Value Food

I was speaking with my s-i-l earlier and found that she very rarely bought value food at supermarkets until i gave her a list of value foods we use on a regular basis. This made me wonder how often people waste money buying a brand name food. My sister has very little spare money and yet she very often buys ready meals and takeaways, this baffles me . Surely the less money you have the better you need to be with your money. However even if i had all the money i wanted i still wouldnt bother wasting money on things that i either do not need or can find cheaper else where. My parents are reasonably well off and yet my dad almost only buys reduced items, he manages to pick up so many food bargains simply by knowing what time in the evening asda reduce meat and veg. Therefor my parents live on a minimal food budget.

I think every shopping budget has to juggle quality and quantity. In our house we buy value basics and then we can afford to buy the extra things that we particularly like. For example we all love olives and so they are a must on our shopping list, we also love tea leaves rather than teabags so we always keep in Tesco Finest Tea leaves, which we've found to be the best value for the quality.

So anyway enough waffling here's a little list of value products we use. I mainly shop at tesco and so i do not know if these products are good in other shops, all of these are Value products.
Basmati Rice
Penne
Stock cubes
Pitta Bread
Tinned Tomatoes
Tuna
Onions
Nappy Sacks
Lamb Mince
Apple Juice
Orange Juice
Vodka (if flavouring it)
Sponge Scourers
Brown bread ( but only comparing to other sliced wholemeal bread, not proper bread)
Pesto
Instant Noodles (but only compared to other brands of instant noodles, these are in no way a substituts for proper noodles. I would also suggest you use a stock cube rather than the flavouring tey inclue since there is less junk in a stock cube.)

These are the main products i use and i may add to it if i remember others. Obviously some value food is rubbish but it is a case of trial and error.