Is there any point a £20 a week Tesco shopper going to the discounters 22 November 2022 at 11:51PM in Food shopping & groceries 31 replies 1.5K views

MikeJXE

I'm an 80 year old pensioner, I live alone and my food bill is around £20 a week on average inc household. I'm not wealthy but I'm ok for now. I buy Tesco brand bread milk cereal bacon eggs, frozen veg potatoes Heinz's beans, some sandwich fillers. The Tesco extra it's a nice shop round the corner and I know where everything is so it's no hassle, incidentally Aldi is a touch closer but a lot smaller.  I'm not interested in saving a couple of pounds to take on any tress but would like to know the thought of discount shoppers in my situation. 

mjm3346

Tesco price match Aldi on 100s of items and as you already buy Tesco brands there is likely to be very little to be saved by switching to Aldi - when Aldi advertise the savings to be made on a basket of shopping from them compared to say Tesco they compare their own label goods with branded goods from other supermarkets rather than the supermarket own brands so exaggerating any saving there might be.

MikeJXE

Thank you, I suspected that but Tesco  price match to Aldi has some snags as in,  if Aldi is selling branded at a higher price than Tesco which they often do, Tesco price match is not a good idea but it happens. 

Clowance

why not have a look round Aldi to compare prices on the specific items you buy, bearing in mind that some of their own brand is better quality than tesco own brand. Then switch a few items? 

MikeJXE

I have been round Aldi in the past and found it difficult to get near products as customers seem to spend a long time choosing which they want, I am going to stick and there is no way I'm going to get my shopping from 2 shops that would be a bridge too far lol. Thank you for your replies

YoungBlueEyes

I was going to say the same as @Clowance. I much prefer Aldis stuff to tescos. The quality you get in aldi for an own-brand thing is higher than tescos imo. The bread particularly is lovely. Sometimes a standard product is basically the same wherever you go - frozen veg is frozen veg, an egg is an egg is an egg. But stuff they've had a hand in - bread/cereals/drinks - are often much better. The wholemeal seeded loaf is very good

pumpkin89

YoungBlueEyes said:

frozen veg is frozen veg, an egg is an egg is an egg

Neither of these is true!  There is massive variation in frozen peas, especially, and a cheap egg tastes nothing like a Clarence Court.

cymruchris

With your spend and circumstances, I'd probably stick with Tesco. It's what you know, easy to find what you want, and no stress (mostly). If you've had a wander around Lidl before, and didn't get on with it, I'd stick with your regular routine.

elsien

I’d probably stick to Tesco as well in your situation.
 I don’t like the physical environment of an Aldi store. It feels crowded and there’s too many people and in mine no basket tills so if you’re only doing a small shop (I don’t do a big main shop) you’re stuck behind a trolley loads of people.
I just end up getting trolley rage and running out at speed. I find Lidl little slightly better and less crowded.
With your size spend there is probably so little in it it’s not going to make a huge amount of difference on the savings front. 

Brie

I use Tescos, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose & M&S - depending on where I am, where I'm going and what I need.  There's good reasons to shop at all of them.  

But a well stocked large Tesco is hard to beat in general - if you want to save money they do a basic range and their customer service is generally quite good.  The staff at our local one (mid sized, not an extra) are incredibly friendly and actually treat one as an individual rather than just giving zombie service. 

I think it's important to see and be seen particularly if you live alone (I assume you do) as people do start to notice your routine and start being even friendlier.  I moved a few years back and so had stopped going to a different Tesco where previously I might have been there once or twice a week.  I happened to be passing it one day and popped in and was surprised that the woman at the till asked why I hadn't been in for such a long time.  I obviously had made an impression!!!

YoungBlueEyes

pumpkin89 said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

frozen veg is frozen veg, an egg is an egg is an egg

Neither of these is true!  There is massive variation in frozen peas, especially, and a cheap egg tastes nothing like a Clarence Court.

Tch Clarence Court ha haa! I said “a standard product”.  Plain frozen peas are basically the same in either Tesco or Lidl. Plain normal eggs are the same etc etc…