With many of struggling to keep costs of our weekly food shop down, it's safe to say that something once considered a simple weekly task, has now been made a difficult one.
I shop at Asda every week, and the average cost of my food bill for two people has shot up by almost £15-£20 a week with the cost of living crisis in full swing. The new Asda 'Just Essentials' budget range has replaced its Smart Price value products offering a range of different foods including meat, bread, eggs, fruit and vegetables, and I thought it was time to give it a try.
To help shoppers combat rising costs, the 'Just Essentials' range is all about lowering the costs of supermarket staples to make our weekly shop less of a shocker. In the past few days, Asda has been criticised by shoppers over the design and colour of the budget range, with some claiming it "embarrassed poorer families."
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I wanted to add some of the 'Just Essentials' range to my weekly online shop to see how good the products were in terms of taste and value. I purchased a range of different products including meat, fish, tinned items and veg to make sure I had a real variation of items. Here's what I found:
The products
Meat & Fish
It was a real mixed bag in terms of meat, but as a whole I was generally quite impressed in the quality. After reading some pretty negative two star reviews about the chicken on the Asda website, I was dubious to give it a try - but I was pleasantly surprised.
The ' Just Essentials Chicken Breast Fillet portions' were priced a £3.38, and considering I usually pay a whopping £6.10 a week for a pack of chicken breast, I was really hoping and praying the quality would be good enough for a swap. I was generally surprised at the quality of the chicken and although you get a lot less chicken than a usual box, it was definitely still enough for at least two meals, maybe even three.
It was super tasty and didn't have much fat on it at all, which can often be very off-putting with chicken breast. The same went for the 'Just Essentials Mince' at £1.69, which offers 500g of beef mince. The usual pack of beef mince I purchase for the week is priced at £2.90 and I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the two.
The one type of meat I was really excited to try was the 'Just Essentials' steak. Priced at £2 for a piece of steak I thought I was seeing things. I was amazed at the low price of something considered so luxurious - but was the quality up to scratch?
Unfortunately, I think in terms of the steak, it was all down to luck. I ended up having a fairly tasty piece of steak with very little fat, but my partner's was very fatty and hard to chew.
As a whole though, I was still pretty impressed with the steak considering it was £2, but it did lack ever so slightly in terms of taste and thickness. I do still think it's a perfect option for a cheap Friday night dinner with some chips for those who don't want to spend a fortune on a piece of meat.
The £4.20 salmon and the 96p sausages were also pretty good, both offered plenty of flavour for an affordable price. I was surprised with the quality and size of the salmon fillets, which were a gorgeous deep pink colour and very juicy when fried.
The sausages actually seriously impressed me, they were really thick and had a herby flavour to them, very similar to Richmond sausages. They'd work great for a quick and easy tea for the family- for 96p it'd be rude not to!
Vegetables
I didn't really have any issues with the vegetables purchased. I purchased peppers and potatoes and the quality was generally quite good.
The peppers cost me £1.15, and although they were small, they were nice and juicy and great in a salad. The potatoes were okay, admittedly, they weren't the tastiest potatoes I've ever had but they worked absolutely fine for some homemade chips to accompany my steak. They cost me 99p, which is an absolute bargain for a big pack of potatoes that could easily last me a week if not more.
Tinned foods
I was overall very happy with the tinned food items, and can honestly say they tasted no different to any other tinned food I've had. The 24p chicken soup was delicious, creamy and thick and the sausages and beans tasted just as good as Heinz. A winner all round!
The verdict
I was impressed with the 'Just Essentials' range at Asda and I think it's an absolutely fantastic idea to help the weekly food shop feel like less of a blow. Of course, some of the foods weren't five star standard, but they weren't terrible either - when cooked in a good hearty meal it wouldn't matter regardless.
In terms of the packaging? In my opinion it didn't bother me at all, I think the yellow aesthetic is vibrant and positive and we shouldn't feel ashamed for saving money on staple food items.
All I'd say is be aware that when purchasing some things like meat and vegetables the quality might lack depending on what you buy, but you can definitely still make it work.
I'll definitely continue to purchase items from the range as an affordable swap, but might opt to actually go in store as opposed to online so I can get a real good look at the meat and vegetable quality before purchasing.
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