Good and Bad Buys at Lidl and Aldi stores (***Please don't expire***)

fatbelly

General_Grant said:

I've been buying the own brand instant coffee from Lidl (the 200g for £1.99 variety) for a while.   It's good enough.

Picking up a jar today I noticed there was quite a gap between the top of the coffee and the top of the jar.
Have they increased the size of the glass jar - or have I simply not noticed the unnecessary air before?
Surely they can't have reduced the weight without changing the declared weight on the label?

The 100g decaf coffee is ok too

pumpkin89

maman said:

I'm another that searches out the green bananas. We don't mind eating them yellow (but still firm) but as I want them to last a week then buying them ripe to start with wouldn't be helpful. 

Using the official banana scale below   I would like to be able to buy 9, so that they are at the optimum ripeness of 11-12 when I want to eat them.  I can rarely find anything beyond 7, and on a bad day with all new stock they are 4.  I don't know if I'll live long enough for those to ripen!

General_Grant

pumpkin89 said:

maman said:

I'm another that searches out the green bananas. We don't mind eating them yellow (but still firm) but as I want them to last a week then buying them ripe to start with wouldn't be helpful. 

Using the official banana scale below   I would like to be able to buy 9, so that they are at the optimum ripeness of 11-12 when I want to eat them.  I can rarely find anything beyond 7, and on a bad day with all new stock they are 4.  I don't know if I'll live long enough for those to ripen!

Love that scale.
I tend to look to buy at 4 or 5 and prefer to eat at 6 or 7.

But I'd buy as unripe as 1 if that is what is available and be patient.  No 11 is probably as ripe as I would buy (for immediate consumption).

Sea_Shell

Great scale!!

Personal preference...buy at 4/5, eat at 7/8.

But, I tend to buy "pick and mix" and break up bunches as required, depending on when I want them for.

I don't like them "crunchy" or once they get that "pear drops" flavour (I know what I mean)

maman

The problem with buying bananas 'pick and mix' in Aldi is that you're paying for them individually. I prefer to buy the bunches of small ones as they're big enough to slice onto muesli or porridge along with other fruits. 

Sea_Shell

maman said:

The problem with buying bananas 'pick and mix' in Aldi is that you're paying for them individually. I prefer to buy the bunches of small ones as they're big enough to slice onto muesli or porridge along with other fruits. 

I know.  How extravagant!! 😉😁

mikb

On that (excellent) scale, I've seen bananas at "zero" or below on display, that are so green you'd think they were a cucumber. Entirely inedible (to me) but definitely something I would pick up on a "10% off Fresh Fruit" day at Morries to tide me through a couple of weeks without having to buy them at all -- those are "next week's" or after ... meanwhile a bunch of actual proper yellow/spotty ones for right now goes in the basket too.

On the other hand, I've pulled at least a "16" out of the fridge where it was perfectly fine inside, just dark brown going to black outside. Not even mushy yet. @Sea_Shell Oddly enough, that "pear drops" fruity flavour is a bonus to me!

Brie

And me - I'd be buying at 1 (or less!!) and eating immediately or 2 or 3 for preference.  They go into the freezer at 7 as inedible.  

Meanwhile - having given up on buying salmon from Lidl as it goes off too quickly I had a look around Tesco yesterday.  The majority of salmon (all prepackaged as none of the shops near us have fish mongers anymore) is cut into tidy even portions and for the most part seem to be priced at about £18+ a kilo no matter the size of the pack.  Think there may have been an individual portion at £22.  And then I spotted the pack of what I guess are off cuts.  Not particularly tidy but 4 good size pieces in a pack at about £11 kilo.  Well I'm not running a restaurant, just cooking these for myself so perfectly fine to get these and pay a fraction of the standard price.  So that was breakfast this morning and very tasty it was too!!!

Rosa_Damascena

Lidl custard creams are just 60p for 400g and impossible to stop eating once you start. So don't buy them.

Brie

Rosa_Damascena said:

Lidl custard creams are just 60p for 400g and impossible to stop eating once you start. So don't buy them.

You mean leave them all for you?

Meanwhile over at Asda......OH came home with a 4 pack of baked beans.  I noticed that they said "reduced sugar" which always makes me suspicious.  And yes it means that they have sweetener of some sort rather than sugar.  And I hate sweetener.  But these were fine.  Didn't clash with the wine at all.