With the purse strings for most families getting ever tighter, many of us have cut out the luxuries and are now looking for ways to save money on groceries.
7. Take Your Time
8. Stop Food Waste
14. Build Up Your Larder
OK, so that's my top tips for money saving at the supermarket and on food buying in general.
Here are our tips on how you can save money on all those supermarket essentials, every week.
1. Clearance Food
1. Clearance Food
Use sites like Approved Food which sell clearance food and drink from the supermarkets and their suppliers.
This is not just out of date products, which by the way are perfectly fine as long as it's not the 'use by' date that's been passed.
A lot of Approved Food's stock is simply in the wrong packaging, either because it's been redesigned, or it carries an out of date offer or promotion.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this food, and you will save a fortune!
2. Shop Different Cultures
2. Shop Different Cultures
Try to find your local ethnic stores and supermarkets, even the Polish or Indian section of your local big supermarket will yield some fantastic bargains.
If you shop around you can find great deals like huge bags of basmati rice for a few pounds in Chinese stores; pickled vegetables for less than a pound in the Polish and Eastern European shops; or big bags of herbs, spices, lentils and other dhal in Indian shops.
In our Sainsbury's last week, the chickpeas in the Indian section were 18p cheaper than their own brand ones.
3. Use Discount Stores
3. Use Discount Stores
Pound shops and 99p stores also have a great range of remaindered and cut price stock.
We usually pick up jars of sun dried tomatoes, fancy branded gift packs of chocolates and biscuits to stock the pressie cupboard, and tinned goods like soup and chopped tomatoes at 4 for £1!
It's another shop around one though, and you do have to go in regularly to pick up the latest bargains.
4. Book a Delivery
4. Book a Delivery
If you do want to stick with the supermarkets, try out their delivery services.
You can often get a big discount on your first online shop with the big four.
Look out for 'your first shop' vouchers from Tesco and Ocado particularly in magazines and with other junk mail.
5. Try Another Supermarket
5. Try Another Supermarket
Swap Sainsbury's delivery for Asda's, and you could save an average of £50 a week!
You can use a comparison site to compare your shop, but when I've tried this in the past I found it very laborious, so prefer to do my own thing.
You may fare better with it though!
6. Drop a Brand Level
6. Drop a Brand Level
You may not want to go down a brand level on everything at your chosen supermarket in one go.
But try popping a couple of items in your trolley each week just to try, you may be pleasantly surprised!
Remember, you don't have to go straight from premium to basic, there are usually different stages (and price brands) in between.
We recently discovered that a supermarket own brand pasta was preferable to a premium one.
If you have older children, you could have fun doing your own taste tests, with scoring and everything.
I used to do this with Years 4-6 as a teacher and it went down a storm
7. Take Your Time
Allow yourself plenty of time to do the supermarket shopping.
Go for a good look round your local supermarkets, including the usuals, plus Lidl, Iceland and Aldi.
Would it be worth shopping at three places rather than just your usual one?
Of course this will be dependent on distance, parking etc.
But places like Lidl are fantastic for cartons of juice and tinned goods, so a stock up trip (if you have the space to store it) every couple of months is well worth it.
8. Stop Food Waste
Alternatively, if you are used to doing big weekly shops and then throwing half of it away, think about only buying what you need.
Could you stock up on the basics at the supermarket, then shop at a local greengrocer or market for fruit and vegetables as and when you need them and will definitely use them?
Following on from that, make sure you always freeze leftovers quickly, or use them for lunch the next day.
Don't leave odd bowls festering at the back of the fridge!
If you're not sure what you can freeze and how to do it, check out our guide to how to freeze fresh food.
10. Shop the Reduced Section
10. Shop the Reduced Section
Go to the supermarket at 7-8pm on a weekday, 6-7pm on a Saturday, and 3pm on a Sunday.
These are the usual markdown times and you may well find some great bargains in the fresh food, fruit and veg, and bakery sections.
I took my mum out for this one on Sunday and she got enough bread for a month for less than a pound!
Make sure you have some freezer space first though!
11. Avoid the Tricks
11. Avoid the Tricks
Don't buy anything at eye level, or rather make sure you look at the bottom two shelves and the top shelf first.
This is where the low profit items get shoved because the supermarket psychologists advise putting the best selling, high profit items at eye level.
And never buy from the end of an aisle, without price checking first.
The brands pay big money to be featured on an aisle end and what looks like a bargain often isn't.
See point no.12 below!
12. When is a Bargain NOT a Bargain?
12. When is a Bargain NOT a Bargain?
Look out for the red and yellow special offer labels, but make sure they ARE bargains first.
What was the before price? What's the single unit price?
What's the per kilo proce in comparison with other brands?
How much will you actually be saving?
What's the expiry date, and will you actually use this product in time?
13. Stockpile
13. Stockpile
If you can afford it, and the product is a genine bargain, stock up!
Buy loads of on offer loo roll or washing up liquid, as long as you have room to store it.
14. Build Up Your Larder
In the same vein, build up a larder stock.
You can do this either from supermarket offers (tortilla wraps are always a good one because they are often on offer and have a long shelf life), or by making a special trip to an ethnic supermarket (lentils, rice, spices).
You could even try a discount warehouse if you can get a card.
Lidl and Aldi are also good for this if you can stock up when you see a bargain.
15. Buy Loose
15. Buy Loose
If you buy supermarket fruit and veg, take some bags and buy loose product as this is usually the cheaper per kilo price.
But do check because sometimes the bagged knobbly value versions may be even cheaper still.
16. Ignore the Plan
16. Ignore the Plan
Don't follow the supermarket's plan when you shop.
Those pesky psychologists again - they're paid a fortune to relieve you of one!
Make your own way round and only go down the aisles you actually need to if you want to stick to your list!
17. Make List
17. Make List
Unless you are intending to do a stock building shop by just hunting out bargains, take a list.
And stick to it.
Plus make sure you never go shopping when you are hungry.
18. Coupon Shopping
18. Coupon Shopping
Seek out coupons.
Online is the place to go, especially Facebook, but you can still find lots of print coupons in magazines and newspapers.
Always pick up any promotional magazines and leaflets in supermarkets too, they may not have content to interest you, but they will have vouchers which may be of use to you.
Also, make sure you are signed up to all the loyalty schemes as they regularly send out coupons.
But even with your voucher, a non-brand may be cheaper, so do check before you sling it in your trolley.
19. Be Loyal-Ish
19. Be Loyal-Ish
Use your loyalty cards as much as possible, but NEVER shop somewhere just because you'll get points.
Loyalty is great with people, but not with big business!
Don't rely on the supermarkets' fake 'we're helping you' stance either.
Those 'your shop was x cheaper today' things are very misleading.
If they wanted to make shopping cheaper for you, they'd reduce their prices and profits.
Those coupons are just another attempt to buy your loyalty, so don't buy it!
20. Check Your Receipt
20. Check Your Receipt
Tesco is notorious in our area for not updating all of its offers regularly.
But with the best will in the world, some offers may slip through the net at any big shop.
Before you leave the store, check the offers you thought you had have been taken off your receipt, and if they haven't, head to customer services with a smile ready.
21. Menu Plan
21. Menu Plan
Get into the habit of menu planning.
Use your built up stock cupboard as well as what you buy week to week, but make sure you keep an eye out for future stock cupboard and freezer fillers too.
And be ready to adapt your plan if some delicious fresh food bargain presents itself.
If you are running out of money at the end of the month, there are websites you can use where you type in what you have and it suggests a dish.
Stir fries, curries and casseroles are all great ways to use up leftover bits before you go shopping again too.
And there's not much you can't bung in a pasta sauce!
22. Grow Your Own
Even a window box for herbs, or some tomatoes and peppers on a balcony will save you some money.
If you have a garden, all the better.
Plus it's great exercise and a fun hobby.
OK, so that's my top tips for money saving at the supermarket and on food buying in general.
I know it's a lot to take in, but once you start it will soon become second nature, and no, you won't become a food bore, or someone who can't walk round Waitrose without your smartphone in one hand and a stressed look on your face!
Good luck, and enjoying money saving.
Now you just have to decide what to do with all the pennies you save...
And don't forget to enter our competitions!
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