food bargains

london 8.14p 3C dry wednesday 2019

i have just got back from the tesco, to search for bargains. it is a mild night, even though the thermometer says 3C, but it was windless, so not cold at all. of course you still have to wear sensible clothes.

when i went to the tesco i did not think there will be many bargains, and went hoping to buy some veg. i even took out my frozen pork, to thaw, before i went to the tesco. thinking to cook it with the veg i hope to buy from tesco tonight. i returned it to the freezer when i got back as it would be redundant. 

but tonight i got lucky, they reduced the mincedbeef to 62p, 500mg. and two were 5% fat , the other two were 15% fat. normally they sell for £3.75, and £4.65 respectively. so by rights if they are reduced by a quarter, it would be about 90p, £1.15, respectively, which are prices i would not buy so much of. so it was lucky that they went down to as low as 62p. so i bought 4.

two i froze, one i shall cook and the other one i told simon he can have to cook however he likes. so he is now happily in the kitchen cooking his. haha.

its been some time since i got such bargain meats. and i got some veg reduced too, mushrooms and celery and lettuce about 20p each. it is pot luck really as to whether they have any bargains to reduce or whether  u arrive at the right time and whether there are others hanging around looking for these bargains. but i might go more often on wednesdays.

it does make me enjoy my life a lot. these are simple pleasures really, to get things at a bargain price. it appeals to my  thrifty nature. and there is also the pleasure of deciding how to cook it, so many different ways to cook the meat, and all very nice to eat.

simon gets his kicks from watching snooker too. there is a live program of the snooker contest on now on the tv, but he is busy in the kitchen cooking, so is missing it. ha. i find it very boring really. but well, he likes it so he can use the tv to see it.

i am not sure if there are other tv programs tonight i want to watch, but i am not that obsessed with watching them. i circled only one program, at about 9pm, about pensions, some crisis or other… not that it affects me, haha.

earlier, i went to take my circuit class, the classes are getting busier, 7 of us there today. one of us have his wife attending the ladies class that was before us, and they are really busy, with so many ladies doing it. he said they have been married for ages. 50yrs and got two daughters in their late 40s, but only one granddaughter. he got married at 20, and so did she. but his daughters are not interested in having children, which is unusual, because when people marry so young, they tend to like having children, dont they and have huge families. he says he has 8 siblings, not all survive.

simon is making spaghetti bolognese with his mince beef, and i am having some of it now. quite nice to have, esp since i am quite hungry. 

 

 

shoulder pork special, £2/kg at morrisons

london 1.17pm 13C cloudy/sunny spells tuesday 2019

i was in the library reading the papers, and came across an advert by morrisons, featuring a pulled pork burger, and saying it is £2/kg for the shoulder pork. and it expires today. this is such a good offer, that i left the library and took the bus to the morrisons in camberwell, south london. actually i tried not to get my hopes up too high, because i have been had before, when i went there on the strength of an advert to find there was no such offer on sale. but this time i found they have this offer and what is more, rather too much of it. haha. the packs were all over 4kg , the cheapest costing £8.16 , the other packs ranging £9, to £10. they were huge joints, but i figured that ordinarily, at £3/kg, it would set me back £12 if i buy this £8.16 joint, quite a big saving of about £4. so i bought it and broke it up into 4 pieces, 3 i put into the freezer, and am cooking the 4th one as a soya sauce pork. i had thought of roasting it, but it does use up a lot of electricity and takes a longer time than just making a soya sauce boiled dish. so it is a good bargain this.

but i was thinking it is not advertised widely. i wonder why that is. i only know of it because of just this one advert in one of the national newspapers. and even so, the picture that accompany it is of a pulled pork burger, as if that was what they are selling, and not the whole joint. i forgot which newspaper, but it was the only advert about it in today’s papers.  it was not a tabloid newspaper , and nothing in today’s metro free newspaper either. and when i went to the morrisons website, there was no mention of it, the cheapest shoulder pork they have is £4.20/kg.

now this is the kind of information i would love to have, they are all saying we get too much adverts forced on us, but why they dont force this kind of advert on me is what i want to know. instead i get adverts advertising offers that are not reduced very much, sometimes by only 20p. and they would feature them in their adverts in the papers which would cost them a lot just to put up the adverts in those papers. why they want to spend so much money advertising very low reductions in prices … at first i was puzzled, until i realise that of course they want people to buy them, as the profit margin is so much higher and they can recoup the cost of the adverts easily. i think they are beginning to realise that loss leaders, where very low cost items are offered for sale in the hope that they will entice shoppers there and then they will do their other shopping and buy full priced items is not so reliable now.

i mean take just today for eg, i went there enticed by the low priced pork, and i only bought that. and there must be lots of shoppers like me, i guess , if the ploy did not work for them. here, i am wishing not everyone is like me. haha. 

boxing day sales

london 8.43pm 6C night dry wednesday 2018

it was very quiet at the asda supermarket when i went there at about 1pm. they were selling whole turkey for £5. reduced from £20. it was huge, the turkeys. i did not buy any, as even at £5,  i consider it expensive. especially when they are so huge.

i prefer if it were smaller and £1. but i think their smaller birds will be more easily sold and so there wont be many left over to be reduced . even smaller they will weight at least 3kg. quite a lot of meat to eat.

later, i saw in the tv news that the crowd seem to have gone to the oxford st sales. it seems huge crowds there queueing before the shops open even.

looking at the websites of the various stores , i dont see any big reductions. and usually from a high base to start with. so i dont know why people are queueing up for it. but perhaps they are so stir crazy from being stuck at home all during christmas, they are just desperate to get out and spend.

i am sure the stores will hope they will buy as they have been saying sales are down before christmas. and perhaps  they have deliberately fed the media with  news about how huge discounts they are forced to make for the sales that it will make people think they will get bargains.

i am all for the capitalist model and so i hope people do spend and spend. it will keep businesses afloat and profitable and keep the economy alive and well. 

added. 10.06pm, it seems the west end has been the exception to falling footfall. it seems overseas visitors have made them increased footfall. the low £ is a big factor in enticing overseas bargain hunters.

from what i see, a low £ may be with us for a long time.

added 27.12.18 thursday . an article about the increase in sales on boxing day.

 

presentation , how do u rate it?

london 2.10pm 6.7C sunny sunday 2018

i got back from the library and from the virgin lounge, to find simon going off to the sainsburys looking for reduced prices. he goes to buy meat. he too have found their reductions are great for stocking up on meat. he came back with half priced joint of rump beef, and pork chops, though he is not so fierce as i am, who look for £2/kg . he is happy to go for the cuts that sell normally for £10/kg. it is very nice meat, i grant you, and the chops have v good fat layer with the lean meat. but to me not enough to justify even the reduced price. still to each his own. maybe because i tend to cut mine up into small pieces as i stir fry them, so keeping the meat in chop form is not that important for me. that is the problem if you want it to look nice. you pay more for it.

some people are very influenced by how a thing looks. like when they go out to eat, they want the food presented in a fancy way and would rate the restaurant highly just for that. whereas with me, the taste of the food and a large amount of it, is what will impress me and make me think it is good. 

 

feasting

london 10.19am 10C cloudy saturday 2017

i have noticed veg is very cheap this year… 20p each for brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips,potatoes, cauliflower, brocolli, such a large variety of veg being reduced. we have been pigging it with veg as a result. in fact all the christmas favourites in a roast dinner seem to be included in this cheap deal. even the meat is cheap… or cheapish… with tesco sellling £5/kg beef joints, and leg of lamb for £5.50/kg. salmon even half priced £5/kg. (though the salmon is sold whole, and a whole fish can be very heavy). that is remarkable really when u consider it is christmas period now.

i wonder if there will be any reductions come christmas eve, when it is early closing at 4pm for most supermarkets, it being sunday. we had a feast yesterday, with simon roasting duck. but i am hoping to get bargains tomorrow, when it is the last day of trading before the shops close completely for christmas day. i am looking for reductions in meat. but if i cannot get, then i shall get a chicken, and roast it and that will be our christmas dinner. in fact, i think even if there are other meat bargains, i shall still get a chicken as i fancy roast chicken. 

chicken bargains

london 9.04pm 14.1C drizzling night friday 2017

couldn’t believe my luck … went to the local tesco to see if i can bag any bargains, and saw there were lots of whole chicken, usually selling for £1.99/kg expiring today. its not surprising these did not sell, because they are much more expensive than the promotion chickens that they are selling at 25% off. i suspect with so many other supermarkets selling it at prices lower than these chickens it is  bound to be no one is buying these. so i hung around knowing they will bound to be reduced. they all have reduced stickers saying £2.60, from usual price of about £3.70, which price i know no one will buy especially on their expiring date.

what did surprise me was them being reduced to 55p each. that is the lowest i have seen of whole chickens being sold at the end of the day… i thought those days of £1 chicken are gone, but these are even cheaper. so i bought 3. and he was reducing other meats too, so i bought pork, and mince beef and diced beef, all for about 55p each. really amazing prices. 

Digital StillCamera

and these chickens are big, about 1.7kg. and there was only one other guy there , so no big scrum of buyers fighting for the goodies. it was quite late that he started the reductions. about 8pm… and this area has a poor 196bus connection after 8pm, so that might explain why there were no one around. and maybe on a friday night most people are wanting to party seeing it is the start of the weekend after all.

i shall be able to cook all the different ways of chicken that i like, roasting, and currying it, and blacksoya sauce it… a lot of people may be put off buying so many chickens, as they dont want to be eating chicken for weeks after, but if u cook them in all the different ways and then portion them up and freeze them, u will have loads of variety to enjoy for a month at least.

times like this is when i wish i got a big freezer, than can freeze the whole chicken and have lots of chicken to eat over the following months.

compare this price , 3 chickens for £1.66 to the two chickens i bought at full price, about £6.60 earlier this month. 

 

miscellaneous stuff

london saturday 2015 9.15pm

a blogger wrote that they are going to write down the time when they wrote the post on the post  and i thought it was rather a good idea. i am surprised wordpress dont have an option to add the time to the post.

i was out to the supermarkets for bargain foods at about 8pm, and got back  with 4packs, each pack contains 12 sausages. i got them for 49p per pack, reduced from £2 each. usually there are 8 sausages in a pack, but these are  ‘family size’.

these sausages are only 47% pork, the rest is god knows what. haha. 

 i dont eat sausages much, as i dont think they are healthy, but now and then when these cheap offers comes up it is worth it. they are good for breakfast with eggs and mushrooms and baked beans. and nice as in  bangers and mash. 

 i freeze them and so dont eat them all at one go.

i got bread reduced to 25p each too. i bought 2 loaves. there are always plenty of bread reduced during holiday periods. 

the next day is sunday and none of the supermarkets are open on that day. i dont expect a lot of stuff being reduced tonight. i think people do a lot of shopping on saturday… that is why the supermarkets keep to their usual opening times, and close at 10pm. there were a lot of empty shelves i see tonight, which reinforce my theory that people tend to panic buy before a holiday .

i go near the end of the day as i dont want to buy even at half price. i want a quarter price reduction. haha. but if u do that u must accept the choice is limited. the bargains might be better on monday , easter monday as that is a early closing day and i think there will be very few shoppers then after the easter binge buying. 

i got a email message from the sainsbury for mobile, telling me from 3 May they will increase the tariff for surfing the internet to 5p for 1mb. usuallly the other providers charge 1p per 1mb. so this increase is hefty. all those smartphone users will be hit by this increase.  

it does not affect me as i make only phone calls and send text messages and the tariff for those remain the same, 8p/min for calls, 4p for each text message. 

it makes it less and less attractive to buy a smartphone. and then there is the increased use of electricity as the thing requires charging so often. i shall stick with my chromebook and home wifi, or free public wifi. 

i have a friend who have a smartphone, and when i find him fiddling around with it, unable even to send a email, and typing again and again, erasing his mistakes because he keeps hitting the wrong key in that tiny excuse for a keyboard in the screen… i thought what a waste of time and money really.

his was a huawei, costing him £170 to buy. granted he is not a good example of a person using a smartphone, ( he is so nervous, he asked me to look away because it makes him  nervous…haha)but i have a chance to see how small the keyboard is on that screen, and know i will get real fed up using it. 

i have been entering competitions with a smart phone as a prize , but now i am not sure i want to win one. it seems to be very expensive to run. 

 added. 5.4.15 sunday 10am. a friend who got a iphone5 says the phone can guess what he wants to write. even my cheap nokia has this function. so how come that huawei dont have it? unless of course, my friend did not switch on that function. like i said, he is not a good example of how to use a smartphone.

i heard in a sound podcast that nokia is no more. microsoft will kill it and replace with the microsoft lumia . but it seems nokia the company still exists. just no more nokia phones. these names can be confusing, there are windows phones too. i always equate windows with microsoft, and then i hear microsoft is getting rid of calling their operating system as windows… they haven’t yet decided what to call it, at this time of writing. 10.4.15.

advertising

london

i just now saw a tv ad from sainsburys about their chicken fillet (2chicken breasts actually… what is all that about calling it fillet, what rubbish, fillet is used if it is fish) but anyway it is saying usual price is £4.50 reduced to £3.50. it is 460mg, meaning it really costs £7.61 per kg.

and i was thinking but why buy that when u can get a whole 1.8kg chicken from waitrose (during their half price month promotion, where i bought a whole chicken,@1.65/kg, in fact i bought two, for about £3.10 each).

so u are getting not only the two breasts, but drumsticks and wings and back. i cannot imagine how they can even run this advert and on expensive tv too, and spend all that money advertising this … are people so dumb that they can be fooled by it to think it is a bargain??!!

or is it me, am i missing something here? makes you wonder doesn’t it? makes you wonder if you are not seeing the bargain, and it is you that is the silly one, and everyone else is clever. but you know what, no matter if everyone says it is a bargain, i am going to stick to my guns and say it is not! so there!

oh i just realised why they can advertise it on expensive tv, because it is expensive and if only a fraction of people buy it they would have made their money back.