In This Article:
Aldi has been named the cheapest supermarket in March, with an average household basket full of groceries and other essentials coming in at £133.73, a study by consumer group Which? found.
Lidl came in second, with the same shopping list costing only 67p more at £134.40, with the supermarket’s loyalty scheme Lidl Plus and 70p more without, at £134.43.
Aldi shoppers saved an average of £42,68 over the month compared with customers at Waitrose, which was the most expensive retailer, at £176.41.
Read more: How Trump's tariffs will impact your finances and the UK economy
The basket of 79 items cost £146.79 at Tesco (TSCO.L) with a Clubcard, £147.09 at Asda, £150.46 at Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) with a Nectar card, £155.47 at Morrisons with a More card and £167.20 at Ocado (OCDO.L).
Reena Sewraz, Which? retail editor, said: “Aldi has once again been crowned as the UK’s cheapest supermarket in our monthly price analysis, however, Lidl has narrowed the gap with its rival. It was also a strong month for Asda, as it continues to be the cheapest supermarket for a bigger list of groceries.
“Shoppers are still feeling the effects of food inflation and with prices forecast to rise again, people are likely looking to cut costs where they can. Our analysis shows that by switching supermarkets, shoppers could pay 24% less, highlighting the advantages of shopping around where possible."
The list of items included both branded and own-brand items, such as Birds Eye Peas, Hovis bread, milk and butter. Special offers and loyalty prices were included, but any multi-buys were not.
The study also found Asda to be the cheapest supermarket for a larger trolley of 203 items, at £498.
Asda beat Tesco by just over £5, as the country's biggest supermarket came in second at 503.03. Asda’s top spot for the longer shopping list comes as the supermarket brought back Rollback pricing — claiming to have slashed the prices of more than 4,000 products in-store and online by an average of 25%.
Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket for the larger trolley of items. In March, a Waitrose shop cost a total of £573.15, a difference of £75.15 compared to Asda.
Meanwhile, data from Kantar showed grocery price inflation edged up as the rising cost of food ranks just behind energy bills on the list of consumers’ concerns, figures show.
Supermarket prices are now 3.5% higher than a year ago, up from 3.3% in February after falling from 3.7% in December.
Meanwhile, customer spending on promotions reached their highest level for four years, making up 28.2% of all grocery sales.