Guest Post | How To Reduce Your Food Shopping Bill

Just over a year ago I realised that as a family of five we were spending on average £120 a week on our food shopping, which to me seemed excessive? I set myself the challenge of reducing this shopping bill in an effort to free up some extra money for our family. And I succeeded!! Most weeks I spend between £50-£70 depending on what I am buying.

The first thing I decided to do was to organise my tins/dried food cupboard so that I would easily see what I had. It honestly just makes me feel so much happier to open the cupboard door and see a beautifully organised shelf!

Next I decided to meal plan massively thinking about breakfasts, lunches and snacks. These weren’t set to days but I chose seven lunches etc and then I could have them as and when throughout the week. Along side the meal plan I wrote down exactly what I would need for each meal/day. Which led me to my shopping list. Each week I cross reference my cupboard contents and my meal plan ingredients and add anything I don’t have to my shopping list. I then add any items that are every shop items such as milk and fruits etc etc and also any non food items.

My next top tip would be to mix it up. I always shopped at Tesco before and have tried many supermarkets since including Asda, Lidl and Aldi amongst others. For me I found my local Lidl had the best quality products for the best prices. I made this my weekly supermarket and have been so so amazed at the savings I can make.

However I fully appreciate some people live very busy lives and so the appeal of shopping online is too great to sacrifice. When my gran was very poorly I found myself with not a lot of time to go to a supermarket to shop and I used online shopping for a while, and I found that by searching for discount codes each week I was able to save quite a bit of money! As an example I simply typed into google ‘tesco online shopping discount code’ and there are so many money saving sites full to the brim with discount codes. One of my personal favourites was a £12 off a £60 shop code!!!!

My top tip would be to buy more expensive things in bulk when they are on offer. Whenever I come across my favourite shampoo, fabric conditioner or washing powder on offer I will pick up two or three and store them. Over the month it definitely saves a few pennies and the pennies will add up!!

Saving money on your food shopping can seem like a giant and impossible task. Once you have organised yourself and tried a few different places to find where suits you and your family best its amazing how easy it is! Good luck to anyone wishing to try and save some money!