State pensioners who shop at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose handed £1,612 warning

State pensioners who shop at Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury's or Waitrose rather than budget supermarkets like Aldi are spending as much as £31 more on their weekly shop than customers at the German supermarket giant, it has emerged.

Waitrose customers can reduce their weekly shops by £31 to £111 by swapping to Aldi - which across a 52-week year, works out at £1612. State pensioners are being told to re-think about where they get their groceries from amid the discrepancy.

Which? compared thousands of prices at eight of the UK's major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – to reveal the cheapest supermarket to buy your food, drink and household essentials from.

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Aldi has been the cheapest supermarket every month this year so far, closely followed by Lidl – but how do big chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury's compare, and does being a member of a loyalty scheme make a significant difference to the overall cost of a basket of groceries?

The consumer body warned: "Aldi was the cheapest supermarket in October, charging £111.66 on average for our shopping list of 62 branded and own-label groceries. Fellow discounter Lidl was very close behind, at just 41p more if you have its Lidl Plus loyalty app (£112.07), or 67p if not (£112.33).

"Tesco was the cheapest of the traditional supermarkets - our shopping cost £122.26 if you have a Clubcard, and £125.09 if not. Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket at £142.39 - 28% more than Aldi." On its website, the consumer group went on, adding: "The table below shows the average cost of our shopping list."

Which? also said: "Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco offered loyalty discounts on some of the items in our basket, so we've calculated the cost for members and non-members."