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.

kiddiz - the nicest cheap orange juice with bits is the one from Lidl which comes in glass litre bottles. At 67p a litre my lot actually seem to prefer it to the freshly squeezed stuff.

I would urge you to stay away from the Tesco "Finest" versions of Häagen-Dazs. (I know that's not really a "value" brand, but it is a cheaper version.)

With the Cookies & Cream I had to take the unprecedented step of binning some ice-cream because it was so utterly vile. Just tasted of fat rather than cream. Have to stop thinking about the experience now!

Maybe I am not particularly discriminating, but I find pretty much everything at ALDI tastes good. I tend to buy freerange eggs/meat elsewhere, but apart from that, virtually everything else is fine.

I used to work for them and nearly all the packaged goods are made by the manufacturers and in the same factory as premium brands....all that happens is that different packaging is used at the end of the production line.

The worst thing I have ever experienced was value mince - was trying to make a bolgnese as a student and got a pan of pinkish foam, rank!

Will always fork out for decent meat now.

The value ranges irritate me because they're like buying "house" wine, they're the cheapest stuff to make with the highest mark-up, and in times like this the supermarkets are raking it in with these ranges, whilst many consumers quality of living goes down... Especially fruit and veg which was recently proven to contain less of the nutrients than normal or "finest" level ones.

I use Sainsbury's own washing powder and softener. Recently changed from using Ariel and Comfort, and tbh I like the smell of the Sainsbury's stuff more. Gets the clothes just as clean too and much cheaper.

Agree with value tinned tomatoes being good, and I have also bought the tuna and chucked it straight in the bin on opening!

I have used the tesco value unsalted butter and it was great for baking with.

I do tend to avoid the value toilet rolls as I find them really thin and so I end up using loads more sheets. Same with the value kitchen rolls tbh.
There is a home bargains shop near me who do brilliant deals on those sorts of things though, so I have started shopping there for a few basics too. I buy a huge white kitchen roll (the equivalent of six regular ones apparently although I am not completely convinced) and it is only 78p.

Sanitary towells 21p for 10 beat that!
You could invest in a moon cup instead.
passata instead of dolmio for bolognaise.
we like lidl for cereals my family swear they are made by kelloggs.
Love kids fromage frais in lidl too (with elephants on).
most store cupboard items ok in lidl eg flour,sugar etc
my dh loves their fig rolls too.(hates crawfords)lol
toilet rolls here are tesco value due to kids using too much i couldnt afford to keep buying andrex. never thought i would but its ok and im in no hurry to pay the high price again.

tesco value sanitary towels 14p

ok mrs purple they do go up and down in price they were 9p at one point!

just like the brad (from 30p now 49p) and pasta sauce from 26p now 45p), obviuosly realising that people are buying it,and it's still the cheapest.

oops sorry I meant bread

just checked mysupermarket and they are 14p in all 4 shops i wonder which way the price will go next time i stock up!

god knows,but my tesco prices change upanddown from one day to the next! Even to the point where 2 tescos near each other have different prices

i know it depends on the area. The one next to the council estate is cheaper than the one next to the private estate hence i go to the cheaper one.
also the expensive one dosn't sell many value items either.

it's a shame that even Tesco is being guided by the social area rather than setting one price for all.

I had some seriously nasty value cheese which dh brought home from Asda. It was inedible.

Also, having tried other bamds, I remain firmly of the opinion that Beanz Meanz Heinz.

Not keen on Asda (possibly because of my local one always having fights or the police outside.

And as Tesco's has opened at bottom of my road always go there. (next supermarket is over 5 miles away so cost of petrol means don't save on shopping if go anywhere else).

Tesco Value cheese is fine, own brand beans are good (just not the really cheap ones as nasty after taste and smell),

I hate Asda. I'm a refugee from Waitrose but we're so broke at the moment and dh is making me go to Asda. I have to say it is amazingly cheap.

Ah - this week Shreddies are actually cheaper than Sainsburys own malties.

where at?

Look on mysupermarket co uk to see if it's any cheaper and do the brand swap.

Sainsbury's "basic" generally better than Tesco "value" and the same price IME.

For example - tinned toms (which we use a lot of) - Tesco value watery and yuk - Sainsbury's Basic fine. Ditto kidney beans, sweetcorn, butter. Also fresh mushrooms, tomatoes.

We buy cheap cuts of proper meat from the butcher.

Cheese we shop around but don't trade down.

Potatoes by the sack from the farm shop at a fraction of any supermarket price.

Eggs produced by our hens, who mostly eat kitchen scraps.

But watch out for the traps. Sainsburys Basic prawns (smaller) are more expensive, in £ per kilo, than their ordinary large ones. It's not a huge difference, only 9p a kilo, but it's still a con. And I bet there are more if I knew where to look.

No doubt - but I am an anal shopper who stands there are compares £/kg on most things . DH just finds it amusing to find the most ridiculous things which are apparently 'essential' - like mozarella balls

I was quite surprised to find that grated cheese is just as expensive (and sometimes cheaper) as blocks of cheese. I have put my excess cheese in the freezer

I'm gradually training Dh that just because the price says it's cheaper, it could be because it's a smaller packet etc.

He sometimes does better than me at saving on shopping [turning back to him now so he can't see I have admited that]