Supermarkets reduced-to-clear aisles

[joe_bloggs*]

Anyone use them? I got a couple of reduced sirloin steaks at Aldi's a few weeks ago,took them home and froze them,had one the other night (with Aldi's maris piper chunky chips,not reduced) and mushrooms,Delicious! my oldest son regulary pops into his local Co-op late on for their reduced bread,which he also freezes,

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/25/tales-tesco-reduced-to-clear-aisle

The comments after the article are worth reading!

Must get a bit uncomfortable for the bloke in tesco's with the yellow label reduced prices machine

[tintinthegingertomcat]

The reduced aisle is where I head for FIRST - I get what I can there before continuing with the shopping. Last week I got all the meat from the COOP at a third of the initial cost.

I have not purchased a loaf of bread at full price for many many years.

The other week I visited Tesco at 10pm and managed to get 500g of minced beef for 18p - which made four meals and I got two beef joints reduced from £10 to £2

I do try and do my shop at a time of day when I know that the reduced section will be bursting at the seams.

There is nothing wrong - and my freezer is full of the reduced stuff.

I also shop and Aldi and Lidl and use the supermarkets own "Value" range. There is nothing wrong with the quality of food in the value range.

I cannot afford to be too proud to do the above.

[right-then-petal]

hmmm steak

i,ll have to check this out

[bankhaunter]

If it will go in the freezer or can be eaten same or next day I buy it.

Having said that there are a few ready meals that weren't worth half price let alone the full one.

[lhasa.two]

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@bankhaunter wrote:

If it will go in the freezer or can be eaten same or next day I buy it.

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Ditto!

I was in Sainsbury's about a month ago and happened upon a young man reducing fish from the fish aisle. (Sainsbury's tend to reduce within the various sections rather than have one reduced area). Next to him was a man with a big trolley who had been following the guy around the store seemingly grabbing every reduced item as his trolley was just about full to overflowing. I asked him if he minded if we shared lol.  We got chatting and he said he had 4 children and this would feed the family for a week. I took 4 bags of uncooked king prawns for 50p each, reduced from £4.95 each and popped them in the freezer when I got home. Result!  

[rachel039]

I dont mind getting the odd item,  and indeed when i used to work away we used to fo for a pint, and then head to morrisons next door at 7.30pm, we used to find the guy as he went around pricemarking the products, by the time we left the area we were negotiating the bakery and hot food prices each night, which was our mainstay grub.

I once got a large salmon fillet reduced for my son, but when i unpacked it it was only fit for the bin, talk about fishy.

I dont touch the chicken, mince, fish reduced  or processed products or the open help yourself areas, how many times them buns get felt during the day, and things in the air land on them open racks.

[papko]

Seemingly their is a big fuss about a food bank opening in our town , we also have 3 supermarkets and a healthy line up for their reduced priced offerings

 Oddly in a town of 20k people I only know a single garden that is cultivated for vegetables

!

 Its a Romanian chap who is married to a Scots girl and they have 2 teenage sons

 Odd that really ,everybody going about starving , and hanging around to scoop up reduced price food ,

yet no one picks up a spade and turns over their back garden ? You can feed a family on the best of fresh veg etc , that way .

 No doubt the price of spade is prohibitive if you just get state benefits , (£20 is a lot ) you could always pick one up at a Boot sale though ?

 and perhaps save the money up , saves you hanging around like  a  waster ,,,,,,,,, afterall

 True people lifes are so busy nowadays ,  they have no time once they  have watched thier daily allocation of TV , and caught up with their  100's friends on Facebook   hardly leaves a miute to peel a vegatble , let alone plant one ..

[duck_a_lorange]

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@papko wrote:

hardly leaves a miute to peel a vegatble , let alone plant one ..

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People have forgotten how.  Your Romanian friend probably has a grannie back home who grows absolutely everything.

Then there are modern houses.  Anything built post-war probably has a layer of builder's rubble six inches under the surface, and/or the topsoil stripped off for sale elsewhere. Really modern houses have barely enough room in the "garden" to turn around in.

Modern "gardening" shows presented by builders promote "gardens" mostly covered in gravel and concrete.

And then of course, there is "privacy".  Once people have put up their two-metre fences - which is the maximum allowed by law - it isn't compulsory - there isn't much they can grow - vegetables don't do well in shade.  A modern estate with its tiny gardens each surrounded by its two-meter fence looks like a depot for lidless coffins.

[papko]

People have forgotten how.  Your Romanian friend probably has a grannie back home who grows absolutely everything.

Then there are modern houses.  Anything built post-war probably has a layer of builder's rubble six inches under the surface, and/or the topsoil stripped off for sale elsewhere. Really modern houses have barely enough room in the "garden" to turn around in.

Modern "gardening" shows presented by builders promote "gardens" mostly covered in gravel and concrete.

And then of course, there is "privacy".  Once people have put up their two-metre fences - which is the maximum allowed by law - it isn't compulsory - there isn't much they can grow - vegetables don't do well in shade.  A modern estate with its tiny gardens each surrounded by its two-meter fence looks like a depot for lidless coffins.

 Ah well thats the reason , its not the Poor peoples fault , nothing ever is there fault .

 if its not the Bankers and their bonuess its garden fences that are too high !

 Surely the law of economics is going to intervene at some stage , when people get sufficently  hungry , then they will start to grow their own veg .

Until then just loiter around a supermarket , till the Chicken nuggets are reduced to 99p

[spawnjohnuk]

 Surely the law of economics is going to intervene at some stage , when people get sufficiently  hungry , then they will start to grow their own veg .

Theres something in that papko 

its no bad thing fending for yourself and in sentiment I agree that some people no longer rely on themselves but whats a government for if you dont need governing ?IE the 'good life ' tv program.

The point you never make whilst pointing blame at' people who've no one to blame but themselves' is what s the governments role in all this ?I would be interested to hear.

All supermarkets have mad rush for cheap but then if you do grow own and shop 'wisely' and cheap then go on a hol with savings...lol your national front page tax sponger with no right to spend it hohoho ,it should be given back so tax relief be had further up the chain .

or on a £254 quid toilet seat in the case of mr and mrs B liars or a very nice indeed holiday to Dubai for mr C n fam  (no doubt deserved)

[spawnjohnuk]

ps papko. whilst I'm on..Im after a dc volt regulator (bench) an oscillioscope and a bench temp control solder station. Let me know if you come accross any to sell pls 🙂

[bankhaunter]

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@papko wrote:

 Oddly in a town of 20k people I only know a single garden that is cultivated for vegetables

 

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When I was young the area where I lived was for very many years a favourite place for Italian immigration and I realised you could often tell the houses with Italian occupants as they were the ones with vegetables growing in the front gardens not just the back.

I would venture to suggest that the really poor particularly single people are not the ones who scoop up reduced price food, they will not necessarily have the money or the freezer space to take full advantage.

I can pick up the cheap duck, I have the money and I know I can have good meals from it for the same cost as another meal but if I didn't have the money in my pocket I would have to leave it.

It's just part of the position that you sometimes have be able to spend in order to save and those most in need pay the highest prices.

[lhasa.two]

papko, you do make me laugh with some of your comments which although a tad cynical are often so true lol.

Trouble with growing veg - and I have done it - is that they need a lot of watering and if last Summer is an indication of how dry and hot  things  will get in the future,  then really it doesn't make a very good saving because of the extra water costs. What does grow well in that climate are peppers  & chillis , but anything with a dark green leaf needs tons of water daily. 

Even if they grow their own they still have to do something with the crops which can have a tendency to all appear at once... so learning to bottle and make jams and chutneys etc has a degree of skill but certainly not rocket science. So coming full circle,  If they had that skill then perhaps they would know how to cook a nourishing meal from the inexpensive veg in markets and supermarkets. People don't have to eat meat every day and probably best they don't. When I first went to live in London and looking for freelance work, the best investment I made was to buy a book called "The Paupers Cook Book" by Jocasta Innes. I've still got it and still use it sometimes and it's obtainable on Amazon I think. The bacon potato and onion hotpot would be on my dessert Island list!

Most councils have allotments to rent, so a group of people could get together and share the  labour and cost of growing veg. 

There seems to be  a real upsurge in allotment use and there are waiting lists so it's obviously on track for some people.

In the end it's all about choice on how people spend their money, some will manage it well, others will waste it. 

No doubt about it though, food costs have rocketed in the last 3 years or so. I think the government might want to be having a word with Supermarket bosses as a well as energy suppliers, to think about how they can reduce their £billions in profits... People need to vote with their feet, just don't buy certain things if they are too expensive, look for alternatives. 

[joe_bloggs*]

I don't know if anyone has looked at it,but Jack Monroe has a good blog: http://agirlcalledjack.com , she has some good cheap and tasty recipes to be made for a few pence in some cases,of course this is assuming the poorest have readily available internet access.

As well as being a campaigner against child poverty,she has also lived through not having enough to pay bills,literally hiding from energy companies hammering on her door for payment

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/29/british-cant-afford-heat-food-big-six-energy-ja...