It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

mummysaver

Thanks Cheryl!

I picked up a few bags the other day in there, good to know that the price is still the same! Yes I did leave some on the shelf for everyone else lol! We get through a lot of bread here though, four hungry kids, I usually do a loaf, rolls and something else dough based every day!

These little price increases really do make a huge difference when they are on staples. On the bright side, free range eggs are £2 for 15 in Asda and Mr T's at the mo, well they were last night, so they could have gone up or down by now!

What I need are cheap tinned toms, nope, everywhere is 33p!

Bargain_Rzl

I was lucky with tinned tomatoes at the weekend - got two 4-packs of Napolina ones (dented) for 97p each on the reduced shelf at Tesco. Otherwise I buy my tinned toms from Lidl or Aldi - I've lost track of exactly how much they cost but they're so much better than Tesco Value ones for around the same price.

I haven't been able to find any of the cheap brands of coconut milk in my local Tesco or Asda this week, so will be off to Aldi to stock up on their specials. Nearly had a heart attack when I went on Aldi's store-finder to see what time they open on Saturdays, and found no sign of my local store :eek: I had to phone their central contact number and check that it hadn't closed down but was reassured that it was just a software bug

Lidl have similar Asian specials at the moment but the coconut milk is more expensive. They do nice Thai curry paste though - will be going in for some of that.

Has anybody seen Asda Smartprice sardines in tomato sauce in the last week or so? There is a space for it on the shelf at my local branch, but I haven't found them in stock for ages. They are only 18p at the moment, if they actually have them at all - and the Tesco Value equivalent has disappeared from stock altogether.

I remember posting here last week to advise of the Asda deal on Fairy dishwasher tablets (57 tabs for £4.00). I was browsing next week's Netto deals and found an even better price on good dishwasher tabs - they will be doing 48 Finish Powerball tabs for £2.99.

BB1984

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

Has anybody seen Asda Smartprice sardines in tomato sauce in the last week or so? There is a space for it on the shelf at my local branch, but I haven't found them in stock for ages. They are only 18p at the moment, if they actually have them at all - and the Tesco Value equivalent has disappeared from stock altogether.

I bought a couple of tins of these in the big Asda in Poole about 2 weeks ago...meant to buy some more last weekend but I forgot. I give them to my cat as a treat - it's good for his coat, so says my vet!

BB

Bargain_Rzl

What a lucky cat I like to have the cheap sardines on toast for Saturday breakfast, or for supper if I've been out till late.

champys

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

What a lucky cat I like to have the cheap sardines on toast for Saturday breakfast, or for supper if I've been out till late.

My brother makes a nice fish soup with a tin of sardines! The ones in oil - he fries an onion in a little of the oil (optional: add some chopped red/green pepper, chopped fresh tomato while you do this), then add a carton of tomato juice and when it is hot, add the chopped up sardines. Bouillabaisse a l'economique :-)

My cats pull their noses up for sardines for some reason.

mummysaver

Champys - my dd1 loves fish, will try this soup for her! As nobody else is very keen on fish she doesn't have it that often.

BR - I can remember having sardines on toast as a kid, I loved them! They were even a trendy party food for quite a while when I was about 8 or 9, everyone used to make toast soldiers with mashed sardines on them, always went down a storm! Wonder how many kids would eat them now, or even recognise them!

Will keep an eye out for the tinned cheap ones in Asda, need some petrol before I can collect dd3, so might do a detour via there! School hometime is a great time to visit, they start heavily reducing then, especially the dairy produce!

And I guess, to keep this on thread, that one way we are all coping now that things are tougher, is to search out the food bargains and swap tips on where to find them, the best prices and quality and taste, and recipes to use them!

fedupfreda

Funny all this talk about sardines - guess what we're having tonight - HM sardine, olive and pepper pizza and yes, I get mine from Mr A as well - they must be getting quite popular - I was in there at 9.30 this morning and there were no value sardines left :mad:

Good ideas obviously get around

pinknfluffy

To the lady who cooks jam roly-poly in her steamer, do you wrap it and if so in what - would greaseproof paper work?

elizabunny

Oooh this thread is moving so fast today I can hardly keep up.

NannaC -I loved the sound of your soup and must try it! Oh and thank you so much for reminding me that I should use my steamer for other things rather than just veggies.

On embarrasing shopping trips -when DH and I were first married and had no transport other than an old battered bike, this was how we used to collect our weekly shop, as the nearest supermarket was quite a way from us. Every friday night we must have looked such a sight, bike loaded with carrier bags and DH trying to pedal. I even used to jump on the crossbar when we hit the quieter stretches -you can't do that now. Poor DH it must have felt like pedalling uphill all the time:rotfl:

I think we used to have a grocery budget of £6 per week:eek: but that was ample for us and there always seemed to be loads of carrier bags. However, I do totally agree with other posters on here that the price of everything is creeping quite rapidly upwards. Even the petrol in our area has gone up again by about 5p a litre.

I've spent most of the morning checking out local food prices for my grocery challenge and there does not seem to be so many good offers around now. Where are the offers? -they're very often on things that are not so useful. What we need is for someone (clever within the powers that be:rotfl: ) to realise that 'good offers' would be those put on things like eggs, bread, flour, veg. fruit etc. You know, all the things that us OS use frequently. Of course someone (clever within the powers that be ) has already decided that these are exactly the products that should be hit with ridiculous price hikes that would obviously generate a nice tidy bit of extra profit. I won't say anymore here, as it makes me get a bit hot under the collar -I mean -I ask you, can anyone really justify a 27p rise on bread flour in one week!

Whilst on the subject of bread flour I recently bought 2 bags from MrA. at their cheaper price of I think 48p and I have to say it has not produced the quality of bread that I usually achieve. I have been making bread for years and the last 2 I have made using this flour, has produced heavy, dense loaves that have me rushing for the indigestion remedy every time I eat a slice. :eek: Just wondered if anyone else had experienced this or whether I'm just losing my knack.

mummysaver

Eliza - sounds like you've got a bad batch of flour. Take it back and complain! I've not had any problems with Mr A's flour at all.

For my necessities I shop around, because the blooming constant price changes!

Bread flour is currently from Mr A for 48p
Eggs in Mr T and Mr A are £2 for 15 freerange, £1 for 15 battery
Fruit and veg I tend to shop everywhere for this! We have a browse through the papers at work during our tea breaks, and the ads always show the special offers, I know Mr M has savoy cabbage and clementines on offer at 50p. Aldi still had the 5kg bags of pots for 49p this week.

Not been into Lidl for a week or so, so not sure about their offers, but they are usually fairly good, onions were 19p a kilo a couple of weeks ago, don't know about now though.

Mr S also has quite a few bargains on f&v at the mo I noticed - popped in several times looking for the elusive Daz - never found any!

I'm sure that yeast had gone up yesterday when I looked - argh!