Food shopping lifehacks?

Tesco and Sainsburys price match - if your basket costs more than it would have elsewhere they give you a voucher for the difference.
Fruit and veg in season will be cheaper - go for that. Most of teh big supermarkets aheva 3 for £10 offer on packs of meat - I often choose those and then base a weekly menu plan around it.

One good tip is to look at the price per kg/lb rather than just the cost of the pack on its own. It can often be cheaper to buy 2 smaller priced products rather than 1 jumbo pack.

Also, sign up for all the loyalty cards and collect points as you shop. You often get discount vouchers and offers in the post and they can add up.

And if you have a number of different supermarkets nearby, visit all of them and you'll start to get a feel for who sells what more cheaply. I find that fresh meat, sliced meats and cheeses are cheaper at Lidl and Aldi, but Tesco have the cheapest gammon. These are just examples and it obviously depends on what you like to eat and how much time you have, but I've found I'm saving a lot of money shopping this way instead of buying everything at Tesco.

Abstraktimus wrote: »

TheTiagooo wrote: »

Where do you shop?

It's all about finding the best the shop has to offer - and unless you shop in a really high end place, you'll find good deals. General rule of thumb is to rarely spend more than £2 on a one-use item (such as a ready meal). Look for good deals on fruit/veg, and check the price per kilo for reference. Bananas and satsumas are cheap right now, but I shop at Tesco.

I live in Liverpool so alternating where I shop isn't a problem.

Lovely place, went there this summer.

If you're looking for cheap food, that shouldn't be difficult as similar foods tend to be shelved next to each other. If you're looking for healthy food on top of that, it might take more time to see all the options, and you will probably have to learn to cook if you don't already.

Tesco in the evening time have lots of short dated products like bread and meat for a fraction of the cost. Buy what you like and freeze them. They also have the points reward scheme and just last week my shop came to 100 but I had vouchers from the reward scheme so it came in at 46 euro (I'm in Ireland).

Lidl and Aldi are great for fruit and veg and they run weekly specials on 3 or 4 different fruits / veg.

Tomato pasatta is a great buy in Tesco (60c) and can be used as a base for lots of sauces.

Dried beans, lentils, peas are much cheaper than canned.

I also buy store brand rice and pasta - much cheaper and same quality as Uncle B's.

Investing in a few jars of dried herbs and spices saves on packets of sauces and also is much healthier (you decide how much salt etc)

I always look out for specials on dishwasher tabs and washing powder and usually get mine for half price by only buying when on offer.

Skipping the crisp / chocolate / cakes section saves me a fortune!

About 4 times a year (seriously) I get a meat delivery from westingourmet.co.uk (they are the same people as musclemeat.co.uk, just not marketed towards bros) because they do these various mixed boxes and usually have offers on, I can fill up the freezer for about £50
Anything we go through alot of (lentils, beans, dry soy mince, couscous) I get delivered in bulk from realfood.co.uk
Fruit and veg and most other groceries come from lidl, because I find their fresh produce much better quality than asda/tesco/sainsbury's for the same price or cheaper.
Curry powder (and some other spices), soy sauce, hot sauce and things that we go through a lot of but that's harder to find in bigger amounts I get from 'cheapo' shops or ethnic food shops.


ETA: I'm not a shut in, I just don't drive

Oh yeah, and hit up Polish or Asian food shops for some stuff, they're surprisingly cheap.

also if you have a local greengrocer near by get you're veg from there, we get a weeks worth of lovely veg for about £5, we could probably get a 4 pack of potatoes and a bag of carrots for that in tesco

Broccoli head at iceland - over a pound
Broccoli head at tesco - 49p
you are welcome
Tesco is just boss

Not buying packaged or heavily advertised foods saves you a TON of money (crisps, cookies, TV dinners, etc).
Ethnic grocers have much cheaper prices on bulk items like beans and rice.
I eat fresh, seasonal and local fruit and vegetables from farmers markets whenever I can.
Avoid wasting food--if something looks like it will be going bad in the fridge, I cook it for later. Planning meals and cooking ahead is generally a money-saving practice because you won't give in to convenience foods, restaurants, take-out, etc. Cooking is almost always cheaper and better for you than restaurant food so if buying pre-chopped veggies and meats will help you to find time to cook, go for it.

Sometimes spending less money can be false economy because you will get lower quality. IMO, good protein, meat, fish, cheese, eggs, milk are worth paying more for because they will be much tastier and better for the environment.

I'll add the following to a long list of excellent tips above

- Buy fresh vegs and dry goods in ethnic shops. Sushi rice, nori etc are often half price. No reason to buy Blue Dragon rice vinegar when the same ingredient can be bought for 1/3 of that price somewhere else. 190g of pickled ginger in supermarket costs almost the same as 1kg (better tasting option) in asian market. Certain items like spring onion or lemon grass are half price. Lots of exotic spices and ingredients. I don't understand half of what the nametags are

- If your local supermarket has a choice between the clean looking vegs in a tray or loose weight, the loose weight vegs are usually cheaper. Anything that has been washed and packaged usually cost more.

- Avoid 2 for 3 deals if it's produce that go out of date fast. Foolishly I always think that I will eat 2 kg of chicken thighs, but I never do. Often I end up freezing the rest. I use a paint tape roll to easily tag details of what I froze.

- Try to plan your meals in such a way that when you buy ingredients that isn't used up in the first meal, it'll be spent in the next few days on other dishes.

- Try new things occasionally. Sometimes we can get very stuck on certain (expensive) food items or brands. I try different subs regularly or brand new things to me. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised of the cheaper sub and sometimes it clearly isn't going to work.

- Make your own. Buying food items that you can make yourself is not only cheaper, you have full control over ingredients. F.ex. store bought vinaigrette salad dressing vs. homemade. Store bought often have sugars and additives.

- Find a system that works for you. I think if you can be so organized to grocery shop once a week, you'll save more money. I'm more impulsive, so I buy stuff 2-3x a week.

- Don't go shopping hungry. Those fresh baked bread and roasted chicken smells wafting around is there to entice you to shop more than you intended.

- Make a budget. Or partition your food money onto a separate VISA account.

- Lower the temperature in fridge as low as you can without leafy greens freezing. I have mine at 5 degrees celsius. The electricity bill goes up a bit, but the foods keep fresh longer. ....and they cost more than electricity.