Waitrose has always had a reputation for being an expensive place to do your groceries.
Like Marks and Spencer, she specializes in local, artisanal products that often cost more than standard swamp food.
But we don’t like to take other people’s words for things, so we put them to the test ourselves.
Armed with £ 30 of cash, I approached the Bath store apprehensively. I am from Northern Ireland where Waitrose has yet to take root so I had no idea what to expect.
Things could have started better. I spent five minutes “standing in line” behind two retirees before realizing they just had a chinwag.
Then I almost hit a classy woman with my cart and was forced to apologize. After that, I headed inside.
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My first impression was that it looked a bit like Marks and Spencer. The birthday cakes were perched dangerously close to the entrance for someone with my sweet tooth, but I resisted them and made my way to the cereal aisle.
It was then that I hit my first speed bump. The microwave-safe Quaker Oats sachets I normally take for breakfast were £ 2.80 – almost a tenth of my budget.
On the way to the unknown
I had to swap them for Waitrose porridge – in what has become a disturbing trend – and unfortunately the own brand oats were straightforward with no added flavor.
But I came up with a clever plan to add blueberries to the porridge, in order to have one of my five a day and brighten up my breakfast. I also grabbed Waitrose apple juice for 95p and two pints of milk for 89p.
They had these boring stickers on almost every shelf
For lunch, I chose bagels and eggs, thinking they would make a nutritious meal. However, £ 1.60 for a bag of bagels turned out to be too expensive and I had to swap them for a 95p loaf.
Then I spotted my first ‘typical Waitrose’ product – quail eggs. I considered buying them, then realized that I would be lucky enough to survive a day on this tiny omelet.
In fact, all the eggs were expensive compared to my usual Sainsbury haunt. You couldn’t find a box for less than £ 1.35 and although I had planned to buy 10 or 12 eggs, I had to settle for six because of my budget.
It turns out that small eggs are expensive
I also picked up two cans of Heinz Soup, which were reduced to £ 1 each, but at the end of my shop I traded them for Waitrose’s own brand, which was only 50p a can.
It was a bold move, considering that I had never had Heinz before. My plan was to make a scrambled egg on toast for lunch on four of the days and eat soup and bread on two others.
After all of these compromises, I felt very well behaved, so my next post was a luxury item.
My luxury item
Pizza is my favorite food – seriously, I could eat it at every meal – so I knew if I was going to splurge this is what I would buy.
I also wanted to try some of the sophisticated Waitrose range, rather than buying all the basics, so I bet £ 4.31 on a veg and pesto pizza.
Listen to me, I thought veg would contribute to my five a day and it said “feed four” on the packet, so I figured dividing it over two nights would still provide some decent nourishment.
With that out of the way and over a third of my budget wasted, I went looking for the cheapest pasta I could find.
Fortunately, Waitrose has a huge selection and Loyd Grossman sauces have been reduced to £ 1.
You can get giant pasta – but you need a huge paycheck to match
When I saw that they had sold the tomato and mascarpone sauce, I almost threw in a strop but settled for puttanesca instead.
Almost all of the Tilda microwave rice packs were on sale as well, but, to save a few pennies, I went for the Waitrose version at 70p.
I also bought Waitrose’s korma sauce after Sharwood’s got me going over budget. Only time will tell if this was a wise decision.
So far I had porridge and blueberries for breakfast, bread, soup and eggs for lunch, and pasta and rice for dinner.
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Then I needed some meat to put in my pasta and rice but when I got to the meat aisle I got a bad shock – all the chicken fillets cost £ 3.50 or more .
I used to pay around £ 2.50 for my chicken and with my budget dwindling I had to make some of the substitutions mentioned earlier in order to be able to buy the chicken.
Further down the aisle I was delighted to see they had the Finnebrogue bacon, which is prepared near my home.
This bacon comes from a farm near me in Northern Ireland
However, at £ 3 a pack I had to save it for another day and opt for – you guessed it – Waitrose’s own brand instead.
The selection of fruits and vegetables was also quite expensive. The cheapest blueberries were £ 1.87 – and strangely they were the blue ones – and I had to settle for the smallest oranges known to man, at £ 1.50.
The Tendersteam broccoli was also a bridge too far in my budget, as were the snow peas, so I opted for a crown of broccoli, green beans and two baked potatoes instead.
One of the potatoes would serve as lunch, with cheese and butter (which we assumed you would already have in the fridge).
This gave me the material for the bacon pasta with chopped green beans, two servings of chicken korma, broccoli and rice, pizza for two nights, pasta with chicken and green beans, bacon, eggs and a potato in a jacket.
With only a few pounds left, I gave myself permission to go wild, grabbing a packet of Waitrose chocolate digestives and arugula popsicles.
I gave you a shortened version of my two hour grocery store – lots of changes made – but the final total is £ 29.77.
After two hours and a lot of arithmetic, it was the final receipt The price of everything on my list
Breakfast
Porridge (10 bags): £ 1 Blueberries: £ 1.87 Apple juice: 95 p Milk: 89 p
Lunch
Bread: 95p Eggs: £ 1.35 Soup (two cans): 50p each Oranges: £ 1.50
Having dinner
Pasta: 55 p. Pasta sauce: £ 1 Chicken (three fillets): £ 4.50 Rice (for two): 70 p. Korma sauce: £ 1.60 Bacon: £ 2.25 Pizza (for two nights): £ 4.31 Green beans: £ 1.30 Broccoli: £ 1.30 Potatoes (two for cooking): £ 1
Dessert / snacks
Popsicles: £ 1 Chocolate Digesters: 85p Everything in my Waitrose grocery store, priced at £ 30
We have proven that it is possible to do a weekly grocery store for £ 30 in Waitrose.
However, you have to stick with a lot of their own brand products, and luxury goods – like alcohol or organic – are just not achievable.
But what we’ve been able to prove is that even if you’re on a budget, you don’t need to rule out Waitrose as an option.
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-30 23:00:00
