How To Spend Less Money On Your Weekly Shop

I recently read an article on The Independent website about living off £1 a day, which I thought was a stupid idea. Firstly because no one is that poor in this country that they will only have £1 a day to live off (state benefits are about £10 a day) and secondly because it’s such an extreme notion that all it does is prove a persons bloody mindedness rather than serve as a useful, practical tip for those wishing to improve their frugality.

If all you had to spend was £1 a day, you wouldn’t have enough money to buy healthy food, so what’s the point? You’d eventually become ill from self induced mal-nutrition – hardly something to aspire to is it?

Why not set a more realistic challenge, perhaps work out how much you usually spend on your weekly bills and see if you can shave 25% off, and do it consistently. You could even open a separate high interest savings account and put the savings that you make each week into that so you can see the effects of your frugality each month.

Here are some easy ways of spending less money on your weekly shop:

Avoid brand name goods – shower gel, washing up liquid, cereal, toothpaste, tuna fish, bread, in fact almost everything in most supermarkets will have one or more “brand name” options and at least one “own brand” option, which will nearly always be cheaper. Here’s a badly kept secret – most of the own brand goods are actually made by the brand name companies!
Check prices across different supermarkets – there is a website www.mysupermarket.co.uk that allows you to see the different prices for goods across the big supermarkets, you can even fill up your trolley and see which of your local supermarkets would be the cheapest place to shop. Here’s a tip: you may have to go to one supermarket for most of your shop and another one for a few other items that are noticeably cheaper – however, if you do this, factor in the extra cost of your petrol making two trips!
Check out the discount shelves – these are the shelves that have stock that is nearing the end of it’s “sell by date” and so must be either sold off or thrown out if it’s past it’s sell by date. As long as you are prepared to prepare your weekly meals around what is on offer, this strategy can help you spend significantly less.
Loyalty cards – all the major supermarkets have them, use them and get money off your shopping bill, or coupons in some supermarkets. Some people may get annoyed with you for “being cheap”, but if you can shave a few £££s off your food bill doing this it’s practically effortless.
Shop after you’ve had dinner – studies have shown that when you go supermarket shopping straight after work and before dinner, you are more likely to spend more money on food than if you went after dinner. Why? Because you are hungry and so you end up buying food items that take your fancy rather than sticking to what you need or is on your shopping list. I don’t know if scientific studies have shown this, but it certainly works for me!