Where is the cheapest place to buy peppers?

poppielia

Hi. I knew if i came here to ask a question that you lovely people might have some advice for me.

I am a single parent and i dont drive so i go food shopping weekly and have to get a taxi home costing me around £7.50 a week. I cant get the bus as have to buy big, bulky things like cat litter, bottles of squash ect.
Anyway what i have decided to do is go shopping once a month when i get paid and buy as much as possible in bulk (apart from fruit and some veg, packs ham for packlunches ect.
Hopefully saving me 3 weeks worth of taxi fares as i would pick up the other few bits and peices i would need to get every week that i couldnt buy in bulk.

I Have recently found this thread so over the past 3 weeks or so have started buying my veg and freezing it instead of it getting chucked out and this is helping to save some money. My problem is i am spending £1.48 on 3 peppers in asda but we go through two packs a week of it as is our fave veg. If i buy this in bulk, then chop and freeze it this will cost me around £12 every 4 weeks. So my question is this..... where else could i try to get my peppers cheaper?
Have not been to my local market recently as the last time i tried i didnt think the fruit and veg was any cheaper but if you can all think of any other ideas it would help me no end. Ps there is just myself, and my daughter living here but we do love our veggies so we do get through loads in a week.
Thanks in advance

magentadreamer

Both Tesco's and Sainsburys do a "value pack" of peppers which I know works out cheaper then their 3 in a packet ones but for the life of me can't remember the cost (sorry)

Instead of doing your big shop and paying for a taxi at £7.50 have you thought about doing it online - if you went throw Quidco you'd earn a fiver for the first shop at tesco's plus the delievery charge would be less then your taxi fares.

abbecer

I was going to suggest online shopping. We also use lots of peppers, i buy Asda smartprice ones. I think they are about £1.10 for a bag with usually 5 in.

Rebecca x

Blairweech

The only difference with the value peppers is that they are smaller than the normal peppers. I don't find this a problem though. Have you thought about growing your own? Aparently they're very easy - I'm sure someone on here will be able to give you some more info

kethry

Asda sell packs of frozen sliced mixed peppers for 1.07 i think, which works out cheaper than the fresh packs. Is that any good? especially if you plan to freeze anyway. if not then iceland also sell frozen chopped peppers i think for around the same price.

one other point: i'm in a similar situation to you, no car, on benefits, and i rapidly got fed up with the cost of taxi fares, especially as i use the fact that i have lots of time (well, more than people who work!) to shop around and take advantage of the price difference in different stores - but there's no point doing that if the savings get wiped out by the bloomin taxi fares!

so what i did was to buy a cool bag, one of those ones that keep stuff frozen for longer, from wilkos for just under £10 i think, and since i'm disabled and have a disabled bus concession card, i don't pay for my bus fares anyway, and it means i can sometimes get the bus home with my shopping instead of having to have a taxi. I still get the taxi for the heavy stuff, but like you, i do all the heavy stuff in one go, then i go for "light" stuff more frequently.

hope that helps!

keth
xx

p.s. if you have space then yeah, growing peppers might be an idea, but i think you need a greenhouse.

squeaky

I'm like you kethry. I found this to be a great help!

OS Chic Shopper club (ex Wally trolley)

kethry

you know, squeaky, i looked at your post and i thought "what on *earth* is a wallytrolly"... now i know!

and you know.. i have wanted one of them for sooooooooooooo long!

i did get one once but it wasn't very good - the wheels were too small and too close together so it wasn't really stable enough to be bouncing over pavements. i ended up throwing it away. (this was in my pre-OS days i hasten to add).

so i got a couple of plasticy-fabricy bags from tescos, you know, the old "bag for life" bags they had, they don't do them any more i think, sadly (now they do stronger plastic ones, which is a shame). i think they cost around 1.50 each, but i wouldn't be without them - i have 2, one fits inside the other, and my cool bag folds up and fits inside one of them too, so i just fold things out as i shop.

i regularly get 6-8 points at tescos this way, and i keep thinking, especially on days like today, that i should take some more bags cos i ended up using 4 carrier bags, and i don't really like doing this - i like my green points and my green credentials!

maybe i can talk the OH into letting me have a granny trolley (as i call em).. i want an OS sticker if i do though!

keth
xx

rolpaula

Aldi/Lidl can be very cheap for peppers sometimes......

lynzpower

do you have good markets near you. Pretty much all the markets round here do a bowl of ( usually red/orange/ yellow) for a quid or "scoops" as they call em in london with usually sometimes slighly suished shaped ( ie not great for stuffing) but it your using in cooking & chopping & freezing anyway, this is a good deal.

ps thanks for the wally trolley link, Squeaky I found one with a dented wheel real "gran style", Oh fixed he axle and its a godsend! I got umpteen bags of flour, 4 bottles of coke for OH all out tins and shed loads of other heavy gear in it and we wheeled it home. I do want a nice trendy one now tho, maybe Ill ask for one for valentines day LOL

guineapig

I can't offer more on the fresh pepper debate as I only buy mine when they are cheap at Morrisons, I used to stuff them, but found that I prefer to use them to make my own pepper sauces.

I recently went to Lidl and although they didn't have anything much of interest to me ( I am Vegan) I did buy a jar of peppers in oil ( they were less than £1.00 sorry can't remember exactly how much.)

However, last night I made the most wonderful creamy pepper sauce with it, it was fabulous:D

So it might pay you to check out jars and tins if you are wanting to make pepper sauces. I can vouch for the frozen slices, you do seem to get more for your money than fresh

As for the so called "Wally Trolly" I have bits so my back missing and my neck is bolted together with part of my hip and metal and I use one and it gives me a certain amount of liberty, not having to wait for hubby to help( though he does and is very good).

Mine is a Rolser Black and white "cow" print, and I have had lots of lovely comments when I have been out and about shopping with it:cool:

I have had a few other styles over the years, but this is my favourite:D

As for names I call mine my "Meals on Wheels" trolly:p


BTW I have been using a trolly for well over 10 years and I have noticed a lot more younger women using them these days.(I am in my 30's plus VAT:p )

newleaf

Could you do your shopping online? Tesco charges £5 for delivery, but you can sometimes find a code for free delivery. It would be cheaper than your taxi fare and would also save you time & hassle. I would hate to be struggling with all that heavy stuff in a taxi.
You can also buy peppers in a Tesco Value multipack, they are sometimes odd sizes or a poor mix of colours, but that's what I buy and they are fine.

Edit to add: Sorry, just read the thread again and see that magentadreamer has already given an almost identical answer! That'll teach me to read things properly in future