'Most expensive' supermarket almost as cheap as Aldi and Lidl for key essentials over last month

A supermarket that's been the most expensive for shopping basics for the best part of a year is just pennies apart from Lidl and Aldi for the fourth week running.

Our shopping comparison has monitored the price of key essentials like bread and milk for more than two years now and Asda has spent more time than any other supermarket in the bottom spot, working out dearest of all for the shopping basket.

But now, for the fourth week on the trot, it's almost as cheap as the budget retailers and cheaper than Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

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As well as milk and bread, our comparison tracks the prices of tea bags, coffee, butter, baked beans, chicken breasts and mince - something we've done since March 2022.

Asda's bill for the eight items, many of them from its budget Just Essentials range, once again comes to £12.18, just four pence dearer than Aldi and seven pence more than Lidl.

Morrisons is fourth cheapest behind Asda at £12.27, followed by Sainsbury's at £12.33 and Tesco, which is most expensive for a fifth week, with a bill of £12.62.

Aldi disputes the results of our weekly comparison, saying that it does not take into account like-for-like products or ‘the higher quality’ of its products. The supermarket says, for example, that Aldi beans are 20g heavier than Sainsbury's and that Aldi teabags are 'better quality than the comparative products used'.

Asda also disagrees with our comparison and says that our small sample of products does not represent the fuller picture of prices and does not account for its deals. The supermarket says that, across the board, its Just Essentials range is the largest and cheapest available, alongside