Frugal Food - 16th December 2011

by Chiara Cavaglieri on 16 December 2011  |  1 comment
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Welcome to this week's edition of Frugal Food. We’ve got new and extended restaurant deals from Bella Italia, Strada, GBK, Toby Carvery, Chiquito and Roadchef. Plus get £5 off M&S food when you spend £35, Asda Extra Special Cava for £5, 2 for 1 Cokes, 25% off any order at Whittard, £20 off when you spend £100 online at Waitrose, 1,000 Clubcard points when you spend £50 at Tesco and win a free bottle of Heinz salad cream!

Welcome to this week's edition of Frugal Food.

Best supermarket deals

This week we’re going to kick off with Marks & Spencer – pick up a leaflet in store now and you can use it at your nearest M&S for £5 off a £35 spend on food between Monday 19th and Saturday 24th December.

Then at Asda snap up some cheap party food. You can get Cooks and Co stuffed green olives for £1.80 (was £2.36), 180g of sun dried tomatoes for £2 (was £2.27), 600g of creamy coleslaw or potato salad for £1 (was £1.24), 18 savoury mini egg bites and party cocktail sausages for £1.50 (was £1.74) each. And for something sweet, these festive iced biscuits have £1 off, now 50p, and it’s any 3 for £2 on various cakes including Mr Kipling Christmas Cake slices and Christmas pudding slices (usually £1.59 each).

You can also buy New Covent Garden soup 600g for £1.50 (was £1.97), six The Happy Egg Co eggs for £1.70 (was £1.90), half-price Haagen Daaz 500g at £2, 1kg of McCain home chips straight cut for £1 (was £1.50) and it’s 2 for £2 on bags of lemons, clementines and red grapefruit (usually up to £1.37 each).

Then at Sainsbury’s have yourself an Aunt Bessie’s Christmas frozen special with duck fat roast potatoes for £2 (was £2.49), sprouts, chestnuts and red onion for £1.50 (was £1.89), Yorkshire puds (12 per pack) for £1 (was £1.64), honey glazed parsnips for £1.50 (was £1.79) and pork stuffing balls or sage and onion stuffing balls for £1.50 (was £1.79).

If you prefer a DIY meal to a quick fix, buy 400g of chestnuts and 300g of cranberries for £2 (was £4) each to make your own stuffing, buy Sainsbury’s own brand honey for £1.26 to glaze your own veg and snap up some La Truffe Cendree Graisse D'oie goose fat for £2.32 (was £3.49) to roast your tatties! I’ve also just been to my local big Sainsbury’s and bought 5 cheeses (worth £3 each) for £10 (Stilton, Lancashire, Camembert, Gouda and Manchego) so look out for that deal at the deli counter.

If you’re looking for turkey offers you can grab a 5kg Taste the Difference turkey (to serve at least 8 people) for £21 (was £24). Or at both Sainsbury’s and Tesco you save a few quid with a 5kg Bernard Matthews Golden Norfolk Medium Basted whole turkey for £17 (was £20). Other Christmas bargains at Tesco include half price salmon – 300g of Tesco Finest Shetland Isles is now £7.50 – Christmas chocolate Yule log for £1.15 (was £2.30), Brussel sprouts for £1 (was £1.79) and 500g of organic parsnips for £1 (was £1.50).

For me Christmas just wouldn’t be right without cheese – and a lot of it – and Tesco is offering cheese selection packs for £3 (was £6), or you can buy your favourite cheese individually; this Swiss Gruyere 195g is £2.25 (was £2.65), this Tesco Cheshire 250g is £1.63 (was £1.75), Dutch Edam is £2.47 (was £2.75) and Greek feta is £1.35 (was £1.48).

Next up the half-price weekend deals at LIDL: pork loin medallions (300g) for £1.49; 1kg of Clementines for 79p; a big bag of Doritos for 69p; and Amanie milk chocolate biscuits at 99p. Plus get chicken fillets for £3.29 (was £3.99), 2 for £2.50 on Anchor butter (you save 70p), 500g of parsnips 49p (was 69p), Vitafit apple juice for 89p (was £1.12) and 1L tubs of Carte D’Or for £1.99 (was £3.45).

Finally, check out the special offers this week from online gourmet butcher Westin Gourmet which includes 15% off Cumberland sausages for £6.12 (was £7.23), 31% off a 1.5kg corn fed chicken for £9.68 (was £14.10) and 500g of diced chicken breast fillets for £3.90 (was £4.97).

Tipple

At Asda, you can buy Extra Special Vintage Cava for £5 (was £9.98), Berberana Cava Brut Gran Tradicion for £7.98 (was £9.98), Canti Prosecco Heritage Brut for £5 (was £7.24), Heidsieck Blue Top Dry Monopole Champagne Non-Vintage for £15 (was £26.98) and Jacob's Creek Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir for £6 (was £9.49).

Then for party wine at Sainsbury’s look out for Taste the Difference Vintage Cava, Sparkling Pinot Rosé Wine, Vintage Rosé Cava and Prosecco Conegliano Doc all for £6.99 each (was £10.49).

And, you can still save £15 on orders over £49.99 at Laithwaites Wine using the code VCODE15, valid until 31st December.

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

Get 2for1 Cokes (or Diet cokes) as part of the Coca Cola Designated Driver promotion. All you need to do is say you’re the designated driver and they will give you a voucher so that your next bottle is free. Offer is available every day at these pubs until 31st December. 

Use this voucher for 50p off any 330ml carton of Modern Milk (either Smooth Coffee with Vanilla or Ripe Strawberry and Raspberry at Tesco. Valid until the 25th December.

Ongoing deals:

• Save 50p on Frank’s Redhot sauce with this voucher – you have until 31st December 2011 to claim the voucher (allow up to 28 days for delivery) but can use it till 31st January 2012.
• Enter your details here and you’ll be sent a voucher for 50p off your next Grove purchase, valid until 31st December 2011.
• Get 75p off any Tetley's Extra Strong tea over on the Tetley Facebook page.
• Save 50p on Sacla sauces and pesto with this voucher, 50p on Nestle Curiously Cinammon cereal with this voucher, and 30p on Nestle Cheerios with this voucher before they all expire on 31st December.
• Head to discount site Beforeishop for various freebies including 50p off GLORIOUS! Soups and Pasta Sauces (ends 10th July 2012), 50p off Blue Dragon Curry Pastes (ends 31st January 2012) and 50p off Blue Dragon Sauces (ends 31st December 2011).
• Facebook users can still ‘Like’ the Warburton page for 30p off their next purchase of their bread or rolls.
• And you can still get discounted Innocent veg pots here – the more people that tweet about #tweetandeat, the cheaper you all get them. Once it’s gone as cheap as it will go you can print the coupon (and whatever level it happens to be at) and head to a store.

Voucher codes

You can save 25% on everything at Whittard this week with the code STAR. Order by the 19th December for standard delivery.

There are also two codes for new grocery customers at Waitrose – use NWR20 for £20 off a £100 spend, NWR15 for £15 off a £75 spend and NWR5 for £5 off a £60 spend (all codes expire 31st December).

Tesco has released the code XXMFLP to save you £15 when you spend £100 or more on your first shop before 18th December. Or use code XXGLDR for 1,000 Clubcard points (worth £40 in Reward deals) when you spend £50 on groceries, for orders delivered by Tuesday 31st Dec.

There is also an ongoing code XXMAGS1 over on HUKD saving new customers £10 when they spend £50 on groceries at Tesco but remember that certain items - including wine by the case, tobacco, infant milk formulae and prescription medicines - are not eligible for the discount.

New Ocado shoppers spending £60 can use the Myvouchercodes.co.uk code VOU2806787 which saves you 15% until next year.

A new one for Thorntons fans this week – save 15% on any order with the code AFXN which expires this Sunday 18th December. You can also get a free Mint Selection (250g) worth £6.99 when you spend £20, (excluding delivery and icing) using the code FMVC which is valid until the end of the year – note you will need to add the free product to your basket (product code 0239).

Don’t forget you can still save 10% on orders over £20 at Hotel Chocolat in store with this voucher on any day of the week until 31st December. Or, online save 10% when you spend £40 using VCWINTER10 (expires 25th December).

Then the ongoing codes for Pizza Hut Delivery – use VCLTENPNY for £10 off when you spend £30, VCLT5PCNF for 25% off orders of £25 or more at full price, valid until 15th January, VCL999DXS to get any size pizza for £9.99 Monday to Thursday only. Or, get 25% off when you spend £25 at Papa Johns with PJES25OFF. Also, for the weekends only (Friday to Sunday), buy an XL pizza and get a free side order with code AAPJWTPXS. And if it’s your first order, you can save 33% with code AALDN33.

AreYouPeckish.co.uk offers snack packs delivered to your office or home and as with its rival Graze.com you can get your first pack for free using the ongoing code peckish3.

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:

HotUKDeals

MyVoucherCodes

Promotionalcodes.org.uk

RestaurantVouchers

SavaCode

SupermarketVoucherCodes

ShoppingCodes

SupermarketCoupons

VoucherCodes

Foodie freebies

Check out the latest freebies for foodies!

• Like the Heinz Salad Cream Facebook page to win one of 25 free bottles.
• Sign up for the Irish Beef newsletter for a free Winter Warmers booklet of recipes, or sign up for a free Scotch Lamb recipe booklet instead!

Last week’s freebies still going strong:

• Look out for the Coca Cola truck which is touring the UK and handing out free cans!
• Register with Walkabout and once you’ve signed up head to the offers page where you can print a voucher for a free Peroni or Cocktail.
• Village Pub & Kitchen are giving away free drinks to new sign ups. Sign up for your nearest pub’s newsletter and you’ll get a voucher for a totally free winter warmer cocktail, ginger beer or soft drink (it’s a free pudding in Scotland). Valid every day until 31st Dec.

• Enter your details here for a free sample of Douwe Egberts House Blend coffee. 

Plus…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.

Regular deals

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

And finally…10% off James Martin home delivery!

TV chef James Martin, is offering 10% off all orders of his new home delivery service, Life Fork & Spoon when you use the code BBC10 (free delivery on orders over £50).

The idea is that you get restaurant quality food directly to your door (the perfect way to show off at a party – I seem to remember someone on Come Dine With Me doing exactly that and winning the £1,000!). All the recipes have been created by James Martin using top quality ingredients so if you hate the thought of spending hours in the kitchen to entertain family and friends over the holidays it is worth a look.

You can order starters, mains and desserts, or try one of the introductory boxes and order a dinner party for four or six, Family Favourites and Gourmet Boxes. Order before 21st December for Christmas orders.

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.