With the cost of living crisis many supermarket chains have launched budget ranges and many have been promoting offers and discounts. With that in mind, we decided to take £5 to Tesco to see how much we could get to stock our cupboards. Laycie Beck reports.
I headed to my nearest Tesco superstore with a few essentials in mind, such as pasta and bread, but as I completed my shop I tried to pick items that could be used as the basis of a couple of meals.
Although I had a Tesco Clubcard it didn't actually make any of my items cheaper, as although the Clubcard is fantastic at reducing the prices of top brands, most of Tesco's own brand products already cost less than the reduced prices. I also decided to stay away from the yellow sticker section as although you can find bargains there, it is not guaranteed.
The first few items in my basket included a pack of penne pasta (41p) and Spaghetti (28p), which I paired a jar of onion and garlic sauce (85p) and chunky vegetable pasta sauce (85p) which brought my total to £2.39. Trying to stick to the basics I then picked up a loaf of white bread (39p) and a garlic baguette (37p) making the total cost so far £3.15.
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I headed back to the food cupboard aisle and found a tin of baked beans (27p), a tin of spaghetti hoops (16p) and jar of strawberry jam (39p). At this point I had £1.03 left to spend, but managed to find a jar of Heart Food Co Curry sauce (45p) and also picked up a packet of microwavable rice (35p).
This brought my total to £4.77 and although I could have got another tin I decided to stay on the side of caution in case something had been mispriced and went up at checkout or in case I needed the change later on. All in all I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could get for under £5, however I had avoided the meat and dairy products as although they add to many meals a block of cheese would have taken up most of my budget.
Tesco regularly advertises its products as being Aldi price matched, and Aldi regularly releases adverts comparing its own products to those at Tesco, so I decided to see if I could complete the exact same shop at Aldi for the same price, or perhaps even cheaper. I headed to my nearest Aldi and found my basket getting filled a lot quicker as this time I knew exactly what I was after.
I was able to get the exact same products as I did at Tesco, except for the curry sauce. The closest products I could find at Aldi were a Korma, Tikka Masala or sweet and sour sauce which were all 85p, so I added one of the jars to my basket.
At the checkout I was surprised to find that the total cost was £5.16, which was more than my bill at Tesco's. Upon closer inspection of the receipt on my way home I found that every single item from Aldi was the same price of those at Tesco, except Aldi's tin of baked beans were actually a penny cheaper.
The reason for the higher overall price was the sweet and sour sauce from Aldi, which was 40p more than the Curry sauce from Tesco. If you exclude the both these sauces then the Tesco shop would have been £4.32 and the Aldi shop £4.31, showing that both supermarkets can help stock your cupboards for under £5.
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