With supermarket prices still on the rise, it's not surprising people are shopping around. But there's one place that families say they're regularly finding 'unbeatable deals' - and that's Farmfoods.
You may think it's just a frozen food retailer, but like Iceland, it sells much more than that - as my big shop there this week proved.
Its packs of toilet rolls are regularly highlighted as a budget deal by savvy shoppers, but you've got to buy in bulk to get the best price, so I gave them a miss.
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An 18-pack costs £6.50 for one, or you can get two for £12 or four for £20, so it's worth making space for them, or splitting them with someone else, if you can.
Elsewhere there were some big savings to be made compared with other retailers, on fresh as well as frozen goods.
A giant cucumber was just 49p for instance, whereas in Tesco and Aldi you'd pay almost double at 95p. A three-pack of peppers was 99p, compared with £1.39, and a pack of sweet peppers 79p for 150g, compared with Aldi's 190g pack for £1.29.
While slightly smaller than your typical block of 250g butter, its 227g block for £1.29 is the cheapest I've seen it for quite some time, as well as the 500g tub of Utterly Butterly for 99p. That's the price we used to pay before the cost of living crisis really took hold.
Its own brand frozen products are cheap, like an 800g bag of hash browns for £1.29, but there are some savings to be made on well-known brands too, like a 15-pack of Young's fish fingers for £1.49, two Young's XL Chip Shop Fish Fillets for £1.99 and a three for £6 offer on Goodfella's pizzas.
I saved more than a fiver on multibuy deals overall, including offers on ham, hot dogs, chopped tomatoes and pasta sauce.
I made use of the three for £5 offer on Heinz tins, which is the same as Tesco's. Only Asda seems to beat that at the moment with four tins for £5.
A six-pack of Heinz Beanz for £5.49 isn't too bad in the current climate, but like with the toilet rolls, it pays to buy in bulk, as you can get two packs for £10, or four packs for £18, which brings it down to 75p a tin.
Some household products were cheap too, like a litre bottle of washing up liquid for 99p, 20 sponge scourers for £1 and a huge 112-wash bottle of Lenor fabric conditioner for £5.99. A smaller 83-wash bottle is £4.50 in Asda.
But overall I found the best deals were on those treat items that we've probably all been cutting back on amid soaring bills.
Cake bars have shot up in price haven't they, so I was surprised to see a 10-pack of Penguin ones for £1.49, as well as a large 210g pack of Jammie Dodgers for 99p.
Frozen treats were impressive too, a highlight being the three-pack of J20 ice lollies for just £1.49 and seven-pack of Mars Ice Creams for £2.99.
But it was probably the price of Ambrosia Devon Custard that shocked me the most. Like Heinz products, the range has increased massively in price over recent months and in many supermarkets is now almost £2 a tin.
But in Farmfoods, it was the old school price of 99p, as was the Ambrosia Rice Pudding.
Not everything was cheaper than you can buy elsewhere - the giant 1kg block of mature cheddar cheese for £6.99 is not that great considering Aldi and Sainsbury's sell a 900g block for £4.80, but it is really tasty so perhaps you're paying for better quality there.
There wasn't much in the way of fresh meat and the frozen packs - £5.99 for 1kg of Scottish beef mince for instance - didn't stand out as a particular bargain.
I probably wouldn't do my weekly shop here all the time, but when some of the savings are so big, it's well worth calling in to grab some of those 'unbeatable deals' that shoppers are raving about.
Here's my full shopping list
- Kingsmill malted bloomer 700g £1.49
- Kingsmill medium white loaf 800g £1.35
- Kingsmill white rolls 6-pack 69p
- Ham 200g £1.99 2 for £3.50
- Unsmoked bacon rashers 10-pack £1.99
- Richmond skinless sausages 8-pack £1.49
- Utterly Butterly 500g 99p
- Butter 227g £1.29
- Cheddar 1kg £6.99
- Semi-skimmed milk 2L £1.55
- Maris Piper potatoes 2kg £1.25
- Nectarines 5-pack 99p
- Cucumber class 1 49p
- Peppers 3-pack 99p
- Sweet bite peppers 150g 79p
- Granny Smith apples 4-pack 99p
- Fusilli pasta 500g 59p
- Napoli tinned tomatoes with garlic 3 for £1.20
- Chopped tomatoes 3 for £1
- Heinz 3 for £5
- Heinz Beanz 6-pack £5.49
- Princes hot dogs 2 for £1
- Ye Olde Oak hot dogs 6-pack x 2 £2
- Napolina pasta sauce 2 for £1
- Sharwoods butter chicken sauce 720g £2.99
- Ambrosia Devon Custard 2x400g £1.98
- Peach slices in syrup 410g £1.10
- Nestle Cheerios 800g £4.20
- Seabrook crisps 18-pack £3.50
- Fibre One bars 5-pack £1.49
- Penguin cake bars 10-pack £1.49
- Jammie Dodgers 210g 99p
- Cadbury's Salted Caramel bar 120g £1.35
- Pukka steak pies £2.50
- Holland's potato and meat pies 4-pack £4
- McCain Home Chips 750g £1.99
- Birds Eye crispy chicken dippers 12-pack £2.25
- Birds Eye crispy chicken 2-pack 2.25
- Young's XL Chip Shop Fish Fillets 2-pack £1.99
- Young's fish fingers 15-pack £1.49
- Goodfella's pizzas 3 for £6
- Goodfella's garlic bread £1.79
- Hash browns 800g £1.29
- Birds Eye sausage rolls 4-pack £1.79
- Twister lollies £1.50
- J20 Ice Cream lolllies 3-pack £1.49
- Mars Ice Cream 7-pack £2.99
- Orange juice 1.5L £1.19
- Dr Pepper 10-pack £4.49
- Maxwell House latte 8-pack 99p
- Typhoo tea bags 160 + 50% free £2.99
- Lenor 112-wash £5.99
- Sponge scourers 20-pack £1
- Easy washing up liquid 1L 99p
- Easy bleach 750ml 69p
- Anti-bac wipes 50-pack 69p
Total £115.54
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