery section was at the far back of the store... Hmmm.

Anyway, I am getting my veg from a local farm shop. I asked the lady there to make me up a box of veg and salad. That way I can go in, get the goods and leave and it cuts down on impulse buying. I find that I never have enough veg to last the week, so I go shopping purely for vegetables 2 or 3 times a week and end up come out with all kinds of other crap.

I am doing my main shopping in Lidl once per week.

I am buying my washing detergent ONLY from ALDI because their Liquid wash is £2 per bottle and it does 30 washes!!! That's Unreal! It washes really well too.

This way I figure I am going to save myself about £50 - £65 a week on my shopping bills.

Needs must when the devil drives.

band land... I am going to have a top up, I think I wrote that already, on Sunday. I have had a good day today... some prawns in a ginger and garlic sauce that I saved and froze from the other week and an apple. Not gonna get very fat on that huh.

Yesterday was a bit of a bad day... not because of over eating, but being sick. I cant remember what I had for breakfast... I think a muesli bar... then I went to the city to buy some stuff for our box day anniversary celebration which is on the 30th (will explain all later). I was really hungry and bought some spinach falafel from waitrose. I ate one and should have stopped. I didn't and ate another only to have to be sick later. Then we went to Lotse and Csilla's for dinner. They made fried chicken and mash and tiramisu. I had some chicken, but had to throw it back up. I managed the potato and also the two helpings of tiramisu. Yum!

Today I have also added a cereal bar to my daily food intake. I have no idea what we are doing for dinner, but I want something nice!