False economy (merged threads)

Magentasue

I don't worry too much about 5 a day although I always feel smug when I manage more than 5. This was discussed before and there were some who went with the guidelines and counted longlife fruit juice, tinned tomatoes, pulses, raisins etc. For me it has to be fruit from the fruit bowl and veg from the like carrots, green veg, salads. Frozen peas and sweetcorn count for me but not other veg although I can see that's not logical.

We have an organic veg box and grow our own. We always have apples, bananas and oranges in the house. Well, alright, there are no bananas today but I'm going shopping tomorrow. Other fruit is there as it comes into season or cheap (strawberries in the summer but clementines in the winter) and we have a fruit based pudding once or twice a week. Now I know a few tins of smartprice peas or carrots would be cheaper but you'll never convince me it's as good as fresh. Same for tinned fruit.

So for us, smartprice loo rolls are an economy but tinned fruit and veg can stay on the shelves.

Londonsaver_3

Cheap washing powder-we have hard water and an outflow pipe with several curves. Every time we use cheap powder that outflow pipe blocks and takes hours to unblock.

Marigold123

Londonsaver wrote:

Cheap washing powder-we have hard water and an outflow pipe with several curves. Every time we use cheap powder that outflow pipe blocks and takes hours to unblock.

Supermarket brand tablets? Cheaper but low bulk? I actually only use one, most of the time, as I feel I get a good enough wash from a smaller amount, so that's economical AND low bulk. My water is fairly hard too.

Powder is probably more economical on the whole though, as you can measure exactly the amount you want, and not be restricted to choosing between one tablet or two. I used to like Asda concentrated powder. Less bulk, cheaper, and you could still measure exactly the amount you needed for a good wash. But they don't do it any more in my local store.

nicki_2

I use Smartprice soap powder and Asda's own fabric conditioner (currently using their Easy Iron Ylang Ylang one as it was a better deal, at the time, then the concentrated one I usually buy) so for less then £3 a month I get pretty clean clothes without much effort. If anything is really dirty I use a stain remover or just keep washing it until the stain comes out, unless it is a "white" then it gets put in a bucket of bleach water and then washed twice.

I think I pretty much do very well and manage to avoid most false economy things, but I really should go back and re-read this thread properly :rotfl:

Oh, and I've also found that going to my local fruit & veg shop isn't always cheaper then going to Asda. Yesterday I managed to pick up 3 bags of smartprice apples at 40p each instead of 61p. The same amount of apples in the fruit shop would probably cost me about £3 alone! He also does 50p bags, we've I've realised it a waste of money in some cases except when its grapes or something I know I will use within 24 hours and would usually cost me more. 50p bag of bananas (approx 5 in total usually) only last about 2 hours in this house if we're all in :rolleyes:

Grumpysally

Quackers wrote:

In the supermarket I always look at the other price - I think its price per weight or price by units or something

The philadelphia cheese is cheaper for the smaller tubs :wall: It doesn't take much to confuse me but this did! I always used to naturally pick up the bigger of everything to save me money - doesn't always work that way though!

I only noticed that last week in Morrisons and thought it was a pricing error.

Alison

squeaky

I don't buy those extra fruit or veg options in Asda any more. The shelf life on everything at my local seems so short these days. They're soggy soft or rotten before I can eat them all. False economy for me if I have to bin half of it.

Grumpysally

raeble wrote:

Yes I always buy Nouvelle because it is cheap and recycled, it's not the cheapest but its very nice and soft on the old bottie. I was buying it in Wilkos for 99p for 4 then spotted it in a saver store - 8 rolls for £1.49

I always try to buy Nouvelle as it seems to be the only soft strong recycled stuff you can get. If they can do it why can't others?
Tradex sometimes do 3 packs of 18 for 9.99 only worth it if there's a store local and you don't get seduced by other ' bargins' whilst you're there, and if you've got the storage space. Suppose you could use them as foot stools. :rolleyes:
Some Londis stores stock the small packs too

ilovefreebies_2

Its weird the difference in quality between two store brands

Bargain_Rzl

Marigold123 wrote:

Overall, though, the quality of Asda's 'whoops' fruit and veg definitely isn't very good. Unlike Tescos, which, I have discovered, seem to have really good quality mark-downs, with a much longer life.

Totally agree re: Asda. But Tesco's vary. In the modern Tesco's stores (large superstores and Tesco Metro/Express) the quality of reduced produce is usually excellent. But my local place is really shabby and neglected (it still has the shop sign from TWO re-brandings ago, with just red letters stuck on the wall) - it hardly stocks anything, runs out of reasonable fresh veg by the time I get home in the evenings, and quite often offers a pile of utter crap reduced to clear just before closing time.

This can have benefits in itself, as I discovered a couple of days ago when I picked up lots of brown squishy bananas for 36p the lot, and transformed it into delicious banana bread the moment I got home

The other thing I never buy is Somerfield reduced meat, which is always visibly past it to the point that it turns my stomach just to look at it

Marigold123

Just goes to show how much individual shops vary in their management. Our local somerfield used to be so bad that I wouldn't even touch the in-date meat with a barge pole. Now they are so squeaky-clean, (but expensive), that I won't touch their meat with a barge pole UNLESS it's reduced!