Does anyone else find Tesco expensive?

vodkawitch1

I find Asda cheaper but their sell by dates are within a day or two which is not good for a week/months shop. Tesoc and Sainsburys seem to have much longer sell by dates.

valk_scot

It's like anywhere else...you need to read the shelf edge tickets and be aware of what things cost. I rotate between Tesco, Sainsburys and Lidl so I know if one of my normal buys has gone up or is a good deal. I see people wandering around the supermarket blindly throwing things into their trollies and not even glancing at the tickets, let alone pausing to check the price per 100g or whatever.

Asda is cheaper but the general quality is pretty iffy I think. You get what you pay for.

mannx

the thing to do is beat them at their own game - if you have the time.
I spent 30 mins quickly checking my supermarket this morning before venturing forth for the basics I knew I was going to want.....dog food, cereal, etc etc. This is my once a month restock shopping run. I have a large Tesco and a large Sainsbury's near me within a mile and a half of each other.

Phase 1 - Park at Sainsbury's. 2 hours free town centre car parking for a £10 spend (car parks here 80p per hour!). Use caclulator on mobile phone and spend £50.17 on half price deals etc - qualifies me for petrol voucher, get £4 off £40 voucher for next shop. Dump stuff in car. Go to Wilkinsons and Poundland to check things out, pick up one or two bargains (having sussed the prices in Sainsbury's), pick up fruit and veg at market stall (way cheaper than Sains or Tesco), Holland and Barrett for couple of Buy one get one half price things I wanted and Superdrug for some cut price stamps (5% off 1st class books). Back to car.

Phase 2 - Up to Tesco's. Pick up rest of shopping. Spend £54.12 and use the Sainsbury's voucher £4 in part payment, hence £50.12 so get another petrol voucher which means I have one for each of next two weeks. As it happened got there just as they were doing some ridiculous reductions on T-shirts / jumpers / shirts and came away with four t shirts, pair of shorts, and 2 jumpers for 20yr old strapped for cash son - he owes me a tenner.

This takes some thinking through but I have plenty time and not too much cash!

Total round trip - 8 miles. Normal trip to Sainsbury's 1.5 miles each way. Normal trip to Tescos 3.5 miles each way.

Ben84

The big UK supermarkets aren't such great places for saving money, but I still like them as they have their bargains and the time savings from shopping at them can be significant.

However, now I'm trying hard to save money, I prefer Aldi, the local market and poundland/99p store.

i22kay

I used tesco all the time now i shop around
i get a sack of potatoes £3.90 2 massive caulis for £1 cabage 39 pence
sack carrots £1.50 all from my farm shop tescos veg is very exspencive. also 15 eggs for 89 pence I use the coop as i have one near me I have a asda near too so i just shop around.

daisygogo

When using mysupermarket.com Tesco always comes out at least 20.00 more expensive than Sainsburys, sometimes more. Asda is usually about 5.00 more and I never look at the crazy price it lists for Waitrose

I work nearby to a Morrisons so I do try to grab the stuff I'm interested in when it's on offer but failing that I do my big shops in Sainsburys. I did have a tenner off a Tesco spend so I thought I'd give them a go and I was really disappointed, the fruit was on it's way out and the lean steak mince was really fatty.

slummymummyof3

I use a combination of Aldi and Lidl and find it significantly cheaper than Tesco/Sainsburys. I went in to Tesco the other day and was reeling in shock at the prices in there - they were horrendous! Needless to say, I quietly put my basket back and left empty handed.

elfen

I either shop in Asda or Aldi; I only use Tesco for when I'm buying my midweek bananas (18p each regardless of size, so I get 3 whoppers, if they have none I don't bother) I like Asda as a lot of their value meat products are still really good quality and the dates are long enough for me and they do single pork chops - nomnom for me on my own. Their own brand/value brand beans are lovely as are the cheap veg in tins and in the freezer. Aldi is good for cold meat (it's mainly gluten-free, so yay for me!) and juice, their high juice is brilliant as is their fruit and veg selection - 5 nanas for 54p when I can get there, and they have the ones just on the turn even cheaper

thor

All supermarkets have been quietly increasing their margins over the last few years because the public have been conditioned into accepting the inevitability of large increases. This is why their profits have been so healthy even during such a devastating recession.
Tesco unquestionably used to be the cheapest but has long since lost that crown as it is probably the supermarket that has put up it's prices the most.

NEH

mannx wrote: »

the thing to do is beat them at their own game - if you have the time.
I spent 30 mins quickly checking my supermarket this morning before venturing forth for the basics I knew I was going to want.....dog food, cereal, etc etc. This is my once a month restock shopping run. I have a large Tesco and a large Sainsbury's near me within a mile and a half of each other.

Phase 1 - Park at Sainsbury's. 2 hours free town centre car parking for a £10 spend (car parks here 80p per hour!). Use caclulator on mobile phone and spend £50.17 on half price deals etc - qualifies me for petrol voucher, get £4 off £40 voucher for next shop. Dump stuff in car. Go to Wilkinsons and Poundland to check things out, pick up one or two bargains (having sussed the prices in Sainsbury's), pick up fruit and veg at market stall (way cheaper than Sains or Tesco), Holland and Barrett for couple of Buy one get one half price things I wanted and Superdrug for some cut price stamps (5% off 1st class books). Back to car.

Phase 2 - Up to Tesco's. Pick up rest of shopping. Spend £54.12 and use the Sainsbury's voucher £4 in part payment, hence £50.12 so get another petrol voucher which means I have one for each of next two weeks. As it happened got there just as they were doing some ridiculous reductions on T-shirts / jumpers / shirts and came away with four t shirts, pair of shorts, and 2 jumpers for 20yr old strapped for cash son - he owes me a tenner.

This takes some thinking through but I have plenty time and not too much cash!

Total round trip - 8 miles. Normal trip to Sainsbury's 1.5 miles each way. Normal trip to Tescos 3.5 miles each way.

See that would be getting way too complicated for me! :rotfl:


I think that's why I use mysupermarket, save the hassle...I also agree with the other poster that if you're careful with what you get from Tesco and check the labels quickly before putting it in your trolley it saves a lot of money. If you throw things in bliindly then yes you fall for the Tesco tricks and hence it's expensive....

Case in point chicken stock cubes, you automatically think the big pack is the cheapest and throw it in, if you check the label beforehand it's cheaper to get two small packets. It can then work the other way, peanut butter I went to pick up the smaller jar which was around £1.15, the bigger jar at more than double the size was £1.56 so the smaller jar does seem very expensive.

We always find that wherever we live Alid and Lidl are always on the other side of town so we have to waste petrol getting there for the sake a of a few pence. One of the main reasons we used to go to Lidl was the veg and milk. Now milk is cheaper in Tesco and the veg isn't that cheap anymore...So our reasons for going have gone.