Yellowsticker bargains for September

I spent September doing a walking challenge - 300,000 steps in the month to raise money for Tommy's and the Miscarriage Association.

One of the benefits of all this walking was finding quite a few yellowstick bargains in my local Co-Op and the much closer but smaller One Stop.

In total my shop should have come to exactly £30, but thanks to the reductions I paid £16.26, so nearly half price.

Of course, some bargains were better than others. I was particularly pleased with the steaks, which were reduced from £4 each to £2, as I had steak on my meal plan for the following week. So I simply put them in the freezer and defrosted them when the right day came around.

The minced beef was also a nice find as I had some more reduced beef, from a shop in August, already in the freezer. I defrosted that and combined the two with some kidney beans and tinned tomatoes from the food cupboard to make 6 portions of chili that went back in the freezer. They should see us through to the New Year as we don't eat huge amounts of chili but do like it with rice or a baked potato for a nice winter warmer.

The fudge was eaten by me in the evenings, and the mug cakes still had a long best before date (I assume they were reduced because they were being rebranded, or the shelf space was needed for something else) so they've been put in the cupboard for when I want a different pudding after dinner.

I was also really pleased with the pork belly slices as we really like a BBC Good Food recipe that cooks them in a smokey barbeque sauce. They go really nicely with homemade potato wedges and are becoming a meal plan regular, so they can sit in the freezer until later this month.

Lastly the garlic bread and the ready meal were eaten quite quickly as they could easily be slotted in to my meal plan. We have something pasta-based most weeks so the garlic bread was perfect with that, and my husband had the ready meal on a Thursday when I often get random bits out of the freezer for us to eat.

While I won't be doing quite as many steps in October, now that I know the good times for lots of reductions I can aim to get there throughout the month. But first we need to make some space in the freezer, it's overflowing a bit at the moment!