What Value things have you tried and liked? 19 March 2007 at 7:48PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Old Style MoneySaving 1.4K replies 163.1K views

moanymoany

Tesco value- things I buy every month. When I shop online I always put not to replace with alternative.

Porridge oats
Stewing beef - cook for a long time
Tinned tomatoes
tinned red beans
flour
teacakes
butter
orange juice
mayo - not bad but full fat
handwash
garlic bread
ketchup
cleaning liquid
cream cleaner
spray polish
kitchen towel
potatoes, fruit and veg
washing up liquid
wash-up sponges
full flavour cheese

Using these products must save me hundreds of pounds a year. I buy as much own brand stuff as I can. I have a friend who used to work for an advertising company and she NEVER buys brand names if she can help it.

With baked beans I do trade the extra taste and buy value. They are not the best, but not 30p better!

Justamum

One thing about Tesco value products (I don't know about any other supermarket as we don't have them over here) is that they are often stuffed with nitrates - presumably a preservative. One year I bought a couple of value Christmas puddings. Big mistake. It repeated on me all day Boxing Day, so the second one went in the bin, and I now avoid nitrates, so don't buy much of the Value range (in fact I don't go in Tesco much at all as it makes me grumpy as anything for the rest of the day!)

newlywed

I switched to value flour and haven't noticed any difference other than it seems to be in more clumps in the bags.

We use value tinned potatoes (like the Tesco ones better than Sainsburys or Asda), value chopped tomatoes.

nic82

Ooh, great thread BS. If there is a value product available, then I will buy it and try it once. If I don't like it, then I'll get normal Tesco/Morrisons branded stuff. I hardly ever buy "proper" branded stuff.

Value stuff I love
- apple juice
- orange juice
- chocolate (have only tried milk choc)
- sponge scourers
- weetabix (great for weetabix brownies, not so great for eating as a cereal, so I buy Tesco/Morrisons non-value/SP weetabix)
- tinned fruit (wash syrup off to make it healthier)
- tinned toms
- tinned chopped toms
- tinned mushrooms (I don't eat mushrooms but OH likes them)
- fresh mushrooms (as above, but you can get a big box for £1.18 and they last for ages in the fridge)
- frozen yorkshire puddings (I have never bought these as I make my own, but I've had them at my friend's house and they taste fine)
- flour
- butter
- biscuits
- peanuts (21p a packet...only buy them at Xmas )
- lemonade
- salad cream
- porridge oats
- pasta (although it works out cheaper to buy Tesco's 3kg bags for £1 than smaller value packs)
- pitta breads (I use them to make pitta bread pizzas)
- tinned baked beans
- rice
- mayo is fine but they only have a full-fat variety
- potatoes (these taste absolutely fine but I find they don't last very long and I keep them in the dark, so only buy if you're going to use them quickly)
- steak (you often have to pick the packets over as some of it can be really really fatty)
- instant whip (have only bought this once but it was absolutely fine)


Stuff to avoid
- washing up liquid (makes hardly any bubbles. I just use Tesco/Morrisons own that is in a bottle similar to Fairy Liquid)
- value version of cocopops - they are gross!!!
- tinned spaghetti (nothing tastes as good as heinz )
- tuna (I bought this for the first time two weeks ago and it has loads of ikky black bits in and put me right off, so I'm going back to John West/Princes/whatever is on BOGOF so I get 8 tins for the price of 4)


Crikey, didn't realise I bought so much value stuff and I bet I've missed some stuff off my list.

liz545

Tried Asda own brand (not smartprice) yeast extract this week - nowhere near as nice as Marmite! It has the same texture, but the flavour is closer to Veggiemite, so I don't think I'll try and save on that again.
Sainsburys value weetabix are ok, but they seem to turn to mush quickly.
Tinned tomatoes and most fruit & veg are fine in the value ranges, I'm not a huge fan of bog-standard bread so haven't tried the value white sliced.
I always avoid value meat, with the exception of stewing steak, where it seems that value is sometimes the only option. Value rice and oats tend to be pretty much the same, wherever you buy them. With things like chicken and bacon it seems like the value range tends to ooze water, the sausages are just spooky, and I worry about the welfare standards.

Uniscots97

I buy Value flour, pasta (19p for a huge bag why not), their version of frosties (these are lovely! though my Tesco has stopped stocking them, midget gems (less colourings and sugar than the regular ones), chocolate, and lasagne sheets.

sissy_2

Morrisons or Sainsburys own brand toilet roll is fab! Not the really cheap stuff. Can't use Andrex blocks my toilet!:eek: Was wondering if we had any bods out there that could do a spread sheet for all us MSE & DFW's. If I had the know how or brains to do it myself I would.
i.e Morrisons/Sainsburys toilet roll as good as Andrex.

tiff

nic82 wrote: »

- mayo is fine but they only have a full-fat variety

My Tesco sells a value reduced calorie mayonnaise. It tastes fine to me but I dont use mayo v often.

LearningToSave.

tiff wrote: »

My Tesco sells a value reduced calorie mayonnaise. It tastes fine to me but I dont use mayo v often.

oooooooooooo which tesco is that tiff? eastville?

tiff

No, it's Brislington, LTS. (Hiya )