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Daily Record

Lifestyle

Emma GIll & Rachel Williams

Asda mum raves over £52 Just Essentials food haul that fed her family for a week

Asda Emma Gill Sainsbury

As food costs continue to soar, many families will be looking for ways to keep their bills down during the weekly supermarket shopping trip.

In a bid to keep costs down, families who have been struggling to make ends meet have been changing their regular habits and switching to own-branded products to stick to a budget.

One such range has been Asda's newly launched Just Essentials, a rebrand of their Smart Price range, which has been so popular with shoppers, despite initial controversy, for its vast variety of low priced items.

The range has been such a hit, that the supermarket has had to temporarily 'ration' the amount of items shoppers can buy, with many being limited to just three of the same item in one shop.

Keen to get in on the action herself, Emma Gill from The MEN decided to give the range a go to see how cheaply she could feed her entire family - two adults, a teen and a tween - for an entire week. Spending £51.87 for breakfast, lunch and dinner, here is how she got on with her budget food haul.

The budget range has been hugely popular with shoppers (MEN)

"Even I was surprised that I managed to do it for little more than £50, well £51.87 to be exact, and that was for breakfast, dinner and tea over seven days, with some snacks thrown in too.

"I had to make a meal plan for our teas to make it work and that's something most people swear by to help keep costs down. On a typical week I don't plan it out as rigidly, which inevitably leads to either another shopping trip where I spend even more when things catch my eye, or a rather uninspiring beige tea from whatever's languishing in the freezer.

"The only things I bought from outside the range were the chilli powder and the milk, but even the price of those was included in the total.

"Some of the products are staggeringly cheap, especially in today's climate. A 500g pack of spaghetti is just 23p for instance, while a jar of bolognese sauce is 39p.

"It's always cheaper to make your own meals and the two big 2.5kg bags of white potatoes, costing just 99p each, gave me enough spuds for the Sunday dinner, a corned beef hash and a huge portion of mash to go with the battered fish.

A 500g packet of spaghetti costs just 32p (MEN)

"They were good potatoes too and while I'd usually buy Maris Pipers for mash, these didn't disappoint like cheaper spuds have done in the past.

"But if you are short on time the range does include some ready meals like lasagne, curry and macaroni cheese for 90p each.

"Meat is usually one of the most expensive parts of a big shop, but the whole chicken, costing £3.19, was enough for the Sunday roast with enough leftover for a curry.

"Likewise, the bag of frozen mince beef and onion was split between a chilli and a bolognese and proved just enough for the four of us, with the help of some carrots to bulk out the latter.

"You can't fail to be impressed by the prices in this range, after giving it a go I can see why customers are being dazzled by the quality as much as the yellow packets."

Here's how my week's meals panned out