The October 2025 grocery showdown: Who’s actually cheapest right now?

Thank you for participating in our recent poll! 🙌 We asked you where you thought I would find the best prices on offer for five staple items. Below, I reveal our readers’ answer, as well as my findings.

What this article really speaks to is the importance of drawing up a budget for your household. Planning and spending according to a monthly budget is essential at all stages of your life, but especially when you are retired.

Which supermarket is the cheapest according to our readers?

Readers of our newsletter (you can subscribe here) and of our Facebook page voted and we can reveal that you thought I would find the items listed in our poll cheapest at Checkers! I can now confirm that is not the correct answer 😊

Which supermarket came out tops in my actual price comparison?

Groceries	Pick n Pay	Checkers	Woolworths	Food Lovers
🥚 Eggs (18 Free range)	79.99	74.99	91.99	68.99
🧀 Cheddar Cheese 800g	144.99	154.99	169.99	136.99
🐮 Double cream plain yoghurt 1L	36.99	42.99	54.99	42.99
🌽 Maize meal 1kg	17.99	22.99	Only stocks 2.5kg at 38.99	17.99
🐔 Chicken fillets x4 (skinless) free range price p/kg	129.99	119.99	124.99	114.99
Total (excl chicken and maize meal)	261.97	272.97	316.97	248.97

The results speak for themselves. Food Lovers proved to be cheaper than the other supermarkets surveyed for purposes of this poll.

This is off course a very limited poll and did not consider loyalty card discounts or any specials on offer, such as the pensioners' discount offered by Pick n Pay (which you can see here).

In May of this year, I undertook an exercise whereby I compared 59 items my household purchases monthly. I compared prices between the four supermarkets listed above, as well as Shoprite and I can confirm that even in that instance Food Lovers proved to be the cheapest.

This is a pure price comparison and does not speak to quality or take into account the distance you would have to travel to shop or even the convenience of shopping at a particular supermarket.

Importance of a household budget

I enjoy drawing up a grocery budget according to a meal plan for my family on a weekly basis. Whether you plan for one or a family it is crucial to keep track of your budget and do regular consolidations, between what you think you spend and your actual expenditure.

I hope you enjoyed this fun exercise and that it inspires you to relook your personal budget or start if you have not done so regularly.

Look out for future polls in our upcoming newsletters.

All the best

Lirette

Co-founder, PensionersPayLess!

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Lirette is a co-founder of PensionersPayLess! and the heart behind its mission to help South Africa's over-55s enjoy life to the fullest. Backed by a Doctorate of Law and two master’s degrees, she combines legal know-how with a passion for practical advice. Lirette writes about topics that she believes will appeal to a wide audience and which mostly relate back to her personal experiences, be it making plans for retirement with her parents, balancing a household budget or enjoying a good meal or holiday.