A savvy bride-to-be has claimed she will be buying her food shopping exclusively from Asda's new Just Essentials range from now on and will save herself £4,000 a year in the process - which she will then put toward her upcoming wedding. Larayne-Maye Elcombe, 28, said she had never shopped at Asda before, but after hearing about the release of the supermarket's discount range - which has caused some controversy with its bright yellow packaging - she decided to give it a go.
The carer and student paramedic was left stunned when she managed to pick up her entire weekly shop for just £34.60, as this marked a huge saving compared to her usual total that ranges between £80 and £120. And Larayne-Maye claimed that if she sticks to buying from the discount range, she'll be able to save a whopping £4,000 a year, putting her well on the way to funding her wedding to fiancé Joe Mitchell, 31.
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Larayne-Maye, from Crawley, West Sussex, said: "I normally shop at Tesco or Aldi. Tesco is around the corner from my house, things are getting expensive with the cost of living and petrol.
"I saw all the articles about how Asda is being slammed for their bright, in-your-face packaging that's 'singling out the people who are struggling'. The bright yellow in their trolley is like 'shame on you, you can't afford brands'.
"I thought 'what the hell, really? Food is food'. I'm not being funny but you can buy branded rice for £2 or Asda rice for 30p and it tastes exactly the same. You pay for quality with some food but I thought I'd do a social experiment and give it a go. I know there are some things you can't substitute - like I can't drink cheap coke.
"My mission was to do a weekly food shop just with the essentials range and see how much I can get. I couldn't believe it, I've started to annoy my partner because I wouldn't stop going on about it because I couldn't believe how cheap it was.
"He worked it out and said if you'd have been doing this [shopping essentials range], you've wasted £4k per year. That's two holidays.
"If it tastes alright, it's going down a treat with the kids and nobody is hungry then there's no reason to spend £100 a week on food shopping. I drive a car that costs me £100 a week in fuel. It's the summer holidays and I've saved £60 a week on shopping so I can take them on a day out.
"I'm getting married next year so that's an extra £4,000 for a wedding day so that's going to pay off half of the wedding, it's a big difference."
The mum-of-two managed to pick up bargains including sausages for 96p, curry sauce for 28p, mince for £1.69 and oranges for 60p - and says her kids can't tell the difference when they're served the cheaper items for dinner.
She added: "I got a chicken and I knew I could get two meals out of that so that's two meals for the price of one. There was sweet and sour sauce, curry sauce, I could do a roast dinner with vegetables. There were pizzas that were probably a bit scarce with cheese but I thought if there's leftover chicken or ham we could add that and extra cheese, happy days.
"I did the kids breakfast with the eggs and toast and they couldn't taste the difference. We had dinner with the sausages, pasta, sauce and cheese and couldn't taste the difference and we saved £2 just on the sausages.
"When they're seasoned and mixed with the sauce, nobody is going to tell the difference."
And although the bright packaging has caused controversy among some shoppers who claim it is "embarrassing poorer families", Larayne-Mae has said she wasn't put off by it and will continue to buy from the value range.
She explained: "I didn't pick up willy-nilly everything I saw. I do a shopping list before I go so I don't buy things I don't need and waste it. I write on a chalkboard what we're having for dinner each day then get what I need.
"The packaging didn't bother me at all, it made it easier for me to find what I was looking for because I was only going in for the yellow stuff and it was easy to pick out. Food is food. You can't judge a book by its cover, it's what's on the inside that counts and if it tastes nice and your family are fed, does it really matter?
"There's no reason to spend £100 a week when this has been under our noses the whole time. Just because it's there, it doesn't mean you have to buy it but you don't have to buy branded stuff either.
"A lot of stuff is the same and you're just paying for the name. It's like buying a £200 Gucci t-shirt because it says 'Gucci' when you could get a £2.30 t-shirt from Primark but you pay for the name."
In a statement, an Asda spokesman said it was "brilliant" to see shoppers like Larayne-Mae being able to put their cash toward something special such as her wedding day.
The spokesman said: "We are delighted by how much our customers are loving our new Just Essentials range, and it is brilliant to see customers like Larayne-Maye being able to save money on their groceries and put it towards those milestones in life that really matter.
"We know that households are facing increasing pressure from inflation and we're proud to be extending our Just Essentials range to over 300 products to help customers save money on their weekly shop."
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