to think its a disgrace that marks n spencers do not accept healthy start vouchers?

[superv1xen]

i think its disgusting.

as if they are saying, we are marks and spencers and are posh, therefore don't want you single parents shopping here with your "poor people's vouchers", piss off to asda, you are lowering the tone.

the look on the cashier's face when i tried to use my vouchers in there, snobby bitch.

aibu?

yes, exactly letthereberock
Maybe the OP has to spend money on a bus to asda but M&S is walking distance
Or maybe M&S's grapes are 2 for £4 but £2.99 in asda
or maybe she spends them on the bruised fruit in M&S for a hefty discount
worthy enough yet?

and some of us really don't begrudge people with HS vouchers buying an M & S mango when they could have bought ten smartprice lettuces instead.

I also find it really hard to beleive that you can be so hard up (yet not on any benefits whatsoever) that you can't afford £3.10, on a one of occaision, if you were tired and needed fruit for the kids but were near a slightly more expensive supermarket.

It's not even £3.10, is it, it is whatever proportion would be saved by shopping at asda instead. 50p? You really are so skint, because of subsidising all these scroungers giving fruit to their kids, that you wouldn't be able to afford 50p, once in a blue moon, to save you having to travel to an out of town supermarket?

nope get your point...you don't pay your taxes for the op to eat superior fruit while you eat smart price bananas

[urgh] at eating ten lettuces in a week
Butterpie, but the important thing - is your fruit ready sliced?

Actually, I'm not sure M&S is necessarily worse value.

At one point recently, the only local stores were a Co-op and an M&S Food. Or I could go into the centre, where there's a Sainsbury's. Due to my perceptions of price, I went for the Co-op or Sainsbury's. Gradually, I began to notice Co-op veg could be a bit grotty. It all came to a head the day after mil bought some grapes. We opened them next day and they were mouldy.

Then I investigated the M&S Food. I discovered that they do special offers sometimes. For instance, I bought a couple of weeks supply of green beans for £2. At the time, I'd have paid near on £1.50 for a third of the amount of beans in Sainsbury's or Tesco. And M&S stuff is pretty fresh, so it all kept well.

M&S can be especially economical if you visit just before closing time.

You can't let people on benefits have a mango. It's a slippery slope.

Let them have a mango and the next week they'll be buying papayas and passion fruit. Soon even those won't be exotic enough for them. They'll be demanding rambutans and dragon fruit, perhaps even organic!

This thread is making me crave fruit and I don't even like fruit all that much.

Maybe those who are 'paying' through taxes for benefit claimants should learn to budget better so they too can shop in m and s then!??

Good god, next they'll be giving proles the VOTE!!!

lol
as long as it's not pre sliced I can rest easy in my bed

at the thought of all that voting
isn't it only landowners in badly fitting waistcoats that can do that sort of thing?

Butterpie, it's not that I'm that hard-up that I can't afford a one-off £3.10. It's that I cannot justify spending money on premium priced food. Sure, I could think "fuck the budget, M&S/Waitrose is closer" but then I'd be worse off in other areas that I really can't afford to be. Surely most of us have to budget and if that means saving an extra £20 per month by shopping thoughtfully then that's £20 saved.

Would the OP be shopping in M&S if it was money out of her own purse?

Life really is too short to skin, chop, er, de-seed and anoint a mango with lemon juice, whether on benefits or not.

I've been a lone parent and buying small portions can be very economical. I don't eat much at all and would buy one slice of good deli meat three times a week for my dd when she was a toddler rather than a huge packet of turkey twizzlers or whatever and it was affordable.

what if M&S saved on a bus fare?
And assuming the OP would usually spend £3 on fruit and veg anyway then the 'own purse' arguments dont really stand up

It's £3.10 weekly too for under fives, double that for babies under a year ( I think)

No I agree that M&S can't be expected to accept them, surely it's up to the retailer. I don't think they shouldn't accept them on principle though

To be honest, it was the sense of entitlement in the OP that rankled with me.

IT IS MONEY FROM HER OWN PURSE.

She was given the vouchers to spend on fruit and veg of her choice, just like you are given your wages (I presume you work for an entirely private company) to spend how you like. You might choose to go to asda, you might choose to get less veg and go to M+S, it is entirely your own business. The benefits system has probed every aspect of the OPs finances and has decided she is in need of help, it hasn't decided she is in need of somebody standing at her side telling her exactly what she should and shouldn't be doing.

They can spend them in Harrods for all I care

I often find shopping at Waitrose cheaper because I save £££ in petrol, and I'm not tempted by the shiny trinkets and cushions Sainsbos sell.

It is a shame local shops don't take the vouchers. And surely milk costs the same everywhere. It's a loss-leader, innit?

I think you are being unreasonable in expecting m&s to accept the vouchers. They are not a supermarket, they are a department store with a food hall.

It is more likely that the shop assistant didn't know what they were and probably didn't deal with it very well.

I had never heard of them either to be honest.

You would get much better value for money at a regular supermarket.

Or would you prefer that people on benefits get their food from the job centre, with big "POV FOOD" signs all over it?

Anyway , the vouchers aren't for the op, they are for her dc.......