Downshifting Cereals

earthmother

I'm in the middle of a substantial downshift challenge. I have three under 9s, and a picky husband, so I'm doing it slowly, and am attacking the cereals at the moment.

Shreddies are a no-go - tried all the other brands, but all have been rejected, so they're just going to have to get used to them not being in constant supply.

Weetabix has always been stores-own, so not too bad, but I know there's still room for manouvere. Sainsburys/Tesco value ones haven't cut it so far, but if anyone can suggest one we might not have tried?

Rice crispies are easy - no-one's picky with them, but Cornflakes so far have to be Kelloggs, so again, suggestions would be great.

I thought I'd cracked it with the Cheerios - we tried a box of Tesco's, and the kids loved them - then this morning I actually concentrated on what was written on the box, and realised why - they're sugar coated! Never thought to look before - I'd just stuck them on my delivery the other week after they came up as a downshift suggestion. So, can anyone suggest a non-sugar-coated version?

I have most of the big names at my disposal, including Lidl and Aldi, although I don't use them as often as I should, so any ideas would be welcomed.

chnelomi

Tesco's own cornflakes went down well with my kids but i did trick them a little. the packet accidentally dropped into the kellogs box ooooopps silly mum.
My son says they are more tasty than kellogs, and when kellogs had a special offer on and i got them i ended up having to ask them to eat them because they said they were bland. honestly you cant win.

meanmum

I do wonder how much we are influenced by the packaging......as chnelomi suggests, a bit of sleight of hand to ensure you get a proper blind tasting sounds like the way forward! I recently bought the Tesco value Swiss muesli (in the box, it's different from the one in the bag, although not much more expensive) & apparently it was good.

MrsBartolozzi

I've just compared the sugar content of Cheerios original and the Tesco hoops. They have an almost identical composition of sugars, carbs, protein etc so I don't see the problem with getting the tesco version. Maybe you forget that cheerios are a sweetened cereal, they only have slightly less than Shreddies which are not normally considered sweet, but there you go... (all based on a bowlful of each).

Bigun28

Try Lidl's Bixxies (spelling?) instead of Wheatabix. A lot cheaper (and cheaper than most of the value ranges), especially in the 72 pack and imo just as good. They also seem to be highly praised by others in this forum during taste comparisons.

nansenst

Museli - i found the best one to be Morrisons own. Usually found on the bottom shelf. I've found this to be much nicer than all the brand names and other supermarkets cheapest.

earthmother

Thank you all - will try the Tesco cornflakes next time.

Normally my lot aren't influenced by packaging, in fact they're actually fairly well on board as far as trying these new ones out goes. The brands we're on at the moment are the ones that have won taste tests over the past months - but if I've missed one (that's not Tesco, Sainsburys etc) that might be preferred, then I, and they, have got no problem giving it a go.

MrsBartolozzi - true, TBH I didn't think of Cheerios as sweetened cereal. We did a quick comparison this morning of the Mr T ones against some Shreddies we have and the sugars were significantly higher - I'll take another look compared to 'proper' Cheerios, although as we are also working on removing a lot of coated cereals at the same time as downshifting, maybe I'll just take them off the list all together.

earthmother

Will pick up some Lidl Bixxies when we're next due them

I'm about the only muesli eater in the house, so it doesn't get picked up too often, but I'll have a look next time I fancy some. TBH, I prefer the ones without much fruit (plenty of nuts and grains though), so I often end up with the value ones anyway.

msgnomey

Aldi's wheetabix and shreddies are both great in fact better than tesco's imho

Fourcandles_3

We love Tesco's Swiss style museli, it's better than the Alpen one. Their cornflakes are also good and I only buy Asda hoops and asda 'weetabix'. The latter two taste different but still good.

BeenieCat

Just wanted to say that i asked the same question recently and there's some useful replies there! It had fallen off the first page though

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1730683