Please HELP MSE test new supermarket Downshift Challenge tool

Debrac

Having lost £46K from our income (due to my illness and husbands redundancy then having to take a much lower paid job) we have had to downshift considerably. Wish this tool had been around a year ago! We have reduced our food shop from £140 per week at Tesco to £75 a week. We now buy whatever we can at Aldi then the rest at Homebargains then as a final resort, Asda. We have done taste tests with our children and found they actually prefer Aldi own brand cereal, crisps etc.

It really does make a difference so try it. You'll be surprised at how much you can actually save!

Madrabbitgirl

This is an interesting tool. Nice lay out, easy to use.
I find that value products aren't always as good quality ( although I try to get a few bits). I do part of my shop at Aldi to save money but they don't offer the same kind of choice as some of the other supermarkets so have to go elsewhere for things such as vegetarian food etc... I also try to get reduced items. I'll definitely start getting more own brands ( I used to but seem to be slipping into bad habits!).:)

geordie_joe

I put in that I spend £100 per week, at ASDA, on Premium Brands and it said that if I downshift a brand it will cost me £116 per week, a yearly saving of -£832.


asda Receipt

Weekly spend
Downshifted a brand

Premium
£100.00
£0.00

Branded
£0.00
£116.00

Own brand
£0.00
£0.00

Value
£0.00
£0.00

Totals:
£100.00
£116.00

Estimated annual saving: £-832.00

parahandy

doesn't work too well on my outdated PC at work, but shall try properly at home later. However, roughly estimating my proportinal spend, I could save upwards of a grand a year:eek:

SnowMan

It's a nice easy to use tool to show the effect of downshifting a brand numerically

It took me a short while (despite the arrows) to realise that you had to drag the sliders to the left and right (rather than up or down). Probably me being an idiot but perhaps say instead 'drag the sliders to the left or right'?

PollyOnAMission

I'm also a bit confused by the outcome. I picked ASDA as my main supermarket with monthly spends:

Premium: £10
Branded: £50
Own Brand: £80
Value: £60

The outcome was:

Premium: £0
Branded: £11.60
Own Brand: £33.50
Value: £102.40

I took it to mean that my £10 P spend became an £11.60 B spend. My £50 B spend became a £33.50 OB spend. My £80 OB spend became (102.40 - 60 £42.40 V spend and my £60 V spend stayed a £60 V spend.

Does this effectively mean that Branded products are more expensive than Premium products in ASDA?

Jazzy_B

Have to say this isn't much use to me. I live in a rural area, and have to visit a supermarket 2 or 3 times a week for milk and fresh goods. I vary the supermarkets I go as we prefer certain products in certain shops. I always write a list, and if something has gone up a lot, I leave it and put it on the list to check the price in another supermarket.
This might be useful for people who are time poor, but they've probably got the cash to buy the items they always buy.

ineed

Good little tool, here's my results.

Morrisons Receipt:

Weekly spend downshifted a brand

Premium£33.60 £0.00

Branded£86.40 £19.15

Own brand£0.00 £46.66

Value£0.00 £0.00

................... ..................

Totals:£120.00 £65.81

Estimated annual saving: £2,817.88

Guess I should switch to more own branded stuff and cut back on the premium. I'd save loads and I bet the own brand is just as good .

geordie_joe

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Does this effectively mean that Branded products are more expensive than Premium products in ASDA?

No, it means the program just deducts a percentage from the total for each step down for each store. In the case of asda the programmer has put a plus sign instead of a minus sign. e.g. instead of

asdaBRANDED = asdaPREMIUM - 16%

he/she has written

asdaBRANDED= asdaPREMIUM + 16%

So it ADDS the percentage when going from asda premium to asda branded instead of deducting it..

Redleela

This is a useful tool but I would be interested to know if anyone has compared the fat, salt and sugar content of value products with own brand. We buy mostly own brand products and have not downshifted if the fat, salt, sugar or calorie content is higher in the value products as we try to only buy healthy low/lower fat and calorie foods.

I'm aware of the health checker tool that is coming soon on MySupermarket.