Hello there ..
bit of a mundane sort of day ... rubbish weather .. rain and wind ...
just a kind of 'sorting out' .. cleaning ... catching up with laundry ... sorta day.
Its got to be done but I felt I hadn't done very much ... not much Thriftiness going on.
So ....
Cupboards are looking a bit bare ... and that worries me ... I like to have reasonable stocks in ... should we be snowed in we need a good store cupboard.
So I had a little click on Approved Food ...
I often browse their aisles ... have a look what has come in.
You can click on 'Latest Products' ... its all very easy.
I use to get a bit carried away with all the bargains ..
and end up with lots of unusual pickles and such ...
stuff that took ages to eat up ...
or 'far too much' chocolate-y stuff ... can you have 'far too much'?
Anyway ... now I am more disciplined .. and I ask myself ...
'would I buy that from Tesco ...
will I use it ..
is it something I cook with on a daily/weekly basis'.
Well tonight I found this ...
Granary Malted Wholegrain Hovis Flour.... £2.99 for 10kg.
Yes! .... I know ..
I've been buying this from Tesco at £1.55 a Kg ... just to add sparingly to my cheapo flour to give a bit of nutty .. tasty flavour.
So to me it was worth putting in an order with AF ... I made sure I used all the weight allowance (I think it works out at £5 odd for delivery .. to the door).
But I only ordered goods I will use .. salt and pepper .. stuffing mix .. stock cubes ... brown sauce ... you know .. the kind of thing that will happily sit in the store cupboard.
The flour is ideal for those of you who make your own bread ... we're off yeasty bread for the moment .. but I do make Hubby P a bit of soda bread .. and I shall try it in all kinds of baking ... I should think it will make interesting rustic cheese scones.
And they had these ... tins of Mushy Peas .. BIG tins of mushy peas!
Catering sized tins .. that's 2500gms ... just a few peas then.
I thought I could always freeze in portion sizes once I opened the tin .. or make a big pot of pea soup.
Hubby P likes a few mushy peas .... wont we be the 'healthy ones' ...
peas soup and rustic bread!
So ... ideas for gallons of mushy peas .. and rustic flour ?
How do you find Approved Food ... any tips welcome.
xx
I've read a lot about AF but never really sat down to a proper look. I might give it a go this weekend !
ReplyDeleteJust dont get carried away!
ReplyDeletex
mushy peas are something you never see on the shelves here accept at a specialty store down the street, its called Just British and withall the folk that moved to our area from England it is one very busy store, it has everything the Brits here are missing from home and the bonus is for us to have all the goodies as well.Its a great store!!!I love Dolly Mixtures, pasties, Flake bars, rock candy, turkish delight, do you see a candy related theme, ha ha, my sweet tooth!!
ReplyDeleteI wonder why you dont have mushy peas... life would be very sad without mushy peas ..x
DeleteI have had 3 orders from AF, I stock up well when they have things that I will use. I had a big buy up on oaty crumble mix, straight in the freezer. I only buy things that I would buy in any shop if they were the right price. We had some of their spicy couscous tonight, it cost all of 5p and was lovely and spicy.
ReplyDeleteOh yes .. the couscous .. we had a mountain of that at one time .. I think I have just one packet left. I had it for lunches with salad all through the summer when we were working the carboots. x
Deletemmmm mushy peas (love em!) AND granary flour. I hope you didn't buy any prunes too !
ReplyDeleteTake care
Gillx
Oh but I love prunes too .. I blame school dinners in the 70's ... AF's didnt have any .. I think it may have been a step too far!
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Wish they did a large white flour , i love nutty texture bread too but dave only likes white and as two loaves dont keep well we tend to just bake white x
ReplyDeleteKeep your eye on them .. they may well get some in .. they have plain white at the moment (not strong bread flour). Its all good ... makes yummy stuff.
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I've looked a few times on Approved Foods, but haven't ordered anything yet. It's all or nothing with me, either a huge shop or no shop! So I keep putting it off.I love the sound of the pea soup and bargain flour. In an effort never to waste anything I rely on the freezer too, either for homebakes or after visits to late night markdown at the supermarket!
ReplyDeleteThey had huge tins of carrots too .. ideal for soups and stews ... I could have gone mad .. but as always I have to watch the pennies.
Deletex
I shop with them regularly, in fact I have a link on my Blog so I can get straight there. But like you say it's so easy to order way too much chocolate, this last couple of times I've been good and just stocked up on what I've needed.
ReplyDeleteThat flour is a brilliant buy, I would be very tempted if I didn't already have lots in the cupboard.
You can stock up when you get moved and settled .. their delivery service is great .. so reliable.
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I've been to their site a couple of times, but not bought anything yet. The flour is a really good buy - I might be tempted if I hadn't already laid in a goodly supply of bread flours when Morrisons had a 3 for 2 on their baking goods. I will keep an eye open on their future offers, methinks.
ReplyDeleteIts worth a quick browse now and then. x
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am a lot more choosy about what I order from AF these days but sometimes the bargains are just too good to resist. This week I've got 20 boxes each containing 20pkts of 2 of crunchy cereal bars at £1.99 a box (normal price £11.99). That's an awful lot but DH and DD3 will both take them to work and I will sometimes have one with a banana for breakfast instead of cereal, so they will all get eaten. To make up the parcel weight I ordered 2 of those catering sized tins of carrots at 99p each ( I already had mushy peas stored under the bed) and a couple of other bits. Other recent buys have been 750g packs of easy cook rice at 2 for £1.50, and vege sausage mix at 4 for £1. Sure, my bedroom looks more like a mini mart than a bedroom, but I've saved so much and it is now all stuff we'll use like pasta, rice, mayonnaise, sauces, cereal, tinned beans and stewing steak etc. I also have enough toothpaste, wet wipes and anti perspirant to last about 6 months all at prices well below supermarket rates. Most of it is stuff that won't go off any time soon even though it might be out of date. I'm so glad I discovered AF especially with the way food prices have risen over the past few years. I wish they'd been around when my kids were young.
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish we had something like AP over here. We don't get really good bargains like you do with AP and your yellow stickers reducing things down to 10% of the original price. The best we get is 50% off out of date bread and bakery products and 30% off meat that is out of date and starting to take on a grey look-yuck!!
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