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Manchester Evening News

Entertainment

Emma Gill

My £52 Asda Just Essentials food haul fed my family for an entire week

Asda Morrisons

We all know how much food costs have risen over the last year, so it's no surprise that more people are turning to supermarket budget brands.

But the demand for Asda's new Just Essentials range, following a rebrand of its Smart Price, has been higher than even the supermarket's own bosses could have predicted.

It arrived rather quietly, the old plain white labels being gradually replaced by the new bright yellow packaging. But it wasn't long before shoppers were making some noise about it - with some suggesting that the new colour stands out too much and acts as a 'poverty marker' in people's baskets and trolleys.

Far from being put off, it put a spotlight on Just Essentials that no amount of advertising could have achieved, with families eager to try out the range, which so far consists of almost 300 products - 50% more than the Smart Price.

Demand has been so high, in fact, that the retailer has been forced to temporarily ration the items, with shoppers allowed to buy a maximum of three of each product, a move that's proved somewhat controversial with mostly larger families.

Asda is not letting shoppers buy more than three of each product (Manchester Family / MEN)

Keen to get in on the action I decided to give the range a go to see how cheaply I could feed my family of four - two adults, a teen and a tween - for a full week.

Even I was surprised that I managed to do it for little more than £50, well £51.87 to be exact, and that was for breakfast, dinner and tea over seven days, with some snacks thrown in too.

I had to make a meal plan for our teas to make it work and that's something most people swear by to help keep costs down. On a typical week I don't plan it out as rigidly, which inevitably leads to either another shopping trip where I spend even more when things catch my eye, or a rather uninspiring beige tea from whatever's languishing in the freezer.

My full shop came to £51.87 (Manchester Family / MEN)

The only things I bought from outside the range were the chilli powder and the milk, but even the price of those was included in the total.

Some of the products are staggeringly cheap, especially in today's climate. A 500g pack of spaghetti is just 23p for instance, while a jar of bolognese sauce is 39p.

It's always cheaper to make your own meals and the two big 2.5kg bags of white potatoes, costing just 99p each, gave me enough spuds for the Sunday dinner, a corned beef hash and a huge portion of mash to go with the battered fish.

They were good potatoes too and while I'd usually buy Maris Pipers for mash, these didn't disappoint like cheaper spuds have done in the past.

But if you are short on time the range does include some ready meals like lasagne, curry and macaroni cheese for 90p each.

Meat is usually one of the most expensive parts of a big shop, but the whole chicken, costing £3.19, was enough for the Sunday roast with enough leftover for a curry.

Likewise, the bag of frozen mince beef and onion was split between a chilli and a bolognese and proved just enough for the four of us, with the help of some carrots to bulk out the latter.

You can't fail to be impressed by the prices in this range, after giving it a go I can see why customers are being dazzled by the quality as much as the yellow packets.