It pays to shop around

cookhead

We have recently decided to try shopping online after visiting Asda and seeing how much cheaper it was for us, no local Asda so online is our best option. While I was messing around on their site, adding things to the trolley and then removing them to get a feel for how it all works it came to me that I could do the same with Tesco and Sainsburys too and see how the prices stack up.

So as a little exercise I made up a 20 item shopping list of things I knew I would be able to purchase exactly the same from Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury and did a fictitious order online with all three - all double checked that it matched and the difference was frightening, these are the prices.

Sainsburys - £38.39
Tesco - £36.13
Asda - £29.77

I'm pretty certain this would change on a weekly basis as some things were on special in different stores at the time, one that comes to mind is 1 litre of vegetable oil - £1 in Asda but £1.44 in both the others - the Asda price has since gone up to £1.44 as well.

Butterfly_Brain

I have done this as well and flit from one shop to another and my main shopping is now done in Aldi and Asda and only go to Sainsbury when I need a certain few things that I can't get anywher else. Our Tesco is on the border of another town and is 2 miles away and we don't use the Tesco express stores because they are too pricy - I go to our local coop because sometimes they have good deals and they always have good reductions on stuff This week so far I have bought 2 granary loaves reduced to 50p ea and 3 warburtons white reduced to 49p

rosie383

If you visit https://www.mysupermarket.com they do the job for you. Just put in your shopping list, click on the tab at the top for either Sains/ Asda/ Tesco/ Ocado. You can also go up or down a brand level on the site too. May save you a wee bit of time in the future.
I have started to do this, and seeing which is cheaper so that I can use my £6/4 off a £30 shop voucher from Sains/tesco. To see if it is worth going there or asda.

Penelope_Penguin

You can do something similar using the My Supermarket site :T

As this is a shopping thread, I'll move it over to the Grocery shopping Board

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Gigervamp

I use Mysupermarket to check prices.

I always get most of my veg and a few other staples from Lidl, and then get the other stuff either from Tescos or Asda, depending on which one comes out cheaper for the rest of my list or whether I need some things that only Tesco sell.

I've found that there's usually not much difference between Tesco and Asda, but Sainsbury's is usually £5-£10 more and Ocado is often £20+ more.

septuagenarian

I've dived in - hopefully right forum - to moan about Asda Smartprice muesli. Within eighteen months it has increased from just about 60p to 88p. Yesterday, less than six weeks since 88p, it is now 94p.

Marvel1

I did the same last weekend, I shopped at Asd, Farmfoods, Lidl and Tesco. I left the house at 7am and I was outside Farmfoods (after Tesco and Asda) at 7:55am waiting for it to open up.

I was armed with a list of what to buy and who from, and even better my local Tesco doen't sell Value Tuna Flakes - 39p, only chunks which is 55p, but the Tesco extra I went to did, so picked up 17 tins of those.

It's a shame you can't do the same with Morrisons, as Tesco and Morrisons are the closet to me.

maman

I do most of my shopping at Asda but stock up with things I like from Lidl and Farmfoods on occasional trips. Aldi fruit and veg is good but not so close for me so I only go now and again. What I would say is that as they continue to withdraw long term offers/put up prices at Farmfoods they'll be far less attractive. I suppose there are bargains to be had on processed food, if you buy that, but many of the thing I used to buy are not really cheap any more. Toilet rolls, kitchen roll, sugar, orange juice, milk to name the recent ones I've noticed.