Best own brand alternatives
How do you know if supermarket own-brand products live up to the branded ones? We reveal how to find the best own-brand deals without compromising on taste.
Keeping up with the cost of food as a student is hard. But, buying loads of branded products in your weekly shop will significantly increase your food bill.
We've put our heads together to list all of the best own-brand alternatives to these branded items, so you don't have to!
At the end, we've also included the total prices to compare all supermarkets against the branded items.
Best own-brand supermarket products
These are the best supermarket own-brand deals:
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Tomato ketchup
Heinz Ketchup: £3, 460g (£0.65/100g)
Sometimes, there's nothing quite like Heinz. Or is there?
Priced quite highly at £3 for a 460g bottle, this can set you back.
We've listed below the cheapest options from other supermarkets for their own-brand tomato ketchup.
Best Heinz Ketchup alternatives
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.73, 460g (£0.16/100g)
- Tesco own brand: £0.86, 540g (£0.16/100g)
- Aldi own brand: £0.89, 550g (£0.16/100g)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.90, 440g (£0.20/100g)
- Asda own brand: £0.93, 550g (£0.17/100g)
- Waitrose own brand: £0.95, 470g (£0.20/100g).
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Mayonnaise
Hellmann's Real Squeezy Mayonnaise: £2.60, 430ml (£0.60/100ml)
We're a fan of Hellmann's. But, honestly, we think you can't taste much difference between this and a supermarket's own-brand version.
It may be worth buying Hellmann's if it's on a special deal or in Poundland, for example, but at full price, we think you'd be better off going for one of the below instead.
Best Hellmann's Mayonnaise alternatives
- Tesco own brand: £0.86, 450ml (£0.19/100ml)
- Aldi own brand: £0.95, 500ml (£0.19/100ml)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.95, 500ml (£0.19/100ml)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.95, 500ml (£0.19/100ml)
- Asda own brand: £0.96, 500ml (£0.19/100ml)
- Waitrose own brand: £1.30, 500ml (£0.26/100ml).
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Baked beans
Heinz Baked Beans: £1.40, 415g (£3.37/kg)
There truly are no beans like Heinz. But if you're a student on a budget, £1.40 a can just isn't affordable.
We've scoured the rest of the supermarkets to find the cheapest similar beans. Maybe you can try them all and find your favourite?
Best Heinz Baked Beans alternatives
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.26, 400g (£0.67/kg)
- Aldi own brand: £0.28, 420g (£0.67/kg)
- Tesco own brand: £0.28, 420g (£0.67/kg)
- Asda own brand: £0.42, 410g (£1.02/kg)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.45, 410g (£1.10/kg)
- Waitrose own brand: £0.55, 420g (£1.31/kg).
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Flour
McDougalls Plain Flour: £1.70, 1.1kg (£1.54/kg)
Does branded flour actually make a difference in your bakes?
We always buy the cheapest flour, as the ingredients on the back seem to be the same. It can help you save money when making pancakes with your flatmates.
Best McDougalls Plain Flour alternatives
- Aldi own brand: £0.70, 1.5kg (£0.47/kg)
- Asda own brand: £0.70, 1.5kg (£0.47/kg)
- Tesco own brand: £0.70, 1.5kg (£0.47/kg)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.70, 1.5kg (£0.47/kg)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.70, 1.5kg (£0.47/kg)
- Waitrose own brand: £0.85, 1.5kg (£0.57/kg).
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Chopped tomatoes
Napolina Chopped Tomatoes: £1, 400g (£2.50/kg)
We love a rich tomato sauce when making spaghetti bolognese. But does it matter if your chopped tomatoes are branded or not?
From experience, we've found that using a cheaper tin of chopped tomatoes does the trick when you add in a tablespoon of tomato puree for richness.
Best Napolina Chopped Tomatoes alternatives
- Aldi own brand: £0.45, 400g (£1.12/kg)
- Tesco own brand: £0.43, 400g (£1.08/kg)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.45, 400g (£1.12/kg)
- Asda own brand: £0.45, 400g (£1.12/kg)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.47, 400g (£1.18/kg)
- Waitrose own brand: £0.60, 400g (£1.50/kg).
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Pasta sauce
Loyd Grossman Pasta Sauce: £3.75, 660g (£0.57/100g)
Pasta sauce can always be made to taste better with some herbs and spices.
If you want to make a tomato-based dish, we'd suggest using chopped tomatoes instead for a more cost-effective meal.
Best Loyd Grossman Pasta Sauce alternatives
- Aldi own brand: £0.49, 440g (£0.11/100g)
- Tesco own brand: £0.49, 440g (£0.11/100g)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.49, 440g (£0.11/100g)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.69, 500g (£0.14/100g)
- Asda own brand: £0.69, 500g (£0.14/100g)
- Waitrose own brand: £1.00, 340g (£0.29/100g).
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Chocolate
Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate: £1.68, 110g (£1.53/100g)
It's hard to compare any chocolate to Dairy Milk. However, the price does seem to be going up and up, making it less affordable for students to buy on the regular.
Luckily, you can make some big savings by getting own-brand chocolate from the supermarket.
Best Dairy Milk Chocolate alternatives
- Tesco own brand: £0.59, 100g (£0.59/100g)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £0.75, 100g (£0.75/100g)
- Morrisons own brand: £0.80, 100g (£0.80/100g)
- Aldi own brand: £1.69, 100g (£0.85/100g)
- Asda own brand: £2.28, 200g (£1.14/100g)
- Waitrose own brand: £2.75, 100g (£2.75/100g).
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Cheese
Cathedral City Cheddar: £3.39, 350g (£0.97/100g)
There is something quite nice about having cheese on toast with Cathedral City.
But, if you're looking to cut some pennies off your grocery shop, you may need to reconsider. Here's how much you could save.
Best Cathedral City Cheese alternatives
- Morrisons own brand: £2.18, 350g (£0.62/100g)
- Tesco own brand: £2.50, 220g (£1.14/100g)
- Sainsbury's own brand: £2.55, 220g (£1.16/100g)
- Waitrose own brand: £2.75, 350g (£0.79/100g)
- Asda own brand: £2.79, 400g (£0.70/100g)
- Aldi own brand: £2.79, 400g (£0.70/100g).
Best supermarket own brand ranges
Adding up the price per weight/volume of all branded items comes to £11.73. Here's how the price of branded items compares to supermarket own-brand ranges:
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Aldi own brand
Overall, Aldi came out as the cheapest for own-brand products. When buying all of these cupboard essentials, the total price per weight/volume was £4.27.
That means you can save around 64% by swapping the branded products (above) with Aldi's own-brand versions – a huge saving!
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Tesco own brand
Tesco has some great deals, often matching (or even beating) Aldi's prices.
Looking at the price per weight/volume of the above products, the Tesco own-brand products add up to £4.45.
And if you're shopping at Tesco, look out for Clubcard Prices in case you can make bigger savings.
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Sainsbury's own brand
The own-brand products from Sainsbury's in this guide have a combined price per weight/volume of £4.63.
On the whole, Sainsbury's can be quite an expensive supermarket. But, we've noticed that their own-brand ranges are often pretty affordable (especially their cheddar cheese!).
Similarly to Tesco, see if any of your Sainsbury's groceries can be bought for less with Nectar Prices.
Clubcard Prices and Nectar Prices are two of the top loyalty card perks. -
Morrisons own brand
While you can get good deals at Morrisons, its own-brand products aren't always the cheapest.
The total price per weight/volume of Morrisons' products in this guide was £4.70, making this the fourth cheapest supermarket on the list.
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Asda own brand
Asda has really surprised us!
When looking at all of their own-brand prices, the shop came out quite expensive, at £4.95 for the total cost per weight/volume of the products.
We'll have to leave the taste test to you... Do you think it's worth it?
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Waitrose own brand
Overall, Waitrose's own-brand range worked out as the most expensive of the supermarkets we've compared here. £7.67 was the total price per weight/volume of the listed products.
Their own-brand versions can still help you save money compared to buying branded products.
But, having said that, you can spend less on your weekly food shop by switching to a cheaper supermarket like Aldi.
Need more tips? Try the supermarket downshift.
