Tightening our belts with cheap toilet paper

[zippitippitoes]

We've done a supermarket shop for the week and bought quite a few "value" products

frozen prawns
frozen cod fillets
chopped tomatoes
diet cola
2 chickens for £4.00
mature cheddar
Tesco tea tree shampoo

but got stuck on some. Are there some things which just aren't any good when they are really cheap.

We usually shop in Tesco's, but we didn't try the Value range in any of these

Andrex toilet rolls
Kellogs cornflakes
Colgate Tartare Toothpaste
Eggs
Shampoo
Can't Believe It's Not Butter

And is Asda actually cheaper than Tesco?

I bought some toddler clothes there yesterday which were great value (including a suede effect jacket with toggles which I really liked for £12.00)but never buy weekly shopping there, should we?

Tesco own brand 4in1 tablets are great and are much cheaper than Finish.

janh, that is great about the energy saving lightbulbs ! I might even venture over to Lidl with that in mind.

I get w-up liquid from Lidl, they do a concentrated sensitive one which is excellent.

I use Ariel non-bio liquid and ecover tablets so just stock up on special offers when they run (quite often)

Sainsburys Butterlicious is v good - Lidl's is called something sad like I Can't Believe it's Better and isn't much cheaper.

DS1 uses Sanex and you can always get it on bogof somewhere.

Ikea energy saving lightbulbs are very cheap too although you do come out with a bag of things you don't remember buying and can't think what you need them for.

We save on light bulbs by not replacing them

They were Osram too, ndp - not some brand you've never heard of! I can't say they'll always have them but they were in with the other bulbs, not the weekly specials.

I often buy Tesco value biscuits. The other day, I bought their vlue dark chocolate digestives (as I couldn't find regular dark chocolate digestives) and I have to say, I could really taste the difference. I think I would rather have paid through the nose and bought McVities as they tasted really cheap. Mind you, they are all gone now - 4 kids saw to that! - so I suppose in a away, it was worthwhile as the kids didn't dislike them and if they are going to eat them that quickly, I might as well buy value.

Cheap toilet paper however is not worth the saving. I don't buy luxury toilet paper as I like my paper to be a bit rough (I have described this before as having bite!) but really cheap stuff jsut means you use more or there is less on the roll to begin with.

I'd disagree about the Value WEetabix - you'd never pass them off as normal ones if you havd afiniky child as they used to be square ended rather than round. Much larger flakes too. I don't have a problem with any supermarket ownbrand cereals though.

I have bought value washing up liquid in tha past and it has been fine on a small wash job (a few plates etc), not sure how it would stand up to greasy pans and stuff. The Tesco own brand washing up liquid is good enough, at around 60p for a 500ml bottle it's about 15/20p cheaper than the bigger brands.

Tescos value bourbons, ginger biscuits and fruit shorties are fine. Children don't notice the difference! The value "penguins" are good too (don't have a layer of cream in though iirc)

We don't buy biscuits at all!!

But dp and ds do like chocolate mini rolls and we usually get Tesco own brand but we forgot them today anyway..

I will definitely try the dishwasher tablets

The value packs of fruit and vegetables are excellent value IMO. I buy a value pack of assorted peppers (they are only value because they don't meet the standards required to be sold individually eg they are too small, big, a funny shape etc.) I find they keep really well in the fridge and must save me a lot of money over the weeks. But you have to be sure you are going to use them all as I wouldn't normally expect to get through 5-6 peppers per week/fortnight.

Personally don't like Asda because of the Walmart/ arms investment thing.
But think it is cheaper.

Oooh, one major problem with tesco washing up liquid is that it clogs - you have to spend ages unclogging the little hole everytime you want to use it after the first few uses

We are using mainly frozen veg as I find I waste fresh by not using it in time

Soooo glad someone else has that problem with Tescos washing up liquid! I thought I was going mad or doing something wrong (quite what I don't know!)

Nope tis just pure evil trying to drive us insane

Gave up and decided we'd just eat less and buy fairy!

Some things should never be compromised on. Fairy liquid is one of those things in my house.

Haven't read all of the posts, personally i find Asda cheaper than tesco, and they've just started delivering so can now order on line, which I find is the absolute cheapest way of shopping - much easier to stick to our budget - wekkly shop on line with delivery comes in about £90 if we got to the shop it can easily be £140 with all the goodies and offer stuff we throw in

Isn't it sweet how threads like this get us all going

So do you reckon paying for delivery is worht it for online, it always seems like extravagnce to me
Something else we seeem to spend a lot on is bin bags..can't believe how expensive they are and how many we use considering they are only rubbish

I should have, but I haven't, read the whole thread.
Did you know that Asda smartprice on the whole produces much better stuff than Tesco value according to somesuch consumer survey?
Dh and I have tried it out because we live the same distance between the two and we tend to find this is the case.

If delivery is still £5, I can guarantee that you will save more than that by shopping online.

zippitippitoes, because you only buy what you want, not what you see and decide you need

I use tescos carrier bags for bin bags because their delivery service uses so many of them I'm in dange of being overrun

With most things I've tried... I prefer the value to smartprice.

Even adding in the delivery cost (£3.99 for midweek from Tesco) I find that I am saving money.