Supermarket takes back 'most expensive' title after hiking price of tea bags

A supermarket has taken back the unfortunate title of 'most expensive' in our weekly shopping comparison.

For the last six weeks, it's Morrisons that has been in the bottom spot when we've looked at the price of the same eight budget essentials across the main six supermarkets.

But now Asda, which has been the dearest in our comparison for the majority of this year, has once again fared worst for the shopping basket, which includes butter, milk, bread, tea bags, coffee, beans, chicken and mince.

It comes after Asda hiked the price of its Just Essentials tea bags to 40p for a pack of 40 and Morrisons reduced its butter from £1.89 to £1.79. Asda is the only one still charging £1.89 for a 250g block.

Join our FREE Manchester Family WhatsApp group by clicking here

The other supermarkets have been increasing the price of their budget tea bags over recent weeks, but Asda's rise - which takes it to £1.60 for 160 tea bags - makes it the most expensive of the lot for a cuppa.

As with other retailers, Asda says that our small sample of products doesn't give the full picture of prices and, as far as supermarket value ranges go, its Just Essentials is the largest and cheapest available, alongside Aldi's.

An Asda spokesperson said: "Just Essentials was introduced to help keep households running on the tightest of budgets and is now one of the largest and lowest-priced value ranges of any supermarket.

"Since launching last year, Just Essentials has become firmly established as the number one value range with over 20% share of the market.”

It's Lidl that remains cheapest in our comparison, costing £11.58 for the basket - 10% cheaper than Asda's £12.89.

Second cheapest, at £12.07, is Sainsbury's, which is just a penny less than Aldi's