Bargain! OMG! →[More:]
I'm a keen cook, and for ages I've coveted a Le Creuset casserole dish or a similar enameled cast-iron piece. They're horribly expensive, but a local cookshop had some fairly small (22cm) ones made by Chasseur reduced from £75 to £46. A bit smaller than I'd have preferred, but I was going to treat myself to one for Christmas.

Now I am a huge fan of the German discount supermarkets that are stealing customers away from Waitrose and M&S Food, and twice a week I get emails from Lidl and Aldi with details of their weekly specials. In case you're not familiar with these stores (I know Aldi operates in the States), they sell alongside the normal foodstuffs 'weekly specials' which can be anything from clothing to toys to car accessories.

So, this week one of the specials was for a cast-iron casserole. My nearest Aldi is a fair old drive away, and as this is the last weekend before Christmas I knew it'd be busy, so I drove over to Romford early, and was waiting outside as Aldi opened at 10am (Sunday trading hours are weird in the UK).

They had two colour options - orange or blue, and I chose blue.

So, compare and contrast.

Le Creuset

Chasseur

Aldi


Oh, and I also got one of these too. Again, a slightly better price than Le Creuset.

I cannot describe how happy these have made me. I'm not normally an acquisitive person, but these are such great quality for such a low price and the two dishes together cost less than I was going to pay for one tiny little one.

*does the happy dance*