Beating the credit crunch ...

save money on your supermarket shopping

Unless you have been away or hibernating, you will have heard all about the current ‘credit crunch’ hitting the country. Here are a few tips to help you save money on your weekly trip to the supermarket.

Do you know what is in your cupboards/freezer?

How often do you buy something, only to find it weeks later in the back of the cupboard? What do you have lurking in the back of your freezer? Is it out of date or can it be utilised? Now its getting colder the soup season is approaching & what better way to use up those half-empty packets of frozen veg, pasta & rice. Be amazed at what you can produce with very little time or cost.

Make a list of the weeks meals you need to prepare and stick to it.

This may seem obvious but how many trips to the shops do you make when one would do? Discipline yourself to plan a week’s worth of menus, (this can be when watching your favourite TV programme, so there is no excuse that you don’t have time!) and only buy what you need. You will find you have less need to visit the supermarket, reduce any need to throw food away and also save yourself some money as well.

Buy reduced items

Maybe you avoid the reduced shelf as you are unsure whether it will be good enough to eat. As a general rule, all perishable goods should be thrown away by their ‘use by dates’ but ‘best before’ dates on tins & frozen foods usually mean you can still eat produce after this date, it just won’t be at it’s best quality.

Ignore the ‘display until’ & ‘sell by’ dates as these are purely for the staff to tell them when to remove products from the shelves.

I’m told cooking from scratch is better & cheaper but I don’t have time.

This is a good excuse but totally unfounded! It is really a question of breaking old habits & planning & organising yourself well. Stir fries, casseroles, soups and one pot dishes need minimal preparation & can be left to ‘do their own thing’ while you can get on & do other things. If time really is tight, double up on quantities; cooking a batch of mince with onions, mushrooms, tins of tomatoes & stock can be utilised as a base for chilli con carne, lasagne, shepherds pie & be frozen for another meal.

Take the ‘downshift challenge’.

Money expert Martin Lewis of www.moneysavingexpert.com recommends you try to drop a brand on everything & you will see the weekly shopping bill drop by a third. Of course, you don’t need to take such drastic action by downsizing on all products.Try it with a few products and see if you really can taste the difference; buy one branded tin of baked beans & one of Tesco’s own & see if the family notice any difference! Quite often it is simply the Packaging or advertising that entices us to stick with a certain brand.

Make your loyalty cards work for you

Martin Lewis suggests you don’t redeem your Tesco points as money off your shopping bill but instead, use them for Clubcard Deals. (I have a friend who is currently booking an all-inclusive holiday worth £2,000 solely by using her vouchers!). You can also enjoy days out with the family, weekend breaks and discounts off meals.
Check out www.tesc.com/clubcard/deals/onlinebrochure for more information.

Similarly, Sainsbury’s Nectar points can be redeemed online or by phone for a range of days out, gifts or shopping discounts at member stores.
Check out www.sainsburys.co.uk/nectar/nectar_homepage.htm or the Nectar UK loyalty points card main website www.nectar.com for more details

Use a Boots Advantage card and you can earn up to 4 points per £1. Each point is worth 1p and can be redeemed on most things in store. Check out www.boots.com for more details.

Happy shopping!

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