Supermarket food that's much better that you expected: pls name.

phoenix your teeth will fall out eating those scrumptious sounding sugary snacks.

Charleygirl It is a very occasional treat, honestly!

Having said that, I popped on here to recommend a jam! Sold by Lidl, Maribel is the brand. I have only tried the blackcurrant, but it was lovely, not too sweet and packed with lots of fruit. 99p per jar.

Could make a good cheesecake topping, using the cheap digestive biscuits I mentioned somewhere up there ^ for a base.

Lidl's Pains aux raisins are far better and cheaper than Waitrose's. Aldi's jams are also very good quality - fruitier and less sweet than Waitrose's. Sorry, Waitrose!

Aldi specially selected gourmet sea salt crackers yummy

In this country, both Aldi and Lidl are struggling to overcome a reputation that they are somehow "low-end" food retailers. Odd because in Germany, where both companies have their bases, they are mainstream companies as common as Tesco or Sainsbury's are here.

Wife and I have spent a lot of time in Germany. I was seconded to a German company for 18 months in the early-nineties and we have spent many holidays there in more recent years, so to us a trip to Aldi or Lidl is a trip down Memory Lane. Many of the brand-names which are unfamiliar to most shoppers in this country, are old friends to us.

What sets Aldi and Lidl apart from their British counterparts is their trading philosophy. British supermarkets are stock-level driven. They aim to supply everything that the average shopper might want to buy, and to have at least 98% of those products in stock at all times. Aldi and Lidl, on the other hand, will buy in only those products that they can get at a good price. As a result they have fewer product lines, but everything is at a discounted price.

I think that reputation is diminishing lefthanded , judging by the cars we now see at our local Lidl, and the number of people in the store with Waitrose and M&S bags for life

There was also a lot of positive press coverage from the broadsheets in the run up to Christmas, with Aldi and Lidl both doing very well in blind tastings.

That is interesting lefthanded about the trading philosophy. When we were in Spain last year there were also plenty of Lidl shops about.

My recent favourite Lidl purchase is a cereal topper with linseed, bits of dried apple and hazelnuts. It is divine on the thick Turkish yoghurt also from Lidl (£1.50/litre).

Maribel cherry jam from Lidl (and raspberry). Lidl (Maribel) marmalade used to be wonderful according to DH, the only one he would eat, but it has changed recently and is not so good he says.

Lidl gammon ham had a bad write-up in the press at Christmas ("do not buy!"). Unfortunately had already bought it. Soaked it in a bucket a bit a la Nigella, oven-baked it and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm feeling a bit ....well, left out.
You see we make our own bread and yoghurt, I also usually bake cakes and biscuits if there's call for them. (At last week's church tea we had chocolate and date cake, banana and walnut cake and shortbread - all home-made and they were all yummy) We have an allotment so grow most of the fruit and veg we need. I freeze quite a lot of fruit and make my own jams and chutneys - I also make various alcoholic tipples with fruit. We get duck eggs from our daughter and barter jam for hen's eggs supplied by a work colleague of my husband's. We buy a deer once or twice a year from the forest larder (my husband skins and butchers it himself) and with the help of a friend who has a smallholding we rear one or two pigs a year. We live by the sea so either catch our own fish or buy from the seafront shack.
We don't have a cow, so I am still permitted to buy some food from supermarkets. Milk, cheese and butter, oats, tea and coffee, flour, halal meat, rice, lentils, couscous, bananas and grapes, cleaning products and a few tins form the staples of my shopping lists. And as I don't really like shopping anyway that was fine until now.
But you're all having such an interesting time, trying out ready meals and desserts, comparing 3 bird roasts and burgers etc. that I'm almost inclined to ignore my three groaning freezers and go and buy some food just for the adventure!!
(I won't though - the Wonderful Man would be affronted if I spurned the fruits of his labours and allowed myself to be seduced by a ready meal. )
So, my contribution to this thread is very limited, but for what it's worth the Lidl vanilla ice cream in the blue tub is delicious and was voted the best he'd ever tasted by one of my regular Italian visitors.

grannyactivist in previous times when with exdh we had land, so kept a small flock of sheep, ducks, chickens bantams etc & grew veg. Because the poultry was free range, most of the veg was grown in a polytunnel frame covered in chicken wire.

I remember one Christmas our dearest friends and their 4 children were coming to stay, and my mother & stepfather were joining us for Christmas Day.

Nearly everything was home made, all the chutneys, pickled eggs, pickled cucumber, elderflower fizz and home made ginger beer for the children, my 64 bottle wine rack was full & overflowing with home made wine of all varieties, I had made sparkling wine from a kit, there was home made stout, lager and real ale type beer! I had also "converted" some blackcurrant wine into port.
Apart from our own lamb, we too had a good supply of pheasant and venison as well.

In those days I had the space and the time, currently as many know I do have the time, but sadly our garden is too small and available allotments are as rare as hens teeth!

Waitrose is my nearest, I do not have a Lidl or Aldi for miles around so it would have to be a special trip. I think that the next time I run low, I may make that trip and see what I have been missing.

Apart from the village shop, which is good but not cheap,supermarkets are around a 7 to 10 mile trip, but include Waitrose, Morrisons, Lidl. Tesco is a bit further, as is Sainsburys, although a Tesco is planned in our nearest town later this year. Nearest Aldi is Exeter, which is much too far to justify unless we have to go to Exeter for some other reason.

Charleygirl how far is your nearest Lidl or Aldi?

(shame you didn't go in the run up to Christmas, the German specialities are lovely, also good for things like pannetone, parma type ham)

phoenix Aldi is about 5 miles away. I know that is not far in your neck of the woods but here that is stop/start traffic and the parking is horrendous. Lidl is closer, about 3 miles but the shop is tiny and very little parking.

I am not a fan of cold meat especially parma type ham so those bargains would be lost on me.

A very good Pound shop has opened in what used to be Woolworths locally and the bargains for cleaning products are amazing. £1 there, £2.90 in Sainburys, so I am their latest fan.

Although I do shopping in Waitrose because it is close, I go mainly for their bargains. I do some shopping in a large Sainsburys 2-3 miles away, because they sell the cheapest petrol. Can you tell I am Scottish?!

When Lidl opened their first shop in Torquay they had a promotion offer, baked beans 3p, we bought lots and lots. Some people scorned us for buying cheap food, The beans were certainly Ok for that price, they went in stews and casseroles and obviously kept for ages. Now for me to get to Lidl I have a 40 ml drive then a 4 hour ferry trip and can not get back for a couple of days. I must say I do miss being able to shop quite cheaply, but you cant have everything

I believe that in most things in life there is an element of compromise, newist

charleygirl I am all for spending as little as possible on household stuff! It used to be that the week I needed washing up liquid, washing powder or equivalent, I saw a big increase in the bill at the checkout!

Trago Mills near Newton Abbott is great for cleaning stuff if anyone is down that way (and lots of other things, but trying to keep on the grocery theme)

All our cleaning stuff comes from Wilkinsons. Good old Wilko. We buy Paint, towels, bedding, dog and cat food, stuff for the car, lightbulbs, loo roll etc., etc. The list is endless. I don't know what I'd do without them and there's nothing wrong with the quality.

Trago Mills are practically a legend! Trouble is, unless you are going for something specific, e.g. rugs, curtains etc, you can get seriously distracted into various other departments!

Margaret where abouts are you?

Makes perfect sense to shop at Poundshop, Aldi's, Lidl etc and not because I am a canny Scot Charley

My cousin and I regularly go into Pound shop but as it is in a shopping centre we have quite a distance to walk back to the car with heavy loads. We are just about at the stage of tossing a coin to see who will give in and buy a tartan pull along affair shopping trolley

We now have a 99p shop within walking distance. It's bloomin' marvellous!
Aldi and Lidle are also walkable from here.

I mean Lidl

I'm in Waes, Phoenix, but visit Devon sometimes (used to live there, unfortunately not any more). Yes, Wilko's is good, not got a car park though, so can't buy too much at a time. No Pound shop or anything like it within spitting distance unfortunately.

I mean Wales, of course! But every time we go to Devon I say "let's pop into Trago", DH groans then loves it! A bit more expensive for some things these days though.

Oo yes love Wilkos. They closed ours but we have one a short bus ride away.

Glad to see Trago getting mentioned. When we lived in Falmouth we had one within walking distance and it was our first choice for everything.