Supermarket help!

[Penguin82]

Hi! Have not long moved to england to live (family of 3) and am excited by all the amazing supermarkets and lovely food! But not sure where to buy from? Have been using sainsburys mainly but been told its not the cheapest so i guess im missing out on bargains? We have a small tesco express within walking distance, and within a 15 minute drive is a medium sized asda, medium M&S, big lidyl, big aldi, big sainsburys and big tesco! Id obviously rather not go to all every time, but would like to get into the habit of going to maybe 2 shops to do my weekly shop to make sure im getting the best for my money, maybe Aldi followed by Tesco? What do you all reccomend?
Weve got a small fridge and freezer, happy to cook from scratch with the odd pre prepared meal. Usually buy lots of meat, veg, fruit, love high protein yogurts, hummus, ice creams, and also like to buy toiletries during weekly shop where available. Oh and gin/diet tonic/red wine are usually included too!
Thanks in advance and sorry for the dull thread!

I do Aldi, then home bargains for cleaning products, snacks, branded juice and then Iceland for their pancakes! All three are right next to each other.
Do Tesco once in a blue moon but find them awfully expensive and don't ever forget your clubcard in there or your shopping will cost twice as much!

I say this on every supermarket thread, but Iceland are BRILLIANT. Free home delivery over £40, their delivery people are lovely, and they don't just do frozen stuff (although DD is addicted to their bags of pomegranate). I can always get a next/same day slot, so use them for delivering the heavy stuff, although their fresh stuff is pretty good too. They're not so good for meat, but if you're shopping around I'd use them for stocking up on food cupboard staples every few weeks.

If you are using Sainsburys, definitely get a Nectar card. It's not as generous as Clubcard, but you can earn/spend points there and other places like ebay, Argos, petrol stations etc. My points pretty much paid for all the Christmas presents last year!

I would say Aldi for most things + Lidl for some ( depends what you are after could be the other way around) and then Sainsbury’s and M&S for particular things.
Aldi has nice range of fruits and vegs, meat, yoghurts, not a huge variety but everything is covered.
I don’t like Tesco much, Tesco is ok but nothing special. Sainsbury’s has more variety and in principle reasonable prices.
You could check prices / offers once a week on websites.

Ooh, and just seen you buy a lot of ice cream... www.iceland.co.uk/frozen/ice-cream-and-lollies

@Penguin82

Thanks so much! I think i definitely need to try out the Aldi as never been in one. And am definitely ditching sainsburys for tesco. Am wondering if ordering meat boxes is a good plan too? A friend reccomended Musclefood and i just had a look it appears good value, anyone tried?

Muscle food is cheap and you get lots for your money, but there is a reason it’s cheap. Lots of butchers do meat packs and you get a much higher quality that you would from anywhere else. Also, have a search for your nearest farm shop for fresh vegetables and sacks of Maris Piper potatoes. These will often be cheaper, taste better and lasted longer than from a supermarket. Also, if you’re anywhere near farms and you see fruit being sold by the farmer in a lay-by, definitely stop and get some.

My advice would be to give them all a go and see what you like best. I’m not a fan of Tesco at all; I prefer Sainsbury’s, with odd bits from Asda, Home Bargains, Wilkos and M&S if I’m feeling swish. Sainsbury’s do Nectar Points, which I save all year and take off my Christmas shop. Asda don’t do any reward scheme.

We've recently moved house to an area that has more choice for supermarkets so we have been trying them all out.

Asda - was huge and a bit overwhelming. It was good for price but we couldn't find some products that we usually get, and we weren't too impressed with the bakery section. It seems great for clothes, electronics & household stuff though.

Sainsbury's - loved the choices in the chilled section and the fruit/veg were lovely and fresh. It also had some lovely vegetarian & vegan options, but the freezer section was lacking and our shopping seemed to cost more.

Morrisons - wasn't too impressed with the ranges as we had to go to another supermarket to get the items they didn't have, but it wasn't too bad. Own label stuff we tried was nice. Shopping seemed to cost the same as usual.

Aldi/Lidl - very cheap but limited ranges. Meat, dairy etc seems really good. Our neuro divergent family likes products/brands which they don't do, so it can't be our main supermarket.

M&S - very limited ranges but we did get a few really nice treats from here, so it's definitely an occasional shop for us. Expensive but top quality.

Tesco - this was our main supermarket at our old house as it was the closest. It's now the furthest one away, but they have everything we like and the price is good. So after 3 months of trialling various shops we are back to using it once a week. We are using the local Morrisons as a pop in for milk & bread shop.

I go to homebargains for toiletries, cleaning products and snacks. Then do a top up in Tesco.

What is important to you?

If you are mainly concerned with price then ALDI/LIDL is your friend.

If you care about quality, where your food comes from and how suppliers are treated and animal welfare then Waitrose is the best supermarket. I've shopped everywhere over the years and disagree with the comments that they are too expensive. Own brand products are comparable on price and better quality. They also have very good offers which are percentage discounts rather than 3 for 2 or 10 for 8 or whatever. It's very easy to compare prices on their website. It's also a much nicer shopping experience.

@Penguin82 sign up for a waitrose and every now and then they send excellent vouchers. At Christmas I got vouchers for £8 off a £40 pound spends. If you are careful you can get some great deals in there too. I love their fabric conditioner and a lot of their essentials range. I do most of my shopping at Tesco and Aldi otherwise.

My suggestion would be to visit either Aldi or Lidl once a month and stock up on the items that you like from there, it takes a while to work out which they are as I find some things are as good as brand names but some I am not so keen on. They are cheaper but do not have a huge range of products. The rest of the month I would use the big Tesco or Sainsbury which I consider to be average price wise and both tend to have a good range of products.