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???

I have a Caffe Nero one to collect tomorrow. Has anyone had one from there before? What did you get?

No but have had a Costa and I'd imagine they'd be similar - couple of toasties, sandwiches, croissants, cookies too I think. Not drinks. Had a pot of porridge once too.

I tried it once but my bag was cancelled as not enough leftovers were available. Its a good concept I think but not reliable as it depends if there are leftovers on the day.

I have the app and want to try it but there's never anything vegan near me. I might try to see if I can get a Morrisons one as it looks to be mostly fruit and veg and give my sister and/or the dog anything I can't eat.

I have to greggs bags to collect tomorrow afternoon. Hoping there's enough for a picnic for the kids to eat in the park. Easy tea

I have tried it but I live in the back end of beyond any the only place is a Starbucks 20 mins drive away which does its bags at 20.00. Such a good idea though, very jealous of the platter of sushi

We did greggs yesterday -

A chicken and bacon baguette
A steak bake
A chicken bake
A sausage roll
A yum yum
An iced doughnut
And a cookie
For 2.59!

Not the best bag from M&S tonight but ok - 2 boxes of prawn sandwiches, 3packd of cherries, 2 little apple crumbles and a Bircher muesli pot thing.

@Giveszerofox

We did greggs yesterday -

A chicken and bacon baguette
A steak bake
A chicken bake
A sausage roll
A yum yum
An iced doughnut
And a cookie
For 2.59!

That's pretty good to be fair, I have a Greggs bag for tomorrow, hopefully that'll supply our weekend treats.

@TheGenealogist

Not the best bag from M&S tonight but ok - 2 boxes of prawn sandwiches, 3packd of cherries, 2 little apple crumbles and a Bircher muesli pot thing.

I’m glad I didn’t get that. I hate prawns and I don’t like apple crumble lol

I'm not the biggest apple crumble fan either but the kids like it. And I do like prawns.

That’s good then.

We are all Having bacon rolls for tea tonight to use my bread up! Ha

Caffe Nero have cancelled on me

What did you do? I actually ‘cancelled’ them a few years back when I got horrible food poisoning after going there. I was as sick as a dog (next day as I dragged my carcass last the store I saw that the fridge cabinets were all broken 🤢). They tried to kill me...

@NotTheFunKindOfFeminist

Caffe Nero have cancelled on me

I'm trying my local bakery for the third time today, they've cancelled the previous two....after this time if they cancel I will give up!

I got my first bag yesterday, was a bit disappointed to be honest! It was a Waitrose at A Shell garage. I got...

A prawn layered salad
Two tubs of potato salad
Two little vanilla yogurts
Two tomato and basil soups
One pack of English muffins

@TheOpportuneMoment

I got my first bag yesterday, was a bit disappointed to be honest! It was a Waitrose at A Shell garage. I got...

A prawn layered salad
Two tubs of potato salad
Two little vanilla yogurts
Two tomato and basil soups
One pack of English muffins

How much was that? I'd probably have been ok with that..... not blown away but it's a respectable amount. That's the risk though, you can get an objectively "nice" bag but if you don't like the food in it, it's useless.

I once got a bag from a local restaurant with a great reputation.

Objectively it was an excellent quality 3 course meal for £3.50 but I was so disappointed because I didn't like it.

I use it loads. Morrisons great if you can get it but sells out in about 30 seconds!

We have a couple of marks garages near us they can be really good bags.

The budgens garage near me also surprisingly good.

I had a weekend with my dd in London this weekend and after an expensive lunch was feeling frugal so for a bag from Paul bakery for tea

My daughters like the element of surprise with it. Some duds but generally we eat it all. I think the best fir my daughter was a morrisons one with £9 of blueberries in it!

@Tiddleztheelephant It was £5. It was fine, we've had the muffins and the soup between us for lunch. DH is going to have the prawn salad. Not sure yet what we're going to do with the potato salad as none of us particularly like it. It's actually a good little Waitrose though, there's loads of food and we regularly go in to get yellow sticker stuff at the end of the day - meats, pizzas and ready meals etc. I feel like I might have got more useable stuff doing that way.

[quote TheOpportuneMoment]@Tiddleztheelephant It was £5. It was fine, we've had the muffins and the soup between us for lunch. DH is going to have the prawn salad. Not sure yet what we're going to do with the potato salad as none of us particularly like it. It's actually a good little Waitrose though, there's loads of food and we regularly go in to get yellow sticker stuff at the end of the day - meats, pizzas and ready meals etc. I feel like I might have got more useable stuff doing that way. [/quote]
Oh ok for £5 I'd be disappointed too.
The ones I get are between £2.50 and £3.

Too good to go is great in some circumstances and rubbish in others.

I haven’t gone for it from shops (their giveaways are normally late evening at close of business) but have used it with hotels (mid morning at close of breakfast), and thus haven’t used it in covid times.

My favourite is a local hotel in Salisbury, walk in at the specified time, get handed a takeaway box, fill it at the breakfast bar, then sit in the car park or a bench.
Their collection time is right at the end of breakfast time l, so there may be residents still sat eating and the breakfast bar was generally still refreshed and full (I’ve even seen the chef come out with more from the kitchen)

The worst I’ve had was a Southampton motel, where they gave me a bag of two dried up cheesy breads and an apple, which is in contrast to the next door hotel where they gave me two takeaway boxes so I ended up with one for the cooked & one for the pastries etc. (I assume that they hadn’t had much of a take up that day)

Salisbury hotel

Southampton comparison

I double posted the same pic from Salisbury above

I get a Greggs most regularly. Yesterday we got 2 steak bakes, 2 yumyums, 2 donuts and 3 baguettes, 1 ham salad, i tuna Mayo and 1 chicken Mayo.

Have has Costa before but it's usually just toasties.