How to save £1,000 a year on food shopping

Bigger shops cost you less [fotolia]

Do you still do the ‘big weekly shop’? Because research suggests that most of us don’t.

In fact, just 18% of people still shop that way, according to a poll by thinkmoney. It found that 82% of respondents prefer to shop at least twice a week, while 16% admitted shopping more than four times a week.

Why? Not only do these extra shopping trips mean you hardly ever get a day off trudging around the supermarket, but in my experience they cost you more overall too. Here’s why, and how to beat the habit.

The more you shop, the more you spend

Supermarkets know how to make us spend; they have turned it into an art form. They place enticing deals at the very end of each aisle so that we find ourselves picking up items we don’t need.

They place bargains by the entrance, knowing that this makes us more likely to buy them when we see them again inside the shop. They even hide essentials like bread and milk at the back of the shop so that we have to trundle down the other aisles to get there. Supermarkets know what they are doing.

So the more you expose yourself to the supermarket, the more chances there are for you to buy additional items that aren’t on your list. These items usually seem like bargains but the fact is that if you could have done without them then they aren’t.

Two years ago I realised that I had fallen into the habit of visiting the shop practically every day. I would do a big-ish shop at the weekend but then pick up ingredients for the evening meal every afternoon.

And while I was there I inevitably spent a bit extra; splashing out on a pudding, buying a two-for-one deal on fruit, or letting my toddler cajole me into buying him some sweets. I changed tack and began to do one big shop a week – shopping online to limit the opportunity for the supermarket to upsell.

I worked out that we spent an average of £20 a week less – that’s more than a thousand pounds a year saved.

Not only that, but I spend less time trawling the aisles and have more time at home to cook or just relax.

Making the one shop count

So how can you get back into the habit of one big shop, and what are the most important tips? Here’s what I’ve found to be the most important things:
 
Make a plan

To make one big shop work and avoid running down to the supermarket because you’ve forgotten something, you’ll need a meal plan. Not only will this help you manage your shopping, but it can reduce your household waste, which will save you even more money – after all, the average home chucks out £480-worth of edible food a year.

If you want some inspiration, I love the NHS’ Change 4 Life meal planner tool, which provides healthy recipe ideas that cost around a fiver or less and feed four adults. The tool will draw up a meal plan for you and even print off a shopping list.

Be firm

It’s so easy to ‘pop’ into the supermarket if you’ve forgotten something but I really recommend avoiding this unless it’s genuinely an emergency. The stricter you are, the better you will get at buying everything in one go.

Go online

You can avoid the extra temptation almost entirely by shopping online and having your groceries delivered. You do pay a delivery charge when you shop online but I find this is more than offset by the amount I save by not buying impulse purchases or sweets to bribe bored kids with.

And if you use the grocery price comparison tool Mysupermarket.co.uk then you can even find the cheapest shop to buy your items in. It claims its customers save up to 20% per shop.

Check use-by dates

As I unpack the shopping into my cupboards, fridge and freezer, I check the use-by dates to make sure that they fit in with my meal plan. If food might go off before then I can rejig the week so that it is eaten up sooner or freeze it if necessary. This has really cut down on what I waste and means I don’t end up running into the supermarket at the last minute trying to find something for the kids’ supper.

Have back-ups

By planning my meals and doing one big shop I can help my family eat far more fresh food. But we’ve had the odd disaster (as a vegetarian trying to cook meat for my family things I occasionally screw up). So, I also have back-up food in my freezer – frozen veg, frozen fish, frozen potato cakes – so that I don’t have to leg it to the supermarket or takeaway because I’ve accidentally cooked something that no one will eat.

How do you shop? What are your top tips? Have your say using the comments below.