Gabrielle Marks/Flickr

It might seem like the economy is on the up but we’re not out of the woods yet – we’re all still trying to stretch our pounds as far as we can. With the the weekly shop still making a significant dent in our hard-earned cash and the  supermarkets up to all kinds of tricks to get us to spend more money, what better time to learn how to beat them at their own game?

• Make your food go further
• Tricks to look out for
• Savvy Shopping
• Find the best deals on MySupermarket

Make your food go further

First off, if you make some adjustments at home you won’t have to go to the supermarket as often, which is one easy way to solve the problem!

• Keep a good supply of canned, frozen and dried foods you know everyone in your household will eat. That way, even when your fridge is looking a little sad, you’ll still have options and won’t have to rush out for extras.
• According to the excellent Lovefoodhatewaste website a shocking one third of the food we buy in the UK gets thrown away. They explain that it’s largely related to dishing up portions which are too large. You can check out their portion planner to avoid this. They’ve also got some brilliant recipes for using up your leftovers, and they’re not complicated, so think before you throw!

Preventing food waste should be one of your top priorities; as well as making a significant environmental impact, you’ll theoretically be saving a third on your food bill!

Look out for their tricks

Obviously you can’t avoid the supermarket forever, (now isn’t that a nice thought?!), but you can be aware of all the marketing ploys and save some serious money on your shopping trip whilst helping your health and the environment.

Sweets and goodies near the checkout

Convenient isn’t it? Supermarkets love to prey on tired, hungry and irritable shoppers. But don’t get caught out like this. Never go shopping when you’re hungry. It might sound obvious, but you’ll end up buying things you don’t need, and more often than not they’ll be unhealthy and expensive.

Pretty packaging

Ooh, the Tesco Finest cheddar cheese looks delicious….but wait a second, it’s all about what’s on the outside.

The reason we don’t tend to buy a supermarket own brand produce is because they purposely package it to appear bland and unappealing. However own, basic or mid-range brands more often than not offer better value for money than Tesco Finest or Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference for instance.

As well as costing less, they’re also often equally as tasty. Why not test a few out on your family and see if they can tell the difference? OK, it doesn’t work in every case, but you’ll get to know which items really are the best value.

Special Offers

We all love a special offer. Big writing and colourful signs make us feel like we are winning and the supermarket is giving us something for free. This is NEVER true. Suppliers pay the supermarkets handsomely to have their products placed in a prime position and on special offer because they know it will get customers to buy their product, even if they wouldn’t usually.

Buy-one-get-one-free offers can be useful, but only if you were going to buy the product anyway. Buy two for £X can also be good, but always remember to look at how much the item costs individually. Then if the saving when buying two is significant, it’s probably worth getting the deal – only if you needed the item in the first place though!

If there isn’t much of a saving, ask yourself if you really need two. If you don’t, don’t get it.

Getting 50% extra deals, or a certain percentage, can seem appealing. However, these offers often tempt you to buy a brand you wouldn’t normally get. If this is the case, always look at the price per Kg or per 100g. This will allow you to compare exactly how much you are paying for the amount of product. You’ll often find that even though you get more with the brand on offer – you are actually paying more per Kg or 100g.

There is an easy way to avoid these – have a shopping list and stick to it. If items are on special offer and seem like a bargain, people are often coerced into buying them. If it isn’t something you use often, or something you were planning on buying anyway, don’t be tempted!

Real Offers – product reductions

Supermarket stock that doesn’t shift gets reduced – we’ve all seen it. These are not like the bargains supermarkets brag about, they are genuine bargains.

Take advantage of them by finding out when your local supermarket gets rid of its stock (this is usually later in the evenings or on Sundays). Much more produce will be sold at bargain prices as it reaches its use by date and most of the things you buy you’ll be able to freeze so you won’t have to use them straight away.

Dirty display tricks

Did you know that supermarkets stack their shelves tactically? They put the most expensive items right in your eye-line to make you spend more. Look above and below and you can often get better deals. This also works on your kids sitting in the trolley. Items are positioned so they reach out and grab the top of the range products. It’s no coincidence that the finest range of organic cereal is at their eyeline when you’re looking for own brand cornflakes…

The first way to get around this is look at the whole range and compare the prices. Don’t grab and run.

Secondly, if you can, leave the kids at home. That way they won’t distract you from finding the best value items or get their hearts set on the most expensive items.

Also, men are apparently more susceptible to eye catching displays in supermarkets – so be strong guys, or suggest that perhaps after all the weekly shop is a job for the ladies.

To show just how sneaky supermarket displays are we did a little research at our local Tesco.

	Biscuits	Butter	Bread	Crisps	Cereal	Toilet Roll
Top shelf	65p	£1.29	61p	46p	85p	£1.96
above middle	£1.28	£1.31	99p	30p
Middle shelf	£2.54	£1.92	£1.14	51p	£2.32	£2.05
below middle	£71p	£1.65	£1.19	40p	£2.12
Bottom shelf	26p		72p	28p	£1.53	£1.99
Maximum saving	£2.28	63p	58p	23p	£1.47	9p

This table clearly shows just how much more expensive the product in the middle of the shelf (right in most people’s eyeline) is. So give your neck some exercise and shop around on the shelf.

The supermarket maze

Believe it or not, all supermarkets follow a similar overall layout. Fresh produce; fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy are all stocked around the outer limits of the store whereas pre-packed, processed and frozen foods are placed in the centre of the store.

They do this on purpose. It means that to get to the stuff you need for your diet, you have to look at all the stuff you don’t. Then as you work your way through the aisles, you buy stuff you don’t need. You therefore spend more and they make more. Cunning isn’t it?

They also keep staples such as bread and milk towards the back of the store in an attempt to get you to walk past almost everything else to find them. Plus, if you’re looking for tea bags, it’s no coincidence that biscuits are just next to them. Supermarkets pair up like for like products knowing that you’re more likely to end up buying both.

You can beat them at their own game. Help your health and your wallet – stick to the perimeter. If you have to go into the middle, use the aisle signs to go straight to the product you need. Then you won’t be looking at unneccessary items.

‘Convenient’ bags and packets – loose is cheaper

When you’re whizzing round the supermarket thinking about ten other things at the same time, it’s easy to opt for pre-packed items.

But, buying items like fruit or vegetables loose, is invariably cheaper than buying them in bags or packets. This is because the supermarket has to pay someone to pack them. They also have to pay for the materials and the overheads for the factory where they pack them which all adds up to a bigger price tag.

Do it yourself for free. You’ll also help the environment by saving on packaging and producing less waste.

Weight comparison

Supermarkets have to give the price per weight or volume of each item. It’s written underneath the price in much smaller writing. This is great for shoppers as it means we can look at how much the item really costs per 100g or kg. This way we can easily see how much we are really paying for an item and it helps us compare.

However, to trip you up, supermarkets tend to show the price per unit in different amounts for similar products. For example they might mark own brand orange juice as 52p per litre and then they’ll mark Delmonte orange juice as 8p per 100ml. This is meant to confuse you and stop you being able to compare prices.

It’s easy to beat them if you know your metric measurements though. A litre is 1000ml so that means that a litre of Delmonte costs 10 times 8p – 80p. This is actually more than the own brand, but it seems like it’s less when you just look at it because of the smaller unit measurement.

Don’t let them fool you. Get measurement savvy and get the most for your money.

Our Shopping Trip

To put our tips into practice, we went on a shopping trip of our own to see how much we could save. Here’s the impressive (if we say so ourselves!) results:

Shopping at Morrisons (all prices accurate on 16th July 2009)

Shopping List	Most Expensive Option	Cheapest Option	Saving
Peaches	£1.98 pack of 6*	£1.28 punnet of 6	70p
Royal Gala Apples	£1.15 for 5 (approx 650g) pre-packed	90p for 5 (approx 650g) loose	25p
Tomatoes	69p for 6 (approx 400g) pre-packed	67p for 6 (approx 400g) loose	2p
Red Onions	79p for 3 (approx 525g) pre-packed	52p for 3 (approx 525g) loose	27p
Granary Loaf	£1.09 from the instore bakery	95p off the shelf	14p
Cheddar Cheese	£4.42 for 500g – store luxury brand	£2.73 for 500g – store budget brand	£1.69
	Total – £10.12	Total – £7.05	Total – £3.07

*Advertised as ’50% extra free’!

You get the idea -  we  saved a massive 30% on our shopping bill, and that’s just one small shopping trip. So if you spend about £100 on your weekly shop, you could be saving as much as £30 a week! That’s a serious saving over a few months or even a year.

Top Shopping Tips

Here’s just a few extra tips to help you save as much as you possibly can:

• Before you go shopping have a look on Mysupermarket. You can compare prices of any items at all the major supermarkets, so you’ll be well prepared when you reach the shops.
• Try not to visit the supermarket when all you need is 2 pints of milk – you’ll just end up buying things you don’t need, as well as wasting time and petrol.
• Try eating one or two vegetarian meals a week and you’ll be able to cut back on the meat you buy and save a small fortune.
• Buy fruit and vegetables that are in season – not only is this better for the environment, it’ll help your wallet too! Produce shipped from overseas incurs more transport costs and is therefore always more expensive.
• It’s not always cheaper to buy in bulk if you end up throwing loads of food away. However you can buy staples (like rice and pasta) in bulk since they work out cheaper, last for ages and you know you’ll always use them. Its worth checking out the bargain basement supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl and Netto for these kind of products as well as for things like salt, sugar and flour.
• Once you’ve been round the supermarket and got everything you think you need (want), go through the basket just before you get to the check-out. Do you really need that jar of cajun fish relish? Or was it just displayed enticingly? Take out items that you don’t really need before you get to finally pay for your goods.

Got more of your own savvy shopping tips? Share them with the other Moneymagpies on our forums.

Useful Links

• Lovefoodhatewaste
• Mysupermarket