Supermarket saving tips
The credit is crunching. The cost of living is soaring. Recession is looming. Right across the UK, the sound of belts tightening can be heard.
You’d love to know some easy ways to save yourself a few quid, wouldn’t you? Well, here’s how being careful about your food shopping and eating habits can save you time and money, while being kinder to the environment at the same time!
Supermarket shopping. Make a list before you go. Read through your list – do I really need this, or am I just in the habit of buying it? Stick as rigidly as possible to your shopping list.
Two For One offers. Always question why something is two for one. Is it going to reach its sell by date soon, for example? And do you really need two?
Buy one, get one half price. This can be false economy. It sounds great, but by getting the second one you are instantly spending more than you intended to, and of course you may not need two.
Own or Economy brands do not necessarily mean that the quality will be rubbish! In fact, sometimes it can even be the same product, just with simpler packaging. Try some of the cheaper items on the shelves, rather than always going for the recognised premium brands. If you decide you don’t like it then fair enough, switch back, but you might surprise yourself.
Shop more often. If you shop once a week, perishables stand more of a chance of going off before you’ve used them. If you buy smaller amounts of perishables regularly, you increase the chance that you won’t throw food away.
Bulk buy things like pasta, rice and lentils. If you buy your pasta, for example, in the biggest bag available, you are cutting down on packaging in the long run, and you will save some money.
Meal plan. Working our your evening meals for a whole week ahead saves you time, money and waste, because it helps you write accurate shopping lists.
Cook! It sounds simple, but avoiding ready prepared meals will save you a whole heap of money. Also, improving your cooking means that you will quickly learn what to do with all those bits and pieces left over in your fridge, thus making your food budget stretch even further.
Cook and freeze. When planning your weekly meals, aim to make more portions that you actually need, and freeze the surplus for an easy meal when you are short of time or don’t feel like cooking. Freezers aren’t just for chips and ice cream! It also means that once every couple of months you can have an ‘eating up the freezer’ week. You’ll hardly spend a penny on food!
Buy whole chickens. Learning to joint a chicken will save you money. It is far more expensive to buy chicken pieces from the supermarket. Also, with the leftover carcass you can make delicious chicken stock for soups and sauces.
Grow! Herbs, salad leaves, fruit, vegetables, so much can be grown yourself, even in pots if you don’t have a garden.
Buy whole fruit and vegetables, not chopped/segmented/prepared packets, which are always more expensive and wasteful.
Sometimes, a sell by date isn’t ‘gospel’. Use your common sense. In a lot of cases you can see or smell if something is still edible or not. With the exception of raw meat, don’t chuck something in the bin just because a date on a label is telling you to.
See if you can buy produce that’s local and seasonal. Do your bit for the planet, and also support local producers through farm shops and farmers markets. Often their prices can be favourably competitive, too.
Written by Laurence Shone. Posted on 9th July.
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