‘I saved over £20 on my Easter Sunday roast by doing one thing at Sainsbury’s online checkout’

Hosting Easter doesn’t have to break the bank and I cut my Sainsbury’s shop from £50 to £30 for a family of four with these Sainsbury’s deals

Anyone hosting Easter will know just how quickly the cost of a traditional Sunday dinner can add up. From the centrepiece meat to all the trimmings, nothing beats a proper home-cooked roast – but I’ve found a supermarket hack that means it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to feed the family this Bank Holiday.

Ahead of the long weekend, I managed to cut my Easter food shop almost in half at Sainsbury’s – and it all came down to one simple thing. Ordering online, I slashed my bill from £50 to £30 , simply by inputting my Nectar card at the checkout.

Thanks to the supermarket’s Nectar prices, which get those who are signed up to a free membership access to savings, I was able to save over £20 on my basket without compromising on quality. Of course, the savings are only available if you’re signed up to a Nectar card, so shoppers without one won’t see the same reductions at the checkout.

It comes as the retailer is offering ‘better than half price’ with Nectar prices on selected joints, which includes a British or New Zealand Whole Leg of Lamb – a traditional choice for Easter. Weighing approximately 2.3kg, it’s priced at £33.40, but drops dramatically to £15.70 with a Nectar card.

From there, it’s easy to build a full roast around it using other discounted essentials. No lamb dinner is complete without mint sauce, and a jar of Ocean Spray Mint Sauce 200g is £1.35 with a Nectar card, or £1.80 without.

Meanwhile, a bag of 10 Aunt Bessie’s Glorious Golden Yorkshire Puddings come in at £1.75 instead of £2.50, with a tub of Bisto Gravy Granules being cut from £2.95 to £2.25. Also discounted with a Nectar card is the Sainsbury’s Sage Roast Onion and Shallot Stuffing, saving 50p with the pack coming in at £1.90 down from £2.40.

Not included in the offer, but arguably integral to a roast dinner are the loose parsnips, which have been price-matched with Aldi at £1.48 for 1kg, and roast potatoes available for £6. Altogether, everything I needed for a proper Easter spread should have cost £50.53, but my total bill with the Nectar card discount saw my total bill work out at £30.43.

Elsewhere, Cook is providing a Lamb Easter Dinner Box for 6, priced at £77.45, which equates to £12.90 per head. It includes a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with white wine and rosemary jus, dauphinoise potatoes, red cabbage and trio of greens.

Alternatively, Iceland has launched two roast dinner boxes designed to serve a family of four. There’s a lamb dinner option priced at £30, and a slightly more affordable chicken version at £25. Each box includes everything required for a complete roast, including gravy and trimmings.

Lamb isn’t everyone’s favourite for a roast, but there are equally impressive deals across other meats at Sainsbury’s too – all unlocked with a Nectar card. The Scottish salmon side is reduced 50% from £21.60 to £10.80 with Nectar, while the British pork crackling leg joint is cut by a third down to £5.78 (from £8.68). Unfortunately for beef fans, though, it appears the British or Irish 21 Day Matured Lean Beef Roasting Joint, which was under £10 from £22.32, looks to be sold out at the time of writing.

For me, the offer meant that what could have been a £50+ shop was a much more affordable £30, feeding a family of four for around £7.50 a head. Shoppers can pick up everything they need for their Easter Sunday roast on the Sainsbury’s website and unlock lower prices with Nectar.