Martin Lewis says to go down a quality stage in your shopping... I urge you, do NOT try out the value range of.........

[Flamesparrow]

tea bags!

It is NOT a good saving. Tastes like hell in a bag.

also have tesco value

• peas
• sweetcorn
• biscuits
• tinned tomatoes
• tin foil (use it in oven and grill regardless)
• butter for cooking
• cheddar for cooking

Other wise we tend to do own brand. Really, the only thing that needs to be top brand is bread (kingsmill or hovis) and DH's crunchy nut cornflakes. To give him his due, he has tried the own brands but just doesnt like them! Oh and DH prefers kenco coffee but will drink supermarket own.... dont drink the stuff so cant comment but I drink own brand tea without issue.

This thread reminds me of a convo with DH a few weeks ago. I bought a bottle of Matey bubble bath for the kids, and when it ran out I decanted some out of a big Value bubble bath into it.

DH - " that's awful. We were poor and we always had Matey"

Me - that's what you think - have you asked your mum?

Being a wee bit of a food snob I have v reluctantly been trying Value and own brand stuff.

Value/Own brand from tesco that is good:

Tinned chopped toms for spag bol etc = great!
New range of balm tissue (flowery pack) = very good.

Value Kidney Beans = excellent - just run them under water to rinse.

Not tried them but Which said a while back that value dishwasher tabs are better than finish.

Sainsbury - Ketchup all the way here. Same with their Beans.

Tesco new "economy" toilet tissue is a con. DD can go through 9 rolls on her own in 3 days Back to Charmin for us!

Own brand products can be full of C**P but if you look they can be better for you. Additives cost money so the less processing the better. Look at the Tesco own brand frozen chicken.

NEVER BUY SMARTPRICE LOO ROLL!---- unless you like toddlers with sh*tey hands! .

I'm with fishie on the tinned tomato front - I object to buying 80% tomato juice when a slightly more expensive carton of proper tomatoes goes so much further and has taste and substance.

I buy tesco cheap 'weetabix' and put them in a 'proper' weetabix box that i save each week
The tesco cheap foil is really good, not as thick as the expensive stuff but does the job.
I buy tesco own bread now, thick sliced, as we get through so much.

I tend to go for the value/discounted brands for non-food items - nappy bags, freezer bags, toilet roll etc.

I have started going down a step with food, but slowly but surely I'm giving up and going back to brands. Why? Well Tesco own-brand cereals are fine in the main, but read the labels and they often contain loads more salt and sugar - especially the Weetabix equivalent, so it's back to WB here. Ditto to most other cheaper foodstuffs. I've always been one to study labels, but now I'm doing it more than ever. And unless I'm really strapped I never, ever buy the cheaper meat products - both for my sake and the poor animals'.

What are definitely worth it are Tesco Value biscuits. Apart from the custard creams I can barely tell the difference - and biscuits aren't exactly a healthy choice anyway so it doesn't matter as much.

I'm a namechanger at the mo - can't be bothered to switch back just now.

I tend to go for the value/discounted brands for non-food items - nappy bags, freezer bags, toilet roll etc.

I have started going down a step with food, but slowly but surely I'm giving up and going back to brands. Why? Well Tesco own-brand cereals are fine in the main, but read the labels and they often contain loads more salt and sugar - especially the Weetabix equivalent, so it's back to WB here. Ditto to most other cheaper foodstuffs. I've always been one to study labels, but now I'm doing it more than ever. And unless I'm really strapped I never, ever buy the cheaper meat products - both for my sake and the poor animals'.

What are definitely worth it are Tesco Value biscuits. Apart from the custard creams I can barely tell the difference - and biscuits aren't exactly a healthy choice anyway so it doesn't matter as much.

I'm a namechanger at the mo - can't be bothered to switch back just now.

Funny, I actually do buy Value spaghetti (I forgot that in my last post) and it's absolutely fine. It feeds us for at least 2 nights of the week.

I buy value spaghetti for making "works of art"; I wouldn't eat it!

My Persian cat turns his nose up at Value cat food.

However, I can highly recommend Lidl's 'Toujours' nappies - Pampers quality at a fraction of the price.

I'm not keen on Value tomatoes, I always get the tin with the stalky bits in, yuk.

Life's too short for value tea bags or coffee too.

I do 'do' value boxes of tissue (the kind you keep on the side for people to wipe noses on), ditto asda cheapie handbag tissues and unsalted butter for cooking is fine.

I tend to buy packs of dried beans (kidney, butter and lentils) and then just rehydrate them overnight (the beans not the lentils), shove them in the pressure cooker and hey presto, I have about 6 tins worth of beans, I just divide them up and put them in the freezer. Much, much cheaper than tins.

We get most of our fruit and veg at the market, I was once forced to buy Asda clems and they were like small sour bullets, with a chewing gum texture. And we only tend to buy cheaper cuts of meat from the butchers anyway, because it's much easier for me to start a stew in the morning and for dh to dish it up when he gets home from work,as I work in the evenings.

Agree with you about the Asda clementines. I bought a bag last Friday - they now resemble shrivelled up limes .

The best way to save money on your shopping bill is to make more things from scratch, and tweak the ingredients so that you use more of cheaper ones and less of the more expensive. But it does take more time, and I guess more gas/electricity. If you have the deep freeze space making things in bulk is generally cheaper too, and gives you the illusion on convenience food.

We have found baking our own bread halves the cost and is much nicer. Making spaghetti/pizza sauces from basic ingredients is easy and cheap too, just ring the changes with what you add. Upping the vegetable content and lowering the meat content works fine for many recipes, you just have to experiment. I've tried grated carrot and grated parsnip in lasagna and got lots of very positive feedback (I didn't tell anyone in advance). The other thing to do is buy/cook in season. Making sure your meals are really satisfying reduces the need to snack (snacks often more expensive) so think low GI, things like pasta can leave you hungry again quite quickly, depending on what you serve it with. Finally my mother always swore by pudding as a cheap was to fill everyone up and make them happy. Lots of home made puddings are very inexpensive (lots of flour/butter/sugar and fruit combos).

I'd always rather have less of something good than the same amount of something nasty.

I love this thread.

We need a full compilation of good and bad cheapo stuff, it can make up my next shop as a test!

Very good points Nooka.

Do you fancy reminding us of the foods which are low GI please? I always forget!

Avoid Tesco Value Wheetabix cereal, It has the texture and probably taste of heavy duty chipboard. Gave it to the birds in the end

It's the only value thing I avoid. I'm more than happy with the other stuff I buy.

Value dishwasher tabs are really good btw

Avoid value teabag. They really do taste of dust.The loo roll - depends what you are used to. If you are used to Charmin and try to use the value stuff the same way, you're going to get poo on your hands. However, if you're used to the value stuff and find yourself faced with chamin, you're likely to block the toilet through overexuberant use!

I find all the value junk food (chocolate, crisps, biscuits) to be fine. It's junk anyway - why are walkers supposed to be better for you?

The value prcessed meat products are cheap but shit. Very little protein, far too much fat. The same cannot be said of the value meat, which is simply odd sizes or odd shapes of the normal non-free range, none organic meat. It's not farmed any worse - although I'm not saying it's farmed well. But If you are buying none free range anyway, you are going no further towards condoning animal cruelty if you buy value.

The value fruit and veg is fine, but the bananas are always bruised. The onions are great. Ditto carrots and mushrooms. Morrisons do big bags of peppers - you can't pick the colours, you get whatever's in the bags, but they are brilliant.

Asda do a great big (well 5kg) bag of onions for £1.98 and they are fine

Tesco used to do a Value pack of Japanese rice crackers but I haven't seen them for ages. Their Value cashews are more expensive than the main range

I also recommend the Lidl nappies - they are really good. Use Lidl dishwasher tablets and cleaning stuff too and it is all fine. Lidl hams are much better quality than the other supermarket brands, lower water content.

Value tomatoes are fine. Also use value butter and flour for baking. I have recently started buying value meat. As someone else pointed out, if you are not buying organic or free range then it is just odd shapes of the standard range.

I tried the Sainsburys basics washing powder and it was not good. One to avoid.

I gave up using baby wipes recently and am using cottonwool and baby lotion. It is a huge money saving. Before that I used to stock up with tesco/sainsburys standard baby wipes when they were on '3 for £3ish' offers. Lidl wipes are good but don't have one of those snap shut plastic lid bits on top, which I liked having.

Sainsburys do Basics Japanese rice crackers. Very nice and about £1 a bag.

I've just tried the Tesco value swiss muesli for the first time this week and it's actually quite nice! Much cheaper than the branded stuff (less than half the price of Alpen).

I have tried basics chocolate mouse - fine, chocolate digestives - fine, chocolate wafers - fine, chocolate bars 200g - fine (spot a trend here?).

Sparkling basics water is fine. Ditto apple and orange juice. Wouldn't do meat/eggs etc tho'.