How to save How to save on shopping bills

Saving money on your shopping doesn't have to be difficult –  the are simple things you can do to cut the cost of your grocery bills.

Save money by only buying what you need

Save money on your shopping - only buy what you need

Be more disciplined when you shop – take a shopping list and stick to it. 

Only buy special offers if they are things you normally use, and wise up to the tricks supermarkets use to part you from your cash. 

This way you can still get the quality you want but at a much more preferable cost.

Buy own-brand products to save money

Companies have huge budgets to get you to buy their products, so try not to fall into their marketing traps. 

Buying own-brand products such as toilet roll and kitchen roll will save money without there being an intolerable drop in quality. 

Sometimes you might find you've been missing out on good products because you may have been put off by the own-brand 'stigma'. 

Premium ranges

Those of you who are into labels might want to rethink your spending habits in the current climate. 

If you're an avid reader of Which? taste tests, you'll know that supermarkets' premium ranges, such as Tesco Finest and Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, may not be necessarily better than their own-brand counterparts. 

After all, these ranges are still own-brands, just with better marketing and sometimes better-quality ingredients or presentation. So you might be better off sticking with the regular option.

Save money by shopping around

Supermarket prices fluctuate daily, and shopping for groceries online isn't the same as buying other goods and services such as airline tickets. 

The price you're charged on a given day may not be the same price you pay for the same goods the next day, and the amount you're quoted may not reflect the amount you will actually pay when the order is dispatched. 

Prices do differ from store to store even in the same chain, so it might be better trying another branch in a neighbouring area to see if their prices are cheaper. 

Shop around 

Another simple way to save money on your shopping bills is to shop at a cheaper chain. 

It's worth checking out mysupermarket which will compare the cost of your weekly shop at Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Ocado.

Fruit and veg are often cheaper at local markets, though not necessarily at local farmers’ markets. Also, goods like rice or noodles can be much cheaper at ethnic grocers and stores for whom they're big sellers.

Reduce waste to save money

UK households throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year – around a third of what we buy – according to research by the government's Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). 

If we stopped throwing away food that is still edible – half of this amount – each household could save £400 on average each year.

Check out lovefoodhatewaste.com, which has suggestions for how to make tasty meals from leftovers, as well as advice on storing food to make sure it doesn't go off before it should. 

Only buy the buy-one-get-one-free (Bogof) offers if you're actually going to use the 'one free' – will you really use 2kg of potatoes before they go green and sprout?