too good to go food waste app - anyone else use it?

[TheGenealogist]

Huge fan of this app - friend told me about it over lockdown and after I'd had my first "magic bag" I was hooked! The basic idea is that you pay for a lucky bag of food from a local retailer which would otherwise have gone in the bin. Picked up a bag from a M&S petrol station shop last night, cost me £4, got two large packs of salmon, two panini wraps, two packs of sandwiches, a side salad, a bag of mixed veg, and a pack of melon. Greggs also do bags which the kids enjoy - most of the bags we've had from there have a couple of the bakes, sausage rolls, cakes, pastries.

Yes it's all short-dated, yellow sticker stuff but lots can be frozen. Or eaten the next day. Definitely worth looking at if you're flexible about what you eat. Lots of restaurants do it too, although pick up times can be much later in the evening.

Any other fans???

@Bythemillpond I can't see a way to filter it to vegan/veggie, but someone else may know if it has an advanced setting I can't see.

I agree with PP that they can be a bit carb heavy. Better results we've had have been selecting by 'groceries' which gives a more balanced bag. Bit hit and miss, but we've generally had really good value. Have passed stuff onto the neighbours sometimes, and frozen stuff. Never actually binned anything.

@Bythemillpond

Can’t download the app atm as forgot my password so can’t check but do they do vegan or vegetarian bags or is it just a mixed bag of everything

No you just have to filter it yourself according to what you can eat - so if you order a Gregg's bag it might be vegan sausage rolls and doughnuts which are veggie, or it might be a steak bake. There is a taco place by me which offers a veggie bag or a regular bag so it probably depends on the retailer.

They will never guarantee what you're going to get as it all depends on what they are left with.

I’ve had the app for ages since a co-worker told me about it. Never had a bag yet. Think it works best in a city or town. Rurally there’s not much on offer ever.

We only get greggs within walking distance here, but have had it 3 times and it's gone down well!

I've got the app but not yet used it. Daft question - how does it work? Do you just go up to someone and say you've ordered a magic bag?! Or do you receive an email with instructions?

The app will give you the time window to pick it up. You just walk in and tell the staff member that you're there to pick up a Magic Bag, show them the app and there's a code they might take, "swipe to collect" at the bottom of the page and that's it.

Really easy. You will receive an email with your receipt afterwards.

@Kittybelle123 you pay for it, and get a code through the app. Then swipe it when you collect it. It's all pretty organised.

cross post @TheGenealogist

Yes you pay on the app when you reserve. Credit card or PayPal. I think you can cancel up to about 2 hours before the collection time without paying.

One thing I did realise is that if it says collection 21:00 to 22:00 you cannot go at 20:58 as the "swipe to collect" only appears exactly at the time stated. So you might have to hang around until the clock ticks round to 9pm.

That's brilliant, thank you so much for your explanations @TheGenealogist & @SpongeBobJudgeyPants! Off to check what's on offer around here now! 🤞🏻

Yes I love it, I love the mystery of never knowing quite what you'll get.
I once set myself a challenge of living exclusively off magic bags for a week. I actually had to stop buying bags after 3 days as I had too much food.
Morrison's bags are usually amazing but you have to be on the ball to get them.

@TheGenealogist yes I've been caught by that one before. Gone in the queue with a minute to go, and then have to wait for it to go to zero! I don't get in the queue now. It's amazing how long 30 seconds is when you're standing there like a muppet

I do it occasionally. I can get a bit carried away and forget I'm not actually saving food if it rots in my home instead of the petrol station but depends on the packer - its a shame but we can't eat 2 packs of nearly stale donuts at 22:00, for example.

Its a nice surprise occasionally. The few bags I've got have been generally okay, but can be really hit or miss. Can either get loads and it feels like super value or the bare minimum (as the was price is based on full price).

Maybe because we only have the petrol stations, with the greggs etc., but they're not a late night dinner option, more snack or next days lunch.

High competition in my area for the morrisons so must be really good...I've never got one.

The bags at my nearest Morrison's sold out yesterday at 18.03, will be hovering over the app like a demon tonight at 6.

I haven’t used it yet. I’m out and about tomorrow so I might take a look to see if there anything going. Sadly as a veggie there isn’t always the option!

I have a friend who is obsessed with free or cheap stuff.
I think she spends most of the hours she isn’t working chasing around after these.

I'm in France and use it quote a lot. We have garden centres doing plant bags. Last week I picked up 70€ worth of plants for 12€.

Smaller businesses seem to avoid it as the terms and conditions aren't great for them from what I gather (they only get the money a month or so later for example).

Have seen drinks bags from pubs (although not in Scotland thanks to Ms Sturgeon) but not plant bags.

Round here the Morrisons ones for the next day are available at 6:15pm. What you get seems to depend on the staff member making them up - there are guidelines from the store they're meant to follow with the value etc but sometimes it's a little hit and miss. Usually 95% veg, salad, fruit, sometimes some bread products. Now and then I've had bags where the stuff isn't short dated at all - salad and grapes and strawberries with several days before sell by date, like they've just picked up random bits off shelves!

There's some independent bakeries round here that do amazing bags. £3 and you get several loaves of sourdough, some focaccia sandwiches, pastries, huge amount of food. Some other places are a bit meh - tried cake from a burger places once and it was cheap defrosted tray bake kind of stuff. And Costa here got a bag with three identical cheese and tomato toastie sandwiches, not very inspiring!

In one of the just before lockdown gaps I had a bag of ingredients from a pub that turned out to be a giant catering size bag of peeled potatoes, prepped carrot batons and all sorts, that was random! A brewery locally does takeaway pints on the app as well.

What did you do with a catering sized bag of peeled potatoes, @givemushypeasachance???

@TheGenealogist

What did you do with a catering sized bag of peeled potatoes, *@givemushypeasachance*???

An excellent question that I asked myself when I got it home! Ha. I cooked up a big pan full and mashed it, then froze that in individual portions. Cooked a few more I could use that day. I gave the rest away via the Olio food waste app, someone happily took them!

We have a meal that we call Too good to go roulette. It's basically whatever is in that nights bag . Usually there's enough veg in it. We've had some weird combinations though. Last time we had quiche, pasta salad and broccoli rice with strawberry cake for dessert.

Tonight we're having the salmon i picked up last night with the salad and veg, potatoes we had in the house already.

I had the cheese and onion sandwich for lunch, toasted in the toasty maker, DS did the same with the plain cheese one. DH had both the meatball wraps which were "ok but wouldn't be worth buying full price". I'm a fairly OK cook so there's not much which I wouldn't eat or know what to do with.

I find a lot of the bags from M&S have those wee tubs of berries, melon, pineapple. Probably because they are so ridiculously overpriced to start with.