Please discuss/feedback/report your Downshift Savings

alison1308 · 22 June 2009 at 1:18PM

I'm presently unemployed so have played the food buget game frequently to feed myself and my daughter cheaply but healthily. Some great ideas out there. Try this one how to eat and drink for a £1 a day. great fun!!

skinflint1 · 20 December 2009 at 12:04AM

I was forced to shop in Aldi's in Penrith because Morrisons had burnt down. So in answer to the above question about ketchup, Aldi's is just as good!:money:

I sometimes buy Don Simon fruit juices which are NOT from concentrate & they are £1.50 for 2 1 litre carton, a lot cheaper than other brands.

slummymummyof3 · 20 December 2009 at 12:18AM

OH used to use gillette shaving gel but he now uses Aldi shaving gel which is 89p in comparison to over £2. Have been using Aldi and Lidl for about 16 months now and the quality is mostly just as good if not better than branded products and my shopping bill has nose dived from £120 per week to about £60. Most of the toiletries - facial cleanisng wipes 77p instead of Nivea ones @ £2 per pack, shower gel @ 49p, soft soap @ 55p. Aldi coated peanuts are amazing - paprika or chilli flavour @ 89p a bag and their cashew nuts are fab @ £1.29 for a 200g bag.

Sharon87 · 20 December 2009 at 4:24AM

Here's one interesting thing I've noticed about Chicken Soup:

Heinz (80p) = delicous
Sainsbury own brand = disgusting
Sainsburys Bascis (20p-ish)= tastes like Heinz, but watered down!

Strange how the basics is nicer than the regular own brand.

Budget_shopper · 11 May 2010 at 6:18PM

Opinions welcomed on:

Tesco: Value / Markert Value
Asda: Smartprice
Sainsburys: Basics
Co-operative: Simply Value
Morrisons: Value

I don't think Waitrose's Essentials really counts as it just like the standard own brand stuff elsewhere - and just at expensive!

MrsBartolozzi · 12 May 2010 at 1:52PM

Hi there budget shopper, there have been loads of discussions on here about which basics brand tastes best and which items taste good/bad within each range.

This is a discussion on which Sainsbury's basics items taste best.

This a discussion about Tesco value products.

I think there is an Asda one too, but it's not coming up in the search, you could have a look in the Food shopping and groceries board for other ideas too!

cmccafferty1 · 9 September 2010 at 6:03PM

Aldi are very good for a lot of the basics, eggs, milk, flour, bread. I tend to use them as they are usually cheaper, but look out for the bargains in Tescos and Sainsburys - they are quite well hidden sometimes e.g. bottom shelf, but I have found some great bargains recently e.g. Sainsburys Basics Vinegar 13p compared to 67p for a standard bottle (same size) and more than £1 for Sarsons. Sainsburys Basics Soap 13p for 4 bars (much cheaper than Aldi or Sainsburys normal range). If you have the time I would suggest rather than do a big shop once a week or once a fortnight in a Supermarket, visit different shops at regular intervals, check out the prices of the things you need and take note of the bargains.

peacock · 2 December 2011 at 8:07PM

Why is the Sainsburys Basics label supposed to be such a good buy? With loose bananas at 52p/kg, the basics bag at £1.15, containing (at least in our local branch) ripe and soft bananas, would cost only about 75p by weight. The same reasoning applies for Parsley. Only buy the basics pack if you don't have a freezer for the rest.
I always try to visit all the local shops and if I am lucky, I may arrive at a time when there are plenty of reductions which I would normally buy on a regular shop, and can freeze or live with the damage (eg bent tin of biscuits for home use at Christmas)

chanie · 2 December 2011 at 9:26PM

I bought some own brand cereal (weetabix and rice crispies) and Mr C was horrified. So, I bought some more and put them in a kellogs box. OH couldn't tell the difference. Even now, he still complains, but I do tell him that he didn't notice.

I did try the Lidl Bixies (weetabix) but the consistency was different to Weetabix. It was fine to me, but you could tell it was different and OH doesn't like them.

I've decided to make a point now of trying different brands when I go to the supermarket. I've tried some Lidl chocolate which was fine, as was the Tesco Ryelands one

debg0108 · 19 January 2012 at 11:23AM

relpet wrote: »

Sometimes a manufacturer compels you to downshift. I'm 69 and have eaten Weetabix for breakfast most of my life. About a year ago the formula changed. The biscuits were smaller and crumblier and, to my mind, no longer attractive as a breakfast food. Having scorned alternative products for decades I was forced to look around and found Bixies in LIDL to be as good as, if not even better, than the original Weetabix. More to the point, they were not much more than half the price of Weetabix in the same store. I've been buying all my chocolate in LIDL for years and their jams, honey and bread flour are terrific value for top quality. Moving to LIDL or Aldi could be seen as downshifting - or simply a smart move for many food items.

I have to agree totally with this! My husband and I buy as much as we can in both Lidls and Aldi as the quality is either as good or sometimes even better and prices are usually much better, weetabix being one product where this is true, £1.75 for 36 of their own wheat bixs as opposed to 'only £1.00' for 12 in Morrisons! If I ruled the country I would outlaw the words 'only' and 'just' as it misleads people into thinking they are getting a bargain when it is usually anything but! The only bugbear I have with both these shops but it can be the case with other shops is that the products can suddenly disappear and the list of dis-continued favourites of mine is ever growing and I wish the buyers could stop this.

Please discuss/feedback/report your Downshift Savings

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