Tesco..... sadly I've found a product no one else can beat :-(

[Zak33]

Long Grain Easy Cook Rice from Tesco just works

I've tried Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Waitrose.....

only this Tesco stuff ALWAYS cooks like a dream.

I hate liking their stuff but it's just ideal!

[peterb]

Never had a problem with Sainsburys rice myself! Only thing that throws me is that the different brands have different cooking times, and with easy cook rice, that is critical!

[Repressor]

My friend once bought some instant rice from Tesco - the instructions said it would take 45 minutes.

We were very confused....

[merdat]

Use a rice cooker so rice generally turns out fine unless I use experiemental additives.

[scaryjim]

Rice? Rice is dead easy. Wash & drain it five or six times, add just a smidge more water than rice, boil until you can't see the water boiling any more, then turn the pan off and ignore it for five minute.

Then stir with a wooden spoon, and presto - perfect rice every time.

The brand really doesn't matter... not in my experience anyway (then again we buy Basmati in 15kg bags from whichever local supermarket takes our fancy - the advantage of living in the longsight / rusholme area of Manchester ).

[ristac]

Always been a Tesco man myself, I like Waitrose but the pennies don't go as far.

[Zak33]

Always been a Tesco man myself, I like Waitrose but the pennies don't go as far.

yeah they do.... you're just doing it wrong.

Tesco is NOT cheaper for most people anymore. They've upped their Basics prices and are pretty horrible pricing on many items, but cos people don't check they presume they're better value.

And I am FED UP with Tesco doing 1 item at 97p and "buy 2 for £1.98" and equivalent scams.

Sadly.. their easy cook rice rocks however!

[TeePee]

You know what I miss? Supermarket chocolate. The Tesco standard brand stuff. Good chocolate is expensive here, you have to buy the ultra premium Lindt stuff, or find Milka at a World Market. The quality of everything here is much lower. It's also dirt cheap, but it really forces you to pay way more for the premium stuff. In the UK most supermarket own-brand products are actually very good quality.

Here 'Dairy Milk' is considered a premium brand. It's made by Hershey and tastes awful.

[Steve]

Oh god the guys at the office I work in occasionally bring back Hershey's from the US. It, is, horrible.

Doesn't stop me having some every time though... just in case it's got better.

[Zak33]

Tesco own brand dark chocolate is not bad

Morrisons is better... v cheap too

[peterb]

Green and Blacks for me! (Cadburys went down the pan when it was sold, just tastes of corn syrup now)

[COMRADPOPLIN]

Green and Blacks for me! (Cadburys went down the pan when it was sold, just tastes of corn syrup now)

Tried some of the Green and Blacks butter scotch chocolate the other day and my god its lovely!

[pooley]

Green and Blacks for me! (Cadburys went down the pan when it was sold, just tastes of corn syrup now)

Gonna try some of this.

[Saracen]

My friend once bought some instant rice from Tesco - the instructions said it would take 45 minutes.

We were very confused....

Was it a recipe for rice soup?

[GoNz0]

grabbed a bag of tesco value long grain rice 40p for 1kg, will see how that ends up in the rice cooker as we used to use netto rice as it agreed with the rice cooker!

[Saracen]

Always been a Tesco man myself, I like Waitrose but the pennies don't go as far.

I think these days you've got to shop with your brain engaged at at full speed. Know what things cost, and compare.

I mix and match.

Waitrose are the same price as Tesco on some things (and explicitly price match a number of items). But they're expensive on others, and cheaper (yeah, cheaper) on some. Recently, Waitrose had a deal on a variety of breakfast cereal at half price. So I stocked up. I won't be buying any more Shredded Wheat, Shreddies or a couple of other for, well, quite a while.

On the other hand, I wanted Heinz baked beans and LIDL were doing a 6-pack at the same price as Waitrose were doing a 4-pack. I won't be buying beans for a while either.

Prices on milk seem to yo-yo as well. In Waitrose, in recent times, it's gone (for a 4-pint) from £1.18 to £1.49, with various stops in-between, several times in a few months. Asda were at £1/bottle in a multi-buy, but it's often cheaper, sometimes a lot cheaper, to buy a bigger bottle (6 or even 8 pint) and split it down. So I sterilise a couple of 4-pint bottles, fill them and freeze one.

Much the same applies to loads of stuff. Buy bacon in bulk, split it up, vacuum-seal it and freeze it. Then, I've always got it on hand, at a good price, and it minimises fuel doing loads of shopping trips too.

I find careful shopping, with a bit of research and an awareness of prices, makes a LOT of difference to my overall monthly bill.

Zak nailed it with

They've upped their Basics prices and are pretty horrible pricing on many items, but cos people don't check they presume they're better value.

I suspect and believe that supermarkets (and I mean pretty much all of them) rely on, and indeed largely exist because of, consumer laziness. It's so easy to pick one, and get everything there, because it's convenient. But it doesn't take a lot of effort to shop much more smartly, and play them at their own game. Buy into offers and price-matches, providing the offers are actually good buys, and not all are by any means, but shop around for the bits that aren't good value. Don't rule out LIDL, or Aldi, or Iceland, etc. Just pick and choose.

Obviously, you can go too far, and end up spending ages saving 5p by shopping around too much, but a modicum of smart shopping makes a big difference for minimal effort. And believe me, I like minimal effort.