From the time to nab discounts to luxury items for less, savvy shoppers share their insider tricks to save HUNDREDS on your grocery bills
EVERYONE loves to bag a bargain at the supermarket - but stores don’t always make it easy.
It’s why thrifty bloggers have shared their insider tips with The Sun to help you save hundreds of pounds on your grocery bills.
Five bloggers have revealed insider tricks such as the best time to scoop heavily-discounted items, and how to pick up luxury items for much less.
It could help you save some serious cash off your grocery bill - especially after Asda became the latest supermarket to scrap its popular price match scheme earlier this month.
The average weekly food shop spend is £53.20, according to the Office of National Statistics, which works out as £239.40 a month.
Meanwhile the average weekly household spend - including bills and transport - is £528.90.
Slashing your bills using money-saving tips could then free up cash for other things your family wants to spend on.
The bloggers sharing their tips include the founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, Tom Church, and the author of The Savvy Shopper's Cookbook, Amy Sheppard.
Francesca Mason, who writes From Pennies to Pounds, Lynn James, of Mrs Mummy Penny, and Cass Bailey, author of The Diary of a Frugal Family, have also shared their savviest tips.
This is how they manage to keep their bills low - and now you can do the same.
Amy Sheppard, author of The Savvy Shopper's Cookbook, on switching brands and the perfect timing
, 38, of Cornwall, is a food writer and the author of The Savvy Shopper's Cookbook, which includes cheap and healthy meal plans, money-saving tips and recipes to help readers save time and money in the kitchen.
1. Right place, right time. Every supermarket has a key time that they reduce their products. You’ll find yellow stickered items throughout the day, but most of it will only be reduced by a small amount and is often a high price, low interest item.
To get all the good stuff – everyday items that form part of your usual shop - you need to work out your supermarkets ‘sticker time.’ It varies between shops, but it’s usually between 6.30 – 7pm or an hour before closing.
You can find discounts of 75 per cent on household favourites. Be warned, there are many thrifty shoppers competing for products, so be assertive.
2. Switch brands. It’s common knowledge that switching to own brands can save a huge amount on your shopping bill – but not everybody is ready for that.
Supermarkets actually have four pricing tiers for products. 1. Luxury: for example, Finest or Taste the Difference ranges. 2. Brands: these tend to be the ones hardest to give up such as McCain, Branston and Walkers. 3. Own brand: such as Waitrose coffee. 4. Supermarket basics: essentials ranges in simple, value, economy packaging.
If you’re not ready to go from top to bottom, just try downshifting. Drop one level in all products. You’ll still save money, but the difference in quality will be minimal.
3. Put back five things. This is only for the very frugal or the over-spenders amongst you. When you get to the end of your supermarket shop, whether it’s in person or online: put back five items. It’s not easy, especially if you’ve already made cutbacks, but it’s a good way to work out what items are essential and what you can live without.
Tom Church, founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, on joining Facebook groups and buying in bulk
Tom Church, 28, of London, is the founder of deals website . The bargain hunter is always on the hunt for ways to save people money, and has even created a Facebook bot to help shoppers always find the lowest price.
1. Join a thrifty community. You should join Facebook groups such as Reduce Your Supermarket Spend and my own group Latest Deals, Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK. Get a heads-up from 100,000s of British people about supermarket deals.
If you're a fan of Prosecco, follow the Facebook page Prosecco Watch.
2. Use a comparison app. Miguel Barclay, author of One Pound Meals, has a little known app called Comparasaurus. It is the best supermarket price comparison app and particularly useful for saving on expensive items such as alcohol.
Comparasaurus checks all the supermarkets in real-time and gives you the prices. Morrisons is £5 cheaper than Waitrose for the same product. Guess where I'm going?
3. Buy in bulk. Dishwasher tablets, washing powder, washing-up liquid - don't buy them over and over again. Get them once, in bulk, for super cheap and delivered to your door.
Corporate cleaning companies sell their products on eBay for crazy-low prices. For example, you can get a box of 500 dishwasher tablets for just £30.95. That's two to three years' worth.
Francesca Mason, From Pennies to Pounds, on having a list and keeping things small
Francesca Mason is the woman behind the popular money-saving blog where she writes about paying off debt, saving money and how to earn more money to achieve financial freedom.
1. Avoid decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is when we are confronted with so many different things to choose from that we either end up going for the easiest option or nothing.
There's a reason why there are so many different varieties at the supermarket. That's also why they put items at the till as well, so that when you are so mentally fatigued from making all of those decisions around the shop, you will just grab a snack without thinking about it.
The best way to overcome this is to have a list, and stick religiously to that list.
2. Water it down. Buy full fat milk with the intention of watering down to make it last longer.
3. Keep it small. Only get a small trolley so you aren't tempted to fill it with loads of stuff (same goes for not using a basket when only going in with the intention of getting one or two items).
Lynn James, Mrs MummyPenny, on buying brand dupes and the best time to shop
Lynn James, 41, of Hertfordshire, is the founder of the blog whose aim is to make personal finance seem simple and to suggest lifestyle choices that could save you money.
1. Buy brand dupes. My top tip would be know where to shop for brilliant copies of the brands you love.
For example I love Aussie shampoo but know that the Aldi version is so very similar, and half the price as it's £1.99 in Aldi versus £4 in Tesco. The same goes for Nespresso coffee pods. Why pay 33p per pod with the official Nespresso pods when you can get the same taste of a coffee pod from Aldi for 18p.
2. Shop at 7pm. My other top tip is knowing the best time to shop in your local store to grab the best reduced price bargains. I know my local Co-op puts out the biggest discounted reduced price stock at 7pm everyday, so heading there then will net me lots of goodies to pop into the freezer.
3. Avoid items at eyeline. Shelves directly in front of your eyeline will have more premium products. Look down to the bottom shelves for cheaper products.
Cass Bailey, The Diary of a Frugal Family, on checking prices and avoiding tempting offers
Cass Bailey started her blog to write about how she saves money and keeps household costs low. She says she doesn't' take money saving to the extreme, but uses common sense to slash bills.
1. Check the unit price. Most shelf edge labels in the supermarket have a unit price (price per 100ml / price per kilo) so you can use them to check what really is a good deal and what isn't. It's interesting to check the price per kilo of pre-packed veg to the loose ones you can choose yourself.
2. Look up and down. The more expensive products are generally at eye level but if you look up and down then you'll find the cheaper own brand versions so do look around before popping the first thing you see in your trolley.
3. Avoid display offers. The products on the end of the aisles are usually set up to display products on offer but they're not always - sometimes they're just full-price stock that the supermarket want us to think are on sale.
Even when the products are on offer, have a look and see if they really are reduced by as much as you think. Sometimes the RRP is a price much higher than the store would usually charge so it's not as big a saving as you might think.
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Last week, we revealed how a super scrimper manages to save hundreds of pounds every year on his food shopping.
And as part of our Sun Savers series, we shared five tips to help you spend less at the supermarket.
You can also get cashback every time you shop if you use these five tricks.
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