How to spend less on your food shop
A ShopLister guide.
Most of what a food shop costs is decided before you reach the till: by what you planned, what you forgot, and what caught your eye on the way round. That is good news, because it means you can cut the bill without eating worse.
None of these ideas needs a coupon or a spreadsheet. Pick two or three to start with.
Know what you spend now
Add up a month of receipts, or look at your bank statement for food shops. Count the top-up trips as well as the weekly shop: they are easy to forget and are often where the money goes.
Then choose a figure for the week that is a little below that, and keep an eye on it. Simply knowing the number tends to bring it down.
Plan before you go
A planned shop is a cheaper shop. Check what you already have, plan the week's meals around it, and write the list from the meals. Our guide to planning your weekly shop goes through it step by step.
- Use up what you have first. Build a meal or two around what is already in the fridge and freezer.
- Plan meals that share ingredients, so nothing is bought for one recipe and then thrown away.
- Cook bigger and freeze portions. A batch of soup or chilli is cheaper per meal than buying lunches.
Shop to the list
Impulse buys add up quickly. The list is what keeps them off the bill.
- Don't shop hungry.
- Put the list in the order you walk round the shop, so you go up each aisle once and pass fewer temptations. See how to write a list in aisle order.
- Shop less often. Every extra trip for one thing is a chance to come out with five.
- If you shop online, you see the running total as you go, which makes it easier to stop.
Compare the price per kilo, not the price
Shelf labels in UK supermarkets show a unit price as well as the price: per kilo, per litre or per 100 grams. It is the fairest way to compare a big pack with a small one, or one brand with another, and the bigger pack is not always the cheaper one.
Loose fruit and vegetables are worth comparing too: they can be cheaper per kilo than the packs, and you buy exactly as many as you need.
Try a cheaper brand
Step down one level on the things where you won't notice the difference: own-brand instead of a big name, or the value range instead of own-brand. Tins, pasta, rice, flour, frozen vegetables and cleaning products are good places to start. Keep the brands you really care about, and save on the rest.
Treat offers with care
- A multi-buy is only a saving if you would have bought it anyway and will use it before it goes off.
- Compare an offer's unit price with the ordinary pack next to it. Sometimes the offer is not the cheapest choice.
- Loyalty-card prices can be a real saving at a shop you use anyway. They are less of one if they draw you to a shop you don't.
- Reduced items near their date can be very good value, if you will eat or freeze them that day.
Waste less
Food that is thrown away is money spent for nothing.
- "Use by" is about safety, "best before" is about quality. Food past its best-before date is usually still fine to eat; food past its use-by date is not.
- Use the freezer. Bread, milk, cooked rice, grated cheese and most leftovers freeze well. Freeze things before they turn, not after.
- Keep a leftovers night in the week's plan, and put what needs eating first at the front of the fridge.
Spending less with ShopLister
ShopLister helps you stick to the list. It puts everything in the order you walk round the shop, so you go up each aisle once instead of wandering, and All the Usuals shows what you buy regularly, with the things you are likely to be running low on marked, so the staples are not forgotten and there is no extra trip on Wednesday.
See how ShopLister works · Coming soon to the App Store, iPhone first, with Android to follow.