I’m on a bit of a budgeting kick at the moment what with being on maternity leave and all so I’m trying out different supermarkets, using vouchers where I can and generally being a little more careful with my shopping.
I had a £15 off voucher for Sainsburys online delivery service so I decided to do my big monthly shop there this month and buy as many products as possible from their basic range:
The price of these products is cheaper by far than the branded options or the standard Sainsburys line and I was curious as to just how good they would be.
So in the first of two posts I will give you some feedback on what I think about the basic range.
Starting with the most important of course..
Biscuits
Since having Chloe I have a bit of thing for biscuits. I have re-established my relationship with tea ( decaf, milk and no sugar) and I do like to dunk a biscuit or two just after a feed. I can tell you now that these custard creams are the best I’ve tried. So far anyway. The bourbons are also pretty damn good and I haven’t opened the others yet. You get a variety pack containing 4 individually wrapped packs of biscuits (custard creams, bourbons,nice and shortcake) for £1 so 25p per pack which is just a bit of a bargain.
Whole Chicken
The chicken was fine, it wasn’t amazing and next time I would work harder at making the meat taste better. Either by slow cooking or basting regularly while roasting or soaking in a marinade overnight. It does taste fine but it wasn’t great which I kind of expected. It was only £2.86 and fed four of us plus leftovers for a sandwich for the OH the next day so how much do you expect for that price?
Pork Shoulder
I used my pork shoulder to make pulled pork – it was lovely. This involves rubbing in a mix of mustards, herbs and sugars and leaving overnight before cooking slowly for 8 hours. Not much difference to the more expensive piece that I normally buy.
Just prior to roasting:
Crisps
I bought a multipack of onion rings, cheese puffs and salt&vinegars sticks to take out on day trips/picnics etc for Izzy and us. These aren’t my crisps of choice – I’m more of a kettle chip fan but Izzy loved them and they aren’t bad at all for the price. My OH is partial to the onion rings.
Condiments
We bought mustard and salad cream. The mustard is great and we really like it. The salad cream isn’t brilliant as its slightly bitter compared to my usual brand but its absolutely fine and I would have no problems buying it again.
Breakfast Muffins & Scotch Pancakes
Both of these disappeared in days and were enjoyed by all of us. Plain, simple and just what you need the products to be.
Juice
The OJ is fine, didn’t notice any difference to my usual brand.
Tortilla chips
Perfectly decent tortilla chips. Lightly salted, delicious with dips and great smothered in passata and cheese in the oven.
Cornflakes
I bought these initially to make cornflake cakes with Izzy as my OH is quite fussy with cereal but he opened them before I had a chance to say and he’s enjoyed them – so much so that there are none left to make cakes 😉
Fabric conditioner
I was particularly impressed with the fabric conditioner – it only comes in one scent which is the only flaw as I do like a variety but in all other ways I was happy and felt it worked well. It didn’t aggravate my daughters sensitive skin at all either which can happen with cheap brands occasionally.
So far, so good. I look forward to telling you more about the rest of my shop next month.
* This is not a paid post and these items were paid for in full by myself.
Wow, that’s a really clever way of thnniikg about it!