What shall I buy from Sainsburys value range?

[iloveholidays]

I'm fed up of spending so much money at Sainsburys/Tesco. I'm off to sainsburys tomorrow night so want to try some of the basics range so looking for you MNetters to advise what's worth trying...?

TIA

Chocolate - use 3 bars of the milk choc, melted, half a packet-ish of the Basics digestive biscuits, half a packet of Basics salted peanuts, 100g of butter and some mini marshmallows to make gorgeous and v cheap Rocky Road.

Kidney beans are fine.

Mozerella fine - combine with the Basics pittas and some tomato pesto to make pitta pizzas for easy child lunches.

Parmesan-esque stuff is fine.

Feta fine for cooking but not nice on its own and smells funny.

Tinned peaches for chopping up and adding to muffins.

Custard creams.

I found Sainsburys basics range crap tbh - particularly crap was kitchen roll and any kind of toiletries, hand soap etc. I spent the same on a full shop of value stuff and I would on a luxury Aldi shop and it was rubbish.

Fromage frais and cream cheese are great, I never buy anything else for DC. Fish fingers are good value too, ditto frozen berries.

Cart

Cartons of chopped tomatoes

Kidney beans

family pack mushrooms

Tomatoes big pack

Courgettes.... In fact most veg

Agree mozzarella is good

Garlic baguettes

The tea is surprisingly nice

Yes, dp likes the tea.

I was just coming to say not the tea bags! I saw them recommended on here so bought some, they produced a weird brown beverage that looked just like tea but tasted of nothing.

Everything apart from teabags. The teabags taste like dishwater.

Agree with Basics chocolate. It's very good. Also agree that the fromage frais is good.

All of the Basics biscuits we've tried have been great. The choc chip cookies are very much like the Maryland ones.

Apparently the Basics chicken noodles are very good, so...er...a friend told me ;-)

I think things like veg are hard to go wrong with, it's when you get more processed foods that they don't seem so nice. I have switched the hot chocolate(only way to get milk into them) to their basics for the dc and they haven't complained. Is 1/3 of the price. I can't stand it though so have a secret stash of cadbury's for a very occasional treat for me!

Oh yes, the fruit and veg is fine, I'll always buy it if its available, I don't really see the point in spending more

Toilet roll, fancy stuff bungs up my toilet.

The dc's have the liquid soap and tissues as they get through so much of it.

Big bags of sweet popcorn for DVD sessions at home.

The cheap chocolate is fine as a cooking ingredient. As is the flour.

Batter mix, just enough for 3 pancakes which suits me and the dc's as it's just 3 of us.

Thanks everyone.

I've just been looking through the list online and there is a lot to try. I thought I would give it a go for a month and see what I miss!! :)

The only things I tend to do basic at the moment are cheddar, butter and biscuits (oh and nappy sacks).

Does anyone know what the pasta, lasagne, cereals are like? Meat?

Also... Oven chips, I've always bought McCain (no idea why), is own brand ok?

Thanks... I'm on a mission to reduce my shopping spend!!!

I always buy own brand (but not Basics) of bran flakes, shreddies and special K, don't notice the difference at all. In fact that think their version of special k is nicer than the original now they've changed the recipe!

Meat I've not tried. For us that's the one thing we don't scrimp on if we don't have to, so I'd rather buy Basics everything else but still buy decent-ish meat. But I think that's more to do with the animal's quality of life than the taste, really.

Pasta and lasagne are exactly like the own brand. Cereals can be a bit more hit and mix - the weetabix are all tiny. Watch out for the weights of things if you're shopping online. Meat's not as good as the more expensive - usually more fatty but OK if you're cooking it up with other stuff. The economy smoked salmon trimmings are lovely

Some of the meat is fine but it isn't very consistent.
Currently I am liking the diced pork. Looks fattier tjannthe regulars sort but good in the slow cooker. The lamb cutlets/steaks taste ok but are in very mixed packs - there might be both lamb steaks and French trimmed bone in cutlletsi in the same pack, but worth rooting through.
Mixed beef is horrible.

Ds loves the tins of basics chilli - less meat and more beans than the premium brand (I can't comment as I don't like chilli)!

Thanks

Think I've got a few bits to try tomorrow. If not keen then I'll try tesco and if no success then I'll go back to what I know :). I'm fortunate that its not a necessity but every week I hand over so much money and just think what else I could spend it on. I reckon I could easily cut down £20-£30 a week without much effort!

Frozen peas and sweetcorn ok?

Peas and sweetcorn are fine. We always use them.

The tortilla chips are fab.
Baby wipes are totally fine for hands and faces. We always have in kitchen and use for school donations.
Fruit and veg fine.

I think the feta cheese Is great actually.
Have you tried Lidl or aldi?

We haven't got an aldi near us, but there is a lidl... Is it worth a trip?

I also thought about asda but when I looked online it didn't look like a huge difference to warrant the extra drive for me (and its always heaving!!)

I always buy the basics butter, nappy bags & chocolate.
I buy own brand cereals. Actually, must of my shop is own brand.
I got a carton of basics strawberries the other day and less than 1/4 were useable. (same day).

lidl is much better than Sainsburys if u want to save money

Hummous :)