We bought same cereals from 4 supermarkets and the difference in price was big

Most households have at least one person who likes cereal.

Whether it’s dad with his Cornflakes or the kids with their Coco Pops, everyone has their favourite.

So it’s no surprise that cereal is big business for supermarkets, none more so than in January when end aisle promotions are stacked with boxes of the stuff.

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But, when it comes to finding out which retailer is cheapest, it’s certainly not easy.

As well as selling packs in different sizes – for example Asda’s 380g box of Shreddies compared with 460g options elsewhere – manufacturers are currently in the process of reducing their packaging, so while it might look like a smaller box, it actually has more of the product inside.

The taller Rice Krispies box may look bigger, but it has just 340g inside compared with the shorter 375g box.

We visited the four main supermarkets – Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda – to check the prices of five popular cereals. These were Coco Pops, Cheerios, Cornflakes, Rice Krispies and Shreddies.

We did our best to compare like with like, but where a retailer doesn’t sell a particular size, we have adjusted the prices accordingly.

The one that worked out cheapest was in fact Asda, at £7.36 for the five boxes, helped by its current rollback deals.

But there were plenty of offers on elsewhere, including Sainsbury’s, which has just launched its own Aldi price match scheme.

Its half price offers on both Shreddies and Cheerios, at £1.17 and £1.32 respectively, helped it be the second cheapest, at £8.13. While Morrisons was third at £8.55.

And, while Tesco came out as most expensive at £9.26 (a whopping 25.8% increase on Asda) – in part because of the 480g box of Coco Pops for £3 – we could have picked up a much larger 720g pack for just 30p more.

It’s not always easy when it comes to fitting it inside those kitchen cupboards, but cereal is certainly one of those products where it pays to buy in bulk.

Asda

Coco Pops 295g £1.25 rollback so 375g is £1.58

Cheerios 300g £1 rollback so 390g is £1.30

Cornflakes 450g £1.89

Rice Krispies 340g £1.25 rollback so 375g would be £1.38

Shreddies 380g £1 rollback so 460g is £1.21

Total £7.36

Sainsbury’s

Coco Pops 375g £2

Cheerios 390g £1.32

Cornflakes 550g £2 so 450g would be £1.64

Rice Krispies 375g £2

Shreddies 460g £1.17

Total £8.13

Morrisons

Coco Pops 375g £2

Cheerios 390g £1.35

Cornflakes 450g £2

Rice Krispies 375g £2

Shreddies 460g £1.20

Total £8.55

Tesco

Coco Pops 480g £3 so 375g is £2.34

Cheerios 390g £1.55

Cornflakes 450g £1.63

Rice Krispies 510g £2.90 so 375g would be £2.14

Shreddies 720g £2.40 / 460g £1.60

Total £9.26

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