We price checked Dunnes against Tesco to see who's cheaper

Two weeks ago we rechecked our Dunnes vs the discounters research to see if Lidl and Aldi really do offer savings anymore, or if the Dunnes voucher scheme just evens it all out. It came as a big surprise to many that Dunnes came out technically cheaper on the basic items we checked, if you manage to get 20% off each shop by spending in €25 increments. Basically, there's nothing in it if you use your vouchers well.

This time around we had more calls to involve Tesco in the conversation - our readers wanted to know how they stack up against the addictive voucher scheme that so many people are stuck in the loop of. Their Clubcard offers appear to have gotten bigger and bolder over the past year, making you feel like a chump if you only visit sporadically and don't have an account to avail of them, but with the recent news that they're starting to use customer data to train AI and enhance your individual shopping experience (read: try to get you to buy more), are we giving up too much to get the best price on onions?

This time around we checked 78 like for like items - basic fruit and veg, meat, fish, pasta, flour, eggs etc. We can't comment on quality - if you like Tesco own brand tea bags over Dunnes, that's your prerogative.

What were the parameters?

• Everything was price and weight checked on Thursday 14th May and rechecked on Monday 18th May (multiple items had changed price in just a few days so this is a moveable feast)

• We only included basic, whole food, own brand products where was no discernible difference, e.g. Pink Lady apples, free-range chicken breasts, premium own brand pasta. We did not compare processed food items where quality can vary substantially

• If items were slightly different weights (e.g. 60g vs 100g pine nuts) we calculated the comparative price by weight

• We struggled to decide whether or not to include Tesco Clubcard offers as we've previously not included short term offers for other supermarkets, but some of Tesco's price reductions last five or six months, so they are semi-permanent. In the end we decided to show you both columns, and the Clubcard saving on the products we checked turned out to be negligible

What were the results?

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