EVERYONE knows one of the best ways to save on your weekly shop is to opt for supermarket own-brands.
But there is one regular household product we all buy and for which we often pay top dollar – kitchen roll.
There is always the fear cheaper versions won’t match up to the quality of the big brands and nation’s favourites – Regina, which boasts you only need one sheet, and Plenty.
Hayley Minn tests supermarket versions to see how they fare mopping up a water spill, and gives marks out of five.
She found two that, at nearly half the price of the pricey big brands, are just as tough . . .
£2.90 for 200 sheets
I THOUGHT this may do well on the spillage as it was one of the most expensive of the own-brands I tried.
Nothing of the sort — it became very soggy almost immediately after I dabbed it on the water and didn’t seem to actually mop up much of what I had spilled.
I would definitely need more than one of these sheets to do the job of getting things clean and tidy.
Score: 2/5
£5 for 200 sheets, Sainsbury’s
KNOWN as the nation’s favourite kitchen roll, this brand prides itself on customers only needing one sheet.
But as it is one of the most expensive rolls on the market, I had to put this to the test.
Straight away, the paper did feel a lot thicker and tougher than the others — and it was also very good at soaking up the water.
And yes, it’s true, you do need just the one sheet of this Plenty.
Score: 4/5
£2.55 for 200 sheets, Lidl
DESPITE being one of the cheapest, I found this kitchen roll was one of the best.
It was extremely good at soaking up all the water on my kitchen countertop and felt very tough and intact, even after the fourth time I put it on the spillage.
It felt just as thick as Plenty, and I only needed the one sheet of it.
This was one of my top rolls, for sure.
Score: 5/5
£2.55 for 200 sheets
AS soon as I got a feel of a towel it was obvious how much thinner these sheets were in comparison to some of the others.
And sadly it wasn’t great at mopping up the water.
It felt like it was getting quite flimsy and thin very quickly.
But I found it managed to stay intact, even after doing four passes in the water.
Score: 2/5
£2.65 for 200 sheets
WHEN I took it out of the packaging, this kitchen roll felt like it was good quality, and it continued to feel quite solid after it had been in the water three times.
But it wasn’t as great as some of the others.
It felt like it was nearing its end after the fourth go, so I would have needed another sheet had I kept cleaning.
Score: 3/5
£4.75 for 140 sheets, Sainsbury’s
I HAD high hopes for this as one of the big brands in kitchen roll — and it lived up to the hype and my expectations.
The big sheets felt very strong and there was absolutely no sign of ripping, no matter how many times I dabbed up the spilled waster.
But there are some other own-brands that are just as good and come in at about half the price of Regina.
Score: 4/5
£1.99 for 100 sheets, Aldi
I NOTICED how similar this budget version looks to Regina Blitz, so I was very interested to see whether it could deliver the same quality at half the price. And it definitely did.
Although it seems more expensive than the other own-brand towels, with only 100 sheets, these sheets are almost double the size.
It held up well when I put one to the water test and it soaked up everything.
There was no need for another piece.
Score: 5/5
£2.50 for 200 sheets (or £2 with Nectar card)
THE first thing I noticed about these kitchen towels was that they felt quite thin in comparison to some of the others.
For this reason they did become flimsy quite quickly once put it in water.
But credit where it is due, I did manage to use one sheet five times, and it still remained intact — and so a top effort.
Score: 3/5
£2.75 for 200 sheets
UPON first touch, the towels felt like they were the good quality you would expect from the higher-end supermarket.
But on actually mopping up the water, I found this wasn’t the case at all.
As soon as I put the sheet in the water it soaked right through, becoming flimsy.
It then ripped on the second dab — and was the only one to break. A let-down, sadly.
Score: 1/5
