Article published: 6th October 2022
At the time of writing, the cost of living crisis is upon us, and for many parents it will most likely be making “back to school” even more stressful than it usually is.
On top of the cost of new uniforms and school supplies, the additional price of packed lunches can soon add up. That’s why we have crunched the numbers to work out where you can buy your child a balanced, nutritional and tasty lunch for the lowest cost, out of all the leading UK supermarkets.
Our Consumer finance experts conducted research analysing the prices of key packed lunch essentials consisting of fruit juice cartons, yoghurts, fruit, crisps and all the ingredients to make a delicious ham and cheese sandwich.
We then ranked the supermarkets from one to nine in terms of their value for money, with one being ranked the cheapest and nine being ranked the most expensive. The items included in the costings were:
- Bread
- Cooked Ham
- Cheese
- Tomato
- Lettuce
- Banana
- Crisps
- Yoghurt
- Fruit cartons
The results concluded that Aldi is the cheapest supermarket to buy your child’s packed lunch essentials from.
At Aldi, you can get all of these key ingredients to provide a packed lunch every day of the school week for just £7.32 - that’s £1.46 per day.
However, ranked as the most expensive supermarket is M&S, where the same packed lunch essentials will set you back over £18, followed by pricey Waitrose totalling £14.85:
| Supermarket | Price | Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Aldi | £7.32 | 1 |
| Tesco | £8.23 | 2 |
| Sainsburys | £8.33 | 3 |
| Asda | £8.43 | 4 |
| Lidl | £8.52 | 5 |
| Morrisons | £11.48 | 6 |
| Co-op | £14.10 | 7 |
| Waitrose | £14.85 | 8 |
| M&S | £18.55 | 9 |
Methodology
Costings based on feeding one child a packed lunch for 5 days (based on a school week).
- 2 ham sandwiches with cheese, lettuce and tomato; 1 banana; 1 fruit yoghurt; 1 bag of crisps and 1 fruit juice carton
Products selected on:
- Bread: cheapest own brand 800g loaf (enough to provide up to 2 sandwiches a day)
- Piece of fruit: cheapest six pack of mini/small bananas
- Fruit juice cartons: cheapest six pack of orange or apple juice (or 2x3 pack if no six pack available)
- Yoghurt: Cheapest multipack of fruity yoghurt/fromage frais (minimum 5 pack) or cheapest pack of yoghurt tubes, if not available
- Cooked ham: 115g to 125g (approx 10 slices)
- Crisps: (6 pack of own brand variety)
- Tomatoes: (6 pack of salad tomatoes)
- Lettuce: 1 iceberg lettuce
- Cheese: (200 to 250g sliced or grated own brand cheddar)