It's not just a weekly shop it's an M&S weekly shop

Now I don't know about you, but I tend to nip to Sainsbury's every day of the week.  It's the only problem with having a "superstore" a few minutes from home.  Whether we need a pint of milk, or a whole weeks shopping, off we go.  Generally even if we head down there for the one pint or loaf of bread, we leave having spent £30 and have three bags of shopping, for just in case.

We have been spending in excess of £150 per week on groceries and I would hazard a guess that approximately £20 of that has been thrown away.  I try not to be too wasteful but with grown up children and having a hectic life means that things end up beyond their sell by / use by dates and we have to just clear out the fridge to get the new load of shopping in.

So last Sunday we decided to go out for a spin in the new car, I didn't want to go out for food, but fancied something "tasty"  I suggested to hubby that we nip into our local M&S Food Hall.  It is a stand alone store and is next door to a huge retail park, now the first thing I hadn't considered on Sunday was the amount of cars trying to get onto the retail park.  Dear god does the world and his wife do DIY on Sunday's??  So we persevered and managed to get into the car park of M&S.  We had a nice saunter around and picked some yummy food for the next few days.  I was suitably impressed by some of the offers that they had on and we managed to take full advantage of them.  At the checkout i expected a large bill, after all my usual top up shop at Sainsbury's is normally in the region of £70, so was astounded to discover I had in fact spent only £54!!  This would probably have been the cost of one nice meal out but had managed to get enough food for six meals.

We went home and cooked the first M&S meal and it was delicious, we ate it all and felt it had been money well spent.  So as they week has gone by one by one I have cooked each of the meals purchased.  Nothing has been thrown away, every meal has been thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.  So this week instead of spending an astronomical £150 on my week nipping into Sainsbury's all I have spent it £54 .....  in one M&S visit.

Do I intend to do it again??  Of course ... there is this notion that you can only afford to shop there if you are "well off", i think that's rubbish with sensible budgeting and buying only what we have needed and intend to cook we have managed to save ourselves over £90 this week.

So get down to M&S .... I plan on "spoiling" myself with their lovely food later tonight :0)