Soaring cost of this one shopping essential brings price hike to every main UK supermarket

If there's one thing we know for sure during the cost of living crisis, it's that supermarkets are keeping track of each other's prices.

With retailers desperate to grab our custom and shoppers keener than ever to seek out the best prices, they're keeping a closer eye on the competition than ever before.

What that means in reality though is that when one increases the price of a product, the others will quickly follow suit - especially now that we have Tesco and Sainsbury's both with their own Aldi Price Match schemes.

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That match certainly hasn't worked in the favour of shoppers this week, as all three - along with the other main supermarkets, Asda, Morrisons and Lidl - have hiked the price of two pints of milk from £1.05 to £1.15, that's almost a 10% rise in the last week.

When we first started our weekly comparison of eight shopping essentials back in March, every supermarket was selling the same size bottle for 95p - a 21% jump in the space of a few months.

Earlier this month we reported how the bill for eight basics at all six supermarkets had topped £10 for the first time - made up of a two-pint bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, coffee, teabags, butter, beans, chicken breasts and mince.

It's not just milk affecting the bills this week though. Both Tesco and Sainsbury's have put up the price of their teabags, matching Aldi's hike last week. And Aldi has also put up the price of its 300g chicken breasts, from £2.09 to £2.15.

Only Lidl is now lower, but will no doubt follow suit.

Overall it's still Lidl with the lowest bill, coming in at £10.11, followed closely by Asda's £10.12.

Tesco is third at £10.32, with Aldi at £10.50,