With food costs continuing to rise, shoppers are looking at all kinds of ways to save some cash.
The Too Good To Go app is one of them - allowing you to go online and order a 'magic bag' of food that's close to its sell by and use by dates to avoid it going to waste.
You pay from around £3 for the bags and boxes, which can be collected from a variety of retailers, including corner shops, supermarkets and the likes of Greggs and Starbucks.
Read more: Plan for 30 hours free childcare for under fives goes 'down like a lead balloon'
After last week's rather disappointing collection from Morrisons, I decided to give Spar a go, collecting a bag from the shop at the EG petrol station in Walkden Road, Worsley, Salford.
Ordering it was simple enough, there was one £3.50 bag left for collection when I logged onto the app on Tuesday and I was given a time slot to collect between 7pm and 9pm.
It was ready for me when I got there and a rather cheery staff member passed it over to me once I'd showed him the code on my phone.
It seemed a decent size bag and there's something quite exciting about not knowing what's inside.
On my way back to the car however, I could smell one of the products without even looking - brown bananas.
I've let enough of the fruit go overripe over the years to know that smell anywhere.
It's one thing letting them go brown in your own kitchen, but I'd never choose to buy them like that.
Even so, my son's timely request for some banana bread, meant they were put to good use.
He and my daughter were obviously delighted with the box of Dunkin' Donuts that came in the bag so they got eaten in no time.
I actually needed some bread so the loaves - the sort we'd typically buy too - came in handy and I just about had room to stick one in the freezer. Both were dated that same day, but obviously good for a couple of days.
None of us fancied the chicken, which was also dated that day, so the dog got an unexpected treat with that.
My main complaint is that these bags are supposed to contain at least £10 worth of food.
The bread and chicken amounted to just £3.36, albeit at the reduced price, which leaves a rather unrealistic £6.64 for the bananas and donuts.
It might have all been eaten, but when you throw in the time to order and collect, as well as the petrol to drive there and back, I can't say it felt worth it.
I have seen other people collect some bumper bags of goodies elsewhere, it is definitely a lottery as to what's left over that day. I'm just not sure it's a lottery worth playing.
The M.E.N has contacted Spar for a comment.
Have you used the app? Were you impressed with your mystery bag? Let us know in the comments.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
M&S launches Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar giant chocolate faces for Easter
-
Shoppers slam 'ridiculous' Aldi bag checks as retailer clamps down on shoplifting
'My £3 mystery bag from Morrisons made me feel like I was doing them a favour'
'I went back to B&M, Home Bargains and Quality Save and was staggered'
