How BasketBadger works

BasketBadger answers one question properly: where should I buy this whole list? Not "where is milk cheapest" — the whole shop, in one go, at one store, for one honest total. Here's the journey, step by step.

1. One running list

You keep a single, always-open list — the things your household needs this week. Add items by typing, scanning a barcode, or picking from your usuals. There are no accounts and no forms: the list lives on your phone, and the whole list is what gets compared. Family members can share the same list with a simple household code, so whoever's at the store sees the same list.

2. The one-shop verdict

Tap Compare and BasketBadger prices every item on your list at each supermarket we cover near you. Then it does the maths most price comparisons skip:

Promotions, simulated properly. Meal deals, buy-one-get-one-free, multibuys, "buy X get Y cheapest free", spend-and-save thresholds — the engine works out the cheapest legitimate way each store's offers apply to your actual basket, not a fantasy basket.
Loyalty prices, counted fairly. If a store has a members' price (Clubcard, Nectar and the like), we show the total with it — and make clear that's the price it is, so you can judge whether the card is worth carrying.
Missing items count against a store. If a store doesn't stock something on your list, that gap is named and penalised in its total. A store can't win by being cheap on the ten things it has and silent on the five it hasn't.
Fees are in the total. Delivery charges and click & collect fees are added before the verdict, because a £3 saving that costs £4.50 in delivery fees is not a saving.

The verdict names one store and one total. Splitting your shop across two stores is only ever suggested as a footnote, and only when the saving is big enough to be worth the extra trip.

3. Every price explained

Transparency is the product. Every line of the verdict can be tapped open to show, in plain language, why that item costs what it costs at that store: the shelf price, the deal that applied, the loyalty price used, or the fact that the item wasn't stocked and what that did to the total. If a store didn't answer our price check, we say so — we never pretend we searched everywhere.

4. The missed-offer nudge

Supermarket promotions have tripwires: a meal deal that needs a third item, a multibuy one short of triggering, a spend threshold £1.20 away. When adding one item your household would plausibly use anyway tips a deal over the line and lowers the total — or makes a different store the winner — BasketBadger points it out, with the net maths shown. Adding a £1 item that saves £3 is a nudge we'll make. Adding things you don't want is a trick we won't.

5. Your usuals

BasketBadger remembers what you actually buy at the level that matters: the exact variant — brand, type, flavour, pack size — keyed by barcode where possible. That powers a pre-filled "your usuals" list, reminders when you're likely running low (always labelled as estimates), and alerts when a usual drops in price. We never silently substitute a different product and call it the same thing, because a cheaper wrong item is not a saving.

What it costs you

Free — no paywall, no subscription. We earn when you save, through the stores — not from you.

When you shop through the app, a store may pay us a commission out of its own pocket. It never adds a penny to your total and it never changes which store wins — that's a promise, and you can read it in writing on Our Promises and our affiliate disclosure.

BasketBadger is in a closed test on Google Play right now — there is no public download yet, and this website does not host an app download. The public release follows when the app reaches a stable phase.