Buy one get free offers tend to split opinion. Some people love them, other people don't see the point if they only need one item in the first place and others question why they can justify selling an item at a much higher price individually if they can slash the cost for buying more.
But times are hard -the cost of living crisis has become a catchphrase in every household, petrol prices are surging, energy prices are causing distress and food prices are also increasing. Households everywhere are looking for ways to make their budgets stretch - and taking advantage of supermarket offers in order to make economical meals is one way to drive down costs.
So, I headed to three supermarket giants - Morrisons, Tesco and Asda - to see how many meals I could get for £15 in each supermarket using multibuy offers. I looked at trying to get the most quantity from items on offer - such as choosing two packs of four beef burgers as opposed to two individual beef steaks - but I was also mindful of trying to get the biggest savings.
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I also wanted to make sure the food was healthy. Tesco recently announced it will be moving forward with plans to axe buy one, get one free deals on foods high in fat, salt or sugar. This follows the Government's decision to delay a national ban for 12 months, with ministers citing the ongoing cost of living crisis as the reasoning why.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the ban on such multi-buy promotions will now come into effect in October 2023. Meanwhile, a ban on TV adverts featuring junk foods before 9pm has been delayed to January 2024. .
In Morrisons in Whitefield my first mega saving was three jars of Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce at £3 for three. Each individual jar was £1.65 so this worked out at a respectable £1.95 saving. An elderly lady perusing the shelf seemed a little disillusioned with the deal however, engaging me in a chat about why they could afford to sell them at £1 a jar if the individual price was usually £1.65.
Still - it was a great deal, and to go with it I picked up two bags of 75p pasta with a small multibuy saving of 10p - coming in at £1.40. Over on the meat aisle there was a three for £10 offer, where I decided on 24 meatballs at the highest price of £4.25 to go with the pasta and sauces, a £4.25 piece of steak and a £3.50 pack of four beef grill steaks allowing for a decent saving of £2.
In total the full price of the items should have been £18.45 but with the multibuy savings it came in at £14.40 - a saving of £4.05. I felt it was a great deal with three quality pasta sauces, two bags of pasta and 24 meatballs, enough to make up a few decent budget meals, with a piece of steak included. The four grill steaks would also make the bulk of a family meal with a side of potatoes or chips, or equivalent two meals for a couple - or even four meals for a solo household.
Over at Tesco in Prestwich the meat multibuy was two for £8 with plenty of choice. In order to make the best saving while also making the most meals I could, I picked up items which would be most expensive at full price - two chicken joints, one butter basted and one black pepper, worth £5.25 each, that both serve four. That was enough to feed eight people and with the two for £8 offer it was a respectable saving of £2.50.
To accompany the chicken, over in the 'buy three and get the cheapest free' veg section I picked up three items all priced at £2 to maximise the savings - a good tip here is to look for the most expensive full price items and buy three at the same price so you don't end up getting only a much lesser priced item free.
I chose a large 500g tray of miniature roast potatoes, a packet of cauliflower wing bites and sweet potato fries with a saving of £2 for the free item. I then picked up four tins of 80p individually priced Green Giant sweet corn for four for £2.50 to bulk out the cauliflower wings - a saving of 70p.
The full cost would have been £19.90, but with a total multibuy saving of £5.20 it came to £14.70. I felt that was a good deal for a roast for eight or the equivalent of two roasts for a family of four, four roasts for a couple or eight roasts for a solo household (the chicken joints were suitable for freezing) - a cost of £1.84 per head.
My last stop was Asda in Radcliffe where there were far more roll back prices than there were multibuy offers but I still came across a few scattered around the store - albeit in some spots looking like they had been attacked by a smash and grab. Two meat items for £7 worked out to be lucrative when I snapped up the last two 650g packets of less than 12 per cent fat mince, individually priced at £4.25, so a saving of £1.50.
I then chose two 454g packs of four salt and cracked black pepper burgers - at two for £5. With the full price at £3.30 it was a saving of £1.60. My final buy, with what was left of my budget was two 500g bags of £1.60 fresh pasta at two bags for £3 - a saving of 20p and making it £15 on the nose. The savings came to £3.30.
As such, the largest saving was in Tesco, who tend to slash prices greatly with a Clubcard. I would urge anyone shopping multibuy in store to make sure they have a card - which is free to obtain - as some of the offers are dependent on it. Meanwhile, the overall winning multibuy offer, for me, was the two for £8 meat at Tesco, with the individual chicken joints, serving four each joint.
That said, all stores offered reasonable deals on meat products, with average savings of between £1.50 and £2.50 on multibuy offers, while savings on fruit and were more modest. Ready meals were also available on multibuy offers in all stores but I chose to buy ingredients in order to make more meals for the budget - coming out with healthier meals as well as healthy savings.
Morrisons
Lloyd Grossman sauces priced at £1.65 each
Multibuy deal three for £3 - saving £1.95
1 x four grill steaks priced at £3.50
1 x 24 beef meatballs priced at £4.25
1 x steak priced at £4.25
Multibuy deal three for £10 - saving £2.00
Pasta priced 75p
Multibuy deal two for £1.40 - saving 10p
Total spend £14.40
Total saving £4.05
Items bought: Three jars of pasta sauce, three meat items, two bags of dried pasta
Tesco
2 x chicken joint priced at £5.25 each
Multibuy deal two for £8.00 - saving £2.50
Cauliflower wing bites priced £2.00
Roast potatoes priced £2.00
Sweet potato fries priced £2.00
Multibuy deal buy three get cheapest free - saving £2.00
Tinned corn priced at 80p
Multibuy deal four for £2.50 - saving 70p
Total saving: £5.20
Items bought two chicken joints, tray of roast potatoes, sweet potato fries, cauliflower wings, four tins of corn
Asda
2 x 650g mince priced at £4.25 each
Multibuy deal two for £7 - saving £1.50
2 x four salt and cracked black pepper burgers priced at £3.30 each
Multibuy deal two for £5 - saving £1.60
2 x fresh pasta priced £1.60 each
Multibuy deal two for £3 - saving 20p
Total saving £3.20
Items bought: 1 x 650g mince, 2 x four salt and cracked black pepper burgers, 2 x fresh pasta
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