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Manchester Evening News

Entertainment

Emma Gill

'I was a yellow sticker virgin but my 43p bank holiday chicken has got me hooked'

Morrisons Asda Sainsbury Manchester Family Tesco Warburtons

I'm certainly not a food snob, but for some reason I've never ventured into the yellow sticker sections in supermarkets.

When I've glimpsed at the discounted shelves in the past, I've been put off by pale meats and packs of wilting vegetables. Plus there are usually too many people hovering around and even pre-pandemic, I didn't really fancy being shoulder to shoulder and fighting it out for a cheap pack of mince.

But with the cost of living soaring, we're all trying to cut back where we can aren't we, so I decided to give it a whirl. My mission was to visit the four major supermarkets - Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's - to see what bargains I could get.

With it being Easter Monday, I was hopeful of some big discounts on products that hadn't quite made it to the table for Sunday dinner. I started at Morrisons and oh my word did I hit the yellow sticker jackpot.

They say it's all about timing with these things and as I arrived one shop worker was busy reducing a whole load of items that had already been reduced. We were talking double discounts.

What did that mean for my shopping bill? Well, it meant a whole chicken reduced from £4.25 to 43p, a posh cottage pie reduced from £6 to 60p and sausages reduced to 15p a pack - all dated the same day but all freezable.

Many of the items in Morrisons were double discounted, including a whole chicken reduced to 43p (Manchester Family / MEN)

I think the shop assistant thought I was a little unhinged as I kept circling the aisle and going back for more - I simply couldn't help myself. Chicken tikka masala down from £2.50 to 25p, a pack of thin cooked chicken reduced from £2 to 40p and Pukka jumbo sausage rolls down from £1.14 to just 12p, they all went in the basket.

Don't get me wrong some of the discounts weren't that impressive - like the steak reduced by less than £1 to £3.61 and the Galia melon £1.59 to £1.35, but it all adds up and with most of the items being freezable nothing would get wasted. In total my Morrisons haul cost me £12.99, a massive £41.75 saving on the original prices.

I got £54.74 worth of products for £12.99 at Morrisons (Manchester Family / MEN)

Next up was Asda, but sadly the offers were underwhelming compared with my Morrisons' stash. I picked up a few bargains like the chicken and bacon puff pastry lattice down from £3.38 to £2.37, but as you can pick up two for £5.50 anyway, it wasn't that much of a saving. Same with the other items including samosas, reduced from £1.15 to 90p and steak , down from £5.75 to £4.71.

After hearing that staff would be on the shop floor reducing items from 2pm, I hung around, as did a few others who were clearly more used to being under starter's orders for the pricing gun than I was. Twenty minutes later I was still skulking around in anticipation when I decided enough was enough. I'm all for saving money but nobody's got time for that.

Asda's yellow sticker section was underwhelming (Manchester Family / MEN)

Onto Sainsbury's and after initially finding a rather sad looking section with just a few yellow sticker items, I soon discovered that the bargains were scattered around - in the places you'd usually find the products. My reduced pack of 10 Happy eggs for instance were with the rest of the eggs, down from £2.85 to £1.89 and the stonebaked bbq chicken pizza was with all the other pizzas, reduced from £3.25 to £1.99.

While a bit harder to gather a yellow sticker haul in one go, at least you can pick up bargains as you walk around and in many ways you're not just picking stuff up for the sake of it. Talking of that, I didn't really need a 2.5kg turkey crown - not on top of my 43p Morrisons chicken - but at £7.71 reduced from a whopping £25.67, who could resist. Not me and not the elderly lady next to me either.

Sainsbury's turkey crown reduced from £25.67 to £7.71 (Manchester Family / MEN)

After a brief discussion on whether they were still fit to freeze, we both decided to go for it. "My husband will be saying 'what have you bought that for'?" she chuckled as she wheeled her trolley away. I bet she holds the purse strings in their house.

My final stop was Tesco, where I was pretty impressed with their selection of reduced goodies, which again I found mostly scattered around rather than in one dedicated section. My shop included the likes of Warburtons sliced wholemeal rolls and a Roberts medium white loaf down, both down from £1.20 to 36p, raspberries down from £2 to 60p and some juicy looking pears reduced from £2.10 to 63p.

It was also where I found my second biggest bargain of the day - a Sonic the Hedgehog birthday cake, reduced from £12 to £3.60. Was it anyone's birthday? No. Do we like cake? Yes. Will it get eaten? Too right it will. And even if it doesn't - we do have Easter eggs to finish after all - then it can be cut up into portions and frozen for a later date.

Sonic the Hedgehog birthday cake, reduced from £12 to £3.60 (Manchester Family / MEN)

It seems freezing is the key to a successful yellow sticker shop. After all, it doesn't matter how much you save if it ends up getting thrown away. Now I've just got to make space for that turkey crown. Christmas dinner anyone?