An online price tracking website has, for the third year in a row, monitored 18 of the most popular Christmas dinner staples currently on sale at six of the major UK supermarkets in order to determine the most budget-friendly food retailer this festive season.
With strict coronavirus restrictions preventing loved ones from gathering together to celebrate Christmas last year, this year many Britons are planning to make up for time lost. Families and friends will gather together to enjoy a day of fun and food on December 25th.
Inflation and the cost of living has been rising sharply and therefore families are advised to plan their grocery shopping accordingly and only buy for the visitors they’re expecting, to ensure a lower spend and prevent excess food wastage.
In order to provide some guidance on how to efficiently shop for a family of six this festive season, the team at online price tracking website, www.Alertr.co.uk have analysed the online offerings of six UK supermarkets in order to determine which is the cheapest for standard Christmas dinner items. 18 staple foods likely to be found on the Christmas dinner table were tracked; including turkey, pigs in blankets, potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, cranberry sauce and stuffing.
The same like-for-like items across six of the major supermarkets, including some own-brand products (or their equivalents) were tracked for the research, in order to give the most unbiased comparison of goods and their prices, unless it was a brand that all six supermarkets stocked (e.g. Bisto Gravy).
Discount retailers such as Lidl and Aldi were not included in the research due to the inability for customers to shop full ranges online and not having the same like-for-like branded products the other supermarkets stock.
On average, Christmas dinner this year will cost £59.71 compared to £57.39 last year – just £2.32 more expensive.
Asda is the cheapest retailer from which to buy the 18 products, with the cheapest to most expensive Christmas dinner baskets revealed as follows:
- Asda – £44.99 (65p more expensive than last year)
- Tesco – £52.99 (£1.48 more expensive than last year)
- Sainsbury’s – £53.50 (3p more expensive than last year)
- Waitrose – £63.78 (20p cheaper than last year)
- Morrisons – £65.22 (£15.22 more expensive than last year)
- Ocado – £82.35 (£5.99 cheaper than last year)
The pricing research found that Asda was the cheapest supermarket to purchase a turkey at (£14), compared to Ocado who were selling the meat for £20. Similarly, Beef was cheapest to buy at Asda (£8.33), however Morrisons was the most expensive seller this at £18.40 – compared to Ocado at £11.25.
Morrisons emerged the cheapest for its pigs in blankets, coming in at £2.20 for 12, with Tesco falling into second place at £2.50 and Asda following closely behind at £2.55.
As for Bisto Gravy, Asda and Sainsbury’s came out on top as the cheapest seller (£1). The prices for this product ranged between £1 and £1.80 across all six supermarkets.
Andy Barr, co-founder of www.Alertr.co.uk, said;
“Whilst there is no denying that Britons deserve to make the most of Christmas with loved ones this year after a pretty rough two years, people should be careful not to spend unnecessarily when it comes to buying items for the traditional Christmas dinner that we all know and love.
“It’s encouraging to see that for a family of six the prices haven’t dramatically changed for each supermarket since last year, which will be welcome news to those struggling as a result of the financial impact of the pandemic.”
*Research conducted w/c 06.12.21
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