Jeeeez things are getting so tight and food has felt expensive for a while 🙁 I wondered what clever hacks anyone has come up with to save money on grocery shopping, or get more from their supermarkets, better coupons, or more points on their loyalty card (is that even worth anything?)
Any ideas will be great!
26 comments
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The best advice I have is to buy in bulk staple items like rice and flour, and buy things, especially produce, based on what is on sale
Cheaper alternatives, doesn’t always taste the same or as nice but off branded items too, like the stores own branded ketchup instead of Heinz etc:)
Do you buy your lunches/snacks or make at home?
Meal prep so you don’t waste food, bulk cook & freeze excess. Avoid snacks as much as possible, snacks are expensive for what you get, Work out what stuff is significantly cheaper elsewhere, for example Kelloggs cereal is 4 or 5 times the price of lidl’s.
Buy one item a level down on everything you can to try – so if you buy branded, buy a pack of own brand, if own brand then buy value range. If you can’t tell the difference or don’t mind it keep the swap and pocket the difference. If its horrible, go back to the original level.
Bulk out meals with cheap ingredients like beans and lentils. I’ve heard (but haven’t tried myself) that oats work well for bulking out mince (so cottage pie, spaghetti bolognaise etc).
Maybe try looking into Jack Monroe? (Known for cooking on a budget, has a blog I think)
There’s also someone I was watching on Instagram (can’t remember his name, sorry) who does reels showing you how to cook for under a fiver
Good luck OP
Buy in bulk as many households items as you can store; shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toilet roll, kitchen roll and canned food like beans, peas and sweetcorn. Shop per kg not per price for these items.
Use the shopping apps for the different supermarkets to see where had the most deals for the stuff you buy. Add your usual to favourites and it’s a good way to glance at where the offer are. When Tesco do the 4 for 5 on households and frozen I use that to stock up.
Sign your soul the loyalty cards, don’t waste money in some silent non voucher protest if you’re struggling already, they collect less data than your socials and phone. Nectar is good because it links to loads of things. I buy cat litter in bulk in eBay which gives me points to use off food in Sainsbury’s and they have smart shop offers as well if you use the scan app on your phone. Asda rewards is decent (for now) and obvs have clubcard. Ocado is bum for coupons now they used to be really good.
Sainsbury’s especially and probably others have coupons for doing online shops. Your first one is £18 off a £60 shop and if you’re lucky you’ll get more £16 or £12 off £60 shops as well, I stock up or get a treat when I get them. The first £18 only works per household though even though they’ll keep giving them too you, the code just won’t work.
Get a load of storage tubs as well, IKEA do really good plastic ones and even fancier glass ones
Cheap basics to base your meals around, for example a ball of mozzarella can be quite cheap and you can get some tomato puree and wraps and make pizza with it, or use kidney beans, chopped tomatoes, spices and tortilla chips and you ve got a chilli.
What’s your usual meal plan? Perhaps it’s a case of going through your usuals and figuring out which ingredients are costing you.
steal 🙂
What do you buy in your weekly shop?
Just eat less. I have one meal a day.
The main benefit of the loyalty cards now is they seem to have locked a lot of prices behind them.
The actual points are rarely worth that much, usually about a penny to every pound you spend at best.
Other than that, my tips are to always buy the store’s own brand (half the time there no difference) and to make good use of your freezer (make meals in bulk and freeze them, buy reduced stuff and freeze it).
A really drastic option, would be to take a job at a supermarket you shop at, to get the staff discount.
You can also have a browse of the [beermoneyuk](https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoneyuk/comments/15nynf3/inboxpounds_possibly_the_best_gpt_for_british/) sub, for lots of UK centric ways to make and save a bit of extra cash!
Plan your meals in advance to minimise waste. Cook meals that use cheap ingredients like grains, lentils, tinned food, frozen veg. Reduce meat which is often one of the most expensive things or at least learn to cook with cheaper cuts. Have a look at Jack Monroe’s recipes for inspiration. Swap to the “value” brand of your supermarket or shop at Aldi/Lidl if there’s one nearby/convenient. If you have a freezer, it can be worth hunting down reduced yellow sticker items and then freezing it for longevity.
Download the Too Good to Go app! My local Morrisons is on it and it’s great value – I normally get lots of fruit and veg in my surprise bags.
Some tips.
Never buy oven chips. Make your own in the oven from potatoes.
Use chicken thigh instead of breast.
A Sunday lunch can be a good money saver. Buy a large chicken and the leftovers make a great pie. The veg makes things like bubble and squeak.
Have a look at BBC £1 recipes . We have done loads of them and they are pretty good.
A good place to start is the countless threads that have asked same question over the last year.
Go to Asda. My local one has lots of yellow label reduced items everyday. Some times I can get £5 steaks reduced to just over £1!
Buy in bulk and largely ignore the “Tesco scam card prices”‘ etc. They’re almost always more expensive than the regular price of a larger quantity of what you’re buying.
Make dishes from scratch
Cook vegetarian versions of dishes. Curry for example tastes pretty much the same whether they protein is from chicken or chick peas because the flavour us not really from the meat but the spice.
Same applies to many pasta dishes or chilli.
Make soups with pulses in, you can Make really tasty thick soups with things like parsnip and chick peas, butternut squash and lentil etc.
Don’t buy brands- supermarket own brands are just as good.
Go to lidl or Aldi.
Example:
If making a curry…..
I will add a tin of tomatoes to stretch the sauce further (you can add extra spice if you don’t want it rendered mild)
If using meat I will halve the amount a recipe asks for and use vegetables to add bulk instead (any veg will do if you just pre cook it and chuck it in)
I will freeze any left over for future use. I will try to use leftovers for pack lunches instead of having to buy food when out.
I will serve with a big portion of rice, and I will season the rice to keep it appetising
Or if I have potatoes that need using up I will serve with mash or chips
I will only buy spices that will get repeated uses. I won’t be too proud to buy ready made sauce when it’s more economical
I will think about other meals when buying ingredients. E.g if I only need 1 carrot but can only buy them in packs of 5 I will plan what to do with the rest before purchasing.
Sainsbury and m&s do offers on the app that you can add to your membership card so you can shop according to deals.
I know on paper m&s sounds expensive but for basic stuff such as milk, beans etc they are quite good and the quality is better. They also have a seasonal discount veg box.
Figure out your routine portion sizes for meals, and don’t serve more than these, so that everyone finishes what’s on their plate, with no waste.
Once you’ve figured them out, batch cook and freeze in advance, divvying the batch up into measured portion sizes. Defrost during the day, many evening meals become simple heat-up jobs.
If you like a curry, learn to make BIR base gravy, and use it in your recipes.
If you like pizza, make your own dough, freeze in portions, and prep toppings in advance. Friday night 12in pizza in our house costs no more than £2.75 each.
I go around aldis, lidls, farmfoods, home bargains and poundstretchers every single week for my shopping to bring it in within budget. Family of five with two of them bloody giants and manage to do it for about £60pw currently
Meal prep, boring but works.
I have a two week ‘rota’ of meals I’ve perfected.
I have a premade shopping list based on this rota.
Plus I know what I’m making everyday and that I have the stuff I need to make it. Makes cooking from scratch a lot easier.
I always make enough that there’s at least a portion or two that can be frozen or eaten for lunch the next day by me or my toddler, especially with things like chilli, dhal, cottage pie etc
I try to only make big family style one dish meals.
The first drop in our bill was from switching to 90% homemade (I understand I am lucky to be a sahm)
Second drop was going vegetarian and the only replacement meat we buy is Quorn chicken Quorn mince and mozzarella fake burgers, which we only use one week out of the two and are the most expensive things on our shopping list along with a couple frozen pizzas. I bulk out meals with lots of veg.
Third drop was shopping fortnightly.
We went from about £130 a week to £130 a fortnight for a family of 3 and a half.