When we host a barbecue, I would rather spend my time chatting to friends and family than worrying about the washing up so we always use paper plates and as I do my weekly shopping in Tesco's, I always go for the Tesco Value paper plates.

Not only are these plates convenient as they save on the cleaning and washing up, they are also great when you are entertaining with children as I really don't want to use my crockery items outside when they could get knocked onto the floor and smashed easily.

For the price of £1.20, you get 50 plates in a pack so you pay just over 2p per plate and you won't get any cheaper than that. These plates are 22cm in diameter and plain white. They come in a clear, cellophane packaging, bearing nothing more than the Tesco Value logo across the front, and can be found in Tesco's stores alongside other party goods. As these are from the Tesco Value range, these particular plates are exclusive to Tesco stores.

The plates are made from a really cheap, flimsy feeling card and don't take much weight, but then if you are only serving general barbecue food, you don't tend to pile your plate up to a degree that the plate wouldn't be functional so it is not generally a problem.

The only problem I have found with these is that they aren't any good if using food products such as baked beans with a liquid sauce, as the sauce tends to make the plate not particularly functional as it makes it very weak indeed so I would avoid this food type when using these plates, but for general barbecue food such as burgers, hot dogs, potatoes, meats and salad etc (i.e dry foods), these are pretty good.

The plates have a flat base, with raised, fluted edges which help keep foods from slipping off the plate. As they are made from thin card material, these are recyclable too so not only are they convenient time savers, they are environmentally friendly too and create very little in the way of waste.

To summarise, for cheap plates these are pretty decent. There are certain food types that don't suit this style of plate but if you stick to general barbecue or finger foods, you can't really go wrong with these. They don't like to take a lot of weight so if you pile your plate high, be prepared for a little sagging in the middle, but if you are sensible with the amount you put on your plate, these do the job pretty well, are cheap and best of all, save a lot of time on the washing up so you can't really go wrong with these and therefore they come with a recommendation from me.