In the vast majority of households, every week, a sizeable amount of the monthly budget goes on the weekly food shop – however did you know a lot of people spend more than is actually necessary? Of course you don’t want to feel limited to what you can buy. Eating is one of the most joyous parts of life, and often meal times can bring families together, so you’ll want to cater for everyone in the house. Do you not sometimes feel as if you’re possibly spending a little too much on your weekly shop? If this is the case, then here are some top tips that could help you to save money every week on your food shopping.
Plan in Advance
When it comes to success, usually you’re only as good as your plan, and why should the food shop be any different? It can seem like a huge task, traipsing up and down the aisles trying to cater to everyone’s likes and dislikes and not spend a fortune, but if you planned ahead accordingly, this wouldn’t have to be the case.
Before you even think about making the trip to the supermarket, sit your family down and plan your meals for the week ahead. Now this might sound a little rigid, but if you can, make it as fun and enjoyable as possible. By sitting down and planning meals with all members of the household, it means that everybody gets their say, and that you’re making compromises. Plus it’s a great way of encouraging healthy eating, even for the little ones. If you do this, then it means that when dinner time comes around, no one can argue with what you’ve made because you’ve all decided on it together. Makes a lot of sense, right?
After you’ve planned your meals, figure out what you need to make these meals. A lot of ingredients can be multi-purpose too, so you’re likely to save money there. Make a shopping list, and this cannot be stressed enough, STICK. TO. IT. Sticking to your shopping list will not only save you money and speed up the shop itself, but will ultimately make it a more pleasant and less stressful experience for you.
Shop Healthier
If you stick to a healthier diet and therefore a healthier shopping list, you’re actually a lot less likely to spend unnecessary money on extras like sweets and crisps. Being healthy is totally “in” right now, because of the effects of social media, and this is certainly one of the more positive ones. However a lot of the time, it’s lead us to wrongly believe that in order to eat healthily, we have to spend more money. This is absolutely not the case. In fact when you’re buying high sugar, high calorie brands, you’re not only affecting your health but your bank account too. That being said, try and shop more smartly
For example, when you’re planning your meals, why not cater the fruit and the vegetables to whatever is in season at current? You’ll pay a lot less for produce that is currently in season as opposed to buying out of season. Better yet, why not take a trip to your local farmers market? Not only is it money-saving, but you’ll be eating organic and helping to sustain smaller businesses too. Plus your produce is far less likely to be covered in preservatives and pesticides, and you’ll know exactly where its come from.
Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Coupons and Vouchers
You might not even realise it, but by keeping an eye out for and using supermarket coupons, you could actually save yourself hundreds of pounds on your shopping. You could even plan your meals around what you know is on sale too – it’s all about knowing your stuff a lot of the time.
If you buy the Sunday newspaper every week, keep an eye out for special deals and vouchers that are on offer from your local supermarkets. If you can, collect these vouchers and use them when necessary. Likewise, for limited periods of time, many supermarket items go down in price and go on offers such as “buy one get one free”. Now, don’t buy things willy nilly just because they’re on special, but if it’s something you need, use regularly and you can store it, why not stock up while they’re on special? You could save yourself a lot of money in the long run. Just by shopping that bit smarter, you can save a fortune.