How to lower your supermarket spend

When you take a look at where you spend most of your money, there are opportunities to lower your supermarket spend. Most families will see that a lot of their money goes on shopping from the supermarket. Food, cleaning products, hygiene products and other essential items all add up to a large amount of your monthly budget. Because of this, your supermarket spend is a good place to start when you are trying to save some money.

Here are some tips on how to lower your spending at the supermarket:

1. Swap fresh fruit, veg and fish for frozen

If you find that you end up throwing away food that has expired before it has been used, then you should try buying frozen food instead. Frozen food lasts much longer, and you just need to take it out of the freezer on the day you are planning on eating it.

You can significantly reduce your food waste by swapping over to frozen food and it is just as good for you as fresh fruit and veg are. Also, if you are not sure whether you will be able to use something before it goes off, put it in the freezer on the day you purchased it.

2. Re-use leftovers

Getting creative with leftovers is a great way to make your food last for more meals. If you have leftovers from your Sunday roast, this is ideal for turning into what is often called ‘Bubble and Squeak’. It is throwing all the ingredients that are leftover from your roast dinner into a frying pan and creating a tasty new meal the next day. You can also use extra bits of meat and vegetables to make soups.

3. Change to supermarket brands

You are often paying twice as much for branded products compared to the supermarket’s brand. Therefore it’s worth trying to switch to some of the supermarket’s own. Items like cereal, toilet rolls, cleaning products and tinned foods can be just as good quality, without paying extra for the brand name. In a lot of taste tests, people tasting food products that are the supermarket’s brands could not tell the difference from their usual brands.

4. Combine smaller amounts of meats with less expensive proteins

If you spend quite a lot of money on meats each week, you could try bulking your meals out with less expensive protein foods. For example, you could add some chorizo to a chicken risotto, as chorizo is a lot cheaper than chicken. You can also look at buying cheaper cuts of meat, like switching chicken breast for chicken legs. Beans, lentils and other pulses are excellent sources of plant-based protein too.

5. Organise your fridge and freezer properly

We can prolong the life of a lot of food by storing it better. Fridges should be at 4 degrees to keep them at the optimal temperature. You should also store raw meats on the bottom shelf as it is the coldest, eggs in the middle and dairy and pre-prepared food at the top where it is the warmest. Try to do a quick freezer audit before you do your shopping, so you do not forget about foods that are pushed towards the back of the freezer.

These tips should help you to reduce your supermarket spending but if you are looking for additional financial support, you might want to take a look at how Central Liverpool Credit Union can provide loans with great rates and can help you to start saving money.

You can also look at our Save as you Borrow scheme, which allows you to save money whilst also repaying a loan.

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