A woman tried living off Asda's budget range as Brits face the terrifying prospect of choosing between heating and eating.
The cost of living crisis has forced Britons into hardships, with many turning to community centres, food banks and charities volunteer for urgent help in these difficult times.
Supermarket giants in the UK, such as ASDA, have launched budget ranges to offer customers cheaper grocery options.
Asda’s Just Essential range is the “largest ever budget-friendly range” to help shoppers with rising costs, according to the retail chain.
Nottinghamshire Live reporter, Keimae Blake put the essential range to the test to see how much she would be saving.
The Just Essential range can be found with bright-yellow packaging amongst the other items on the ASDA shelves.
Simply comparing prices, Keimae found cheese was £1.50 cheaper at the budget retail chain compared to Tesco.
She said: ‘That’s a bargain. It will be little saves like this that the range will save people a few pounds on."
Here’s a round up of her day, and whether she thought the swap was worth a try...
Breakfast: £1.76
For breakfast Keiser chose to go for the Wheat Bisks range, similar to Weetabix, but a pack of 24 costing 77p.
She said: "I shall definitely be buying them again."
She added a small bowl of Sultanas costing 99p on the side.
Lunch: £4.75
With many people tightening their budgets, packed lunches are essential to saving on spending costs.
For lunch, Keimae usually opt for Greggs or food from stores, but she says she is now trying to get into the habit of making her own packed lunches.
Keimae’s lunch cost her a total of £4.75, with a pack of six white rolls for 49p and Red Leicester cheese for £3.75.
She added: "The rolls were bakery standard, Nice and crumbly and smelt lovely".
Snack: 39p
Keimae’s enjoys chocolates, fruit, cereal bars and pastries for a good snack.
This time she went for mini chocolate chip cookies for 39p with a cup of tea.
"These cookies are your answer to cheaper Maryland style biscuits," she added.
"In Morrisons, a 200G pack of Maryland biscuits cost £1.35 and personally, I wouldn’t pay that much."
Dinner and pudding: £1
For dinner, Keimae went for tomato pasta, sided with chopped tomatoes and cheese.
The pasta cost her 35p and chopped tomatoes were 32p.
The reporter said: "The dish wasn’t too bad, I did have to add herbs and spices to the chopped tomatoes so they weren’t too bland.
"Overall, my dish was 7/10 I’d say."
But it was the Red Leicester cheese that she added on top which she thought was the perfect finish.
For those who enjoy finishing the day with a sweet tooth, like Keimae, she said the chocolate range is a good option.
She opted for a white chocolate bar costing her 33p and says she would 100% buy it again.
Verdict:
By living off the Just Essential range for a day Keimae’s total cost for food for just her came to a total of £7.90.
This cost may range depending on families, but she believes the range is definitely worth a try if you are struggling in the cost of living crunch.
