With Christmas almost upon us, many households will be hitting the supermarkets in the coming days if they haven't already to pick up their festive dinner essentials.
Given the rising cost of living this year, most are looking to save some cash when it comes to their Christmas celebrations - but shopping around to find the cheapest products can often prove too time-consuming. Luckily, Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert website has done the work for shoppers.
The MSE team headed to the major supermarkets - Aldi, Asda, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose - to price check a typical Christmas dinner shop for four people. Their results found a significant difference of £22.87 between the cheapest supermarket and the most expensive.
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MSE compared a range of popular Christmas dinner staples like-for-like or as closely as possible from all nine supermarkets to find which one was cheapest overall for the full spread. The items rated in the price check were:
- Turkey (frozen, 1.5kg)
- Roast potatoes (frozen, 800g)
- Stuffing (170g)
- Gravy (200g)
- Cranberry sauce (200g)
- Brussel sprouts (500g)
- Carrots (500g)
- Yorkshire puddings (12)
- Pigs in blankets (12)
- Christmas pudding (400g)
- Mince pies (six)
Overall, the MSE price check found that Aldi emerged on top when it came to the cheapest supermarket for Christmas dinner with these items costing just £23.33. Asda followed closely behind, priced at just 2p more - but the MSE team said that shoppers are "likely to get more for their cash" at Aldi, giving the example that Aldi offered 1kg of potatoes for 95p compared to Asda's 800g for 88p.
At the other end of the scale, Marks & Spencer was found to be the second-priciest supermarket for Christmas dinner, costing almost £10 more than the next-cheapest option Sainsbury's at £38. But Waitrose was far in front as the most expensive retailer for the food, with a hefty price tag of £46.20.
Here's how the supermarkets fared overall from cheapest to priciest:
- Aldi: £23.33
- Asda: £23.35
- Tesco: £23.62
- Lidl: £24.58
- Morrisons: £24.91
- Iceland: £26.60
- Sainsbury's: £28.37
- Marks & Spencer: £38
- Waitrose: £46.20
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