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

Lidl is definitely worth a trip. We buy milk, butter, yoghurt, olive oil, juice, nappies, fruit, veg, oven chips, cheese, soap powder, washing up liquid, tinned tomatoes, beans regularly. I'd happily try any of their products.

Their jaffa cakes are particularly good.

The shower gel is awful. Bought some the other day but it has the colour, smell and consistency of washing up liquid. Disappointing. I have just started buying the tescos basic shower gel which is 30 pence. It's blue, but it smells quite nice, and the consistency is good. I also tried tesco's basic toothpaste which is 25 pence! And, it's not bad! I've stashed some as emergency toothpaste, when we run out of colgate.

Multi pack crisps, 12 I think you get. 70p! Brilliant.

The veg is fine - I buy things like the big bags of courgettes.
Tinned kidney beans.
Nappy bags.

Cream cheese, tinned tomatoes, ground coffee, tinned kidney beans, pasta, plain cheddar-type cheese for cooking or sandwiches, mozzarella, tinned tuna (not very chunky but fine for pasta sauce or sandwiches), loo paper, stewing beef, bacon bits for cooking, frozen prawns, fruit and veg (esp the big bags of peppers and courgettes), bleach for the loo (27p!!), chocolate croissants.

I like the basics garden peas (frozen) - and I used to only ever buy petit pois!

Basics lemon curd is lovely at 22p, we use it on bread, in puddings/ cakes, a dollop on top of basics rice pud is nice. Plus you get a nice jar at the end to make premium homemade jam :)

Wipes are good too, although they used to be 18p and are now 51p. Still seething.

The plain natural yog is about 45p for a large tub, it's a good standby ingredient for tandoori chicken, curries or just with honey and blueberries stored through for a quick desert.

I still find lidl cheaper for fruit and veg though.

Oh yes, I get the lemon curd, too. It's lovely in plain yoghurt.

I saw something recently that said to always buy the value fruit and veg because it's just the not-perfectly-shaped stuff, it'll last jus as long etc.

Also rice.

I would definitely give Lidl ago rather than Sains basics.

I now do our main food shop at Lidl every week after we got very short of cash and it has literally halved our food budget without trying to scrimp at all.

You can't get a few things there that we need so have to stock up every now and then (e.g. barley,polenta, pomegranate molasses, saffron, stuff like that).

Last night for tea we ate wholemeal pitta, homous, tabbouleh, fattoush and leftover meat from the sunday roast.

I know the Lidl prices for things as I have to be careful with money at the moment. Just for interest I went on my supermarket.com just now and looked up the sains prices:

wholemeal pitta bread 70p sains, 39p lidl

homous 110p sains, 79p lidl

tabbouleh- parsley 80p sains, 49p lidl
(mint from garden)
spring onion 75p sains, 39p lidl
1 large beef tomato 80p sains, 36p lidl
1 lemon 30p sains, 30p lidl
burgul- don't sell in lidl, buy from sains or middle eastern deli once every 3 months or so, can't remember cost)

fattoush: cos lettuce 100p sains, 80p lidl
cucumber: 80p saisn, 49p Lidl (on sale this week, think its normally more)
(also used some of the lemon and half the tomato from the tabbouleh)
sumac (again, can't get at lidl, we buy from a middle eastern deli)

(Obviously also used olive oil, salt etc in small quantities)
(Lamb: leftover from roast and from freezer, can't remember where from now)

Now we didn't use everything, obviously, we have leftover half the cucumber and lettuce to use in another meal as wel as half the homous for sandwiches etc so a cheaper meal than the costs would show, but in terms of cash paid, last nights meal cost us 401p in lidl and would have cost 625p sains

This looks like it would reduce the spend by 1/3rd per week if scaled up but we have found it to be a bit more than that because we also don't buy as many treat type things that aren't available at lidl like roasted artichokes from the deli counter etc

The Basics Peppers are great, always buy them. Everyone else in our Sains seems to like them too as they get sold out very quickly.

Like Basics Jaffa cakes (don't last 5 mins in our household.)

Aso buy Basics
Tinned Kidney Beans
Chopped Tomatoes
Cheddar
Bourbon Creams
Weetabix version
Loo Roll
Tissues

I think just about anywhere (M&S and Waitrose excepted) is cheaper than Sainsbury's....DW can't bear to spend money on fruit and veg in Saino's when she knows she can get if for less in Morrisons or Lidl.....

We like the basics brie as well - usually needs a couple of days to get to that just right oozy stage of readiness though.

Lidl - my brother swears by their cleaning products and liquid handsoap, but if I am going round I have to take my own soap as I am allergic to it!!

Not every where has a Lidl though - our nearest is a good 40 minute drive away (double it if you are travelling in school traffic or rush hour) so we couldn't justify the petrol to get there, let alone the time!

Yes to the Basics natural yoghurt - I mix it with a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and half a teaspoon if mint sauce to go alongside curries. Or use to make mango lassi.

The Basics houmous is tasty, and I have always found all the fruit and veg to be good too.

That's everyone. Our closest lidl is a good half hour door to door so not really worth the time but we have an aldi closer.

I've got a £9 off £60 spend at sainsburys which is why I was looking there... Actually wanted to get a good amount of food. I would say we usually shop at tesco because its a little cheaper ad bigger.

Block cheddar cheese
peppers
Fishfingers
Feta cheese
grated mozarella

Just been shopping and bought some basics lemon curd.......it had better be good or that will be a waste of my 22p

DH likes the basics (or tesco value) coleslaw. It's less carroty and works out lower calorie than the healthy eating versions.

I too am interested in someone else taste testing the basics Lemon Curd.

I think there is a product trial waiting to be done here.....MumsnetHQ!

Can you feed your family on supermarket 'Basics' for a week? How much money did you save and what do you think of the overall quality of the food?