Saving Money on Grocery Shopping

Rising food prices have only increased the benefits of saving money on our grocery shopping. In the past few months, shoppers have been deserting ‘up market’ grocery retailers like Marks and Spencers, but demand at ‘cheap’ budget end supermarkets has been booming.

As well as choosing the cheapest shops and supermarkets, these are some more tips to save money on grocery shopping.

Buy in Bulk.

There are often significant discounts for buying in bulk. Buying multipacks is much cheaper than buying single. If the items are non perishable, store items in a garage or spare cupboards. This will also reduce the number of times you have to travel to the supermarket, saving on petrol costs. Try work out the average price per item / price per gram before deciding what to  buy.

Don’t Buy Items You Don’t need and can’t eat.

Supermarkets are always trying to get us to buy a higher quantity. Special offers like 4 for the price of 3 are enticing, but, unless you are able to eat 4 melons in a week, it is not worth buying. It is fine if the items are non perishable, but often we end up buying too much fresh food making the special offers an illusory way to save money.

Buy Own Brands

An easy way to save money is to buy supermarket branded food, rather than the more expensive branded items. The difference in quality is much less that the advertisers would like us to believe. For example, Tesco value baked beans are half the price of Heinz beans. But, it is actually Heinz who make Tesco value beans. They just add a little less sugar and more tomato juice! For most items, you would struggle to tell the difference between branded and non branded items. Therefore, this is an easy and effective way to save money.

Look at Best Before Date

Alot of food is wasted because it goes off before we have time to eat it. I always check the best before date for perishable items. If you take items from the back of the shelf, you will usually find items with a longer expiry date, giving you more chance to eat it and less chance to waste it.

On the other hand some food items may be on special offer because the expiry date is soon. As long as you are eating it soon, it can be another way to save money.

Grow Your Own

If you really want to save some money on your grocery shopping, you could try growing your own fruit and veg. If you have time, the food will be for free and much tastier

Buy Seasonal

Fruit and veg is highly seasonal. Buying the current seasonal vegetables will be cheaper than buying a vegetable / fruit throughout the year.

Take Advantage of Special Offers

All supermarkets have a certain % of food items on special offers. If you buy online, you can usually see this as a single list. If items are discounted give it a try and take advantage of price cut.

Cook For Yourself.

Supermarkets have been cashing in on the demand for convenience food. Pre baked cakes and ready prepared meals. This can be an expensive way of eating. Buying ingredients separately will be much cheaper. Also watch out for prepepared sources, these can often by upto £2 ($4). Just learn the odd sauce recipe and save a lot of money.

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