Iceland offers essential groceries for 1p this week

Iceland has reduced over 420 essential items to just 1p until the end of this Friday - however, shoppers will be limited to three items to make savings on.

Online shoppers can get three items for a total of 3p if they use the code ‘ICEPENNY’ at the checkout. 

Eligible products in the ‘Penny Staples’ range include milk, bread and butter, along with a host of fruits, vegetables and snacks.

This comes as consumers are being hit by rising food prices amid the cost-of-living crisis. 

Here, Which? explains how the promotion works and other ways to save on your weekly shop. 

How to get Iceland essentials for 1p

You can find the range of eligible products on Iceland's deals webpage. Most of the items on offer usually cost around £1 and there’s a mixture of own-label goods and products from brands like Pot Noodle and Warburtons. 

The promotion is online-only and it runs until Friday 24 June, so you need to place your order this week to benefit. To activate the deal, add three eligible items to your basket and enter the promo code ‘ICEPENNY’ at checkout before you pay. 

You can only use the discount on three items, even if you add more from the range to your basket. When we placed an order for 25 eligible products and entered the code, the discount was only applied to three of them, leaving the rest at full price. We were able to save £3.22 in total on two items reduced from £1 and one reduced from £1.25.

Iceland’s online orders have a minimum spend of £25, so you’ll have to use the deal as part of a bigger shop. Delivery is another £3, or free if you spend over £40.

Should you shop at Iceland?

When we surveyed over 3,000 shoppers last year, Iceland was rated the best supermarket for online shopping, with customers praising the app and website, as well as the ease of finding slots. 

Iceland was also the supermarket least likely to send substitutions: only 18% of shoppers we surveyed had received a substitution in their latest order, less than half the average of 39% across all supermarkets.

The frozen food specialist fared poorly in our supermarket sustainability investigation, though, generating more emissions than its competitors.

• Find out more: Iceland supermarket review

How are food prices affecting inflation?

Rising grocery prices have helped push inflation to a 40-year high. When we analysed 21,000 grocery products across two years, we found prices had risen by 3.14% on average. But certain items had seen much bigger increases. 

Some 265 products – including Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes (500g) at Tesco and own-brand mushrooms at Asda – had seen more than 20% inflation. 

Our full investigation into the truth about food inflation has more detail, along with a comparison of average inflation by supermarket. 

How to save on grocery shopping

Iceland’s 1p deals might help you out for one week, but inflation isn’t going anywhere. So how else can you keep your grocery costs down?

1) Choose the cheapest supermarket

Simply shopping at a different superstore could have a big impact on your grocery bill. Each month we compare a basket of 18 popular items across eight major supermarkets. Lidl has been the cheapest for six months. In May it was a huge £8.30 cheaper than its most expensive rival. 

• Find out more: what was the cheapest supermarket in May 2022?

2) Avoid convenience supermarket stores

The ease of popping to your high street supermarket branch could come at a price. We’ve found that you could end up spending 9.5% more a year if you shop at Sainsbury’s Local instead of a Sainsbury’s superstore.

3) Buy in bulk

If you can, try shopping at a wholesaler for lower prices on larger quantities. You could also buy bigger portions of non-perishable goods from the supermarket if you know you’ll use them eventually. Pay close attention to the ‘price per kg’ part of the label to make sure you’re getting a better deal. 

• Ease the squeeze: how to save money on food shopping