It will have 300 key items to help us get through the cost-of-living crisis

Supermarket chain Asda is launching a new range of budget products called ‘Just Essentials’ across all its stores.

The range covers 300 staples like bread, meat and fish, as well as household products like laundry powder and shampoo.

It’s replacing Asda’s Smart Price products and the store says its Just Essentials range will have 50 per cent more items in it.

We’ll start seeing the products on Asda’s shelves from May, just as the cost of living crisis is hitting even harder. 

Food prices are up, partly fuelled by the war in Ukraine. And energy costs are rising as the new price cap comes into play, adding 54 per cent to the average bill.

To top it all off fuel prices are soaring too, meaning it costs more to get the food to us in the first place.

The price of food is rising at its fastest rate in almost ten years. To get an idea of why this has most impact on those of us on the lowest incomes, read our inflation explainer.

As things stand, the UK’s cheapest supermarket is Lidl but Asda may be hoping to give it a run for its money with its new products.

A basket of 33 staples from Lidl came in at £53.06 compared to £85.40 in Waitrose, which was the most expensive. The Grocer magazine crunched the numbers based on costs in March.

Even though Lidl was the cheapest, its prices were still 4.5 per cent higher than they were this time last year.

In these tough times, the Quids in! website has tips on making our money stretch further in the supermarket. And there are some great cheap recipes on there too!