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Daily Record

Lifestyle

Rachel Williams

'I managed to buy my weekly shopping from Sainsbury's value brands for under £20'

Sainsbury Rachel Williams Heinz

With bills and food prices rocketing, many people across the country may now be feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.

As price hike across nearly everything you can think of, it can be a difficult time for those looking for ways to tighten their budget and make their money last longer.

One of the ways we can cut back on spending is the weekly grocery shop which - at the moment - could be an added expense for some of us.

Instead of cutting back on the amount of items on your grocery list, shoppers are being encouraged to 'downshift' their shopping.

Downshifting means to switch to non-branded or basic items from your chosen supermarket - and it has become increasingly popular with Martin Lewis encouraging shoppers to make the switch.

So, I wanted to see if switching to value brands from one of the big six grocers would really make a difference.

My full shop cost me less than £20 and half of what I would have spent (Rachel Williams)

I must admit, I'm partial to picking up big brand items from the likes of Kellogg's, Warburton's and Heinz, so I thought it would be interesting to see if I could actually save on my weekly shop.

Sainsbury's tends to be my go-to supermarket, but I do appreciate that it can be one of the 'pricier' options. Which is exactly why I thought this challenge would be interesting.

Armed with my purse and a grocery list of things I needed to get, I headed to my local Sainsbury's to zip around the aisles and try not to be tempted by the branded items.

Unlike Asda and Morrisons, Sainsbury's don't have a specific value brand since they scrapped the Basics range back in 2019. Nowadays they split their budget products into just Sainsbury's and Hubbards Foodstore.

I did avoid the Taste The Difference range as it was the supermarket's premium priced range, which would have defeated the purpose of the challenge.

First things first, finding value branded products in Sainsbury's was not nearly as easy I expected it to be and I found that I had to look down the aisles more than once. Even finding basic items such as bread and cereal was difficult.

That being said, I do tend to batch cook for a few meals during the week, which meant that the overall experience was a bit simpler. In the end, I managed to get a whopping 15 items for less than £20, so I did find myself a little shocked at the amount I could get for less.

I was surprised by what I managed to find for less (Rachel Williams)

I aimed to pick up as many items as I could that could make whole meals with and, luckily, there were quite a few good items in the cupboards and chilled sections that were much less.

In the cupboard section I was able to pick up a variety of essential items for much less. I am talking about a tin of chickpeas for 60p, a 500g bag of pasta for 70p, chicken and vegetable soup sachets for 38p, spaghetti hoops for 13p and passata for 45p.

Not to mention, I also managed to pick up a 6 pack of Royal Gala apples for just £1.60, which was better than paying £2.30 for the same amount in the So Organic packet.

I also managed to save on meat as well, as I managed to grab 300g of chicken breast for just £2.20. Compared to their So Organic 300g chicken breast costing over a fiver, I would say that was a win.

There was no bread or bakery items in-stock from Sainsbury's own-brands - only Warburton's or Taste The Difference - so I had to settle on cereal for my mornings. I couldn't complain, though, as I managed to grab a 500g box of Triple Chocolate Crisp Granola for just £1.50.

I also managed to make major savings by swapping out some major brands on pasta and curry sauces. A 480g creamy tomato pasta bake sauce cost just 85p, compared to Homepride's version for £2. A 500g butter chicken sauce was a reasonable 80p, which was much less than Patak's £1.25.

I managed to get two bags full of shopping for less (Rachel Williams)

Overal l verdict

I'll be absolutely honest by saying that I was quite surprised at the amount of non-branded groceries I could get from Sainsbury's. Especially when it began looking like it would be difficult.

I did find that, once you know where to look, there are a lot more on offer than you would originally think. And at such low prices, who could complain?

By dropping brands such as Uncle Ben's, Heinz, Warburtons and Patak's, I found that the overall cost came to just £18.46 for 15 items.

Does that seem like still quite a bit? Yes, it does. But, when I added up all the same branded items that I would have gotten, it would have cost me £32 - for the exact same shop.

So, looking at it that way, I managed to save £13.54 - that's almost a whopping 50% cheaper.

Quite frankly, I think that was quite a decent saving and I was bit shocked when I added it all up. I couldn't actually believe that I could have been saving more money all this time if I had just made the switch sooner.

From now on, when I pop into Sainsbury's, I will be looking into getting non-branded products instead. It's better for the pennies.