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Wales Online

National

Emma Gill & Sophie Goodall

One shopper found 'pleasant surprises' when swapping grocery items for Tesco's budget brands

Tesco Hearty Food Co Emma Gill

With the cost of living crisis hitting families hard, and many left choosing whether to "heat or eat", Manchester Evening News' Emma Gill decided to test out supermarket budget brands to see which, if any, products were a worthy swap for branded groceries.

Emma headed to supermarket giant Tesco with the objective of doing a full grocery shop that would feed a family of four for the week, but only with food items from Tesco's budget brands, to see where savings could be made.

She began by comparing the appearance and branding of budget items with regular products.

Emma said: "Unlike other budget ranges - which tend to have nothing more than the words and if you're lucky a picture on an otherwise plain white label - Tesco's merge in with the rest of its products. It's pretty much been that way since the scrapping of its old 'Everyday Value' branding and while yes, it might make the items trickier to find, if you've got children or another half who might turn their nose up at cheaper brands, chances are they might not notice."

Most importantly, Emma set out to compare the taste and the prices of the items with what she would usually buy.

She said: "There's plenty to make substantial meals from in its budget ranges, helped by the Aldi Price Matches on some meat and fruit and its cheap-as-chips frozen vegetables, like the 900g bag of broccoli and cauliflower florets for 80p and the 900g bag of Grower's Harvest garden peas for just 55p.

"There were lots we hadn't tried before though and it was like taking a trip back to the 80s with some of the budget products - refreshingly with prices as well as the food. With our chicken Kievs, £1.65 for two, and potato croquettes, just 61p for 700g, all we needed was the Blockbusters theme tune and I would have been right back there eating my tea after school and mithering about what's for afters.

"And some of those were a blast from the past too. I think I was a bit over excited at the prospect of Angel Delight, 49p a pack, as the reaction from my children was one of pure underwhelm - followed by 'I don't like the texture'. Who even are they?"

But she was able to appease her children with plenty of budget-branded sweet items.

She said: "There were lots of treats they did like from Tesco's Ms Molly's range, with everything from flapjack traybake and ice cream roll, to milk lollies and trifle. She might not have the status of Mr Kipling, but I'll take Ms Molly's prices over his any day of the week.

The ice cream roll was a family favourite (Manchester Family / MEN)

"The tray of flapjack for instance was just 80p for 360g. That's less than half the price of Tesco's £2 pack of flapjack bites (two for £3 with Clubcard) and there's really no hardship in chopping it up yourself."

Emma then moved on from desserts and sweet treats to savoury meals.

She said, "There's plenty to make substantial meals from in its budget ranges, helped by the Aldi Price Matches on some meat and fruit and its cheap-as-chips frozen vegetables, like the 900g bag of broccoli and cauliflower florets for 80p and the 900g bag of Grower's Harvest garden peas for just 55p.

"Talking of chips, I'd challenge anyone to make a tastier fish, chips and mushy peas any cheaper. With the 1.5kg of Hearty Food Co straight cut for 90p, Growers Harvest British mushy peas 300G for 25p and the Hearty Food Co four breaded fish fillets 600G for £2.39, the meal worked out at around 90p a head.

Emma's fish and chip meal was tasty and inexpensive (Manchester Family / MEN)

"The Willow Farm whole chicken, a bargain at £2.89, was enough for a Sunday dinner, and we still had some meat leftover to stick in a curry afterwards."

However, not all of the budget-brand products were a success, and her children managed to sniff out some of the cheaper items.

Emma said: "My Heinz beans-loving kids were quick to spot the 22p Stockwell & Co baked beans and there's nothing savvy about chucking away something they won't eat. I couldn't persuade them to even try a chicken paste butty and while it's not something I've eaten since, oh here we are with the 80s again, it was actually OK.

"And there were some pleasant surprises too - like the Stockwell & Co teabags, at just 55p for 60, less than half what you'd pay for Tetley or a similar brand."

Emma's Tesco budget shopping haul came to a total cost of £72.43. Here is an itemised list: