TWO mates have found a way around the cost of living crisis — by flying to Poland for their weekly Lidl food shop.
Josh Pieters and Archie Manners saved nearly £70 on a trolleyful of everyday goods.
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And even after coughing up for their budget flights and accommodation, they spent £11 less than they would have done at the supermarket chain in Britain.
Josh and Archie, both 30, filmed the stunt for their YouTube channel, which has 1.5million subscribers.
The pair bought 135 items used by officials to calculate food inflation — including bread, peanut butter and frozen chicken nuggets.
At a Lidl store in Britain, their shop cost £164.47
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But Josh and Archie spent just £96.75 on the same goods at a store in Poznan — a saving of £67.72.
They also spent a total of £47 on Ryanair flights — including luggage allowance — and £8.55 on a bedsit.
It meant the trip saved the pair £11.14 compared to their original shop here.
South African Josh, who lives in London, told The Sun: “We were seeing how expensive everything has become in the UK.
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“I went out the other day for a coffee and paid £4 for a flat white, which just seemed jaw-dropping to me.
“Archie had the idea of taking that crisis we are in and seeing how expensive everything is, combining the fact that in this weird world we live in, you can fly across Europe very cheap.
“It was just an experiment which turned out to be true by a factor of £11.
“Actually, the hardest part of it was making sure we got exactly the same products. Amazingly all but two made it back, including the eggs. Obviously we aren’t solving the cost of living crisis but we thought it was an excellent way to highlight how ludicrous things have gotten in an entertaining way.”
Former Tory party activist Archie, who is also a magician, added: “It’s obviously nuts and nobody would do it, but it’s proving the point.
“Things like olive oil over here are more expensive than petrol so I’m still using the bottle we brought back.”
The latest ONS food inflation data released last month — calculated using the same items Josh and Archie bought — showed that prices had risen 12.2 per cent in the year to September, down from a record high of 19 per cent in March.
