What Value things have you tried and liked?

peachyprice

I bought the Sainsbury's Basics peanut butter for making satay, but it's actually really, really nice, very nutty and not too salty. I think they only do crunch, and IIRC it was 69p as opposed to £1.25 for the normal Sainsbury's brand.

shebangs

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bearcub

If people want to 'sniff' at us buying value or own brand products, then let 'em. It's OUR shopping, OUR money, and OUR home - it's nothing to do with anyone else, frankly.

Reminded by lollipopsarah, I'd forgotten Lidl's wonderful jam. So cheap for such good quality preserve! I especially love the peach one - reminds me of holidays in Spain.

lilac_lady

My friend says Asda's own gin is nice but I still buy Gordons or Sapphire when on offer. I do buy own brand tonic though!

ellies_angel

Tesco
Branflakes
chocolate and hazelnut spread
fabric softner
oven chips
frozen chicken breasts (skinless)
plain or milk chocolate
kidney beans
tinned tomatos
beef mince (just dry fry and then drain)
chocolate milk and plain digestives

Tink_04

We love sp biscuits - sp kidney beans Going to look out for cheap baby showegel to use as hand soap. Love the OS board!

scottishminnie

Tink_04 wrote: »

We love sp biscuits - sp kidney beans Going to look out for cheap baby showegel to use as hand soap. Love the OS board!

what a great idea! Decanted into L'Occitane and Molton Brown containers that would save me a small fortune!

hilstep2000

My Asda have Smart Price Raisins 500g for 24p at the moment! Reduced to clear. I bought six packs yesterday. With some water or tea to plump them up, they'll be great for baking or for DGD to eat!

Evil_Olive

Pasta, pasta, pasta - have this at nearly every meal.

I buy everything Value/Smartprice that I can - The value and Smartprice fish fingers are GREAT, and the oven chips too. The frozen peas are good but only if you boil them - they don't seem to microwave well (go chewy)

tinned toms - less flavour & sweetness than napolina or the normal own brand & a bit thinner/more watery but perfectly fine for spag bol, chilli etc - especially if you're going to put tom puree in as well anyway.

Smartprice Pesto (red and green) - I was surprised to find this 'luxury' product in a basics range - it tastes, looks and smells as good as other brands I've tried.

Smartprice cheese n tomato small pizzas (pack 10 frozen) - about three 1/2 inch shreds of grated cheese per pizza usually - but good to use as bases to put your own toppings on.

Value tom ketchup tastes like Heinz - Smartprice is not so nice.

Chicken paste - taste & texture exactly like Princes - haven't tried the other flavours.

Value mince - a bit oily but I like the flavour that gives - usually made of beef with a percentage of pork for cheapness - the tesco one has a much higher proportion of beef than the Asda & does taste better.

I recommend people steer clear of the following though:

Smartprice tinned corned beef - when you open the tin you are overwhelmed with the stench of cheap catfood - didn't get as far as seeing if it also tasted like cat food - it went straight in the bin :-/ It also had jelly instead of the nice creamy hard beef dripping which is one of the reasons I like corned beef (I like to put it in the fridge before opening to get the dripping nice and solid :P)

Value and Smartprice frozen beef burgers - the taste, colour & texture of the ones you get in a tin packed in brine :where is a vomit smiley when you need one:

Ham - horrid texture/flavour & lotsa gristle & 'wobbly bits'

Bacon - 'weird' flavour, more fat than meat - ok for flavouring soups/stews or chopping into bits for stirfrys tho if you like the flavour

Cheddar 'style' cheese - the tesco value one used to be great but both that and the Asda Smartprice one have changed since - it still tastes fine and is great cold in sandwiches but doesn't melt properly so no good for cheese on toast or topping anything - goes like a sheet of rubbery plastic and the top millimeter gets a burnt skin - weird.
Also, I checked out the pricing more fully and most of the time the value/smartprice is only a few pence per kilo less than the normal own brand in both tesco and asda - a lot of the time value/smartprice was more expensive!