Supermarket single penalty: Shopping for one leaves you out of pocket

How UK supermarkets are punishing single shoppers: People buying for one face bigger bills at the check-out compared to ‘bulk-buying’ couples and families

  • Around 35% of people in the UK are single but they pay more for buying less in supermarkets – where shoppers are encouraged to stock up to save 
  • A pint of milk from Tesco costs 95p but you can pick up six pints for £2.35 – the smaller bottle is a pound per litre more expensive than the larger bottle
  • Read more: How cereal and protein bars can be WORSE for your waistline than a Mars – check our list to see how calorific your favourite is

Singletons face higher bills at supermarket tills simply because they’re shopping for one, and not two or four, a growing bank of evidence is suggesting.  

Despite more than a third of the population currently thought to be single, the UK’s service economy appears to pass on bigger savings to pairs or groups, because they’re buying more – a concept that’s been dubbed ‘The Single Penalty’ in recent years.

Last month, financial services provider Hargreaves Lansdown released research that shows just how much extra a singleton might expect to pay compared to their paired-up peers for general living costs. 

While a person on their own can expect average monthly costs of £1,851, couples are likely to pay £991 each for the same living expenses.

One of the most obvious venues for the ‘single penalty’ is the supermarket. In the UK, prices are structured around ‘the smaller the quantity, the higher the cost’.     

The Office for National Statistics predicts that around 35 per cent of the UK population are single – but shopping for one is more expensive. Pictured: products from a variety of UK supermarkets which are more expensive when sold in smaller quantities

Items sold in packets of one remain a rarity, with everything from pitta breads to toilet rolls come in twos or more. For example, buying a whole chicken – weighing in at 1.4kg – from Morrisons costs £4.25. Two chicken breasts, weighing 485 grams (the supermarket doesn’t do single breasts) costs exactly the same price, for nearly a kilogram less meat. 

Consumers are paying £8.76 per kilo of chicken breast, compared with just £3.04 per kilo for the whole chicken.

Where the single penalty does seem to ease somewhat is down the fruit and vegetable aisle…loose carrots at Tesco come in at the same price per kilo as a packaged kilo – 50 pence. So shoppers buying loose carrots will pay exactly the same as those picking up a larger bag.     

How buying more saves you money: the savings families enjoy on staples compared to singles

SHOPPING FOR A FAMILY 

Tesco Whole Milk 3.408L/6 Pints

Price: £2.35

Price per litre: £0.69

Ocado Super Soft White Toilet Tissue x 9

Price: £4.25 

Price per roll: 47.2p each 

Lidl Woodcote Large Free Range Eggs x 12

Price: £2.45 

Price per egg:  14.6p

 

Morrisons British Whole Chicken

Price: £4.25 

Price per kilo: £3.04 per kg 

Price per kilo: £2.21

Sainsbury’s British or Irish 5% Fat Beef Mince 750g

Price: £4.29

Price per kilo: £5.72 

Asda Extra Mature British Cheddar  750g

 Price: £5.00

Price per kilo: £6.67

Waitrose Classic Steak Pie 550g

Price: £5.00

 Price per 100g: 90.9p

Aldi The Fishmonger Tuna Chunks in Spring Water 4 x 145g

 

Price: £2.69 

Price per 100g: 46p 

 SHOPPING FOR ONE 

Tesco Whole Milk 568Ml/1 Pint  

Price: £0.95

Price per litre: £1.68/litre

 Ocado Super Soft White Toilet Tissue x 4 

Price: £2.30 

Price per roll: 57.5p each   

Lidl Woodcote Large Free Range Eggs x 6

 Price: £1.65 

Price per egg:  27.5p

 

 

Morrisons British Chicken Breast Fillets 

Price: £4.25 

Price per kilo: £8.76

Sainsbury’s British or Irish 5% Fat Beef Mince 250g

Price:  £2.10 

Price per kilo: £8.40

 Asda Extra Mature British Cheddar 250g

 Price: £2.65

Price per kilo: £10.60

Waitrose Classic Steak Pie  200g

 Price: £2.85

Price per 100g: £1.43 

Aldi The Fishmonger Tuna Chunks in Spring Water 1 x 145g

Price: 69p

Price per 100g: 68p

 

 

 

 

 

Online supermarket shopping has filters for things like price, shelf life and customer rating but never by size. 

Trainee Art Historian Susan Gray, 57, who’s single, says the supermarket goliaths should do more to create a fairer landscape for everyone. 

She says: ‘I don’t have room to store mega packs of loo roll or batteries and no interest in BOGOFF deals. I know that 50 per cent of soup, yoghurt and butter are destined for the bin, because I simply can’t eat them fast enough before they go off.

‘From spuds to sourdough, supermarkets force me to bite off, and pay for, more than I can ever chew.’ 

It extends to jars too. Pasta sauces and pesto simply don’t come in the sizes she needs, and end up ‘half-furry’ in the back of the fridge.’

Supermarket weep: ‘From spuds to sourdough, supermarkets force me to bite off, and pay for, more than I can ever chew’

Susan Gray, 57, is a trainee Art Historian who lives in West London. She says there are some products she simply doesn’t put in her basket because she can’t eat them quick enough, and thinks it’s time supermarkets stop discriminating against single shoppers…

Trainee art historian Susan Gray, 57, from West London, told Femail she wastes so much food because products like pasta sauce only come in larger jars – made for couples or families

‘As a single person, I have no room to store mega packs of loo roll or batteries or do BOGOFF deals – and know that 50 per cent of soup, yoghurt and butter are often destined for the bin, because I simply can’t eat them fast enough before they go off.  

‘I’d love a spoonful of coleslaw to go with a lunchtime sandwich, not a bucketful destined to curdle in my fridge.’ 

Susan says while batch cooking using cheaper bulk buys is a great idea in theory, life simply gets in the way: ‘Forget menu planning: between work and a social life, I don’t know if I’ll be in to eat carrots in three days time, so there’s no point in buying such bargains in advance. 

‘From spuds to sourdough, supermarkets force me to bite off, and pay for, more than I can ever chew.’ 

It extends to jars too. Pasta sauces and pesto simply don’t come in the sizes she needs, and end up ‘half-furry’ in the back of the fridge.      

Susan says she doesn’t have the space at her home to buy products such as toilet rolls in bulk 

‘It would be great to buy single portions of mayo, spices, fresh herbs, and cream – the sort of thing you need for a dish once, but won’t be using again for weeks afterwards by which time it’s gone off.’ 

Susan says that while single people shouldn’t be charged more for smaller portions, she would pay extra to save on waste and fridge clutter if a one-serving pasta sauce was on the market. 

‘I’d happily go to an independent store for fruit, veg, cheese and treats – for example, jam and honey, if they came in small, useable portions. And the same for dinky sized cleaning and laundry products – why is fabric conditioner also only sold in cupboard-swallowing sizes?’

Sarah Cole, of Hargreaves Lansdown, says ‘shopping for one can be a depressingly expensive experience’. 

She explains: ‘There are exceptions, but generally larger packs tend to offer better value. Unfortunately, if you buy a family-sized box of cornflakes you’re going to get very bored of stale cornflakes really quickly.

‘Smaller packet sizes mean more expensive packaging per kilo. It’s going to cost less to package something than it does to package two of the same product that’s half the size. It inherently costs more to produce, and so will be more expensive.

In some cases, manufacturers actually use far more packaging on their smaller versions – compare a tin of beans to four snap pots. for example, which exacerbates the problem.

‘However, it also depends on what is considered the standard packet size – which is bought most often – and tends to be sold most cheaply. This is often the larger packet sizes, which are priced to draw shoppers in.’

Where the maths does add up for single shoppers is often in the loose fruit and veg aisle; these Tesco carrots cost the same whether you buy a kilo bag or just one on its own

So, is there a way shoppers can swerve inflated prices for low-number items?  

‘Part of the solution lies in storage – especially freezing. There’s no reason to pay more per gram for a smaller loaf when you can buy a large one and defrost as you use it. 

‘Similarly if you buy extra, batch cook, and then freeze portions, it overcomes the headache of being forced to eat the same thing every day until you finish the open packet. If you buy fruit, vegetables and meat from the frozen section, they’ve already done the hard work for you.

It also makes sense to buy loose fruit and vegetables in the quantities you know you will actually get through in time. Sometimes this is a cheaper option because the supermarket has saved on packaging.

‘The good news is that there are occasions when the smaller item is cheaper. This is usually when it’s on offer, but it also includes those items where the most popular pack is the smaller one. So it’s always worth checking the price per gram, and snapping up smaller and cheaper items where you can.’

MailOnline contacted UK supermarkets for comment.  A spokesperson for Morrisons said: ‘We know that a lot of our customers are single person households and work hard to ensure we have affordable pack sizes that cater to their needs. 

‘Within our chicken range, we offer a wide range of alternative options including 500g packs of Britch chicken drumsticks and British chicken wings for £1.’

Ocado also responded, saying the online supermarket ‘aims to offer good value for all our customers – whether they’re buying for one or for a family. 

‘With something non-perishable like toilet roll, many single households still want the price benefits of buying a larger pack and will then store the additional rolls until needed.’ 

This is Money Editor Simon Lambert on how everything from mortgages to shopping are more expensive for singletons 

Simon Lambert, editor of This is Money, MailOnline’s Money section, said: ‘Anyone who has lived both alone and in a couple will know that single life is more expensive and that a couple’s existence doesn’t cost twice as much. 

This is true on the big stuff like rent and mortgage payments, on regular bills such as energy, broadband and water, and it even makes a difference on food shopping. 

Simon Lambert, This is Money’s Editor said single people face higher costs across the board – from mortgage payments to energy and food costs

A couple may eat twice as much as an individual – or not quite in the case of unequal appetites – but your cupboards aren’t full of items that you buy and then consume in their entirety. 

A shopping list invariably involves items that last some time, or you don’t need all of, ranging from a bag of flour to a pack of peppers, and this is where combined purchasing power really pays off.

‘A stark example of the singles penalty comes from the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association’s in-depth look at the annual income needed for a basic, moderate and comfortable retirement, where the cost to a couple is far less than the sum of two individuals. 

For example, a moderate retirement would cost a single person £23,300 a year, according to the PLSA, but a couple £34,000.’

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