Bargains in food without compromising on taste

pog it

Have been trying out some own brands, etc. and am trying to discover the best of certain 'staples'.

- So far have found own brands of weetabix to be disappointing and have had to stick with the original.
- The Aldi cheap marmalade (the one at 0.69) is pretty horrible. I'm looking for a better own brand one.
- Pasta sauces in Aldi and Tesco are same price and more or less same quality, same as the pasta itself.
- Tesco handsoap (0.85) is excellent value.
- Aldi pepperoni pizza (1.49) also good for the money and don't think it can be beaten for value- nicer than some of the more expensive ones even.

Please share any of your findings

duckworth

Aldi is very good top quality to price ratio.

The Free Range Chickens are really good quality for 5-6 eur

The Greek EV Olive Oil is really good, as is the Tipperary Camembert cheese.

The steaks aren't cheap as such, but better quality than 90% of everywhere else, and therefore good value.

Some of the wines are nice too - the Bordeaux Superior is really good value at 6.99 - nicer than alot of wines three times the price.

--Fresh pasta range (ravioli and tortellini) in Aldi is beautiful too.

pog it

Thanks for that Duckworth! Will be trying out the cheese and wine suggestions.

Another one to add is the Aldi Shampoo- the one at 0.75. If you have to save, you have to save, and having seen the recent price of shampoo at 3.50-4.00 it just seems like a complete rip-off to me now that I've copped on about spending. Have been using the Aldi shampoo for a week and so far it's great, possibly doesn't give the same shine as the more expensive brands, but it's very sound otherwise.

Krusty_Clown

Instead oif buying a ready-made pasta sauce, why not make one?
The ingredients in ALDI and LIDL are very cheap, and the process is really simple.

1 x small onion (I use red onions)
2 x cloves of Garlic
1.5 Tablespoons of Oregano or even mixed herbs (e.g. Herbs de Provence)

Blend in a food processor, until ingredients form a paste-like consistency. Fry gently in a large pan for 8-10 mins. Meanwhile, blend the contents of a tin of tomatoes (I use peeled plum tomatoes) in the food processor. Add to the pan, along with a carton of Passata. Simmer gently for 20-30 mins. If looking for a thinner sauce, add water or chicken stock.

Taste frequently, and add salt, pepper, sugar (or balsamic vinegar) to taste. Sometimes I'll peel a pepper (blacken over hot flame) and blend it with the onion etc. to give the sauce a sweet pepper base.

Total cost would be around: €1.50, and will last several meals (freezes really well), and can be used as a base for Pizza, indian food (curry), Ratatouille, etc.

elvis jones

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Instead oif buying a ready-made pasta sauce, why not make one?
The ingredients in ALDI and LIDL are very cheap, and the process is really simple.

1 x small onion (I use red onions)
2 x cloves of Garlic
1.5 Tablespoons of Oregano or even mixed herbs (e.g. Herbs de Provence)

Blend in a food processor, until ingredients form a paste-like consistency. Fry gently in a large pan for 8-10 mins. Meanwhile, blend the contents of a tin of tomatoes (I use peeled plum tomatoes) in the food processor. Add to the pan, along with a carton of Passata. Simmer gently for 20-30 mins. If looking for a thinner sauce, add water or chicken stock.

Taste frequently, and add salt, pepper, sugar (or balsamic vinegar) to taste. Sometimes I'll peel a pepper (blacken over hot flame) and blend it with the onion etc. to give the sauce a sweet pepper base.

Total cost would be around: €1.50, and will last several meals (freezes really well), and can be used as a base for Pizza, indian food (curry), Ratatouille, etc.

Well said, i make all my own sauces and buy all my veg from lidl/aldi.

I roast my peppers ( bell and sweet ) and garlic in the oven and add to the onion, basil, balsamic vingear and tomatos..........as above variations can be made depending on what you want from your sauce.

pog it

elvis jones wrote: »

Well said, i make all my own sauces and buy all my veg from lidl/aldi.

I roast my peppers ( bell and sweet ) and garlic in the oven and add to the onion, basil, balsamic vingear and tomatos..........as above variations can be made depending on what you want from your sauce.

Thanks but I'm not really looking for recipes on this thread! Was hoping for contributions regarding bargain good quality products.

quazzy

The olive oil in lidl is very good

It's called primavera

I've also had some good finds for cured meats - chorizo and salami etc...

Great value Parmesan to boot

lisasimpson

for anyone a jam lover, the lidl blackcurrent jam is fab 98cent per jar

ElleEm

I second the post for the Lidl olive oil.

I also love Tesco "Soft Cheese" or something, it's called. It's just like Philadelphia. It is 99c but they have a garlic and herb one for 79c. I couldn't tell the difference. I use it for cheesecakes and everything.

nesbitt

Lidl

Creme Fraiche - delicious, excellent quality and costs 90c approx

Strawberry Jam 50% fruit - this is lovely and excellent quality

Traditional Cob from their bakery - 1.59, tasty fresh bread

Danish Pastry from their badery - .79c so moreish with plenty of raisins

Spicy chicken wings - frozen either mild or spicy about 4 euro, yum.

Chocolate - their premium range of chocoalte bars, plain, milk, hazelnut are so good

Ice Cream - wafer sandwich, choc icecream sandwich, top half covered in plain chocolate. 2 euro approx for box of 6

My grocery shop is now nearly all done in Lidl so happy with their products across the board.

However the above are items that in my view are star buys...:)

Dunnes

own brand washing up liquid, closest thing ever to Fairy Liquid that I have come across

Boots

The Essentials range, soap, shower gel, liquid hand soap, so inexpensive but excellent quality

lisasimpson

aldi curly fires are lovley too

the tins of fruit cocktail from lidl is lovely too not sure of the exact price but the cheeps than main brands and the tins are bigger

kilco

Totally agree about the tesco soft cheese I always use it for cheesecake.
Find tesco brand weetabix fine cornflakes horrible though.Jam rings think they're called jack and jill or something-lovely. Own brand pull ups absolute rubbish tear to easy

The aldi frozen chocolate fudge cake(purple box) is divine heated for 30 seconds with squirty cream ordinary cream too heavy. Great bargain for Sunday desert the kids love it. It's only something like 2.99
Their frozen snack food is nice too.

Lidl cheese is fine too just regular suff like mozzarella /cheddar I'm not in to anything fancy so wouldn't know about camembert etc
Champion butter very nice not really a bargain though.

Dunnes fig rolls even nicer than jacobs, eggs lovely, pasta fine. I also get their cheapest own brand firelighters and kitchen roll and have no problems with them. Their own brand weetabix is ok the tesco one is better though.

Supevalu own brand creamy coleslaw is lovely.

Going off the point today I didn't need much so I went to the local centra I might have paid a few cent extra for a couple of things but had I gone to one of the big stores I would have came out with a full trolley which is what I usually do. I think I'm going to try doing this maybe evryscond week and make sure I stock up on other stuff in the big ones the other just to avoid the temptation all these big supermarkets shove in your face all the time!!

KayTee

Lidl - weetabix (bixies) branflakes, Swiss style muesli, garlic bread, breaded cod, chocolate spread, strawberry/raspberry jam, marmalade, frozen veg mix, fair-trade teabags, granarom highland gold coffee, oj, natural yoghurt, cheddar slices, pasta and couscous all fine IMO - do the majority of my shopping there anymore

nesbitt

Tesco

Tesco Colour Care 2kg washing powder 5euro approx, does the job....
Tesco Concentrated fabric conditioner 1.5 litre 2.50 approx does the job...

Tesco Finest dry cure rashers smoked/unsmoked 2euro, really good.

Krusty_Clown

pog it wrote: »

Thanks but I'm not really looking for recipes on this thread! Was hoping for contributions regarding bargain good quality products.

The LIDL Passata is really good. Makes a lovely pasta sauce.

I also like their Goat's cheese, Parmesan, dried pastas and rices are all good.

ALDI does some good multi-grain crackers, coconut milk, sausages (72%+ pork, unlike LIDL's crap sausages), chicken mini-fillets, smoked cheese (slices), Irish Stout and Irish red ale.

Tar.Aldarion

I adore tesco orange juice, 87c a litre
lidl m&ms, 1.59 big packet, way better than the normal ones and also vegetarian.

Corsendonk

This thread covered some of the Aldi/Lidl Brands

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70222407

pog it

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I adore tesco orange juice, 87c a litre

Hey I got this today and it is great for the money! Thanks for the tip.

Tar.Aldarion

glad i could spread the love, it's way better than oj twice the price!

Tranceypoo

Aldi chocolate digestives are the best I've found, better than McVities even and at 69c per packet, great value. Also love their pesto sauce, the normal tomatoe one is 1.29 but the other 'fancier' flavours are 1.49, however they are delicious, I stopped buying their jars of pasta sauce though I thought they were very bland and tasteless, also buy my wholewheat pasta there, 99c for a 500g packet, can't find it cheaper anywhere else. Also their mature cheese slices and grated is great value and v tasty. Washing up liquid, washing liquid and tablets, fabric softener, all good products and very good value and lastly they do lovely bars of chocolate!!

Have to say though never go to Lidl as there isn't one near me so I couldn't comment on any of their stuff.
Edited to add, Aldi also do a really nice rose wine for 3.99 a bottle, can't say fairer than that!!

pog it

kilco wrote: »

.

Dunnes fig rolls even nicer than jacobs, eggs lovely

Great must try Dunnes eggs. I have tried Aldi ones and they don't taste good. Before this I never thought there was such a thing as 'bad eggs' lol.

kilco

I never knew about bad eggs myself till recently got some can't remember where but there was a terrible after taste off the white so in future I'll be stickking with Dunnes , my mother loves them too and she's old school very fussy (age 74) It's the free range with green label