Frugal Food - 25 March 2011

by Chiara Cavaglieri on 25 March 2011  |  4 comments
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Highlights this week include new and extended restaurant deals from Ask, Café Rouge, Zizzi, Strada, Bella Italia, Prezzo, Toby Carvery, Renaissance Pubs and La Tasca. We've also got better than half-price wine in store at Sainsbury's, 50% off at Thorntons, 20% off tea and coffee at Whittard and Aldi brand bargains!

Best supermarket deals

This week, we’re going to kick off with the best deals at Sainsbury’s; buy any 2 for £2.50 on bags of Sainsbury’s fruit (including conference pears, clementines, Cox apples, Braeburn apples and oranges) and vegetables (including baby corn, okra, mange tout, dwarf beans, and stringless beans).

Sticking with Sainsbury’s, packs of Hula Hoops (7 x 25g bags) are on a 2 for 1 offer and for £1 each you can buy various jars of Bertolli pasta sauce, 8 x 20g Drifter bars, 3 cans of Green Giant Original Sweet Niblets Sweetcorn and Sacla Green Basil Pesto, Sundried Tomato, or Fiery Chilli Pesto

Offers this weekend at NETTO include 60% extra free on a pack of Weetos for only £1.79, 500g tubs of Flora for £1, BOGOF on 12-packs of Doritos (£2.99), and 2 for £2 on Family Pack tomatoes (750g) and new potatoes (2.5kg). Then from Monday 28 March, grab half-price Pringles (£1 each), 8-packs of Muller Mini Fruit/Crunch Corner Snacksize for £1.19 each (RRP £3.29) and any five for £3 on Heinz soups (normally 82p each).

There are some strong offers at LIDL this weekend only including 50% off a 500g pack of British beef mince, now a mere 99p, a Galia or Cantaloupe melon also half-price at 79p and Freeway mixers (1L) for 19p!

At Tesco save £1 on Cadbury Roses, now £2, buy two tubs of Philadelphia for the price of 1 (£1.75 each) and Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars– buy any 2 for 1 saving you £2.65. Steam bags of Birds Eye Field Fresh veg are also on offer at 2 for £2, (normally £1.75 each).

Birds Eye steam bags of veg are also on offer at ASDA, as part of a buy any 3 for £3 on various Birds Eye treats including fish fingers, chicken burgers and beef burgers. For other ASDA bargains, the breakfast event is still going strong and Mattessons Original Pork Sausage is only £1, saving you 44p.

Finally, at Co-op deals include Pataks curry sauces for £1, Co-op brand quiches for £1, 50% off the Co-op Elmwood Extra Large Boneless Pork Shoulder Joint, now £2.49 per kg (was £4.99) and BOGOF deals on Dolmio stir-in pasta sauces (£1.49 each), Fox’s Rocky 6-packs (£1.09 each), Ribena (£2.82 each) and Utterly Butterly (£1.65 each).

Tipple

There are better than half-price deals on a selection of wines in store at Sainsbury’s including Antoine de Clevecy Champagne, was £27.99, now £10, and Mondelli Prosecco Frizzante, was £9.99, now £3.99.

Other half-price wines at Sainsbury’s include Codorniu Original Cava Rosado Brut, was £12.99, now £6.49, Mondelli Sparkling Rose, was £8.99, now £4.49, and Palastri Sangiovese, was £8.99, now £4.49. 

At the Co-op, you can buy a bottle of Charles De Cazanove Champagne for £13.99, was £29.99, or head to Oddbins for 20% off when you buy 6 bottles of wine, sparkling, port or sherry.

There’s a new offer at Majestic Wine for 20% off Spanish wine – see the selection here – when you buy at least two bottles and you can still save 20% when you buy any two South African wines.

Best restaurant deals

As always, new and extended deals appear at the top of the table. For the section covering regular and ongoing deals, go to the bottom of the page.

Cut price snacks.

Save 50% on Mother’s Day treats at Thorntons, including this Luxury Spring Bouquet which is reduced from £70 to only £35 and comes with hot pink roses and an indulgent Chocolate Collection (583g).

Here’s one for the diary – Krispy Kreme is running a range of offers from Monday 27th April to Friday 1st May (from 12pm to 3pm) from free doughnuts to free dozens with purchase deals in participating stores. All you need to do is visit the website from 11.30am each day for news of the daily offer and a link to the voucher.

Voucher codes

It’s your last chance to save 20% on ALL teas and cofffess online at Whittard. Simply enter the code SPRING at the checkout before it expires at 2pm on Monday 28 March.

You can still save £10 when you spend £25 or more at Pizza Hut Delivery with the code TENDELVHM, valid until 31 March.

There’s an ongoing code for new Ocado customers to get £15 off their first shop when they spend at least £75. Use the code VOU0050562 at the checkout.

Tesco has extended its offer for £10 off your first online grocery shop. To get the discount, you’ll need to spend at least £50 and enter the code XXAFFT at the checkout, for delivery made before 31st May. Just bear in mind that certain items - including wine by the case, tobacco, infant milk formulae and prescription medicines - are not eligible for the discount.

Voucher code promotions tend to be withdrawn quickly. You can use the following websites to track down new voucher codes as and when they come up:

VoucherCodes

HotUKDeals

RestaurantVouchers

MyVoucherCodes

SavaCode

SupermarketVoucherCodes

ShoppingCodes

SupermarketCoupons

Foodie freebies

Check out the latest freebies for foodies!

• Download a free Jamie Oliver kitchen timer app for the iPhone, iPod or iPad. It also comes with sample recipes which Jamie cooks in the show.
• YAZOO is giving away a free 2 for 1 cinema ticket when you purchase one of the special promotional bottles and follow the steps. You will need to vote for your favourite comedy movie from this list then enter the unique code on your YAZOO bottle.
• Free recipe book and vouchers when you sign up for the Wright’s Baking newsletter.
• It’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s on 12th April from 6-9pm (3-9pm in Leicester Square scoop shops) so head to your nearest scoop shop for a freebie. See a list of participating stores at the bottom of the page here.

Regular deals

This is where you’ll find the restaurant and retail deals that run on a permanent or ongoing basis. 

Free recipes from celebrity chefs

Big fan of Jamie Oliver, Fay Ripley or Bill Granger? Head over to our sister site, www.lovefood.com, where you can find heaps of free recipes from your favourite celebrity chefs.

You can also find out about The top six fish & chip shops in the UK, The best bangers in Britain and The best places to buy food online.

Win a Masterchef apron – signed by John Torode!

Enter this exclusive competition to win a Masterchef apron signed by John Torode! The apron features the instantly identifiable red MasterChef logo embroidered onto a large square pocket, along with the BBC show’s catchphrase “Cooking doesn’t get better than this” printed in red on the bib. 

And finally...Aldi brand bargains

This week I had the arduous task of stuffing my face with some Aldi products, testing them against well known brands to see if I could tell the difference…

I tried the following…

• Belmont Milk Choc Digestives 55pvsMcVities Choc Digestive Biscuits £1
• Harvest Morn Frosted Flakes 99p vs Kelloggs Frosties £1.98
• Red Label 160 Tea Bags £1.99 vs PG Tips 160 pack £3.00
• Alcafe Rich Roast Coffee £1.45 vs Nescafe Original Coffee Granules £4.00
• Napolina Peeled Plum Tomatoes 99p vs Sweet Harvest Peeled Plum Tomatoes 45p

Now I’m not saying I have the most sophisticated palette but I really couldn’t tell the difference between any of them, except the PG Tips, although I still enjoyed the Red Label. I actually preferred the Sweet Harvest tomatoes to the Napolina ones (which seem overly expensive to me) and the digestive biscuits were almost identical. I even forced my housemates to try them all out and most of them struggled too with only one able to tell the Nescafe from the Alcafe.

So, the message here is don’t be a brand snob! Try some of the cheaper brands next time you’re in the supermarket to see if you can tell the difference.

Every Friday, we round up the week's top food shopping bargains, supermarket vouchers and restaurant offers. If you register on lovemoney.com, you can follow this blog and find new posts as soon as they are published, via your personal homepage. Never miss a frugal food bargain again - register now.

Every effort is made to source voucher codes which are valid at the time this article is published. However, please be aware that lovemoney.com cannot guarantee that every voucher will be valid or that it will not be withdrawn by the provider immediately.