The average household has seen a 19.1% jump to the cost of their food shop, according to the Office for National Statistics. With living costs still high, many of us looking at ways to keep our food costs down.

Some UK supermarkets are more expensive than others, but with prices rising across the board, you might be surprised to see how the cost of popular items compare.

Some UK supermarkets are more expensive than others, but with prices rising across the board, you might be surprised to see how the cost of popular items compare.

We’ve looked at the prices of the most frequently bought items from the top UK supermarkets to find out the cheapest places to shop. We’ll update this list once a month, so you can check back whenever you want to find the latest prices.

What’s on the list?

For all of the items we’ve listed, we’ve chosen supermarket’s own brand products wherever possible, only replacing these with a branded product if it’s cheaper, or if there’s no alternative.

Here’s the list:

ItemSize
MilkSemi skimmed2 pint bottle
ButterSalted250g
YoghurtFull fat – Greek style500g
CheeseMature400g
ApplesBraeburn6 pack
OrangesEasy peeler600g
BananasLoose5 pack
CeleryWhole head1 Head
CarrotsBag1kg
OnionsBrown1kg
TomatoesSalad tomatoes6 pack
BreadWhite medium sliced loaf800g
PastaPenne500g
Chickpeastinned in water400g
RiceLong grain white rice1kg
EggsMedium – Free range6 pack
Chicken breastSkinless2 fillets
Salmon filletBoneless2 fillets
Beef mince5% fat500g

 

Get expert mortgage advice

Looking for mortgage advice? Book a free, no-obligation call with a Rest Less Mortgages expert or compare over 10,000 mortgage deals from 90+ lenders in minutes.

Get mortgage advice**

Which supermarket is cheapest this month?

This month, the cheapest supermarket overall was Lidl, with our list of items coming in at a total of £24.48.

Here’s the total amount for the items in each supermarket:

Table showing least to most expensive
Supermarket Basket total – least to most expensive
Lidl £24.48
Aldi £24.53
Tesco £26.65
Sainsburys £27.68
Morrisons £28.91
Asda £29.46
Waitrose £36.15
Co-op £36.50
Iceland £36.79
M&S £37.82
 

Which supermarket has the cheapest items?

While Lidl came in cheapest, it didn’t have the cheapest items across the board. So while this supermarket offers the biggest savings on items like as butter, cheese and onions were cheaper elsewhere.

However, while visiting each supermarket to buy the following items at the cheapest price the cost of your shop would only fall to £22.69. which is only £1.79 cheaper than Lidl. When you’ve factored in possible travel costs, it’s unlikely that this would be a cost-effective option.

Here, we look at which supermarket had the cheapest items this week:

ItemLowest PriceSupermarket
Milk£1.19Aldi
Butter£1.80Waitrose
Yoghurt£0.69Aldi
Cheese£2.19Aldi
Apples£0.90Morrisons
Oranges£0.95Asda, Lidl
Bananas£0.85Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl
Celery£0.57Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Lidl
Carrots£0.40Morrisons, Sainsbury’s
Onions£0.55Tesco
Tomatoes£0.85Tesco, Waitrose, Aldi
Bread£0.39Tesco
Pasta£0.41Tesco, Aldi, Lidl
Chickpeas£0.55Tesco
Rice£0.48Lidl
Eggs£1.25Waitrose
Chicken£2.29Aldi, Lidl
Salmon£2.99Lidl
Beef£3.39Tesco, Aldi

Get a free no-obligation pension consultation

Pension advice can help you get the most out of your retirement income, helping you on your way to a secure financial future. If you have more than £75k in pension savings, take the first step by arranging a free, no-obligation initial consultation with an expert from Aviva Financial Advice. Any recommendations advisers make will be for products from Aviva and other carefully selected partners. There’s no obligation, but if they feel you’d benefit from paid financial advice, they’ll go over how that works and the charges involved. Capital at risk.

Book my free call

Which supermarket has the most expensive items?

While few of us will be surprised that Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are usually the most expensive, it might shock you to see Iceland making multiple appearances on this list.  

Here, we look at which supermarket had the most expensive items this week, and how much more they were compared to the lowest price: 

Item Highest Price Difference from cheapest price Supermarket
Milk £1.40 £0.21 Co-op
Butter £2.20 £0.40 Co-op
Yoghurt £1.70 £1.01 Co-op
Cheese £3.80 £1.61 Iceland
Apples £1.80 £0.90 Co-op
Oranges £2.19 £1.24 Iceland
Bananas £1.20 £0.35 Marks & Spencer
Celery £1.30 £0.73 Co-op
Carrots £1.00 £0.60 Co-op
Onions £1.35 £0.80 Marks & Spencer
Tomatoes £2.10 £1.25 Marks & Spencer
Bread £0.95 £0.56 Co-op
Pasta £1.17 £0.76 Marks & Spencer
Chickpeas £1.10 £0.55 Co-op
Rice £2.40 £1.92 Waitrose
Eggs £1.85 £0.60 Marks & Spencer
Chicken £4.40 £2.11 Waitrose
Salmon £6.25 £3.26 Marks & Spencer
Beef £6.25 £2.86 Waitrose
 

Finally…

While shopping around definitely pays off in some cases, if you’re grabbing a pint of milk or a bag of onions, rest assured that the difference in cost between these items from different supermarkets isn’t likely to break the bank. If you’re looking for other ways to keep food costs down, have a look at our articles 21 ways to save money on your food bills, 5 ways to cut energy costs when you cook and 12 inflation-busting foods.

Rest Less Money is on Instagram! Check out our account and give us a follow @rest_less_uk_money for all the latest Money News, updated daily.