How to spend less at the supermarket

Grocery prices were already higher than a few years ago, thanks to skyrocketing inflation during the cost-of-living crisis, but now the war in the Middle East is set to drive them up further.

Our expert advice, based on decades of supermarket research and pricing investigations, will help you reduce the cost of your shop.

Read on to find out our tips and tricks for reducing your grocery bills. 

Switch supermarket

Every month, we compare thousands of prices at eight of the UK's major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – to reveal the cheapest place to buy your food, drink and household essentials.

Aldi and Lidl are consistently the cheapest supermarkets in our comparison. Aldi was named the cheapest supermarket of 2025, after topping the table for 10 out of 12 months of the year. 

We've recently introduced a comparison of the price of branded groceries too, so you know where to shop to get the cheapest Heinz ketchup or cans of Coca Cola. If you don't want to trade your branded items for own-labels, then pick one of the cheapest supermarkets for branded groceries for your shop. 

• Find out more: supermarket price comparison

Join loyalty schemes

Loyalty pricing is everywhere, from supermarkets to other types of shops such as Boots and Superdrug. Most of the major supermarkets offer loyalty schemes.

We now include loyalty pricing discounts for Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco in our monthly supermarket price comparison and branded groceries price comparison, and have found that members consistently pay less than non-members for the same list of groceries.

We've found issues with the way loyalty pricing is being used by shops, including dodgy tactics such as raising the standard price just before the loyalty promotion was launched and loyalty discounts that simply never went back to the standard price. We're also concerned that millions of people are being excluded from accessing lower prices due to minimum age requirements or because they don't have an email address or access to an app. 

Despite our concerns, you'll undoubtedly pay less at the checkout when you shop using member discounts, so if you're able and eligible to sign up to a loyalty scheme and don’t mind handing over your data, you should probably do so.

It's worth noting, though, that even when loyalty card prices are included, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco simply aren't as cheap as Aldi or Lidl.

• Find out more: loyalty cards compared

Don't feel pressured by discounts

As with all discounts, don't feel pressured into buying what you don't need. Deals often run on for a couple of weeks, so you can plan in buying and using a product when you really need it.

It’s easy to check exactly when Tesco Clubcard Prices will finish, for example: the date an offer ends is written backwards in small print on the shelf label. If it says ‘265001’, that offer will end on 1 May.

Shelf labels for Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices have the date the promotion started in small print, which gives a clue to how long it will be valid for – offers usually run for a fortnight and end on Tuesdays.

Even if an offer is ending soon, Which? research has found that a lot of products regularly go back on offer again and again, so it's best to only buy the item if you were already planning to. Loyalty prices are often the same as items' regular selling prices at other stores, too.

For some supermarkets, it's best to download the app to access your discounts, as you may have personalised coupons that won't otherwise be applied. When ordering online, you can check for additional vouchers or discounts in your account. 

• Find out more:celebrate your birthday with freebies and discounts

Search different aisles – and look up and down

Some groceries, including rice, sauces and baking ingredients, can be found in multiple aisles at different prices. 

You might, for example, find rice or spices cheaper in the world foods aisle than in other parts of the shop. And if you're after sultanas or cashew nuts, check out the baking aisle as well as the dried fruit and nuts or snacking shelves.

When we checked (April 2026), a jar of Sainsbury's paprika powder was £1.10 for a 44g jar, which equates to £2.50 per 100g. But over in the world foods aisle, a 400g bag of Natco paprika was £2.20 - just 55p per 100g.

A 28g jar of Asda's crushed red chillies is £1.00 (35.7p per 10g) compared to £3.00 (15p per 10g) for a 200g bag of Rajah crushed red chillies in the world foods aisle.

A 500g bag of Tilda basmati rice is £3 in Tesco's rice aisle (£6 per kg). In the world foods aisle, you can buy a 5kg bag of the same Tilda rice for £16, just £3.20 per kg. To save even more, you could switch to another brand in the world foods section – Island Sun basmati rice is £11.50 for 5kg at Tesco, making it just £2.30 per kg. 

Supermarkets often place less profitable ranges high and low on the shelves, and the ones they want you to buy at eye level – so don't just pick up the first item you see, as it's likely to be the priciest option.

Compare the prices of pre-packaged and loose produce

Don’t assume pre-packaged fruit and vegetables are cheaper than loose items - it’s worth checking the unit prices (price per gram or item) and doing the sums. 

When we checked at Sainsbury's (April 2026), a bag of three courgettes worked out at £2.90 per kg, while loose courgettes were £2.78 per kg. In this case, it's cheaper to buy loose.

If produce is the same price whether you buy loose or pre-packaged, consider how many of that item you will actually use. Prepared vegetables offer convenience, but buying loose means you can buy exactly what you need. 

You’ll be helping the environment as well as saving money if the supermarket offers paper bags or you pick your own loose produce.

• Find out more: supermarkets and the environment

Avoid convenience stores

While you probably expect to pay a little more for convenience, the real price difference may shock you.

We checked the cost of 42 branded and own-label products on three occasions in June and July 2024 in Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and their convenience-store versions. 

The total cost of our basket of groceries averaged £16 more at Morrisons Daily than at Morrisons supermarkets, meaning you could shell out a massive £832 more over a year if you bought that selection of products once a week. The biggest price difference was for a tin of own-label chickpeas, which cost £1 at Morrisons Daily compared with 49p in the supermarket's bigger branches. 

In total, our 42 groceries would have averaged around £11 (14%) more at Sainsbury’s Local than at Sainsbury's supermarkets, and £10 (11%) more at Tesco Express than Tesco supermarkets for loyalty members, which adds up to more than £500 extra over a year.

Even essentials such as milk, bread and butter had a markup: you’d pay 8% more for two pints of own-label semi-skimmed milk at all three retailers’ convenience stores.

So if you're able, do your shopping at supermarkets rather than convenience stores and you'll save hundreds of pounds.

• Find out more: the cost of convenience

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Recognise supermarkets' psychological tricks

Ever had to step around a special-offer display before you're even in the shop? Anything that forces us to change direction makes us pay attention, as do signs that move or flash. 

The same applies to vertical displays or signs in the middle of an aisle: our eyes naturally scan from left to right, so breaking up that flow encourages us to stop and read an offer. 

When a promotion captures your attention, think about whether it's really something you need with a good discount or just clever marketing. 

A red or yellow sticker in some supermarkets may signal a discount, but this isn't the case in all shops, as some use them for regular prices – so keep your wits about you with anything designed to catch your eye. 

Supermarkets also tantalise your senses with the smell of freshly baked bread, beautiful floral displays in summer and festive songs at Christmas – all of which make shoppers feel more comfortable and, therefore, more likely to spend.

And have you noticed that basics are often at opposite ends of the store? Supermarkets do this to make sure you walk past every shelf, even when you're only there for a few essentials. 

Find out the locations of the things you need and head straight for them. It's easy to do this in your local supermarket, but more difficult when you're somewhere unfamiliar. In most stores, dairy products and bread are at the back, fruit and vegetables are at the front, and drinks and frozen items are at the far end. 

• Find out more: best supermarkets

Get your calculator out

Unit pricing – the price per 100g or 100ml, for example – should make it easy to compare different products and offers at a glance.

However, Which? has repeatedly found unit pricing to be inconsistent and sometimes not in use at all, making it much harder to work out the cheapest product.

In July 2023, Which? reported Tesco to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for not displaying unit pricing on loyalty promotions. Last year, Tesco said it would add unit pricing to Clubcard offers. 

The government has now produced new regulations to reform the Price Marking Order, which governs the rules around unit pricing. The changes, which will came into effect on 6 April 2026, include:

• making the measures for unit pricing of products consistent
• making it clearer that unit pricing has to be legible
• making unit pricing compulsory for products on loyalty offers and certain types of multibuy.

In the meantime, it's worth using a calculator if the labels let you down. We'll be keeping a close eye on unit prices this year. 

• Find out more: what's happening to food price inflation?

Snap up 'yellow sticker' bargains

Food shops often have an area dedicated to yellow-stickered products (or red at Aldi). These tend to be discounted items that are nearing their best-before or use-by date. 

Here's what the supermarkets told us when we asked what time of day they tend to discount items:

• Aldi and M&S: likely to be close to the time the store closes. Aldi marks down perishable products by either 30% or 75% on their last day of shelf life. It gives a 30% discount on ambient groceries such as cereal, pasta and tinned food if it deems the packaging imperfect.
• Asda: the process for markdowns varies store by store, so it's worth getting familiar with the timings in your local shop.
• Lidl: tends to be done first thing in the morning and then a few hours before closing, but staff can opt to apply the yellow stickers throughout the day.
• Morrisons: reductions aren't applied at specific times. 
• Tesco: products are marked down regularly throughout the day, and in many stores you'll find a dedicated 'Reduced in Price, Just as Nice' section with discounter short-dated items. Tesco is also running a trial in a number of Tesco Express stores allowing customers to take any remaining yellow stickered items for free at the end of the day, after they have first been offered to charities and staff - one for the night owls to look out for. 
• Waitrose: reductions in price begin one or two days before the product's expiry date, depending on the product. Products remaining on the day of expiry are reduced again and then shops will make further reductions early in the evening, if required, followed by final reductions an hour before closing. Look out for yellow stickers on produce on the shelves, as well as trolleys or baskets of final reductions in the evening. 

Sainsbury's didn't respond when we asked about reductions in price. 

Shift down a tier

Whether you move from buying a branded version of a product to a supermarket's own premium-label alternative, or you swap from a mid-range to a 'value' line, you can save money by moving down even just one tier of groceries. 

Which? regularly taste-tests everything from cornflakes to hot chocolate. The cheaper supermarket versions often win, and our tasters sometimes can't tell the difference – perhaps because branded and own-label products are often made by the same people in the same factories.

• Find out more: the own labels that beat the big brands

Know the difference between use-by and best-before dates

Food with a use-by date must be consumed by midnight of its expiry date or it could be unsafe. But best-before dates are far more flexible and don't have the same safety issues. Give it a sniff and if it looks and smells fine then it should be ok. 

Even though best before dates are just guidance, you still want to make sure you get the longest life out of your fresh produce - particularly if you are aiming to do one big shop at a supermarket to save money over using convenience stores. Part of this is picking the items with the longest shelf life. 

But the big supermarkets have removed ‘best before’ dates from many of their pre-packaged fresh fruit and vegetables to try to reduce food waste - so if you’re after a pack of tomatoes or a punnet of grapes with the longest shelf life, you may need to decipher the code on the packaging. 

We asked the supermarkets to confirm the codes they use, and the majority didn't. But we believe the following applies:

• Asda and Tesco: look for a letter followed by a number: ‘A’ is January, ‘B’ is February, ‘C’ is March and so on, while the number is the day of the month. For example, the best-before date of an item with the code ‘I27’ is 27 September.
• Sainsbury’s: codes begin with ‘J’ and end with ‘S’, standing for J Sainsbury, and contain the date in the middle. So the best-before date of an item with the code ‘J0910S’ is 9 October.
• Morrisons: simply uses the first letter and day of the month, so a product with the code ‘S27’ has a best-before date of 27 September. 

Find out more: which online supermarket delivers the freshest groceries? 

Save groceries from going to waste

Too Good to Go is an app that allows stores to sell unsold food in ‘surprise bags’ to help minimise food waste.

You pay via the app and collect it from the store at a specified time. Bear in mind you can’t choose what you get, and the food will probably need eating sooner rather than later.

Bakeries, cafes, convenience stores and restaurants alongside supermarkets including Asda, Aldi, Co-op, Morrisons, M&S and Waitrose are all on the app.

Lidl stores offer Too Good to Waste boxes containing around 5kg of fruit and vegetables that have become slightly damaged, discoloured or deteriorated, but are still perfectly good to eat. A box costs £1.50 and can usually be found by the checkouts. Sainsbury’s sells £2 Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me boxes with an assortment of surplus fresh produce in more than 230 stores. The boxes are made up at the end of the day, so you’re most likely to nab one in the early evening.

Get in touch with your local community

Many towns have a community fridge, where local businesses donate food that isn't going to be used. 

You might find fresh produce such as vegetables, meat or dairy, alongside baked goods, ambient groceries and sometimes healthcare or baby products too. These are open to all and free to use, and tend to be popular. Search the Community Fridge Network map, or look at local Facebook groups or magazines to find your nearest one.

The Olio app shows you where to get free food from local shops, restaurants and bakeries as well as offers on groceries in the area. You can browse what's available, and request what you'd like. 

• Find out more: how to buy more sustainable chocolate