The Grand Experiment: Week Nine

And so, we reach the third and final leg of the Grand Experiment, and the first of four trips to Asda. Despite their being an Asda within a mile of my flat, I instead elected to travel to the larger store in Grangemouth. The primary reason for this was actually parking - Asda Falkirk charge £2 for parking, which is refunded in-store, and I don't have a single coin in my wallet.

In theory, the larger store should have had a better selection, but this proved questionable at best. Despite the relative sizes, the stores in Falkirk do seem to do a better job of stocking things than the larger stores in Cumbernauld and now Grangemouth. Strange. That said, the only thing I simply couldn't get was binbags, which I actually was going to discount (as the stock would have lasted me six months), and I'm not urgent for them at this point. I was also unable to get Asda's own rolls, so had to get some more expensive Warburton's ones - the price of which will be reflected below.

Anyway, the list is as follows:

• Bread (3 loaves), £2.16
• Poppadums (10), £1.00
• Mars Ice Cream (8), £3.00
• Rolls (6), £1.00
• Yoghurts (12), £5.92
• Sandwich Meat, £0.42 (there was also a pack that refused to scan. Surprisingly, I ended up getting that for free!)
• Pizza (3), £5.00
• Clementines, £0.62
• Tomatoes (12), £1.76
• Coriander, £1.17
• Lettuce, £0.50
• Chicken Burgers, £2.74
• Washing Liquid, £3.85
• Irn Bru (24 cans), £6.78
• Carrots (3), £0.29
• Apples (7), £1.44

The total came to £37.65. From this, I'm going to deduct the £3 for the ice creams, taking it to £34.65. This is slightly more than the average for a week from Tesco, but there are several items on the list that represent 'stocking up', so I don't think this will be too bad.

The one item that might swing it is the yoghurts, which I buy every week, and which is consistently cheaper from Tesco than either Morrisons or Asda. Still, we shall see what happens over the next three weeks.