The cheapest supermarket of 2024 has been revealed. Do you think it works out the cheapest when you shop?
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It’s a hotly debated topic and one that gets asked often in our ‘supermarket savings community’: Where is the lowest-priced place to shop?
The thing is, I don’t really think there is a one-size-fits-all answer.
Sure, for ME, and the stuff I buy, one supermarket can work out cheaper.
However, we don’t have young kids, so we save on the additional costs, and no one in the family has allergies or intolerances to food.
Just because the basket of food I buy one week is cheaper, the stuff you buy might work out more expensive.
Which is the cheapest supermarket in the UK?
Trying to use a bit of methodology, consumer group Which? has been monitoring prices of groceries across six major supermarkets (* that must have been a fun job *).
First, they made a shopping list of 62 items they thought would be in a typical shopping basket.
Their list included a mix of the store’s own products and branded items, such as fruit and veg, pasta sauces, baked beans and other everyday items.
They then worked out the average price (including loyalty scheme discounts) for each item across the month and compared it.
So what did they find?
Without further ado, the lowest price supermarket of August 2024 is … drum roll, please …
…
…
The cheapest supermarket for August 2024 is Aldi.
In August 2024, the cheapest trolley of food items was from Aldi, costing £110.58
Lidl (with Lidl Plus) was the second cheapest, at £111.88, and Lidl (without Lidl Plus) was third, at 112.17.
Waitrose (maybe not so surprisingly) was the most expensive, costing £140.89.
Since June 2024, Which? has taken into account loyalty pricing.
The table below shows the average price for each supermarket:
| Supermarket | Average price |
|---|---|
| Aldi | £110.58 |
| Lidl (with Lidl Plus) | £111.88 |
| Lidl (without Lidl Plus) | £112.17 |
| Asda | £121.85 |
| Tesco (with Clubcard) | £123.13 |
| Tesco (without Clubcard) | £123.62 |
| Sainsbury’s (with Nectar) | £123.75 |
| Sainsbury’s (without Nectar) | £129.63 |
| Morrisons | £129.79 |
| Ocado | £133.99 |
| Waitrose | £140.89 |
While these basket costs have up-to-date pricing, the average weekly food costs of what people actually spend can change depending on whether you buy for one, two or more people.
Cheapest supermarket month on month 2024
Here is a breakdown of the cheapest supermarket in 2024, as tracked by Which? on a monthly basis.
Here are the cheapest supermarkets over the year:
January 2024 – Aldi – £129.24
February 2024 – Aldi – £125.43
March 2024 – Aldi – £121.06
April 2024 – Aldi – £112.90
May 2024 – Aldi – £121.56
June 2024 – Aldi – £118.41
July 2024 – Aldi – £113.87
August – Aldi – £110.58
Will you change your habits for lower prices?
Does the study from Which? sway you to shop at another store because it’s “cheaper” than another supermarket in the UK?
Or, are you happy with your own research to know where to shop?
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Cheapest supermarket 2023
Here is a breakdown of the cheapest supermarket in 2023, as tracked by Which? on a monthly basis.
The shops would generally use a smaller basket of around 40 items, which is why the costs appear a lot lower than this year.
January 2023 – Aldi – £82.03
February 2023 – Aldi – £74.81
March 2023 – Aldi – £72.54
April 2023 – Aldi – £69.99
May 2023 – Aldi – £68.60
June 2023 – Aldi – £72.25
July 2023 – Aldi – £71.22
August 2023 – Aldi – £65.21
September 2023 – Aldi – £67.72
October 2023 – Lidl – £74.58
November 2023 – Aldi – £76.77
December 2023 – Aldi – 74.83
2023 bigger food shops
While the ranking for 2023 shows the cost for smaller essential shops, there is also a comparison for a larger show with the original items, plus more. This trolley includes a bigger range of branded goods.
However, as some of the items they compare are branded, this comparison does not include Lidl or Aldi.
If we swapped branded foods to own brand (as I know a lot of people won’t have their whole trolley full of them), the average cost would be a lot less.
And, as Lidi and Aldi generally win each month for years for a smaller basket (see below for their track history), I’d hazard a guess they’d also lead this chart.
| Supermarket | 2023 – Average cost of trolley (branded items) |
|---|---|
| Asda | £326.77 |
| Morrisons | £336.41 |
| Ocado | £346.23 |
| Tesco | £349.34 |
| Sainsbury’s | £334.06 |
| Waitrose | £367.79 |
Cheapest supermarket 2022
The cheapest supermarket in 2022 overall was Aldi. It was cheaper than others for seven consecutive months, with Lidl just missing the top spot.
Bear in mind that when the comparisons were carried out this year, they were of a much smaller basket size, which is why they were so much cheaper until June when they started to compare more items.
Looking back, here are the cheapest supermarkets in 2022:
January 2022 – Lidl – £24.78
February 2022 – Lidl – £24.21
March 2022 – Lidl – £26.83
April 2022 – Lidl – £25.92
May 2022 – Lidl – £23.55
June 2022 – Aldi – £75.61 (see the note above about comparison size)
July 2022 – Aldi – £74.23
August 2022 – Aldi – £76.24
September 2022 – Aldi – £75.61
October 2022 – Aldi – £75.79
November 2022 – Aldi – £77.21
December 2022 – Aldi – £81.63
NOTE: In previous months, Which compared around 20 items in each basket, but have increased the number of items they’re looking at. This makes it difficult to see, overall, how the monthly pricing is changing.
In March 2022, 21 items were compared, with the cheapest basket prices at £26.83. In April, with 18 items, it cost £25.92.
Each time they track food prices, the basket they compare changes. This is because they look to make sure products are available in every store. Foods compared included own-label free-range eggs and raspberries as well as branded products, including Chicago Town pizzas.
When you look at the prices on a monthly basis, you can see how much the prices have crept up over the year. And you can tell why it’s so difficult to budget for a grocery shop!
Cheapest supermarket in 2021
Here are the supermarkets that were cheaper over 2021:
January 2021 – Aldi and Lidl were tied – £18.45
February 2021 – Lidl – £19.13
March 2021 – Lidl – £22.48
April 2021 – Aldi – £22.64
May 2021 – Lidl – £22.66
June 2021 – Aldi – £21.61
July 2021 – Aldi – £23.59
August 2021 – Lidl – £24.11
September – Aldi – £24.03
October – Aldi – £24.24
November – Aldi – £24.64
December – Lidl – £23.29
Cheapest supermarket 2020
In 2020, Lidl was named the cheapest place to shop.
It was 34p cheaper than its rival Aldi.
Ocado and Waitrose were at the bottom of the list as the most expensive supermarket.
Tracking on a month by month basis, Aldi looked like it was cheaper than Lidl. However, instead of using the monthly summaries, they tracked the 2020 lowest priced supermarket by items they could get hold of.
The basket used in the price comparison used 45 popular branded and own-label products, including Hovis bread, Knorr stock cubes, eggs, cucumber and tomatoes.
UK’s cheapest supermarket 2019
As a price comparison of 53 items over the course of 2019, here’s how supermarkets stacked up:
| Supermarket | Average cost of trolley (53 branded items) |
| Sainsbury’s | £107.01 |
| Asda | £107.65 |
| Morrisons | £109.13 |
| Tesco | £112.40 |
| Ocado | £116.40 |
| Waitrose | £117.81 |
For comparison, in 2018 the UK’s cheapest supermarket in their study was Morrisons, followed by Asda and then Sainsbury’s.
Read next: Find out the cheapest online supermarket
What’s wrong with their old research?
While I’m sure Which? has done their tracking and research perfectly well, I’m not sure it’s a true reflection of how people actually shop.
Missing supermarkets
For many years, they’d only been comparing six supermarkets and they used to miss both Lidl and Aldi up until 2020.
Their rationale?
They used MySupermarket to track pricing and, as Aldi and Lidl don’t offer online shopping, the pricing wasn’t used.
They also haven’t monitored food pricing on Amazon and, if you’re going to buy branded, you may find you save loads of money if you shop on Amazon Fresh or even Morrisons via Amazon.
Natalie Hitchins, Which? Head of Home Products and Services, said:
“Your weekly supermarket shop can have a significant impact on your wallet.
“Our analysis shows how important it can be to shop around to ensure you get the best price for your groceries.”
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Tony says
There are some problems here, it depends which town or city you’re in when you go to the supermarket and in Kent for example; Tesco express are higher priced than the other Tesco stores, and (I’m picking on Tesco) their prices change from town to town. When I asked about higher prices in the express stores, the response was that the stores were open later. By definition, the Tesco on the Isle of Sheppey should be charging more as it’s 24 hour but it is cheaper. Lastly, alot of Tesco store prices are ending in multiples of 5, in other words, you won’t find prices of £1.27 or 86p or £4.56, it is either 90p, £1.30, £4.65 it seems as though prices are being made artificially high
Martin says
I don’t trust the results personally as it all depends on what you buy. And not just what you buy but whether you prefer branded or supermarkets own products.
Claire says
We’ve tried a few supermarkets this winter. Tesco works out cheaper for me than Asia because I cook from scratch and bake a lot – their own brand flour is very good for instance.
My parents and their friends swear by Lidl and Aldi as they enjoy pizzas and salads. It obviously depends on your specific needs.
Anne Sweet says
It’s so difficult to compare supermarkets these days. We like a lot of branded products but when we go for supermarket brands we like Sainsburys best. I’ve just done some maths (eek) and my average shop works out at 109 items for £167 but there are seven of us in our family (only one child)
When the supermarkets where smaller and on the high street I remember being dragged around by my Mum and her shopping trolley where she bought bargains from the different shops, fruit and veg from grocers, tea bags and bread from Tescos, tinned food from Liptons, boxes of broken biscuits and sweet snacks from the local market hall. Shopping would take nearly all day but she knew exactly where to go for the best prices. (Mum was a widow with two young children)
Craig says
LIDL is no where near the cheapest Supermarket on a range of products. Try getting Kiwis and note they’re almost 30p each whilst in Asda, Aldi etc they’re 82p for six. Lidl has had the kiwis at 29p for a long time when the rest were doing six for 69p. There are numerous other examples. In Aldi the Muesli if far more expensive than the cheaper one just as good in Asda. When it comes to things like fresh Ginger you can forget Lidl and Aldi as they’re way to expensive like Tesco when compared to Asda. Asda is hopeless on cheap chicken and this is where Lidl and Aldi work out better but not much if anything against Tesco. This is why I shop of all of the stores and mooch around to keep an eye on what’s really going on. These corporations hope you rely on just one of them and thus they can rip you off. Try visiting them all and on a daily basis, then you can collect the bargains, reductions etc.
Ali says
This was really interesting thank you, I’ve been really worried about rising food costs having four children at home. We normally shop at Aldi but I think I’m going to check out how Lidl compares now too. Thanks!
Martin R says
Where I live I have access to Asda, Morissons, and Aldi within close proximity of each other. Going a short distance, further I have Poundland and Sainsbury’s. (Tesco’s closed their small store a few years ago – their loss!).
I tend to do most of my shopping in Aldi. Mainly because a lot of their products are cheaper. I am not concerned whether they are own-label or not. The only set-back is that is there isn’t much choice. If what I want is not available, I will try Asda.
I don’t calculate the cost of my shopping on a regular basis, but just aware of some items that have increased in price.
thara ravishanker says
This is a nice handy comparison post. I rarely shop at any supermarkets these days, in fact I only go there to pick up a free weekly newspaper and one or two magazines or books. My mom is a big fan of car boot sales, farm shops and farmer markets, she is probably going to one right now as I type this. So I spent most of my childhood at car boot sales, farm shops and farmer markets instead. It is amazing what you can find at such events.
Jay says
A lot of the time Aldi is only cheaper because they will sell a product that looks really similar to the branded one but contains less grams of the product. Most people don’t stop to notice this. This is why the cost of a basket of a number of items is an unfair way of judging this.
Alan Feetham says
Yes Aldi may be cheapest but what about quality, no good being cheapest when quality of the food is compromised, meat from Aldi has a shorter life than say Tesco , yes price is important but so is quality.
Ricky Willis says
Hi Alan, thanks for the comment. Have you tried the meat from. Aldi? I regularly buy steak from Aldi and do find them good quality.
Marie says
Interesting, but without a list of the items purchased it’s not much use to me. For example, we only buy real food I.e. meat fruit veg. The closest we get to processed food is Tabasco sauce or cheese. We make our own bread cookies wraps yoghurt. Most supermarkets don’t sell our whole shopping list. However I may do this exercise for myself over the summer.