Food for thought: Five ways to save money on your groceries

This might not be so much of a problem if we all had savings to fall back on but here, too, the nation is facing a squeeze. The head of high street bank Lloyds told the BBC in July that 80% of its UK customers have less than £500 pounds worth of savings in their bank accounts to bail them out.

Fortunately, changing habits can go a long way to help. Our post on ways to save money on your electricity bill highlighted out how little lifestyle tweaks all add up to sizeable energy savings. In the same way you can eke out your grocery budget by making some surprisingly simple adjustments to your shopping patterns. Here’s how...

• 1) Make planning a priority
• 2) Don't be afraid of the 'b' word
• 3) Use coupons, credit card rewards, value brands and bulk buys to get more for your money
• 4) Get your head around ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates
• 5) Switch where you shop – and the brands you buy
• What if you’re struggling to buy everyday essentials?

1) Make planning a priority

Savings can start even before you hit the supermarket – you just need to get organised. First, draw up a meal plan detailing everything you plan to eat during that week. Not only will it help you focus on the things you need, but by anticipating how leftovers can be incorporated into the next day’s dinner or packed lunch you’ll cut waste too. Having roast chicken on a Sunday, for example, sets you up nicely for a chicken pasta bake with the rest of the meat on Monday. This isn’t just good for your bank balance, but also for the environment (food production and food waste are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases).

If you’re stuck for inspiration, there are plenty of sites that suggest recipes for the items left over in your fridge or cupboard. SuperCook is just one of them. It styles itself as a ‘zero waste recipe generator’ and basically comprises a search engine that lets you tailor results to the ingredients you have at home. BigOven is another site worth checking out, promising to “help you waste less, and eat more”. Choose up to three ingredients and its library of 1,000,000-plus recipes will suggest countless ideas of things you can make.

Meal planning like this will help you avoid expensive top-up shops in between your main weekly trawl, or giving in to takeaway temptation. It should also make compiling your shopping list more straightforward – but remember to keep an eye on the stuff you already have in your cupboard so you don’t inadvertently double up.

Another way to slash costs at the planning stage is to make a conscious effort to reduce your reliance on meat and fish. Your meal rota might include one meat-free day, for example, or make room for cheaper proteins from tinned beans and pulses instead. If you’re not quite ready to forego meat, consider putting less in your cooking, making it stretch to more meals, or choosing cheaper cuts (lamb shoulder instead of chops, for example). Buying frozen also often works out cheaper, especially for fish. Try this trick for fruit and veg too, though – they’re almost always cheaper than fresh, and there’s less chance they’ll go off in your fridge before you get round to using them up. Alternatively, wait until the fruit or veg is in season and supermarkets discount to clear the glut.

2) Don't be afraid of the 'b' word

How many times are we taken by surprise by the cost of our baskets when the cashier rings it up? Better budgeting will give a tighter control of spending and avoid any nasty shocks in the bagging area. It may not be the most exciting subject, but the benefits of budgeting are well worth it. If you could shave just £5 per week off your supermarket bill, you’d save £260 a year. Feeling more ambitious? Cutting £10 off would tot up to £520 annually.

We’ve got a host of simple ways to make budgeting fun elsewhere on our site, as well as the low-down on good budgeting apps to help you manage your money. The best way to get started is to work out how much you want to spend each week, and only buy what you can afford. This is a subtle shift in mindset from buying as much as you want for the least amount of money.

Once you’ve got your head around how straightforward it can be to make a budget, the harder job is sticking to it. Some people like to bring a calculator with them as they put items in the trolley, to keep a running total. Others, as the BBC reported recently, have begun asking cashiers to stop scanning items when the till hits a certain amount.

If you think you’re likely to get too carried away while you’re in the shop, it might be worth going online instead. From behind your screen you’ll bypass all those chocolate bars, magazines and other impulse buys that supermarkets slyly place by the tills, and you can remove items from your basket at the checkout stage if you exceed your budget without the embarrassment of a queue of people peering over your shoulder behind you. Not many know this but online shopping can also offer enticing discounts to lure you back. If you’re signed in to your account but don’t complete your order, for example, you’ll often receive an email discount a few days later to nudge you back to it. Granted, online shopping isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but even if you don’t use it for transactions it can be useful to check prices before hitting the actual shop, giving a better idea of how far your budget will stretch.

Finally, two less obvious tips for sticking to your spending plan:

1. Always shop on a full stomach. It’s almost impossible to resist impulse buys like crisps and confectionary when your stomach is rumbling.
2. If you’re only popping into a shop because you’ve run out of an item midweek or missed something off your original list, don’t pick up a basket. Psychologically, you’ll be more likely to fill it with stuff you never came in for in the first place.

3) Use coupons, credit card rewards, value brands and bulk buys to get more for your money

Money itself might not grow on trees, but money off is a little easier to come by. Signing up for supermarket loyalty schemes is just the start of it. You’ll get points every time you shop, which you can later convert into a percentage off your shopping, or rewards with selected partners. These schemes often unlock special discounts on selected products each week too, offering further savings potential.

Coupons from newspapers and magazines, or via an online code from an app or website, are another way to shop savvily. Coupons have been around for ages – for a good reason. Their popularity hinges on the opportunity to buy everyday products at a fraction of the price. What’s not to like?

In-store buy-one-get-one-free offers are also worth checking out (or half-price deals or three-for-two bargains). Like coupons, however, these are only really beneficial if you’re going to buy the product anyway. Many simply encourage shoppers to pick up things they don’t need. When they’re applied to fresh stuff, they can also lead to more waste at home. A useful steer is to ask yourself if the item is on your list anyway. It is? Then go for it. Or is it something that might come in useful later? This necessarily rules out fresh produce but often there’s a good case for products that won’t easily go off, like tinned food, washing powder, pasta or clingfilm. Non-perishable goods are nearly always worth a bulk buy, so even if there’s no advertised discount, assume your money will go further if you buy bigger quantities. You should be able to find good deals at wholesale retailers like Costco.

You could also consider using credit card rewards or a UK prepaid card with cashback to ‘earn’ a little back on everything you buy. We’ve posted about how these work and the advantages they offer elsewhere on our website, to help you use rewards and cashback cards with confidence. Whether they’ll make a difference to your annual shopping bill depends entirely on your spending and, crucially, your repayment patterns. If you’re good at clearing your credit card balance at the end of each month, then getting a card that gives you something back could be worth your while. However, the moment you stop paying off your card in full, the interest incurred on any remaining debt may start cancelling out any rewards you’ve earned.

4) Get your head around ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates

Another way to save money on food is to throw less of it away each week. Some of this waste could be avoided if consumers were more aware of the difference between ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates. Many assume they mean the same thing – basically that the product has ‘gone off’ once the date has been passed and, as such, should be chucked in the bin. In fact, best before dates are something else entirely, and only tell you how long the food is at its prime, not whether it’s still safe to eat. While it might not be as fresh or tasty after this point, it is often perfectly palatable. If you’re wondering how much room for manoeuvre you’ve got beyond the ‘best before’, a good rule of thumb is to look at the shelf life until the date marked on the packaging. The longer this is, the more leeway you generally have.

If fresh products are about to go out of date imminently and you don’t think you’ll have time to use them up, consider freezing them instead.

On the subject of shelf life, many food retailers offer exceptional deals on products that are about to pass their ‘best’. In supermarkets, look out for the yellow stickers which show food that has been reduced for this very reason. Different stores will mark down these products at different times of the day, so ask your local shop exactly when this happens to capitalise on a bigger range of products and the best savings. Generally, though, an hour before the store closes should do the trick. You could also use food waste apps like Too Good To Go to let you know when local stores and restaurants are getting rid of perishable goods cheap. Or take a look at Olio, which connects users who have surplus food to those who need or want to eat it, and Approved Food, for lower prices on goods that have passed their best-before date.

5) Switch where you shop – and the brands you buy

Being picky about where you shop is another way to keep pounds in your pocket. When consumer group Which? checked the supermarket prices of 23 items in January 2022, it found a £24.78 basket of groceries at Lidl, for example, would cost shoppers £10 more in Waitrose.

Convenience stores are also generally more expensive. No matter how tempting it might be to pick up some ingredients for dinner at the corner shop on your way home from work, walking an extra 5 minutes to a bigger supermarket could save you in the long-run. That’s not to say supermarkets have the monopoly on value for money. Market stalls or farm shops, for example, can often beat them on fruit and veg prices. Shopping locally like this also reduces food miles to cut your carbon footprint, as well as boosting your town’s economy and supporting the community.

If switching where you shop isn’t practical, changing the brands you buy might be an easier solution. Value brands can sometimes be more than half the price of similar products but do exactly the same job, or taste hardly any different. Look closely and you may be surprised to discover some are even made in the same factories. As money-saving tips go, this is a relatively straightforward one to implement. The only difficulty you may encounter is finding them in the store: supermarkets generally put the premium brands at eye level (so you’re more likely to see and buy them) and the cheaper equivalents on higher shelves or tucked away near the bottom.

What if you’re struggling to buy everyday essentials?

While tips like the ones we’ve outlined can help, we appreciate they won’t go far enough for all households. If you’re struggling to put food on the table, the government or your local council might be the answer. Financial help can come from their Household Support Fund and Cost of Living Payments, but exactly what you get will depend on individual councils and your unique needs. Talk to someone from your local Citizens Advice for further information on what you might be entitled to and how to access it.

Food banks have received a lot of press coverage recently, and may offer another solution. The Trussell Trust website will let you search for one near you. You’ll need an official referral to use it – again, talk to Citizens Advice or someone at your local council, JobCentre Plus, a GP, other medical professional, or a social worker to do this.

If you have a child under four or are pregnant, and you receive a qualifying benefit, a Healthy Start card could help you buy certain types of milk, infant formula, fruit and vegetables. If you’re a parent of older children, find out if they’re eligible for free school meals on the government website.

When the going gets tough, it can be tempting to use quick loan options like short-term loans. While these forms of credit can be useful for one-off purchases or an unanticipated bill, like the boiler breaking, they aren’t suitable for everyday essentials if you are struggling financially. Expensive forms of lending can start a spiral of debt, so it's always best to consider short term loan alternatives first. Remember that missing repayments will have a detrimental effect on what might otherwise be a good credit score in the UK. If you’re struggling with repaying a loan, talk to your lender as soon as possible. They might have solutions. 

Hopefully this post has sparked some ideas for how to navigate the months ahead as cost effectively as possible. Even small savings can make a difference and could help transform spending habits in other areas of your life too. Perhaps a silver lining of this crisis may also be a better awareness of how your weekly shop impacts the environment. Being more conscious of what you eat – and where you waste – has benefits far beyond the purse.