LAURA Sparks knows what she likes and what she doesn't when it comes to her food.

"It's all about taste,'' she says.

"If the more expensive brands taste better, I will pay the extra for them."

The Morriston teacher and mum-of- two is not alone. But these days, it seems, she might be becoming more of an exception to the rule.

The Post's monthly Cost of Living survey shows shoppers are now increasingly switching to cheaper "own brand" labels to offset big price increases in many everyday items.

Where once many would have avoided them, they are now becoming part and parcel of our weekly shop.

The Post survey sourced by online price comparison site MySupermarket. co.uk shows that food prices are soaring again after a couple of months of relatively small increases.

A family spending £100 a week on food this time last year now has to find an extra £1,006 a year to put the same food on the table.

The big risers include cucumber, up from 34p to 64p; Basmati rice, up from £1.25 to £1.69p fresh chicken, up from £3.54 to £4.48, an iceberg lettuce, up from 75p to £1.09, and value baked beans, up 10p to 41p.

Lynn Thomas, of Swansea Road, Waunarlwydd, said for her it is all about the hit on her weekly budget.

The city centre insurance worker added: "Where once I might have walked straight past the value lines, these days more and more of them are going into my trolley.

"I can't get over how things have shot up in price. Even since Christmas I have really noticed how things such as sliced bread and fruit and veg have rocketed.

"At the moment, I am still trying things out for the first time. But already we do have a few favourites which are going into my basket. I just wouldn't be able to afford things any other way."

She says she tends to stick with cheaper versions of big-name staples and reckons it saves her as much as £15 a week at the tills.

"I will pay more for better quality when I can," she says.

"But when it comes to it, I am no different from anyone else.

"The price of everything seems to be going up and I can't afford to be proud.

"If I know a supermarket own-brand is okay, I am happy to go with it."

Consumer group Which? has just found the recipes of standard and premium dishes are sometimes very similar.

It also found some standard meals were actually cheaper weight-for- weight than the low-budget versions.

The ingredients in Tesco's Finest and standard macaroni cheese meals were very much alike.

Key differences were that the Finest meal used ciabatta crumbs on top and Taw Valley cheddar.

Prices for supermarket premium meals were, on average, 20p more expensive per 100g than for the standard versions, Which? researchers found.

"Sometimes, premium and standard meals are more similar than you'd think," the consumer group's magazine says.

Virtually all budget meals were smaller than the standard or premium versions of the same dish. This meant their weight-for-weight prices were sometimes close.

Tesco's standard cottage pie was actually 1p cheaper per 100g than its Value pie, and Asda's standard lasagne was 4p cheaper per 100g than its Smart Price lasagne.

The Which? report was based on a survey of the labels of 54 ready meals from Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco that compared the ingredients and nutritional content.

Jonny Steel, of MySupermarket, said consumers were, yet again, seeing considerable increases on the price of their everyday food items.