Ianthe Butt: My 'below-cost' booze odyssey

Tesco, Blackfriars

The cheapest wine on offer was a £3.63 Italian Merlot, a good £1.60 more than the minimum price of £2.03. FAIL​

Costco, Waterloo

Single cans of Fosters and Grolsch weighed in at £1.09, nearly three times as much as the 38p a can minimum price. FAIL​

Lidl, Clapham Junction

The number of bright signs highlighting cheap booze in LIDL made my eyes hurt, but I was confident I would succeed. Liebfraumilch wine was £2.78 and Pils lager was stacked high and selling for 75p a can. Vodka was retailing for just £7.99 for 70cl, but this still works out at £11.41 a litre. FAIL​

ASDA, Clapham Junction

ASDA teased me with a bottle of Three Mills wine at just £2, but at only 8 per cent ABV it still works out as higher than the recommended cost per unit. FAIL​

Morrisons, Woking

Basket still empty, and scared to return to The Publican​ Towers empty handed, I splashed out on a four-pack of Morrisons' 2 per cent Value lager at 99p (Asda also do a 2.1 per cent lager at 94p for four).

Surely a can of lager at 25p, albeit with a low ABV would count? After much head scratching, it transpired even these pocket-money lagers were above the duty+VAT rates. More shockingly, supermarkets could push that price down to 72p if they wanted to! FAIL​

Searches elsewhere, including Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Oddbins and various corner stores also proved fruitless.