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BARGAIN BASEMENT

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Fri May 13, 2016 10:56 am

I had settled on the Kitchencraft one (I had been googling, which is why some algorhythm thought I might be interested in that £500 butter dish), which is very similar, but with ridges in the body of the dish so it disguises the butter when it has been used a few times and has toast crumbs in it...

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Wed May 25, 2016 5:50 pm

Reeses Mini Peanut Butter Cups £1 for 150g bag in Asda. Made a pig of myself already.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Renée » Wed May 25, 2016 11:15 pm

:lol: Then I daren't go near that one!!! Asda is my nearest supermarket, too. :(

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Jun 09, 2016 12:13 pm

East End tinned veg (my staples are chick peas, chopped tomatoes and kidney beans) on sale at Tesco for 5 for a £1!!! Looks like an "all Ramadan" deal too.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby kavey » Sat Jun 11, 2016 12:57 pm

Sakkarin wrote:Lakeland proper spiraliser, a tenner off, currently on offer at £19.99 Just looked at it in the shop, fairly sturdy, those two "drawer" are extra blades, for long thin wide strips or very fine spiralising.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/19736/Vegetab ... 04160508:s

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I just used this, went to a Lakeland PR event for bloggers on Thursday evening, and this was demoed. I had a go, very easy to use, though still quite bulky unless you are intending to spiralise a lot / have a lot of kitchen cupboard space.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby miss-mouse » Tue Jun 21, 2016 5:52 pm

kavey wrote:
I just used this, went to a Lakeland PR event for bloggers on Thursday evening, and this was demoed. I had a go, very easy to use, though still quite bulky


Did you try carrots in it, Kavey? A carrot you had bought? Not the carefully selected ones from the demo-er? I have the 'Cook Help' domestic version. IME it can be a bit tricky to get carrots going. Cucumber, courgettes are a doddle, although when I have wrestled the first carrot into submission it goes well afterwards, perhaps a question of remembering optimum size etc. Potatoes shreddings are ace shallow fried... oops, my clothing seems to have shrunk again.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Jun 26, 2016 5:40 pm

NOT A BARGAIN!!!!

Tesco were selling off some of their special USA products, and Banana Twinkies were knocked down from £5.50 to £2.50 for 10. Not really a bargain as such, but I have seen twinkies mentioned in countless films (well maybe not countless...), and wondered what the fuss was about, so I got a pack. I had an inkling of the content from the pic on the box.

Now I've had some unpleasant cakey things in my time, but this was the pits. Tasteless sponge, but the gunge inside (creamy is not quite the right word) did not taste of banana, but had a disgusting e-number backtaste that was completely unpleasant. That bitterness you get if you don't swallow an aspirin quickly enough.

Looked on the ingredient list for the culprit, to see several GM ingredients, and too many e-numbers to bother sifting through.

Just tasted another one to double check my original impression, and I conclude they are actually aspirin flavoured Twinkies, not banana.

America, you can keep your Twinkies. Bin.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:48 pm

Like you sakkarin, I remember many mentions of them in books, films, TV programmes

So I tried one in the USA

Made Mr Kipling's fondant fancies look like the height of sophisticated continental patisserie
The nearest equivalent in my childhood was the packaged sponge drop that was also filed with a weird substance not quite like dream topping, and coated in cheap choc flavoured something or another

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Renée » Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:57 pm

I was so shocked when I read the different types of sugars and oils ... and beef fat?? Ahhh ... I found something healthy ... banana purée, but only 0.6% :shock:

Yes, I had heard about them when I used to post on Recipe Quest, an American board, but they were referred to as a bit of a joke!

I do wonder why they stocked them in the first place. :thumbsdown

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Gillthepainter » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:43 am

Wow, that looks ghastly.
I got curious about Hershey bars and saw them in Tesco.

Never again, don't know what all the fuss is about.

Bargain basement.
Now this isn't about food I'm afraid.

But I just got 2 x pairs of reading glasses from Boots. Buy one @£70, get second half price @£130.

If I'd bought them together, the 70 would have been half price.
But I bought the 70 quid first, with 3 months to decide on the other pair. Just bought the second half price @£75.

OK .... in other words, I got £75 off, instead of £35.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:34 am

Mine cost me a quid from Poundshop! I have loads of pairs dotted around the house so I never lead to look for them...

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:58 am

Lucky you
Mine cost about £250, they have to be bifocal so I can also see a computer screen and they are special lenses

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Gillthepainter » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:09 am

You can get right royally stitched up if you can't go for the standard lens, Sue.

Sakkarin.
I have a 3rd pair, when I cannot find 1 and 2.
Cheap off Ebay .... and I send them away to reglaze my glasses for a tenner on the internet.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:12 pm

My READING glasses are a quid - my normal glasses are £10 from Tesco, but I have really reached the stage where I need to consider bifocals, for which £250 seems a good price.

I almost bought a pair when they were offering varifocals for the price of normal lenses, but then the optician told me the cheap ones were atrocious, and went through a series of comparisons, the end result of which was that the ones he recommended were closer to £350, although it was a "free pair" offer, so I guess you could call it £175. I stuck with "longsight and reading" glasses.



Actually I disagree with myself. £250 is a huge amount to pay for a couple of bits of ground glass.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:30 pm

The most I have paid for specs was £750 (one pair)
Varifocal but the special ultrathin lenses which I need as the standard varifocal doesn't work with a myopia correction as strong as mine

Can't have multifocals any more, just the special "executive" bifocals (also known as workstation specs), then some more ultrathin lenses for walking round
The two pairs come to over £700

One thing I have learned over the years, if you want specs that aren't bog standard go to an independent optician who is interested in getting it right for you and regards themselves as part of the medical professions, not to one of the kids in the chains

Having said which I've changed independent opticians, as the one I liked retired and sold up; having sold me a £500 pair of specs the new team didn't expect to check they worked for me; they just handed them over the counter. The right lens had been made up wrong and I had to return them about tan hour later to be redone Unacceptable

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:36 pm

That's disgraceful (EDIT: the "no check" glasses...). Even at Tesco, they sit you down and check and adjust your new glasses to make sure they are ok, although admittedly they also try to sell you cleaning and glasses care products at the same time...

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Renée » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:04 pm

I am very happy with my varifocals from Specsavers and I chose the more expensive lenses. Because I only wanted one pair, money was deducted and also a certain amount because I'm over 60. I can't find the receipt, but they weren't too expensive. Spec frames cost next to nothing to manufacture, but then they employ highly qualified people and of course, all their other overheads.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Pampy » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:25 pm

Renée wrote:I am very happy with my varifocals from Specsavers and I chose the more expensive lenses. Because I only wanted one pair, money was deducted and also a certain amount because I'm over 60. I can't find the receipt, but they weren't too expensive. Spec frames cost next to nothing to manufacture, but then they employ highly qualified people and of course, all their other overheads.

I have had just the opposite experience of Specsavers - not very good testing and hanging about in the shop for 2 hours to choose the frames (even though I'd been given a specific time to return). When I complained, they said I could have the over-60 offer - but I AM over 60! They then said they'd deduct the cost of the eye test - but I am diabetic so don't pay for eye tests anyway! Needless to say, I've never been back. I'd much rather use an independent optician (except for the local one which uses the grocers apostrophe in "eye's").

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Renée » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:03 pm

I've never had that experience, Pampy. A friend at the gym paid £350 for a pair at an independent opticians and they didn't look anything special, which put me off going anywhere else.
That spelling mistake would put me off too!

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jun 27, 2016 3:16 pm

Renée wrote:I've never had that experience, Pampy. A friend at the gym paid £350 for a pair at an independent opticians and they didn't look anything special, which put me off going anywhere else.


It's not the looks that cost
because my short sight is so extreme If I had "ordinary" (old style NHS) glass lenses they would really be the ones that look like coke bottle bases

To avoid that needs very special glass (even for single prescription lenses; not only do they look better. they work better as the thick ones distort, especially at the edges.) and it I actually not possible to make me multifocal without using special high - tech glass, as it would be impossible to carve the different strengths into glass that thick (they break if you tired

So the more special my lenses get, the less special they look on my face :o , as what an onlooker sees is just thin lenses that could almost be plain glass

The really expensive ones used to be Zeiss ultra thin lenses, but more recently I've had Hoyalux, cheaper & better. The chains sell both and charge the same prices as the independents

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