Can you live of basic/value/smartprice food for a month?

Burlesque_Babe

I remember about a year or so ago seeing Martin on his programme telling a couple to do one full shopping with everything Value. If they liked it, then keep buying it, if they really didn't like it, then step up to Tesco own brand (or Asda etc).

Worth a try as an experiment.

rog2

greenwichgirl wrote: »

She worked at ross and later had her own food company down off Corporation Road, I worked at Faroe Seafoods packing fish when I was a student too - DFW's and food capital contributors all round!

I did a lot of work, installing and demonstrating machinery, for Ross Youngs/Young's Seafoods, and remember that they had a FANTASTIC Company 'Shop' which, as a contractor, I was allowed to use. Anything from Shampoo to Cakes, Ready Meals to Clothes and of course 'Frozen Fish'. I used to stock up on a Friday, before driving home - even had a small 'fridge' in the back of my car. :T :T

CharliesAngel

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Uh we do every month.. is that a bad thing then??

Me too! 17p beans on toast (26p a loaf) and 15p pasta with 18p pasta sauce, 31p tuna and a bit of cheese! repeat as necessary, bung in some fruit when you've got some spare pennies and err... sorted!

CA x

chipbeck

Ok I mainly look at three threads on MSE.

DFW because I'm a pillock and need to sort myself out.

Reclaim Bank Charges because I'm a pillock and need to sort the bank out.

Discounts and Money off because I love going shopping at Tescos.
The reason I mention this is that I get branded stuff etc but I pay less than the price of 'own brand' stuff by simply having the balls to use as many coupons as I can get away with. Nothing illegal or dodgy just try as hard as I can without having to hold a gun to the cashiers head.:rotfl: :rotfl:
If you've got a Tesco near you then read the threads and give it a whirl. If you want any 'private lessons or tips then pm me. Just my way of repaying for the advice on this thread as theres no way I'll master the DFW by myself.

:beer:

Burlesque_Babe

Blimey........is that 4 of us with Grimsby connections???!!!!!! I used to love going round Freeman St Market as a young child in the late 70s, lots of fruit and veg stalls and people shouting their prices and bargains. Christmas time working on the top town inside market used to be manic. Open the shutters at 7.30am and there were people waiting to be served. With all the choices in the supermarkets now, I'm betting it isn't nearly as busy on a Friday and Saturday as it used to be in the mid 80s.

earwig

yes and no i buy value stuff like tined toms loo roll crisps bisctes ect i never buy value meat i always get mine from the butchers some things have to be branded always for one sorry boys and heniz baked beans and tom sauce and coke has to be coke andi know i could never eat or feed my kids value sauages burgers ect god knows what in them and 8 for 49p not much i guess but i guess it depends on how fussy you are good luck with it though

newlywed

I agree with earwig - I will not buy value meat (although the comment about the value turkey breast bits is interesting...). I can't stand gristle or chewy mince and don't want to know what's in the cheap sausages.

But I could probably go mostly veggie for a month and maybe eat value bacon, if my local store didn't have such a sparse value stock (Tesco Metro). But I shop for some things in Aldi/Lidl in any case.

rayday2

I swopped supermarkets I don't buy any value items and now my shopping costs a lot less in fact this week it was £52 and that included a case of Fosters

chocaholic110

We do buy a fair few smartprice items - things you can't really tell the difference on. We are particular about tea, coffee, ketchup, beans, soup, cordial, meat etc though and we don't buy fizzy drinks anyway. We don't really buy frozen (except for ice cream!) foods and don't buy ready meals, biscuits or cakes.

I do tend to stock up when food is on special offer - for an earlier poster who liked heinz tomato soup it is currently 4 tins for 2.60-something or 8 tins for £3 or something like that so we have bought 8 tins for the last 3 weeks and will buy them until the offer is finished. Also Robinson's juice is 90-odd pence a bottle or 4 bottles for £2 -we have tons of them in the cupboard. And OH was mortified when 4 tins of John Smith's tuna was £3.20 or you could get 2 packs (8 tins) for £3 and I was stopping people who had only bought one pack to point out that it was cheaper to buy two lots.

I think Martin's advice somewhere on site is to try the value item, if you can live with it keep buying it, if not try the store own brand, and again see if you could live with it. Only then buy the branded items that you can't live without.

carlih1

The link to the sainsbury's student advice is here for anyone that is interested!

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shoppingandservices/student_savings/savings/great_student_savings?from=http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/food/foodandfeatures/sainsburys_food_ranges/organics/5_meal_ideas/meal_ideas.htm

Carli x