To not fully understand Too Good To Go app?

[2TheLighthouse]

‘Too good to go’ is the app where you can reserve cut-price bags of food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the day, in case anyone didn’t know.

I thought I’d give it a go as I’m trying to economise. But there are rarely any bags available, ever. It always says things like ‘such and such place sold out at 4:40am’ or something equally random, but the bags are for collection the following evening.

I imagined it was going to be a much more last-minute thing - eg they’d start rounding things up during the run-up to closing to get an idea of how many bags of stuff they’d have. I guess it also makes sense to estimate, based on experience, how many bags they will have and advertise in advance - but there seems to be no pattern to it. If it’s all done in advance, surely there should be a set time every day when they ‘release’ them?? It’s just really bugging me!

But it's not possible to save food from landfill and guarantee you're economising, because you can't choose what goes into the magic bag. I'm not sure how many times I can rephrase this - you will get whatever is left. Maybe it's worth a lot. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's stuff you want to eat (great). Maybe it's stuff that you don't like (like tofu). When you take away the choice, it's potluck whether what you get is worth it for you.

So it's not a moneysaving tool, it's a fun food gamble that sometimes pays off and sometimes doesn't.

There are slim pickings in some parts of the world. There are also some retailers who came off TG2G because people were complaining about what they were getting in their magic bags and not buying into the idea of reducing food waste.

It's worth noting that because this is a food waste app, as well as getting things like tofu, you could get food that's past its BBE (different to its use by). It really isn't about a massive discount on nice things, the nice things only happen by luck if people haven't bought them.

Anyway, I don't think you're going to agree with me anytime soon, so I'll bow out.

Good luck.

@alltheteeshirts

I'm not sure how many times I can rephrase this - you will get whatever is left.

I do know this. Sorry to be a bit argumentative here, but you’re being a bit condescending and slightly obtuse. It’s very obvious that you get what’s left! Everyone understands that. But buying the leftovers for a big discount is a guaranteed way to save money. If I was really desperate and couldn’t afford anything else, it would literally be a sure-fire way to save money! Because it’s cheaper! Cheaper stuff saves money! But because I’m not actually that desperate, it didn’t work out that well… because I’m not desperate enough to eat tofu, or weird bacon bites. But it absolutely is a money-saving mechanism for some. And the times it works for me (if that ever happens) it will presumably save some money too. Hope that makes sense.

But buying the leftovers for a big discount is a guaranteed way to save money. If I was really desperate and couldn’t afford anything else, it would literally be a sure-fire way to save money! Because it’s cheaper! Cheaper stuff saves money

But it's not always cheaper or money saving because you could either get a load of coffee shop cakes and sandwiches that still work out more expensive than spending the same money on ingredients at the supermarket, despite the huge discount.

Or you could get food that is nearing the end of its like and cannot be frozen, eg petrol station sandwiches and bagged salad so unless you literally eat it that day and the day after, it might not be worth it in terms of providing a cheap meal.

Or you could get things that you don't like or need lots of other things to make them into a proper meal.

I see the point for the novelty value, and also to get things like coffee shop cakes at a discount, but otherwise, it's hit and miss and can be too much of a risk if you're looking for meals on a tight budget, because if you can't afford to gamble with your food budget, you'd probably just be better buying things like bread, eggs, beans etc and just having an omelette or beans on toast.

So it's not a moneysaving tool, it's a fun food gamble that sometimes pays off and sometimes doesn't.

This sums it up perfectly for me.

What is in the bag is whatever is going out of date, chosen from the entire range that the retailer sells. For somewhere like Costa, Starbucks, Cafe Nero that is obviously going to be croissants, cakes, sandwiches because that is all they sell. Similarly with a bag from a baker's.

Obviously with other retailers which have a wider range of products it is more hit and miss and unpredictable. We have a smallish M&S/BP site near here and we have had really good bags with chicken pieces, marinated steaks, fruit, veg etc. We have also had bad bags with things like pasta salad which nobody would eat, or three of the same vegan ready meal.

The app asks you to rate your bags on a 1-5 scale and this can be useful when looking at what's on offer near you, getting the opinion of other users as to the quantity/quality of food. Also, it's not the app's fault that the OP lives in an area where either there aren't a lot of retailers signed up, or lots of competition for bags on the app.

I haven't had a restaurant bag but a friend whose son is a student regularly does a hotel breakfast one - they are given a cardboard/plastic food box and told to fill it with anything they like. He usually takes bacon/sausages and then freezes them to use for about a week's worth of breakfasts.

But it's never ever going to be the cheapest way to get food.

Going to any supermarket and buying bread and cheese to make a sandwich is always going to be cheaper than qn end of the day cafe sandwich.

It's just cheaper than buying a full price cafe sandwich.

Also agree with Barbara - there are 5 of us in this house, 2 adults and three teenagers. None of us with allergies or dietary requirements. A bag is pretty much guaranteed to disappear, whatever the contents. Even something really random like 5 packs of sandwiches and 6 yoghurts - that's next day's lunch. Also agree that the bags from places like Starbucks aren't great value as the original retail price for a cake or sandwich are high. Yes you might be only paying 25% of the original selling price, but when they're charging £4 for a brownie, getting one for a quid isn't much of a bargain.

If you are really on a tight budget then relying on your magic bags to provide meals for the next few days is not wise.

I love my bags. I get one from the m and s garage every Tuesday night. Always book about 11am and collect at 9. Always get great things and well worth the money.

I think it can be money-saving and reliable for certain shops, like the bakery I regularly get a bag from. A small sourdough loaf from Tesco is £1.80, but for £5 I can get several organic loaves, plus often pasties. I'd only need to get three small loaves for it to be a better deal. It varies which bread you get, but I've always had a good mix and plenty of it. I've been buying the same bag whenever I run out for the last year. 10-15 minute walk so free to collect.

But thanks OP because, after months of ignoring TGTG the app, I've looked at it again and just discovered that the Leon half a mile up the road is now on the app, I love their food, but it is a bit pricy, so I'm definitely going to try and get a bag from them.

But it's never ever going to be the cheapest way to get food.

Yes. I agree. But it can save money on things that are quite expensive to begin with (eg cakes, pre-prepared sandwiches from coffee shops).

I think some people have assumed I was looking for ‘meals on a budget’ or something. But I’m not. I sort of wish I hadn’t used the word ‘economise’ in my OP at all. That means different things to different people I guess. I just meant ‘get things for less than their rrp’. I did just fancy trying the app as well. And was disappointed.

As a pp pointed out, it’s not the app’s fault that there doesn’t seem to be much in this area. But it does annoy me how crap it’s turned out to be - hence I started the thread! It’s not as if I live somewhere weird out of the way! I live in a city with a surfeit of restaurants and cafés. Jealous of the people regularly scoring delicious bags of cakes, basically.

I've really got into this recently now I understand when to look. We've had some superb stuff from the Co-op and we had three carveries from Toby Carvery that did the three of us two meals and there was still leftovers. We also have a local Japanese place that does really good bags. I've not managed to get a Morrisons one yet. DH has had two from a local brewery which have been brilliant.

The only one I've been really disappointed with was from a small grocery company. I spent £4 plus a 5 mile round trip and I got a small bag of rice, three boxes of dried dried, two boxes of dried dill seed and a box of dried chillies. None of which were anywhere near best before dates and it's good job really because I probably use dried dill twice a year! I felt completely ripped off and the shop wasn't really acting in the spirit of the app, they are just using it for advertising basically.

I always look at the reviews and avoid anything less than four stars, particularly where there are a lot of reviews. I do wish you could read what people have put.

If you look on the app, OP, you should be able to click on one of the grey sold out buttons and see what time the bag sold out the day before. I am sure that there are people hovering over the app hitting refresh constantly to snag their favourite bags. I can't be bothered with that but it's what you have to do if you want the Morrison's fruit/veg bags.

And if you want to be a real saddo (like me), put the #toogoodtogo hashtag into twitter or Instagram - it's a worldwide app, and I can spend a happy 20 minutes looking at contents of bags from America or the Netherlands.

@Myeleventiethusername Wow! That is a great haul. Haven't used the app but so curious now

Why? I have a large-ish family. If I get one from the local cafe, I get 3 (the number they usually have available), or there wouldn't be enough for all of us.
I rarely get them as they go fast but why shouldn't large families be able to enjoy it too? I either get all 3 or none.

I went to pick up my bag from a bakery yesterday and when I got there they apologised and said they’d sold out and had nothing to put in the bags. I got my money back.
So the stores plan ahead to release the same number of bags every day knowing that they might not have the left overs to put in them.
which is fine of course because the aim is to reduce food waste.
greggs ones are my favourites 😀

having bags cancelled is an annoyance IF they don't do it in good time - ie an hour before the collection time.

Though i think tales of people driving many miles to collect one and being annoyed is silly, its not worth the petrol costs to get one mostly. Its more something you collect if planning to be in the area anyway.

Ive stopped using toogoodtogo

I felt the places i went were taking the piss. Most were great at first then they cotton on its a way to get rid of stuff easily. And its stuff no one wants. Krispy creme or millies cookies always gets 5 stars but arent near me.

Oooh thanks for the tip. Found a patisserie near me that's too expensive for me to use normally but they have bags going tonight at 7pm apparently !!

I think it's a great app. So much to choose from especially in London. You get to know the times the in demand stuff goes live.

Millie’s cookies is one of the few I’ve been disappointed by as it goes. Lola’s cupcakes was good though.

I’ve never bothered with the ones from convenience stores because I know the likelihood is I’d end up with stuff like the OP had.

I tend to go for places I like but feel are slightly extravagant at full price, and haven’t had a really duff bag so far.

We’ve bought quite a lot of bags over the past year but recently we’ve stopped using it because the contents in the bags from Morrisons were just so rubbish, it really wasn’t worth the hassle. Last time they put 3 punnets of 19p eggs in, a 30p loaf of bread and a 17p packet of Wholemeal breakfast muffins… The bag costs £3.09 and contents are supposed to be ‘worth £10’ so that obviously wasn’t up to scratch. The time before that the store had ‘run out of bags’, we arrived bang on collection time.

We used to get them from a local vegan baker and they were amazing, £4 for a huge crate of vegan baked goodies but he’s disappeared since Christmas. You do have to be very quick with most of them so you need to know the time the bags are available each day and hover over the app.

The best bags we have got have been from wenzels got loads of stuff too much if you ask me.
Costa was a waste all we got was 3 sausage baps which went in the bin has nobody eats sausage.
Not had any look getting a Morrisons box yet always sold out.

I got a morrisons one yesterday and it had strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, 2 avocados, 2 packs rolls, carton of soup and some cereal bites. Pretty good for 3 quid. If there is anything I won't use I post it on Olio so it doesn't get thrown away.

I'm picking one up tonight. Can't wait! They sell out in less than a minute.