These days, most of us are looking for clever ways to save money on our food bill. We might go on a yellow sticker hunt perhaps, or buy in bulk to save cash.
And you may have come across the Too Good To Go app. Basically, it allows you to pick up a 'magic bag' of food that's close to its sell-by and use-by dates to avoid it going to waste.
You pay around £3-£4 for the bags and boxes, which you have to go and collect from a variety of retailers, including supermarkets and the likes of Greggs and Starbucks. The exciting part is, you have no idea what you'll get and what's on offer changes every day, depending on what they have left.
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So is it really worth a trip out on a cold March evening? The M.E.N.'s Emma Gill decided to give it a whirl with her local Morrisons.
She says: "I was quite looking forward to seeing what was inside my mystery bag, which promised at least £10 worth of food. The app lets you search via location and I chose the closest place to me for a Morrisons pick-up.
"At the time, I didn't appreciate that it was a store attached to a petrol station in Wigan, so when I realised that I did wonder what the selection might be. But even so, I have to say that the contents of my bag, which cost £3.29, were a disappointment to say the least."
Emma was also not happy with the collection process. She says the cashier "made me feel like I was putting him out just by asking for it". She adds: "In fairness, he looked like he was clearing things from the front of the store and bringing them inside, but he could have said more than just 'wait a minute' and 'magic bag' before handing me the thing."
Emma was excited to see what was inside and opened it up as soon as she got into the car. In all, there were five items – a loaf, some pork pies, a small pack of cocktail sausages, chicken and bacon pasta and some ready-made mash.
All of it had yellow stickers on and would have ordinarily cost £3.91 without even bothering with the app. At full price, the products amounted to £8.60, so it wasn't even the minimum £10 promised.
Emma continues: "I'm not averse to eating food that's past its 'best before', most people are fully aware that you can still eat things after that date, they might just not be at their 'best'. But four out the five items were 'use by' the date of collection, and as it was already evening – I was given a time slot to collect between 5pm and 10pm – there was little chance of them being eaten on that day.
"Some of them were. My son polished off some of the sausages and pork pies after his late night rugby session, but the other stuff just seemed a bit too grim and I'm really not a fan of ready made-mash, never mind when it's out of date.
"The bread was fine. It's 'best before' date was the day of collection, but it was still good for a few days. I'm the only one in the house who likes wholemeal though and I didn't get quite get through it before it started going mouldy, so I probably should have frozen half of it as soon as I picked it up."
Emma's conclusion? "Overall I can't say I was happy with my offering, but it shows you what a lottery it can be as the bags and boxes some people end up taking home are seriously impressive.
"The concept is great and you can see why other retailers like Aldi have recently jumped on board too. But I felt like I was doing Morrisons a favour by saving stuff from their bin and putting half of it in mine. – and I don't think that's the point of this scheme."
After contacting Morrisons, Emma was refunded £3.29. A spokesperson for the supermarket said: "We would like to apologise for this recent experience as it did not meet the standard we set for our stores."
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