Summer Holidays Essentials Price Comparison | Boots vs Lloyds vs Aldi

Hurrah to the summer holidays and a trip away with the family. We are off to somewhere hot soon. That sounds vague, as it should be, our holiday is not yet booked! We have no idea where we are going. This is exciting! Our holiday is being researched and booked by someone else as I write, intriguing, all will come clear very soon.  But first.. my summer holidays essentials price comparison post!

What I do know is that we need to be packed and ready to fly soon (must dig out those passports and European health cards!) so I’ve been busy researching the cost of holiday essentials of the health and beauty shop type. I thought it would be an interesting comparison to research at my local Aldi, Boots and my local village Lloyds. 

The difference in price was quite astounding, keep on reading!  On my list was the following.

• 2 bottles of factor 50 5-star UVA sun cream
• 1 bottle of factor 30 5-star UVA sun cream
• 1 bottle of After Sun
• Insect repellent spray
• A bottle of children’s paracetamol medicine
• Packet of paracetamol tablets
• Imodium
• Shower Gel Travel Bottle
• Shampoo & Conditioner Travel Bottle

First stop was Boots

I live near Stevenage which has every high street shop going and a big retail park. There is a lovely big Boots in the retail park. This is new, airy Boots where you can find any health and beauty product going and I was able to find everything on my list. At the time of shopping, which was around 15^th July ,the prices were as follows:

• The sun cream and after sun was £4 per bottle = £15.99
• Insect repellent = £4.99
• Shower gel and shampoo/conditioner was 3 for 2, so I got 2 mini Treseme and 1 mini lemon source = £2.98.
• Paracetamol = £1.29
• Children’s paracetamol Boots own brand = £2.65
• Imodium 12 pack = £6.79

Total spend in Boots =

£34.69

There was a bundle of sun cream goodies in a handy plastic beauty pouch that included 1 x Factor 50, 2 x factor 30, 1 x Factor 15 and 1 x After sun which was on special offer for £11.99. I needed to buy one extra factor 50 so this was good value with an extra factor 30 and 15 thrown in. 

Lloyds

I had a look in Lloyds the chemist whilst collecting a prescription. Lloyds despite being tiny village high street store often have a great range of essentials at really good prices. I was able to find everything on my list.

• Sun cream was £7 or on offer at 2 for £9. Meaning I could get my 2 bottles of factor 50, 1 bottle of factor 30 and one bottle of after sun = £18.00
• Insect repellent was expensive!!  For Jungle formula, as there was no own brand equivalent = £8.99
• There was no travel shower gel etc, but they did have a £1 stand of full sized items, so I could get three full sized bottles of shower gel, shampoo and conditioner = £3.00
• Paracetamol tablets cheap as chips = 29p
• Paracetamol medicine for children, Lloyds own brand = £3.89
• Imodium = £4.99

Total Spend in Lloyds =

£39.16

It was the insect repellent that tipped up the cost in Lloyds as they didn’t have an own brand equivalent. The sun cream was slightly more expensive but the 2 for £9 option was on spray sun cream rather than lotion, quicker and easier to apply.

Aldi

I had a good hunt for sun cream during my weekly shop at Aldi. Now first thing is sun cream is in very short supply at Aldi. It arrived in store a few weeks ago and was gone within a couple of days as people rushed to panic buy as it was a very good price for a 5-star rated sun cream. I have been using it with the kids for the past two years and its as good as any brand. Therefore, the advice from me is to order it online as they have plenty of stock in their warehouse and can deliver it to your home. Delivery is free as well when you spend over £20.

• Sun cream is £1.99 per bottle. I chose 2 bottles of the factor 50 and 1 bottle of the factor 15 as factor 30 was out of stock. The after sun is £2.15. As long as we have factor 50, I am happy = £8.12
• Insect repellent I could not find. However, they did have the next best thing, After Bite = £3.99. (I need that right now as a mossy got me 2 days ago on my elbow!)
• Paracetamol was 25p per packet. Aldi did not have children’s paracetamol or Imodium.
• Aldi did not have travel sized toiletries, but I could get a Dirty Dog 2in1 shampoo and conditioner for £1.79 and a shower gel for just 89p. 
• To complete my holiday basket, I still need Imodium and Paracetamol children’s medicine but I can substitute this in from Lloyds = £9.88.

Total holiday basket spend from Aldi (online) and the extra bits via Lloyds chemist =

£24.92

Just look at the price differences…. Aldi came out SO MUCH CHEAPER !!

These prices were correct as of w/c 16th/23rd July. And this is a collaborative post.