We all know how much households are struggling to make ends meet right now, but there's one store that is saving shoppers a fortune.
The Bridge at Leigh, in Wigan, sells 'perfectly good food before it reaches landfill' and has shelves, fridges and freezers packed with all kinds of food and drink.
While it can't shout about its suppliers or prices, much of the stock is branded, with Tesco ready meals, Kellogg's cereals, Heinz products and Walkers crisps all up for grabs.
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And there's a big fruit and veg section, where you can fill a bag with five different products for £1. But you're not limited to one of each, as with carrots for instance, you can take 10 of those to make up one of your five products.
For families, who have faced relentless price rises with food and other bills, this place has become a godsend and demand is huge.
And unlike some other community stores or foodbanks, the social supermarket - which is a registered charity - is open to anyone, regardless of whether they are employed or not and does not require shoppers to be on benefits or low income.
Its aim is to help people save money on their weekly shop and reduce the amount of food going to waste.
Customers pay £2 to become a member for a year and then, every time they go, they can fill a basket with a range of food and drink and other products - a minimum of five items per shop.
And there are lots of offers to take advantage of too, like three loaves for a £1 when I visited last week. There are some free products too, depending on what's in stock. Often milk and eggs if they are short dated.
The charity collects surplus from the food industry, whether from over production, mislabelling, or other reasons which would result in it going to waste. They recently acquired a new storage facility to provide more space.
Some of the stock is close to its 'sell-by' or 'use-by' dates, or past its 'best before', but all of it is perfectly edible and much of it is still well within date.
It's unlikely you'll pick up everything you need from one shop, but those behind the venture advise people to get what they can from here, before shopping for any other items elsewhere.
Recently items have been priced, but the store is now reverting back to a sticker system, where anything labelled with a green circle is half a point, or 50p, and anything red is one point, or £1.
For just £18.50 I was well impressed with how far my money stretched.
Catherine Roberts, food service manager and head of compliance, said: "We have seen our membership grow to 4,500 families who need our help to feed them, but also we prevent tonnes of food going to landfill.
"We have doubled the size of the food market since the Covid pandemic and the demand is massive. Our customers love the challenge of seeing what they can cook as food can be different every time you come in. We travel all over the country to collect food and are always looking for new suppliers."
There are 10 paid staff and around eight volunteers covering the store, the warehouse and a separate smaller shop in Bryn, but with the place being so busy, they are always in need of more.
Here's my full shop:
- Fruit and veg (1 lettuce, 4 tomatoes, 4 onions, 3 apples, 6 potatoes)
- Stir fry veg
- Wholemeal seeded farmhouse loaf
- English muffins
- Bread rolls 2 x 6-pack
- Loaves, white thick x 3
- Old El Paso Fajita Dinner Kit
- 20 2oz Cumberland sausage patties
- Frozen fries 2.5kg
- Wafer thin ham x2
- Soreen lunchbox loaves
- Special K
- Quaker Rolled Oats
Total - £18.50
The Bridge, in The Avenue, Leigh, opens 10am to 3pm Monday to Friday. See the Facebook page here for more details and stock updates. If you can help volunteer, even for a couple of hours a week, or would like to supply produce, email thebridgeatleigh@gmail.com.
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