You can fill up your trolley for less

• Reduce your food bills by shopping online, working the reduced-price section, going to the market, buying wholesale and avoiding convenience foods.
• Pick up smart-spending tips and cheap, tasty recipes on our Food and Family blog

Food shopping is one kind of shopping we all have to do whether we like it or not.  It can also be a big drain on finances; with tantalising products available for us in the supermarkets that were not around even 10 years ago, there's more choice and temptation when we shop for food. 
There's also a strong market now for convenience products: green beans that have been topped and tailed, packaged lettuce leaves and diced chicken for which we pay considerably more than the effort it would take us to prepare them ourselves. However just because they are available doesn't mean we can afford them. 

There are simple rules to reduce your food shopping bills, like avoid buying things you don't need and things you simply can't afford because you want them, but we thought we'd investigate other ways to cut down on your food shopping that will let you buy pretty much the same products, just at a lower cost.  Here's our top five:

Step one: shop online

Our first solution to the food shopping money drain is simply do not go shopping at all.  Of course, we don't mean starving yourself, just be as lazy as possible and do all of your shopping on the internet.  All of the major supermarkets now have online shopping services where you can browse through their products, make up a list and then get it all delivered to your house at your convenience.  Yes, there is a charge for delivery, but there are a number of reasons why it's cheaper than shopping in the supermarket building:

•  You can't be tempted by offers that you see whilst walking around that otherwise you wouldn't notice.  If you don't need fruit, then you won't even look in the fruits section online, so you won't come home with starfruit or a prickly pear just because it's buy one get one free.
• You can keep an eye on the cost of your shopping all the time, so you can accurately plan exactly how much you are spending and not just rock up to the checkout praying that all the food you've chosen is going to come in under your budget.
• Once you've shopped online once, you can save your list and then buy the same things each week, with just a few adjustments.  This means that you only have to look for a few products to add to the list each week, depending on what you want to eat, and so there is much less temptation to spend.

Hopefully, using online shopping will help you make fewer impulse purchases and budget carefully so you make savings even when the delivery charge is taken into account.  To try to reduce the delivery cost, mid-week charges are often less than the weekends and because online you have the leisure of shopping whenever you want, try to avoid weekends at all costs as there will be more choice during the week.

Step two: shop early in the morning or late at night

If you really don't want to pay the delivery charges or you just don't have the time to wait around for the delivery, early morning and late-night shopping can help you get some great bargains.  We all know that supermarkets reduce their perishable products in the evenings to get rid of them before they go off and have to throw them away.  You might have qualms about buying reduced products, however supermarket sell by dates are often far off the date when the food will actually go off, so you can buy many products without worrying.

Getting food that has been reduced means that you can't be too fussy about what you want to eat.  Reductions often depend on how close to its sell by date the product is and what kind of product it is; the best reductions are mostly on higher range products, meat and prepackaged foods. Reductions on bread and vegetables will be smaller, but then so are the original prices. The amount of reduced products varies from day to day and so there won't necessarily be too much choice, however it will get you eating things that you might not have tried before.  A good way of approaching reduced items is to buy those luxuries you love but can't really afford.  Often more expensive foods like steak and king prawns end up in the reduced section and can be bought for bargain prices.  Both can also be popped in the freezer for a later date if you don't want to eat them that night. 

The procedure of reducing food prices in the main supermarkets is top secret and depends on where the supermarket is, what the opening hours are and how much stock they have.  Saying this, all of the supermarkets do reduce food, it's just a question of being there at the right time. To get the best bargains you've really got to get to know your local supermarket.  Take notice of when those reduced sections are piled high and when there's slim pickings and then change when you shop accordingly.

Step three: shop at the local market or greengrocer

Yes, we say it time and time again, but the veggies and fresh produce you are getting at the supermarket are not as good quality or as cheap as what's on offer at your local market.  We're not talking organic, farmers' market kind of produce (although these can work out very good value for seasonal fruit and veg). In fact, your local market or greengrocers can actually be up to 30% cheaper than the supermarket.

There's also always the chance for bargains at the market, usually on products you haven't planned to buy, so do excercise some self restraint.  It's also great to go towards the end of the market.  You'll have less to choose from, but because the vendors don't want to take anything away with them, they often sell off produce cheap towards the end of the day. 

People are often concerned when shopping at the local market because the amount of time the fresh produce lasts for may be less than how long the fresh produce bought at the supermarket last for.  This isn't always the case, but it makes sense only to buy as much as you need.  When it comes to buying meat and fish, you can always freeze whatever you can't use and with vegetables, just buy fewer.  The advantage of the market is that everything is loose, so if you only want one specific vegetable, you'll never be obliged to buy a three pack.  

Step four: shop at a wholesale supermarket

Exclusive wholesale warehouse supermarkets are shrouded with mystery and, to all that don't belong to one, seem to be secret places where people go to buy enormous tubs of penny sweets, huge ketchup dispensers and mammoth boxes of frozen pizzas for very little money.  What is clear is that you can save a lot of money, not just on food, but on electrical items, clothing, pharmaceuticals and toiletries.  Although they proclaim to be rigidly exclusive, joining one is much easier than you might think.

All you need to join Costco is:

• An original copy of a current utility bill (i.e. gas, glectricity, gelephone) from a business address or business bank statement and a VAT registration.
• OR - An original copy of a current utility bill from a business address or a bank statement and two pieces of business ID (i.e. business cheque, letterhead, invoice to your business address).

If you do run your own business, you will have all of these things and so if you aren't a member of one of these wholesale supermarkets, you should get membership now.  If you don't have your own business, but you are self-employed or a freelancer, you can legitimately apply for a membership using the ID that doesn't include a VAT number, as you should have a bank statement or utility bill for your place of work (i.e. your home) and you should have invoices.  If you don't have invoices, you can just get creative on your computer and make yourself some company stationery and this should suffice. 

For Makro, the rules are a bit stricter, but if you are self-employed, you are legitimately allowed to apply.

If you have your own business you need:

• VAT certificate of incorporation from Companies House or copy of business bank account statement, two recent purchase invoices over the value of £50 each and personal photographic ID of the cardholder.

Or for the self-employed:

• Recent correspondence from HMRC (Inland Revenue) or photographic Inland Revenue registration card or a copy of a recent business tax assessment, two recent purchase invoices over the value of £50 each and personal photographic ID of the cardholder.

Although not everyone can get a membership there are many who can, even if it means bending the rules slightly.  Check out the websites of Makro and Costco for more information and remember to check if there is a supermarket near enough to you to make it worth your while.

Step five: stop buying pre-packed and pre-prepared food

Today all people in the food business capitalise on our general lethargy.  If we all had endless supplies of energy then after a hard day at work, we would never come home and order a takeaway because we can't be bothered to cook, we'd cook glorious meals from fresh each night.  However, we all know that sometimes, we are all lazy.  And the supermarkets know this too.  It is for this reason that they sell pre-packed and pre-prepared food; to make more money off our laziness.

So basically, to save money on your shopping do not buy pre-packed or pre-prepared food.  We're not talking ready meals here (although if you can cook you've got no excuses for buying these), but the beans that have been trimmed, broccoli and carrots that have been chopped up or chicken that has been cut into strips.  This kind of food preparation is a basic skill which anyone can do, but if you buy it already done, you will really pay through the roof.  For example:

• Tesco loose broccoli costs £1.38/kg, the packaged head of broccoli costs £1.47/kg and broccoli florets chopped up and sold in a bag cost £3.77/kg - that's more than twice the price of the loose broccoli.
• Loose carrots at Sainsbury's are currently £0.62/kg and ready to cook carrot batons are £1.98/kg - more than twice the price.
• At Asda, loose red onions are 85p/kg, packaged red onions are 89p/kg and diced onion is £1.35/kg - again, significantly more expensive (and when it's all chopped up it won't nearly last as long as an onion in its skin will).

It's clear that we're not talking about a couple of pennies, so fight your laziness and try to buy loose produce in the supermarket.  It should be cheaper and will be just as good quality.

Step six: don't waste food

According to the website Lovefoodhatewaste we throw away £10 billion-worth of food every year, and a third of it is unopened! So make sure that you cut down on food wastage by:

• Shopping with a shopping list. Plan meals for the week and only buy what you need according to your list.
• Not being tempted by 'Buy On Get One Free' offers. If it's something you would buy anyway then go for it but put one of them in the freezer if possible.
• Using the freezer a lot more. Milk, bread and cheese can be frozen and fruit and vegetables can be cooked and frozen too.
• Using your fridge more. Fruit and veg lasts much longer if you chill them.
• Finding creative ways to use up leftovers. Lovefoodhatewaste has some great ideas and you can find more recipes in our Food and Family blog. 

Want to know more?

For more ideas about saving money on your food bill check out these links:

• Shopping done for you
• Green eating and drinking
• Pick up smart-spending tips and cheap, tasty recipes on our Food and Family blog

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