Pontypool woman's shock at Too Good to Go cheesy bag

The app gives you the chance to claim a free bag of food from a supermarket that would otherwise go to waste – with part of the fun being that you never know what you’ll get.

Charlotte Paget, 27, decided to give the app a go in January after hearing all her work friends go on about them.

Having previously worked for Harvester in Pontypool, where she had put these bags together for customers, Miss Paget knew how the system worked but had never considered giving it a try herself.

She said: “We’d never entertained it, but with the cost of living going up, I thought I may as well give it a try for my family and see what I could get. My friends had been getting a variety of vegetables, meat, you name it, so I knew it could be anything.

“The whole thing was a bit risky for me as I’m gluten-free, but I thought even if I just get some salad or something I can make up loads of meals with that.”

On the evening of January 21, Miss Paget waited for the bags to go live on the app and was delighted when she managed to secure one to be picked up the next day from Aldi’s in Cwmbran.

She said: “I was all chuffed and excited that I bagged one, telling the girls I managed to get one and that we would confer as to what we had in our bags on our group chat, as they were also picking up surprise bags that day.

“I left to drive up to Aldi much earlier than necessary – I wasn’t going to be able to pick it up until 10.15pm, but I went up at 8.50pm because I was just mega-excited.

“I was wandering around waiting for my bag to be ready and picking up some other bits then this lady gave me this huge green bag. I was gobsmacked – I remember thinking what on earth is in here? I wanted to savour the excitement so took it home without looking in it.”

Upon opening it at home, Miss Paget was in shock to find ten packs of Gorgonzola cheese, two packs of oranges and a loaf of bread.

Miss Paget shared her cheesy surprise with friends on social media (Image: Charlotte Paget)

She added: “I started laughing, thinking what am I going to do with all this cheese, and who would use it all by the use-by date, which happened to be that evening?

“I instantly took a picture of it to show the girls and family and they were impressed and also shocked at how much cheese was in this bag, saying they would have loved to get a bag like that.

“I genuinely thought that I was going to get like a variety of things like my friends have had, but nope, just lots and lots and lots of cheese!”

After trying Gorgonzola cheese for the first time, as a self-professed cheese lover who had never had a mouldy cheese before, she found it very enjoyable after putting it in a range of meals, including pulled pork gourmet burgers, a carbonara sauce and with some tomato chutney and bread.

She's made the best of the situation by including the cheese in a range of meals, and even says she really enjoyed them (Image: Charlotte Paget)Miss Paget says she gave most of the packs away to her friends, who all said they enjoyed it.

She added: “It definitely didn’t go to waste as I was completely overwhelmed with cheese!  I could have put some away in the freezer I suppose, but i think that’s the great thing about TooGoodToGo is that even if there’s something you may not like or can’t eat, you can always use something or share with others and help them save some money!”

Since the cheese incident, Miss Paget and her family have tried Too Good to Go again, and this time ended up with six packs of bread rolls and two loaves.

Miss Paget has tried another Too Good to Go bag since the cheese incident, and this time ended up with a lot of bread (Image: Charlotte Paget)

She said: “I shared the bread between family and friends again, so it didn’t go to waste and helped someone else!”