1. The single most
effective way to cut your grocery shopping bill
is to do the bulk of your shop at cheap
supermarkets. Lidl, KwikSave, Aldi and the like.
Buy your basics there. Many items cost about half
or a third of the 'normal' price in these shops
for example: Lidl sell salt at 12p, large bags of
flour, both self raising and plain at 12p, baked
beans are 9p, bread 19p, 12 rolls for 19p and so
on. They also often have all their vegetables
(which are usually class 1 so get rid of any
notions of poor quality produce) at half price.
Alcohol and household goods are also
exceptionally cheap here. One little tip: we have
found the extremely cheap tea/coffee and
household cleaning/laundry products these shops
sell to be...well...not good - other supermarkets
own makes are a much better buy with these items.
2. If you have some speciality items
that you need/want to buy you may not get them in
the discount shops but other supermarket's own
brand lables may suffice over the well known
labels (if you've seen adverts for a particular
product you will pay for those ads when buying it
- thats the only difference!). The Tesco Value
range is very well priced and good quality -
their chocolate, soya milk (which happens to be
organic so no worries about GM soy), scourers,
oven chips, loo rolls etc. are all great. deliver all over the UK too - ordering online also prevents you seeing all those extra temptations quite so much!
3. If you want to buy organic
produce the cheapest supermarket for this is Asda
followed by Tesco. Some areas have excellent box
schemes in operation - ask at your local health
food shop.
4. Certain products have a very
large mark-up when bought in tiny quantities such
as dried herbs, spices, seeds, nuts and beans. If
you have a whole food co-operative near you you
could save a lot by buying in bulk. To give you
an example: a typical 5g. jar of mixed herbs
costs 80p - Holland and Barratts (wholefood
chain) sell 100g bags for 99p - co-operatives do
them even cheaper. Most deliver over a very wide
radius - see the links section for some good ones.
If you can get together with friends and family
on this, even better.
5. Soya mince is a lot cheaper than
meat minces, a good source of protein and free of
any disease or antibiotics. Health food shops and
co-operatives typically have very reasonable bags
of dried soya mince and chunks. Frozen vegemince
is more pricey but available in supermarkets and
still cheaper than meat.
6. Beans, beans, beans. Nourishing,
filling, versatile and very cheap. The cheapest
way to buy them is dried. You then soak the
required quantity overnight and boil then next
day. Black eye beans and lentils (lentils don't
need pre-soaking) are the quickest cookers,
needing only about 30 minutes. They can then be
used in casseroles, soups, pasta sauces, curries,
chilli, pasties, salads - you name it!
7. Farm shops or markets can be very
economical - a sack of potatoes for a few pounds
can be the basis for many meals for a couple of
months.
8. It may seem really obvious, but
do take advantage of special offers if you need
the product - buy one get one free offers are
well worth it if it is something you would be
buying anyway.
9. Don't shop when hungry - well
weve all done it!
10. Make a list for what you need
for the week and stick to it. A weekly shop is
much more economical than lots of little trips
to shops.
11. Shop alone (if possible) - the
more people there are the more temptations will
be spotted!
12. Instead of buying several
different desserts buy the ingredients to make a
cake (see recipes section) - it's not hard
and, kept in the fridge it will give you pudding
over several evenings (unless it's too good of
course and it gets quickly scoffed!).
13. Before you go on your shopping
trip - check right to the back of your food
cupboards and freezer. If you are new to the
frugal lifestyle you could discover a veritable
Alladin's Cave of goodies that could be used up
instead of items you were planning to buy.
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