Where To Find The Cheapest Christmas Pudding In The UK This Year

Millions of households across the UK prepare to celebrate Christmas even in spite of the cost of living crisis that has hammered households the past few years. While many may still be determined to carry on with the festivities regardless, it certainly doesn’t hurt to tighten the purse strings where possible.

Here, the penny-pinchers at Moneyzine.com have rounded up the costs of a Christmas pudding (both large and small) from the UK’s biggest supermarkets to help you compare the best value Christmas pudding for dessert this year and save money while still enjoying all there is to the holidays.

“The price difference of a pound or two may not seem like much to many, but when you take all the other costs surrounding Christmas day into account, every little really does help.

Our hope is that this insightful comparison will at the least, highlight the importance of shopping around for a good deal this time of year, and at most, help some households stretch their budget further this Christmas.”

Jonathan Merry, personal finance expert at Moneyzine.com

Lidl Crowned Cheapest Supermarket for Christmas Pudding in 2023

We compared the cost of a 400g (serving 4 people) and an 800g (serving 8 people) Christmas pudding from 10 major UK supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Morrisons, Iceland, M&S, Lidl, Co-Op, Waitrose, and Asda.

Lidl took the top spot as having the cheapest Christmas pudding in both sizes, at just £1.85 for a 400g pudding, and £3.69 for a pudding that serves 8 people.

Cheapest 800g Christmas pudding:

The three best-value 800g Christmas puddings could be found in:

1. Lidl: £3.69

2. Tesco: £4.00 (joint)

3. Morrisons: £4.00 (joint)

Cheapest 400g Christmas pudding:

The three best-value 400g Christmas puddings could be found in:

1. Lidl: £1.85

2. Morrisons: £2

3. Iceland: £2.25

Waitrose and M&S Joint On Most Expensive Puddings

At the other end of the spectrum, Waitrose and M&S had the most expensive 800g Christmas puddings. Meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly given the brand's low-budget status, Aldi had the most expensive 400g Christmas pudding.

Most Expensive 800g Christmas pudding:

The three most expensive 800g Christmas puddings could be found in:

1. (joint) Waitrose: £7

2. (joint 2nd) M&S: £7

3. Sainsbury’s: £5.50

Most Expensive 400g Christmas pudding:

The three most expensive 400g Christmas puddings could be found in:

1. Aldi: £4.49

2. Waitrose: £4 (joint)

3. M&S: £4 (joint)

Homemade Is Cheapest - But Only For Exact Quantities

We used this Classic Christmas pudding recipe from BBC Good Food and calculated the estimated cost to make this recipe using the shopping prices comparison tool on the ONS. The total estimated cost to make this recipe came out to be £4.34 - making two Christmas puddings which serve 8 people each - we therefore halved the cost to fit in the 800g pudding bracket.

While this is the cheapest cost by far, it is worth noting that there would be additional costs involved if acquiring all ingredients listed as our calculations were made specifically to the quantities in the recipe.

Supermarket Comparison: Full Results

Here’s the full details ranking the most and least expensive Christmas puddings available in all major supermarkets in the UK.

Methodology

Our team sourced the prices for 400g and 800g Christmas puddings (the two standard weights of Christmas puddings sold in the UK) from the online grocery section of each supermarket. We looked for the basic Christmas pudding offering from each supermarket to try to ensure a consistent and fair comparison, rather than opting for one’s offered in more premium ranges.

We then calculated the cost of a homemade Christmas pudding by taking the ingredients list from the most popular Christmas pudding recipe online (from BBC Good Food) and estimating the cost of each ingredient in the given quantity using the ONS shopping price comparison feature.