Aldi bargains

Another bargain at Tesco

Aldi cod in batter

I don't think we'd had these before, and first impressions weren't very good. This is what the first one looked like upon cutting into it - virtually empty apart from a couple of grey fish flakes. The others were better from the point of view that the batter actually had fish inside it, but the quality of the fish wasn't that good so I don't think we'll try these again.

No food at the inn

Took us four goes this afternoon to get something to eat... First we tried the Cock at Wishaw. We got there just after 2 and after a long wait at the bar I was told that they'd had to close the kitchen because they'd run out of various ingredients. Then we headed over to the Green Man at Middleton but the direction signs conspired against us and we ended up at The Bassett's Pole. There we were told there was a 30-minute wait for a table inside and if we wanted to eat outside we were only allowed to choose from the bar menu. So off we went again, this time to the Bottle of Sack in Sutton. On the tables there were drinks menus and Tuesday food menus. Assuming that for some reason Wetherspoons had designated today as a Tuesday, we chose from that, only to be told that they were using the normal menu...

History (recent)

Do you remember the baked-bean price war of the 1990's? Whenever I see beans these days priced around 50p a tin, I look back with nostalgia to a time when 5p was expensive!

Tesco redux

Tesco must've done something right in order to grow so big, but they aren't perfect by any means. Lured by a £10 coupon, my wife decided to order the groceries online from them. She wasn't impressed, much preferring the Sainsbury's website. An example of one thing we noticed that's worse on the Tesco site is that special offers that run out before the delivery date aren't honoured. Considering that, given the chance, we'd be perfectly happy to pay for the items today, that policy seems ridiculous.

I regularly spot shelf labelling howlers in Tesco. For example:

Don't take orders from children...

For the second time in as many weeks, I've had to tell the staff off in a fast-food place for entering into the till the requests that our 6-year-old daughter has made. Today it was in McDonald's, where my wife was surprised that her order was so expensive, and then noticed that extra items were being loaded onto the tray. When this was queried, the assistant said that my wife had ordered X and our daughter had ordered Y, to which I said "You take the order from the adult, not from the child," and after I repeated this, the extra items were removed from the tray and we were refunded the difference.

Pimms and Eton Mess at the Co-op

Good news for people shopping at their Midlands Co-op branch in Fleckney, Eccleshall, Chellaston or Kingstanding: a posh picnic (cucumber sandwiches extra) for a very reasonable price.

Don't bid 99p

It's irritating, though not surprising, that many buyers on Ebay don't realise that "price ending" (that's giving a price as £9.99 instead of £10) is something that sellers do to attract buyers, and it doesn't work if buyers do it. The latest example I've seen is an idiot bidding £24.99 for a lawnmower, only to be outbid ten seconds later by a non-idiot who bid £25.

The clever way to bid on Ebay is to bid slightly over, e.g. £10.10, so that if someone bids £10 you're still in the lead.

Some discount

At Lloyds (the chemist), this rather remarkable offer: one ultraviolet toothbrush cleaning system for £31.99, two ultraviolet toothbrush cleaning systems for £20! (Not that I feel I need anything high-tech to help me clean my toothbrush...)

Free Flowers?

Via Twitter I've just come across www.freeplant.net - a website that claims it will deliver a free bouquet of flowers to anyone anywhere. Weird. I've put in an order, so we'll see!

eBay madness

When are eBay going to undo their stupid zero-postage policy on book lots? How are sellers supposed to get the books to the buyers if they can't charge for postage? I don't know about other people, but it's a massive disincentive for me to list any books on the site.

AND I notice that many sellers are circumventing this stupid policy by (a) listing their books in categories that allow postage to be added or (b) just adding postage anyway. If eBay want to continue with this stupid policy they need to stop ALL these breaches, but I don't see them doing it. Ergo: scrap this stupid policy.

Idiots.

Improved :(

We had Aldi's frozen lamb shanks for tea tonight. A good product, but somehow not as good as I remembered it. Putting the box into the recycling bin, I spotted the words "Improved Recipe" and I understood. In the shopping context, eight times out of ten "improved" means exactly the opposite. People who buy products buy them because they like them, not because they nearly like them. About the only decent Johnsons baby product was their baby-bath but then they went and changed it and we had to go back to Infacare.

My wife gets more upset about this than I do: she really resents it when her favourite household and toiletry products are suddenly changed. If only there'd been a warning, we could've bought in a couple of years' supply of the original product...

Tunnocks

Back in the nineties, when I first discovered Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, I was won over instantly. The thinness of the chocolate was made up for by the glorious chewiness of the wafer. Then later I found there was a sibling: the intriguing Caramel Log with its roasted coconut coating.

Today, for the first time in ages, I thought I'd treat myself to a pack of wafers, and I can't hide my disappointment: they taste like bleach.

Every Little Helps

I was somewhat gobsmacked when I walked into Tesco in Aston this afternoon. Almost the first thing you see when you walk in is this Darussalam book display. I wasn't sure whether to get my daughter "I Can Wear Hijab Anywhere!" or "Thank You O Allah!"

It was certainly a surprise in the wake of the recent "Please Don't Label Me" billboard campaign. Maybe the billboards should've said "Please Don't Marinade Me".

You can even buy an amazing "laptob" (sic) - a "specious gift for children" (sic again), "very useful for incarcerated persons" (sic!) - trapped in the prison of their tiny minds, no doubt.

No "Hell: Pits of Punishment" though :-( "Full of faith-building information ... A wonderful introduction for impressionable young minds." Maybe if I asked the store manager he could get some in?

I wonder how many UK schools have books like these in their libraries or, god forbid, in their classrooms?

DIY checkouts

Over on the BBC website, a surprisingly long article about such a banal subject. How many words can it take to say "You either like them or you don't"?

I found them a bit tricky to use at first, but I think I've mastered them now!

Christmas at Aldi

☼ Lots of nice Christmassy things at Aldi, including their mini-stollens and Baklava selection (both £1.99). Of course I'd prefer my baklava fresh out of a baking tray, but, as you can see, the Aldi version is popular enough!

Bargain Stock

☼ Having seen them on eBay and on the Web, I popped over to Bargain Stock on Hockley Hill. Slightly disappointing in that they're out of stock on quite a lot of items (most of which won't be restocked) but the guy was very helpful in helping me find what I wanted.

He also showed me round the rest of the place, and apart from the usual electrical stuff he's got quite a large supply of early-years equipment, so your nursery or school should take a look!

Message to America

Can we start a campaign to ban crap American products from the UK? I saw these in Aldi today, reminding me of a paradoxical fact: American junk food gives junk food a bad name. Pringles are just about acceptable, but "ranch" dressing, Oreos and those pathetic little bagel things that are coated in some disgusting "flavouring" - don't import them and don't licence them. Just don't bother - they're rubbish.

A new scam carpark

When I went to Sheepcote Street last night to pick Marti up from the Brasshouse Centre, I saw a sight that gave me flashbacks: a car on the back of a truck in the new carpark across the street. Straight away I could see what was going on: this was a scam carpark (scampark for short) and some poor shmuck was watching their car being towed away to god knows where, where it would be held hostage till he coughs up £350+.



I still don't understand why between them the council, the chamber of commerce, trading standards, MPs, the police and the courts can't put a stop to this extortion. In the meantime, be warned: if a carpark's got little notices up like this one, be sure they'll find any excuse to tow your car away. Scamparks are traps: they lure you in with the "promise" of cheap parking, but they make their money from the ridiculous fines that our even more ridiculous legal system lets them get away with imposing.