This is why you should ALWAYS have a nose in the cheap cabinet.

[NumberJill]

Nosing in there today, the shop assistant approached with her pricing gun.

"Why don't you hang around for a minute and see what I've got for you then?" she said.

So I hung around, and after she had finished I picked up
2kg of garlic chicken legs and thighs (£1.50)
1 whole chicken (£0.90)
2 packets of pure beef meatballs (£1.30)

Not organic, doubt if it's free range, but it's the Co-op, and I trust the Co-op when it comes to their animal welfare.

And my GOD, that's a lot of meals for £3.70.

A whole chicken for 90p!!!!

90p - blimey!

Our Co-op is fab like this too but I don't always have chance to get in there.

Has anyone noticed that with the bigger supermarkets they tend to be mean marking things down? So they might take 20p off for damaged packaging/out of date that day stuff etc. You just know they won't sell it, and it will end up in their bins, so seems such a waste of good food.

Occasionally they go a bit mad the other way - I got Ariel washing powder for 75p instead of about £3 the other day - nothing wrong with it apart from the boxes a bit dusty.

The chicken thighs and legs will do about 4 meals.

The chicken (not large) will do about 3.

The meatballs will do 2.

I am very impressed with the Co-op (and myself)

What a bargain!

We shop in Sainsbury's and their reduced items seem to be mostly ready meals or things that look so unappetising I can see why there are 15 of them at knock-down prices.

I got three packets or free range chicken breasts from the co-op a few weeks ago for 30p each! Reduced from something like £6.99. I was very chuffed.

There needs to be a special word for this feeling. A special German word, like Schadenfraude, but meaning "That feeling you get when you find a bargain so good that it's worth pulling your arm out of it's socket to carry the bargain home".

Smug just does not cut it.

but wont they go off before you can eat them all
sorry I have a phobia of meat going off

I totally understand the bargain side of it but surely it will go off

you freeze it trinity. as long as its ok when its frozen then its fine.

Trinity I freeze it. Or cook it up and freeze it.

I have a freezer!

ooooh of course
sorryI can't freeze things eother so I wouldn't be able to do it

I'll leave now

You can tell when meat has gone off, anyway. It smells. Humans have a fantastic olfactory ability when it comes to the freshness of meat, better than cats or dogs!

that was a little sarcastic numberjill

It wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be a funny look.

doesn;t "serendipity" cover it?

"Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely"

Our co-op often has good marked down stuff I always look in their cheapo cabinet.

Sainsburys on the other hand, a crowd gathers round the meats part at the time they know things are usually reduced. Then there is a scrum while the poor shop assistant is trying to mark stuff down.

Same at the bread aisle.

I love a bargain but I can't quite bring myself to hover so obviously then push and shove to get the reduced stuff, which is what I've seen hapening.

I'm not in any way commenting on the people that DO hover, push and shove, as I don't know what their budgets are and these days its hard to feed a family on a budget. I just don't want to join in, I'd rather do lentils than push and shove at the reduced meats cabinet tbh.

Co-op is great. We've got one at hte end of our road and there is always reduced meat.

DH follows the evening staff around when he sees a roll of "reduced stickers" in their hands