How to spend less at the supermarket

The cost of living crisis has impacted supermarket shoppers for years, with the price of a basket of groceries skyrocketing due to high inflation. Our expert advice, based on decades of supermarket research, will help you to reduce the cost of your shop. 

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

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.

• Find out more: which is the cheapest supermarket?

Avoid convenience stores

More than half of us shop at convenience stores at least once a week, according to a Which? survey (Nov 2023). 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

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 have found that members would consistently be paying less than non-members for the same trolley 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.

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: loyalty cards compared

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Consider changing 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. For a shopping list of 82 branded and own-label groceries in May 2025, Aldi and Lidl were nearly £50 cheaper than Waitrose. 

We also compare a long list of items, including more branded goods. Asda has been the cheapest supermarket for every month of 2025 so far. 

If you've remained loyal to a particular supermarket, this is really where you could see the biggest savings. But even when loyalty card prices are included, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco simply aren't as cheap as Aldi or Lidl. 

• Find out more: supermarket price comparison

Write a list – and stick to it

Ever noticed that the basics are always 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. 

However, some stores like to move their produce around. If you're often tempted by things you hadn't meant to buy, try shopping online, where it can be easier to stick to a list. 

And never shop when you're hungry.

• Find out more: best and worst 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 come into effect in October 2025, 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: our Affordable Food for All campaign

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: usually done twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening. 
• 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, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose told us there aren't specific times when they apply 'yellow sticker’ price cuts. 

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 chickpeas 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.

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.

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. 

So, if you find something in the cupboard that's past its best-before date, give it a sniff – if it smells and looks fine, it should be OK to eat.

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