A Lidl bit helps a lot. Sometimes.

 Like many other families we are recession shoppers.  By that I mean a lot of the contents of our shopping trolley are own brand names.

Nothing wrong with that. 

In fact, with a lot of things, the purse friendly items are often as good as, if not nicer than, the more expensive items.

We are lucky enough to have the German supermarket Lidl in our town.  This provides us, a family of 6, with great produce, variety and bang for our buck.

Some of our favourite items in Lidl would be the following. 

Fruit and veg.  In particular the raspberries and strawberries.  Smallest Boy eats these like sweets.  Whenever I can, I use the berries to make a berry compote.

Berry Compote with sunflower and pumpkin seeds

They are also great for “in season” bits and pieces and I took a mad fancy to make some ginger and rhubarb cordial lately.

Ginger and rhubarb cordial

We also enjoy coffee.  Well, I do.  We had an expensive ornament on our kitchen counter top for a long while.  Otherwise known as a coffee maker.  Then Lidl introduced these amazing coffee pods at €1.99 for 10 ranging in strengths from 4, 5 and a stop-your-heart 10.  Injection fuel for the day.

         

Water melon anyone? 

Lovely Liam has fallen in “yum” with the pesto and chicken pizza and insists that no-one else is allowed eat it.

The wine is mine!!

On the hot sunny days you cannot go wrong with the selection of ice-creams.  I buy tubs of strawberry, chocolate and a 2.5 litre of vanilla.  A box of wafer cones and we’re sorted for at least a week.

     

 

Then of course there are the staples of the weekly shop.  I never buy milk anywhere else and Mister Husband is fond of those little bottles of beer with a bag of tortilla chips to accompany them.

Really, you can’t beat Lidl for value and quality.

I do however, have a tiny complaint.  Just a small one. 

Their nappies are second to none.  In fact, they are so good Smallest Boy has declared on more than one occasion that he doesn’t want to grow up.  He wants to “be small forever,” has regularly and consistently refused and shunned any notion of ever wearing Big Boy Pants.

It’s a good thing Lidl Toujours nappies are such good value as it looks like I might actually have one going to school wearing them.

Anyway, my gripe.  Smallest Boy has decided he has a favourite nappy.  Lidl nappies have cute little animals printed on each one, a giraffe, a zebra, a blue hippo, a yellow lion amongst others.  Like the one Smallest Boy has fixated on.

The crocodile one.  Or as he calls it, the caiman.  Thank you Steve Backshall and your Deadly 60 animal series.

And thank you Lidl.  For not manufacturing a bag of 44 nappies with caiman/crocodile pictures on them all instead of just seven.