How far will £20 go when food shopping in Watford?

Well, it will be able to cover some of the essential items, but by no means will it cover everything a household needs.

On June 2, I began at the Watford Market Fruit and Veg stall. I was able to buy five sweet blood oranges for £1.80 and four bananas for a £1.

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Next, I headed to Wilko in the heart of the town centre for some household essentials. Wilko’s pack of six toilet rolls and pack of four kitchen roles came in at £1.50 each.

Wilko’s 100ml advanced sensitive toothpaste was priced at £1.50. However, I could have bought Sainsbury’s 100ml toothpaste for 44p – cheaper I imagine because it is not for sensitive teeth.

Watford Observer: Porridge cost 75p and pasta cost 64pPorridge cost 75p and pasta cost 64p

Then I visited Sainsbury’s on Albert Road. Here, I had more options to choose from when looking for the cheapest items.

It’s 500g Daily’s Corn Flakes was priced at 60p and 1kg of Daily’s Oats came in at 75p. The cheapest pasta was Hubbard’s Foodstore weighing 1kg and costing 64p.

Sainsbury’s applicator tampons with 20 in a box cost £1 and its ultra towels with wings (12 pack) was priced at 75p.

Watford Observer: Tampons cost £1 and sanitary towels were 75pTampons cost £1 and sanitary towels were 75p

I finally ended up at Tesco Express in Campbell Court, Colnhurst Road.

Again, I stuck to its own brand products. It’s white 16-slice toasty thick bread cost 65p and its semi-skimmed milk (2 pints) came in at £1.10.

I also bought 500mg of lean beef steak mince that cost £3.75 and a 500g jar of Tesco chunky vegetable pasta sauce for 75p.

Watford Observer:

A bag of carrots weighing 500g cost 34p and we can’t complete a shop without buying tea bags and Tesco’s original tea cost £1.15.

I couldn’t find any of Tesco’s own brand baked beans, but a can of Heinz baked beans weighing 415g cost £1.15.

All together it came to £19.54. 

When I was in Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s, some of their other items were on offer or were cheaper if you had their points cards.

There are deals out there, but our busy working lives can sometimes prohibit finding them.

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