A Tesco Meal Plan for the Week, Built on Real Shelf Prices

Aldi gets the budget headlines, but Tesco is the biggest supermarket in the country, with more than a quarter of the British grocery market. The good news for anyone planning a macro-friendly week: Tesco's own-brand staples are closer to discounter prices than most people assume. You just have to know which shelf to look at.

Every price below comes from our own price tracker — real Tesco shelf prices, checked October 2026.

The Tesco protein shelf

Same strategy as any good week: anchor every meal on its protein source first, and lean on own-brand.

• Chicken thighs — £2.99 for a 1kg pack (or 2kg for £5.75, which drops the price to £2.88/kg). Same protein as anywhere else: about 20g per 100g of raw meat, nearer 25g once cooked.
• Eggs — a 10-pack of large barn eggs for £2.80, about 28p an egg.
• Greek-style yogurt — Tesco's own 500g tub is £1.15, but it's the creamy kind, not a strained high-protein one: only about 4g protein per 100g. Handy for breakfasts, but not a protein bargain.
• Cottage cheese — Creamfields 300g for 85p, around 9g protein per 100g.
• Tinned tuna — 65p for a 145g tin in spring water, or a 4-pack for £2.49.
• Beef mince (20% fat) — £3.25 for 500g; the leaner 5% is £5.05 (a September 2026 price), so mixing the two across the week balances macros and money.
• Red lentils — £2.60 for a 1kg bag that stretches across many meals.

Carb bases and extras: porridge oats at 85p/kg, and a 1kg bag of frozen mixed berries for £2.99 in the freezer aisle.

Building the week

The method doesn't change by store — plan meals, not foods:

• Pick 3–4 dinners that share ingredients so packs get finished instead of composted
• Double one batch dinner — chilli or bolognese with that £3.25 mince — for two lunches without cooking again
• Rotate two or three breakfasts built on eggs, yogurt, and oats
• Snacks that need no cooking — yogurt, fruit, boiled eggs done on Sunday

What a Tesco week costs

We haven't priced a full Tesco week, so we won't put a number on one. What we have measured: a balanced solo week at around 2,000 kcal typically comes to £50–55 at Aldi prices (the fresh shop, not cupboard staples). Expect the same week to cost more at Tesco. In an August 2026 Which? check of 92 branded and own-brand groceries, Tesco came to about 19% more than Aldi, even with Clubcard prices. Sticking to own-brand staples like the ones above can narrow the gap, and in return you get bigger ranges and, for many people, a shorter trip. In our recipe library, most main meals cost £1.10–2.50 a serving at those same Aldi prices. That still makes takeaways look expensive, and recipe boxes too, at roughly £5–8.50 a portion for two.

The catch is the same as everywhere: those numbers only hold if the week is actually planned. The unplanned Tesco shop — with its considerably deeper snack aisles — is where budgets quietly die.

Let the plan do the pricing

Plan X Prep uses 2,000+ real product prices from Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, checked monthly, and every recipe in its 1,500+ library is costed per serving. The app doesn't let you pick a store: each ingredient is priced at Aldi first, with Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda filling the gaps. Your week arrives planned around your calorie and protein targets, with an estimated cost for the basket before you leave the house. If you shop at Tesco, expect the till total to come in higher than that estimate.

Join the waitlist and we'll email you the moment we're live. In the meantime, the same method works with a pen and paper — see our family budget guide for the full structure.