This month’s cheapest supermarket revealed

The cheapest supermarket of 2024 has been revealed. Do you think it works out the cheapest when you shop?

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 67 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 discounts but not multibuys) for each item across the month and compared it. 

So what did they find?

Without further ado, the lowest price supermarket of April 2024 is … drum roll, please …

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The cheapest supermarket for April 2024 is Aldi.

In April 2024, the cheapest trolley of food items was from Aldi, and it cost £112.90.

Lidl was the second cheapest at £115.23, and Asda was in third place, costing £126.98.

Waitrose (maybe not so surprisingly) was the most expensive, costing £144.13.

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 – TBC

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?

Come and join thousands of other savvy shoppers in the Reduce Your Supermarket Spend Facebook community to find out tips and tricks to save money on your food shop.

Cheapest supermarket 2023

Here is a breakdown of the cheapest supermarket in 2023, as tracked by Which? on a monthly basis.

The shops would use a smaller basket of generally 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

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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!

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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.”