mySupermarket: how the cost of your groceries jumped in August

Monthly tracker shows 1% rise in the cost of an average supermarket shopping basket.

The cost of an average basket of groceries climbed 1% in August, according to the latest Groceries Tracker from mySupermarket.

It found the price of a selection of 35 of the most commonly purchased items came to £86.75 in August, compared to £86.11 in July.

However, prices are still lower than a year ago. The same basket purchased back in August 2014 would have set households back £91.19, 5% more.

The biggest price rises

Of the essential items monitored by the tracker, 13 products increased in price during August, with onions and mushrooms seeing the biggest percentage increases.

Product	Product size	Average price in July 2015	Average price in August 2015	Percentage change
Onions	Per 1kg	£1.05	£1.22	16%
Mushrooms	Per 300g	£1.42	£1.55	10%
Crisps	Per 6x25g	£1.36	£1.44	6%
Fruit juices	Per 2 litres	£2.78	32.91	4%
Apples	Per 8 apples	£3.72	£3.81	3%
Squash drink	Per 1 litre	£1.49	£1.52	2%
Breakfast cereals	Per 750g	£3.84	£3.93	2%
Frozen chips	Perk 1kg	£1.50	£1.52	2%
Fruit yoghurt	Per 4x125g	£1.84	£1.87	2%
Cola	Per 2 litres	£2.55	£2.59	1%
Grapes	Per 500g	£2.09	£2.12	1%
Eggs	Per 12 eggs	£2.72	£2.75	1%
Butter	Per 250g	£1.52	£1.53	1%

The biggest price falls

Meanwhile 11 items fell in price over August, with cucumber and carrots the biggest fallers.

Product	Product size	Average price in July 2015	Average price in August 2015	Percentage change
Cucumber	Per cucumber	56p	54p	-3%
Carrots	Per 1kg	£2.51	£2.44	-3%
Broccoli	Per 400g	83p	81p	-2%
Frozen Pizza	Per 350g	£1.98	£1.94	-2%
Bananas	Per 8 bananas	£1.51	£1.49	-1%
Red pasta sauce	Per 500g	£2.47	£2.44	-1%
Pasta	Per 1kg	26p	25p	-1%
Leaf salad	Per 200g	£2.20	£2.18	-1%
Kitchen towels	Per 4 rolls	£3.62	£3.60	-1%
Tomatoes	Per 500g	£2.60	£2.59	-1%
Cheddar Cheese	Per 500g	£4.73	£4.70	-1%

As you can see, plenty of good news for households trying to keep healthy, with fresh fruit and vegetables making up over half of the drops.

How the tracker works

The mySupermarket Groceries Tracker keeps tabs on nearly 5,000 products across Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Waitrose and Morrisons.

It considers both brand and own brand items but not luxury ranges. It also looks at offers, but not multi-buy deals.

Certain products are also excluded as they aren’t seen as representing a ‘normal’ weekly shop like organic, free range, Fairtrade and gluten free products.

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