14 Ways To Save Money On The Weekly Shop
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With food prices continuing to rise, you may well be looking for ways to save money on the weekly shop. Here I’ve put together 14 of my best tips for saving on your weekly (or monthly!) groceries shopping.
How To To Save Money On The Weekly Shop
We estimate that over the course of 2016 we saved around £1500 on what we were previously spending. If you are thinking of trying to cut back on your grocery bills try my top tips.
1. Set A Realistic Budget
Setting a realistic groceries budget is essential if you want to save money on the weekly shop.
While it can be tempting to cut your grocery budget in half right from the outset, this can also lead to failure. Setting an unrealistic goal means that you’re less likely to stick to it.
If you want to save money on the weekly shop, use receipts to figure out how much you’d usually spend and then try to reduce that by £10. Once you’ve nailed that, try reducing it further again.
Feeling that you’re being successful in your goals will mean you’ll be more likely to succeed. It also takes time to build better shopping habits and learn new ways of saving money on groceries, lots of which will be covered in this post.
Some things to try before setting a new grocery budget:
- Make a list of everything you have in your fridge, freezer and cupboards and see how many meals you can make.
- Using a website such as Trolley.co.uk to compare the cost of your usual groceries to other supermarkets.
- Remember to set a little extra aside for any emergency top-up shops. Even the most organised among us occasionally run out of bread and milk!
- Budget for a few treats – treats are absolutely fine as long as they fall within your budget.
2. Buy Yellow Sticker Food
I love buying yellow sticker food and I find it’s one the best ways to save money on the weekly shop. End-of-day reductions can be as much as 90% which can be hugely beneficial when stocking up the fridge or freezer on a tight budget.
What Are The Best Times For Yellow Stickers?
Early evening is usually the best time for yellow stickers but they can be found at all times of day and also from around 3 pm on a Sunday.
See this post What Are The Best Times For Yellow Stickers? for a more detailed breakdown of reduction times in each supermarket.
Does Yellow Sticker Food Go Off Quicker?
Does buying yellow sticker food mean it will go off more quickly?
Yes, technically it does. However, there is plenty you can do to stop this from happening, such as cooking or freezing on the day of purchase.
It’s also good to know the difference between used by dates and best before dates. Some supermarkets have announced just this week that they are scrapping best before dates on both fruit, veg and bread.
3. Look Out Food Deleted Lines
As well as buying yellow stickers/reduced items in the fresh and ready-to-eat departments, look out for deleted lines too.
My local co-op recently had a HUGE clear out and I got loads of store cupboards essentials for next to nothing.
This included 1-litre bottles of Napolina olive oil for £1.50 and foxes biscuits for reduced to 13p. I bought extra to donate to my local food bank as they were cheap but still had a really long date on them.
Typically these items can be found towards the back of the store on their own shelf, but you may find the mixed in with the usual non-perishables too.
The best thing about deleted lines is often they still have quite a long shelf life and are reduced because of a packaging change or because the supermarket will no longer be stocking them.
4. Saving Money On The Weekly Shop – Preparation Is Key
Preparation is key when it comes to reducing your spending on groceries. Here are a few things I always do before heading out to do the weekly shop
- Check the cupboards and freezer to see what we have that needs to be used up. This helps to prevent food waste.
- Make a meal plan. This means I know exactly what I need to buy for each meal I’m making that week and I’m not trying to think whether or not we need curry sauce in the middle of Tesco.
- Take a look at the Lidl app to see what’s on offer this week – can I make a meal with it?
- As you meal plan, make a list of the items you do need and any other essentials such as bread and milk.
- Check for coupons before shopping. We mostly shop at Lidl and they have weekly offers that can be activated via the Lidl plus app.
How I Write My Weekly Shopping List
5. Love your Leftovers
Did you know that around one-third of the food produced in the entire world ends up getting wasted?
Cutting down on food waste is not only good for the environment but good for your groceries budget too.
Leftovers can be used in loads of ways – some leftovers make great toddler-sized meals. You could take leftovers to work for lunch the next day or freeze them for a quick dinner another time.
6. Get Free And Discounted Food With Shopping Apps
Shopping apps such as Checkoutsmart, GreenJinn and Shopmium are a great way to get free and discounted food.
You simply buy a product listed in the app, upload a photograph of your receipt and receive a refund for either part or all of the item.
These can usually be combined with in-store offers too, so if something is on special offer, you’ll get the discount from the app as well.
There are some great examples of how these shopping cashback apps in this post: Coupon Shop: 12 Boxes of Cereal for £4.80+ Free Bananas
How To Use Shopping Apps To Get Free Food
7. Get Creative in the Kitchen
Mixing up your menus can be a great way to save money on the weekly shop, especially if you find some super cheap recipes that the whole family love.
I know how easy it can be to get stuck in a rut of always cooking the same things so every now and then I’ll go on a hunt for some inspiration.
Here are a few of my favourite places for finding cheap recipe ideas:
Yummly App – While a lot of the recipes are American, I love that you can photograph ingredients you already have and the app will suggest things you can make with them.
Thrifty Lesley – Perfect if you want to really hone your eating on budget skills.
OnePoudPlates – This Instagram account creates meals for under £1.
8. Try Couponing To Save Money On The Weekly Shop
There are lots of different ways to use coupons and you can try as many or as few of them as you like. One benefit of coupons over using the cashback shopping apps mentioned above is that the discount is instant and applied directly at the till.
Till Spit Coupon – These are the coupons you get when paying for your shopping, very common in Sainsbury’s and Morrisons and usually come from a machine by the till.
Newspaper Coupons – These are found in newspapers, sometimes free and sometimes paid. The most common example is the £10 off £40 Lidl shop voucher, which is the Metro (free) and other newspapers such as the Mail on Sunday a couple of times each year.
Free Magazine Coupons – Many supermarkets, including Tesco and Asda, produce a free magazine which you can usually grab at the tills when paying for your shopping. These sometimes have coupons so it’s always worth grabbing a couple to double your savings.
Conditional Spend Coupons – This type coupon has a minimum spend and is usually specific to one supermarket eg. get £5 off a £40 shop at Sainsbury’s.
Brand Coupons – These are coupons that come directly from the brand. The advantage here is they can usually be used at any supermarket (although not always, so it’s best to check before using them).
You might find these in magazines and newspapers, at trade shows, or you might be given them if you write to a brand to compliment or complain about a product.
Where Can I Find Coupons To Help Save Money On The Weekly Shop?
Once you start looking for them you might be surprised how often you find money off coupons. Sometimes they can be found on food packaging, on Facebook, and on leaflets, you get through the door. Always remember to check your coupons are in date before using them!
There are also places online you can find vouchers to print at home.
9. Drop A Brand
Try buying a brand down in the supermarket and see how you get on.
If you don’t notice the difference then stick with it. If you really don’t like it then be sure to stock up when the brand favourite is on offer.
Lidl has some fantastic dupes of more expensive branded items such as wok-ready noodles, Kinder chocolate and Twister ice creams.
10. Look At The Price Per 100 grams
Looking at the price per 100 grams is a good way to tell how much you’re paying, especially when comparing similar products that have different standard sizes or trying to figure out whether a special offer is with it or not.
Be aware though that supermarkets can be pretty sneaky, giving prices in 100 grams on some products and kg on basically the same eg. salted butter in 100grams and unsalted butter in kg. Of course, you can do the maths but for quick comparison, some consistency would make this easier.
11. Take Advantage Of New Shopper Discounts
New shopper discounts at quite as common as they used to be, but they do still pop up from time to time and definitely worth looking out for. Typically they tend to be for when shopping online at a particular supermarket for the first time.
For example, until September you can get £20 off and free delivery on your first Ocado shop. While Ocado is more expensive than Lidl (where we’d usually shop) we took advantage of special offers such as 3 meat products for £10 and 5 freezer fillers for £5 to ensure we got the best value for money.
12. Know What You Can Freeze
Do you know which foods can be frozen?
To be honest, there are actually very few foods that can’t be frozen although some foods, such as certain vegetables, do need to be blanched first.
You can freeze pretty much anything, from whole birthday cakes to last night’s leftover curry. This helps to prevent food from being wasted and in turn, will save you money.
For detailed information on which food can be frozen, I use freezethatfood.com.
13. Buy More Frozen Food
While we’re on the subject of frozen food, both frozen fruit and vegetables provide better value for money and of course they last longer too.
Concerns over the nutritional value of frozen vegetables have long since been disproved and they have just the same nutrients as fresh.
14. Switch To Wonky Fruit And Veg
If you’d still rather buy fresh though, there are still plenty of ways you can save.
One way is to purchase wonky fruit and vegetables. Lidl has a great value wonky veg box which costs just £1.50 and has up to 5kg of wonky and shorted dated produce.
Morrisons’s also has a great wonky range which includes potatoes, carrots, strawberries, grapes and avocados.
What are your top tips for saving money on the weekly shop?
