Sainsbury's Basics good/bad items

cambridge5000

I tried the meat-free chicken style soya burgers. Decent enough value at four for £1.

Quite small, but nice enough with veggie gravy and vegetables

FopMistress

Sainsbury's have opened a store about 15 minutes walk from me so I go a lot.

Their Basics range have some surprisingly good items.

Good

Coffee - In a packet instead of a jar for about 50p. Chuck it in your own tub and it's absolutely fine. I drink coffee all the time so it does save me money.

Tinned chopped tomatoes

Pitta Bread - A bit smaller than normal ones but fine for 22p.

Hoummous (I actually prefer it to the normal stuff)

Deodorant (It's 30p and a more unisex fragrance but it stops you niffing and does keep you dry - tested in the front row of gigs )

Liquid bathroom cleaner

Kidney beans

Tinned custard

Full flavour cheese (a really big lump for £4)

Sultanas

Honey

Mushy peas

Peanut Butter

Salad cream

Pasta

Bad

The only thing that isn't that good is the beans, but only because I feel the sauce is a little too runny but I use them in home made veggie chilli and they work, just don't use them on toast if you don't like soggy toast :money:

More recommendations please!

Scritti

FopMistress wrote: »

More recommendations please!

Have you tried the tea bags?

Last time I bought them they were only about 30p for a box of 80 and are very strong and very nice. A great bargain!

mardatha

I love the basic teabags and we have compared them with dearer brands and there is no diff for us

[Deleted User]

Been using the basics teabags for a few weeks now. This will save me a fortune over the year.

Scritti

Deleted_User wrote: »

Been using the basics teabags for a few weeks now. This will save me a fortune over the year.

It really will!

I live with my ex (from years back - still best mates) and her son. She used to be a brand snob about everything until I sneakily swapped her overpriced Twining's tea for Lidl's ones and she never noticed any difference.

Now she uses only the Lidl ones which are £2 for 160 bags (£1 half price this weekend! - just went out and got 8 boxes, ker-ching!). I think Twinings are between 4 and 6 quid for the same amount!

Considering the massive amount of tea she drinks each day (plus friends & family popping round), I worked out she's saving around a hundred quid a year just by dropping down a brand on her tea.

Me and her son are quite happy with the Sain's Basics tea and that's less than half the price again (about 70p for 160 bags) so I reckon someone who drinks a lot of tea or an average size family could save around £200 each year. Just on TEA for goodness sake!

Apply the same theory to as much as possible that you buy and you can see how it would be possible to save a couple of grand a year or even more if you're really savvy and learn not to be fussy. This is a lot of money to bust debt with, put into savings or treat yourself to a lovely holiday. Well worth the minimal sacrifice in my opinion!

I started doing this at the beginning of last year when I discovered MSE and never looked back. Have cleared my OD, paid off my loan, will have paid off my 0% interest CC completely within the next few months and have a couple of grand in savings. About a third of that has been down to trying supermarket's "Basics" stuff and discovering loads of great stuff from Lidl and Aldi.

I still buy some big-brand items but probably about 25% of what I used to (and bulk buy when they're half price) but I've found loads of things that taste just as nice as the big brand items that always cost a lot more. I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything at all - still only eat and drink stuff I really like but have probably halved my grocery spending.

dasophster

Tried the washing up liquid and it's fantastic though only if you do washing up by scrubbing and rinsing each item individually instead of just soaking everything in the sink. It has a more pleasant fragrance than the Sainsbury's 'original' washing up liquid-that has a fake lemon scent that reminds me of industrial cleaning products. It also cleans perfectly well and isn't harsh on hands either. No wonder 2/3 of them are gone every time I go to my local Sainsbury's! Xx

mardatha

Dasophster, were you up at 3.49am washing dishes??? lol

anamenottaken

FopMistress wrote: »

Sainsbury's have opened a store about 15 minutes walk from me so I go a lot.

Their Basics range have some surprisingly good items.

Good

Coffee - In a packet instead of a jar for about 50p. Chuck it in your own tub and it's absolutely fine. I drink coffee all the time so it does save me money.

Have they changed the instant coffee in the last year or so? Or did I get a bad batch when I tried it a couple of years ago?

I do buy the Basics ground coffee regularly and find that good.

kronenbourg

T2010 wrote: »

I did think this would not contain much rice...how wrong I was. Packed with rice and very very tasty!

agree with the rice pudding
i buy a tray of 12 at a time which is currently £1.80 (15p a tin ) compared with ambrosia which is 94p a tin

also all there tinned fruit is good
who cares if every segment isnt the same uniform size like del monte