Buy it whilst it's cheap.

Hello everyone,

I didn't blog yesterday, due to being blinded and struck down by another migraine and the co-codemol I take when I get one. I was in so much pain, that I took another dose four hours later, which knocked me out and left me uneasy on my feet. When I get ill like this, it worries Dearly Beloved as I often lose my balance and fall over, and after falling down the stairs and genuinely not knowing where I was, he plays nurse maid for the time it takes to pass. It's a good job I'm good at saving money as I get paid if I'm ill, but he's taken an unpaid day's leave to look after me. Including propping me up in a darkened room with a laptop so I can update my blog.

Some of the responses yesterday got me thinking. Food prices are increasing all the time and if you see anything durable and cheap, now is the time to buy it and put away what you can afford. I do a big supermarket shop once a month or even less, where I buy their own brands that just can't be found in Lidl or Aldi. Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury's, all have their bargain brands and we like them just as much as premium brands and the prices are ridiculously low. Here are some of the very low cost products that I buy and find more than satisfactory.

17p for half a litre, we wash our own hair and the dog's hair with this.

23p -

25p



22p - I couldn't buy one lemon for that -  use the zest and juice  in the sponge cake, layer with lemon curd, dust with icing sugar and it makes a 'posh' Sunday tea time cake for guests and costs pennies 




59p



75p for a kilo - use in flapjacks, for breakfast, crumbles and to feed the birdies

15p, use in veggie burgers, for savoury crumbles, to make meat dishes go further and with your sunday roast

£1 a pack, price goes up and down, but usually £3.50 a kilo, and we get the pack for about £1

28p for half a kilo

20p for half a kilo

I try to use the supermarkets as little as possible and if everyone only bought their bargain basement lost leaders, then they wouldn't be able to supply products at such low prices. If you want to find the cheapest goods, then look on the bottom shelves. They will often have only small amounts of the lowest price products, so when you see them, buy them! I also use http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/ to check prices, you don't have to sign up, just go to 'Browse around'.

I added to this afterwards - I am not advertising one supermarket over another and prefer the simplicity of Lidl and Aldi - here are there massive bargains this week, if there are any left.

7 slices of back bacon, usually 99p and reduced to 69p

cod steaks in butter sauce, usually 2.49 and 1.89 this week. I bought both the bacon and the cod.