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Which of these supermarkets is cheaper?

Which is cheaper

  • Total voters
    20
Elpenor

Elpenor

Dancing as fast as I can
Right so I’m trying to cut my grocery shopping bill - in town I’ve got Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Sainsburys and Tesco.

I tend to spend £40 on food, don’t buy booze or brands, probably buy meat for 3 meals / week. I have a car but keen to cut down on driving for obvious reasons

Aldi is a fair drive away and the town centre is a bit crap for traffic. I’ve been shopping there for the last few years and happy with their products.

I can get a 10% discount at Asda via a work thing but that involves driving into the centre of town. I’ve never enjoyed being in an Asda store before and as it’s a bigger store it takes ages to go around.

I have a Lidl within 15 minutes walk and I have the idea that I would walk there a few times a week to get some exercise and hopefully save on food waste. I tend to splurge a bit on their specials rather than buy their regular stuff

Sainsbury's is the far end of town, not big enough to be useful and dangerously close to a McDonald’s.

Tesco is big, approx 20 minutes walk though I imagine I’d drive there and has the stuff that the German supermarkets won’t stock (tomato juice, ginger beer etc). The parking is a bit bad and has the same issue with Asda in that it will take too long to go around

My thought is that Lidl is the best all round proposition, I’m not convinced that 10% off at Asda brings their prices below Lidl

Thanks :)
 
If probably by bulky / heavy stuff that as long as it works I'm not that fussed with a name at Aldi / Lidl

So bog roll, all cleaning stuff, fresh fruit and veg, fresh meat and fish

Leaving the only stuff I'd get from a UK supermarket would be stuff that the discounter didn't stock. I'd also try for a free delivery once a month and that'd be it
 
Different stores for different things? If you’re okay with making several trips a week just go to different places each time. You can keep an eye on price changes etc fairly easily that way.

Brixton has loads of choice and I use different stores depending on what I want. Ymmv but the principal is applicable anywhere with a choice of stores. The “local” branches of Tesco and Sainsburys sometimes seem to charge a few pennies more for non essentials. Sometimes my time is worth more than cash so I’ll nip into M&S rather than go the extra distance to the big Tesco. Sometimes different places will have a brand I like on special offer (a big bottle of Havana rum goes for £20-ish most of the time but then either Tesco or Sainsburys will sell it for £16, but never at the same time. I never buy it at the higher price, just wait til it’s on special offer at the place I’m then at). Sometimes different places will do “price match” offers which I only see because I’m in the store. Sometimes I’ll get off the bus as I pass through a different neighbourhood in order to go to a different store (big Lidl, co-op, Morrison’s) and so long as I’m fairly quick I can get the hop-off-hop-on bus fare and only get charged for one bus ride. I walk back from a regular appointment in Streatham and check the special offers on my regular brands in the big chemists along Streatham High Road, and also check the charity shops for gifts for birthdays etc too. And I pass the Polish supermarket and the European deli and can get stuff that’s either not available elsewhere or much cheaper.

I don’t have a car so I’ll spread shopping across different encounters. I walk through the markets as I leave work or come home from the Tube, another day take a detour to pick up a larger haul at Lidl and then Tesco. Pound shop for cleaning stuff but not for loo paper (the rolls are bulked up with air or something but have less paper).

Prepacked fish is sometimes cheaper in the supermarket but I prefer to buy my fish in the market, where I can see and choose the fish before it’s filleted and ask for the heads etc if I want them for stock. (Also supporting independent retailers.)

Always check price per kilo, not price per pack. They sometimes try to trick you with price per 100g for one thing and price per kilo for a very similar thing right beside it. It’s just decimal points so don’t fall for that. And pound shop bargains often contain less volume or fewer items inside the pack than supermarket packs, so they’re not really bargains after all. Keep an eye on that.

Tl:dr
Horses for courses, mix and match.



Eta
I live alone so it’s pretty easy for me to do it this way. When I ran a big house with lots of people I couldn’t keep up with needs this way. The Big Shop at one place was the way I did it then.
 
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i voted fortnums on the basis that it would cost less to buy f&m than any of the other grocers / food suppliers listed: which of these supermarkets is cheaper? fortnums at - apparently £50m or thereabouts as opposed to billions for the rest, certainly sainsbury's, tesco's and waitro's.

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Yeah, with Tesco and probably Asda and Sainsbury's as well it all depends what kind of shop you're going to, I reckon Big Tesco is pretty competitive with A&L, smaller ones are expensive though. What kalidarkone says sounds sensible to me.
 
Pickman's model said:
i voted fortnums on the basis that it would cost less to buy f&m than any of the other grocers / food suppliers listed: which of these supermarkets is cheaper? fortnums at - apparently £50m or thereabouts as opposed to billions for the rest, certainly sainsbury's, tesco's and waitro's.
Click to expand...

It’s obviously a comedy option, but definitely not a supermarket so if you voted on that basis then you’ve failed.
 
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We've started to use Asda lately, but also use Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Lidl as there are branches nearby. Imagine Waitrose to be the dearest.

Funny you mention Fortnum's as Mrs. Griff does make a point of going there for their beef brochettes as she says they're fantastic value compared to other places. It's all she buys from there, mind.
Nice whisky selection in there though. :cool:
 
Different places for different things. Everything you can get from Lidl, then the balance from Sainsbury/Asda/Tesco.

Lidl is significantly cheaper than the Sainsbury/Tesco/Waitrose-type chains, but their veg doesn't last as long ime. So a regular, smaller shop at Lidl works well.

Also, Lidl has some bargain non-brand stuff. Some of their beers and ciders are really good. Their off-brand ice creams are good value - their rip-off of Phish Food is great and half the price of Ben and Jerry's. Don't touch their whiskey - it's petrol.

By and large, I find Lidl's own premium range food to be good, but sometimes it's a bit shit so best to try things and see what you think. Basics like pasta or rice are much cheaper and perfectly good quality.
 
I sometimes go to the big Waitrose when I’m in Balham but only to check out the reduced price organic stuff. I occasionally buy their (or rather Charlie’s) organic bacon as a treat. Also in the vain hope of finding their Baby Bottom Balm, which my mother (who lives in Greece) continues to ask for.


Yes, I know it’s discontinued but she is so consistent in her query that I’ll re-check so I can say “Yes, I checked again, it’s not available…” ad infinitum.
 
story said:
I sometimes go to the big Waitrose when I’m in Balham but only to check out the reduced price organic stuff. I occasionally buy their (or rather Charlie’s) organic bacon as a treat. Also in the vain hope of finding their Baby Bottom Butter, which my mother (who lives in Greece) continues to ask for.
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Waitrose is pricey but you can get big reductions if you time it right. I buy posh bread from Waitrose, but only when it's reduced.
 
One of my pleasures is using my Farmfoods bags in Waitrose and my Waitrose bags in Farmfoods.

Farmfoods is great for frozen stuff obviously and has a narrow range of brands.- Heinz Beans and soups, Kelogs cereals etc that I think are cheaper than the discounters.
 
The39thStep said:
Waitrose looks pricier than I thought
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I thought it'd be more tbh. I'm generally a Sainsbury's man and comparing like for like shelf prices probably doesn't reflect too badly on Waitrose, they don't tend to have the budget ranges (beyond a few 'waitrose essential' bits), never have anything on deal (Sainsbury's always has a pizza brand half price for example) and if they have a yellow sticker thing out it's usually a few miserly pence off vs a decent chunk off at Sainsburys (shout out to M&S for proper yellow sticker discounts too).

Basically as someone who is a bit of a tight arse, I tend to take advantage of what's cheap that day and Waitrose seems to charge close to book price on everything where as Sainsbury's seems to have much more offers so in reality I find it way cheaper.
 
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No one seems to have mentioned online shopping yet? Most of the major supermarkets do online and the delivery fees are pretty low or even zero.

You can't beat it for time efficiency and saves a bit of petrol as well.

And that's why we buy from Ocado. They have own brand stuff that's not crazy prices. Although if we had a car we might be able to a save money (if not time) by driving to the nearest Aldi/Lidl
 
Cat Fan said:
No one seems to have mentioned online shopping yet? Most of the major supermarkets do online and the delivery fees are pretty low or even zero.

You can't beat it for time efficiency and saves a bit of petrol as well.

And that's why we buy from Ocado. They have own brand stuff that's not crazy prices. Although if we had a car we might be able to a save money (if not time) by driving to the nearest Aldi/Lidl
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I don’t typically spend enough to get free delivery plus when I used supermarket deliveries last year when I was struggling to walk I was very unhappy with the substitutions and the quality / use by dates
 
kalidarkone said:
Also if you have a B&M or pound stretcher then they are great for bulk toiletries and cleaning stuff.
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That’s useful, I haven’t ever really been in those shops before so must take a look. I note there is a home bargains a short walk on from the Lidl so I’ll have a look there as I think they cover the same categories
 
salem said:
I thought it'd be more tbh. I'm generally a Sainsbury's man and comparing like for like shelf prices probably doesn't reflect too badly on Waitrose, they don't tend to have the budget ranges (beyond a few 'waitrose essential' bits), never have anything on deal (Sainsbury's always has a pizza brand half price for example) and if they have a yellow sticker thing out it's usually a few miserly pence off vs a decent chunk off at Sainsburys (shout out to M&S for proper yellow sticker discounts too).

Basically as someone who is a bit of a tight arse, I tend to take advantage of what's cheap that day and Waitrose seems to charge close to book price on everything where as Sainsbury's seems to have much more offers so in reality I find it way cheaper.
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Waitress do have stuff on deal, recently I've seen olives down 20%, coffee 2 for 1 on a range of branded offerings, deals on beers... and of course yellow stickers too. As for sainsbury, was in one on sat - pack of 4 zero Guinnesses missing one can not down from £4 to £3 but £4 to £3.28. Riddle me that...
 
Elpenor said:
I don’t typically spend enough to get free delivery plus when I used supermarket deliveries last year when I was struggling to walk I was very unhappy with the substitutions and the quality / use by dates
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We were really unhappy with the quality and use by dates from Asda/Morrison's when we tried ordering from them online, but it turns out Ocado was much better.

Maybe because they're online only so they know their stuff a bit better.
 
I go to a variety of places.

Asda is very good for fruit and veg prices (got a punnet of 8 "ripen in the bowl" plums for 62p, I kid you not, last time I was in there a few weeks back, plus other produce seems to be considerably cheaper than other supermarkets) and I've bought chicken there too at reasonable prices. If it is a large branch, their homeware is often good value with regular discounts. Most recent purchase was a bath sheet for £4.50.

Lidl is good for store cupboard stuff but other than their "Waste Not" veg boxes (sometimes available behind the checkouts early morning) I don't find their fruit & veg prices very exciting. But for store cupboard stuff like pasta, rice, flour, cornflour, stock cubes, packet stuffing, tinned tomatoes, beans (baked beans taste just like heinz) it is excellent, (and of course you can get a bit more fancy stuff in their themed weeks, it is no secret that Greek Week is my personal favourite). Very easy to get to the checkout and find that half of the sweets/chocolate/crisps/biscuits aisle has accidentallyd into your trolley though, that also tends to be very good value. Excellent for wines and spirits also, their own brand gin (Hortus) has won awards and they have a good selection of other adult beverages.

No Aldi round here so I've never been to one.

Our big Sainsbury's is very good for higher end veggie/vegan product choice, prices OK but not spectacularly good

Not been to Tesco for a while, but they have a history of too many substitutions and missing items when I have ordered online from them, so would avoid doing that if you can go in person.
 
Cheers all, think I probably need to drive to Asda and see what a typical shop comes out as price wise, after my discount :)
 
I just buy on the day and look out for reduced to clear stock on the way back from work in tesco or sainsburys or m&s. I can't remember when if ever I've done a 'weekly shop' - it certainly feels less wasteful and more frugal.
 
Lidl, but they’re not the cheapest for the meat (diced lamb) that I need for slow-cooker & freeze-it batch cooking for my parents. So I’ll get an Iceland delivery for the freezer about once a month.
 
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