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Daily Record

Lifestyle

Emma Gill & Rachel Williams

'I ate nothing but Asda Smart Price food for a week and it cost less than £50'

Asda Emma Gill

As the cost of living crisis continues to soar, many families across the country are being left to figure out how to deal with rising prices.

With the cost of energy bills and food rising, it is understandable why so many are looking for the simplest ways to reduce their bills.

For most families, one of the simplest - and most challenging - ways is on the weekly grocery shop which can help cut down costs and reduce food waste.

However, finding something that will feed the full family - grown-ups and adults - can sometimes prove to be more challenging than the idea of cutting down the bills.

Which is exactly why a Parenting Editor from The Manchester Evening News set herself a challenge of purchasing a full weeks grocery shop for her full family with just Asda Smart Price products.

Emma Gill said that she managed to pick up breakfast, dinner and tea and was surprised to find that the impressive haul came to just under £50.

She said: "Admittedly some of the products were lower quality than we'd usually eat and when it comes to buying things like meat, fish and cheese, it's hard to find healthier alternatives when you've got a tight budget to stick to. Not to mention having to sacrifice free range eggs for the caged hen variety."

Some products from the Asda Smart Price range (MEN)

Nevertheless, the reporter did find that there were only two items that the family would never purchase again, which were the weak teabags and the poor quality sausages.

While most of the products were bought from the supermarkets budget ranges, Emma did admit that she had to shop in some of the regular priced ranges to make all of the meals work.

Items such as gravy granules, stock cubes and red cabbage to go with the corned beef hash were picked up at the cheapest prices available.

The savvy shopper also said that she managed to stick to their budget by using some items already in her household for some of the meals, such as garlic and tomato puree from home for the chilli, as well as their own own salt and pepper.

Out of the whole shop, the Emma did say: "One thing I could have done differently was to buy flour (45p for 1.5kg of plain or self raising) instead of the packet sponge cake and batter mixes, but I wanted to try as many of the Smart Price products as possible.

"While both were OK, and would suit someone not wanting to buy full bags of flour or the other ingredients needed for a cake mix, there's nothing quite like the homemade versions."

At the end of the shop, the savvy mum found that the entire week's worth of food came to just £49.95 and was "pleasantly surprised" by everything they managed to get.

It comes after the British supermarket chain announced it would be stocking their full budget Asda Smart Price ranges in all of their stores across the country.

The supermarket made the announcement following criticism from the anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe who raised concerns about the lack of availability of cheaper products.

A spokesperson for Asda said: "We know that the cost of running a household is at the front of our customers’ minds at the moment, which is why we have made our full Smart Price and Farm Stores range available in all of our food stores and online.

"This includes more than 30 staple fresh fruit and vegetable products starting from just 39p to give customers a choice of affordable healthy options.’’

Here's how Emma's entire weeks worth of meals went...