Woman does identical food shop from M&S and Lidl - and the result was surprising

One woman decided to find out once and for all whether her essential items grocery shop was cheaper at Marks & Spencer or at Lidl.

With supermarket prices continuing to rise, many of us are turning to the budget stores such as Aldi and Lidl to try and cut our food bills.

But one TikTok account under the name @Katsaves decided to compare the prices of her basics shop from Lidl and posh supermarket M&S.

The first item the money-saving Tiktoker checked out was carrots which were priced at 50p for 1kg in both supermarkets.

For the second item, again the price was the same for both with a single cucumber adding only 75p to her grocery bill.

For milk, @Katsaves found two pints of semi-skimmed would cost her £1.30, again in both stores.

However, the items after this was where she found the major differences.

The TikTok user went to pick up some chicken legs and in M&S the cost sat at £2 per kilogram.

In total, this pack size was 600g and it cost £1.20.

In Lidl, she found it was actually more expensive with the price sitting at £2.09 per kilogram.

She paid £2.09 for a 1kg pack.

@Katsaves found a few items which were priced exactly the same in both supermarkets (@katsaves/TikTok)

@Katsaves found that chicken legs were surprisingly more expensive in Lidl (@katsaves/TikTok)

This happened again when @Katsaves checked out the microwavable rise with a packet costing 65p for 250g in M&S but the price rose to 99p for 280g in the Germain discount store.

Overall, @Katsaves shop in the upmarket M&S cost her £5.20 but her shop in Lidl, which is famous for being a much cheaper supermarket, cost her slightly more at £5.63.

Some users however pointed out ways @Katsaves could've made her shop at Lidl cheaper.

Commenters pointed out that the microwavable rice branded she pointed out was actually "branded" and claimed Lidl's own brand was a lot less at between 30p go 50p.

@marza28 commented: "This is not a fair comparison you chose branded rice in Lidl Vs unbranded in m&s."

Another @Krisruns added: "Microwave rice in Lidl is cheaper. They do the pouches too."

Although others defended @katsaves saying her comparison videos were "interesting" to see.

@biagia.s commented: "I've seen much cheaper rice than that in Lidl, otherwise its interesting to see the comparison!"

Since its upload on February 20, the TikTok has gone viral having received over one million views, 43,000 likes and 311 comments.

M&S spokesperson: “We're delighted to see so many posts like this on TikTok, highlighting how customers can be guaranteed that at M&S they will always get great quality and trusted value.”

The Mirror has contacted Lidl for comment.