Supermarket Shopping Tips

32 top tools and tricks to slash food bills

Supermarkets are brilliant at making us spend our hard-earned cash, yet with a few focused techniques you could save £1,000s a year.

We've put together 32 ways to max discounts, including how to compare costs online, boost gains from price check policies, time trips to bag the best yellow sticker reductions and more.

A supermarket's job is to make us spend

Supermarkets are cathedrals of consumerism. They're perfectly honed marketing environments, benefiting from millions of pounds of research into how to encourage and seduce us into buying and spending more than we should. This means as consumers, we must learn counter moves.

If you want to teach an eight-year-old about money, the best place to start is a supermarket. Ask them what they can smell. It'll usually be bread or a bakery, as the scent makes us hungry and likely to buy more food, so the supermarket profits.

Supermarkets' other tactics include the following:

Sweets and magazines placed by the till. These are impulse buys, so putting them near the till gives stores one last attempt to grab our cash.
Store layouts make us walk the whole distance. Regularly bought items tend to be spread around the store, so we need to pass many other tempting goodies to complete our shopping.
Eye-level products are the profitable ones. The most profitable stock is placed at eye-level (or children’s eye-level if it's targeted at them), yet profitable goods tend not to be the best deals for shoppers. The age-old adage "look high and low for something" really does apply.
Sales-type signage for non-sales items. Seedless grapes and other attractive treats are usually near the store entrance, often below cost price, to entice us in. Similar signs and displays are used elsewhere to promote deals, even when they're not on sale.

Bright colours and the words "discount" and "sale" make us feel good, yet the reduction may be pennies and cheaper equivalents hidden elsewhere.
Steer your own trolley

For those on a strict budget, it's important to get into the right mindset. Don't ask: "What's the cheapest way to get all the goodies I want?". Instead ask: “On my £XYZ budget, what can I afford?”

Of course, a budget is part of a wider strategy and how much to prioritise food shopping depends on your other expenditure. Use our freeBudget Planner tool to help.
Take the Downshift Challenge

Don't believe the brand hypnosis. Whether it's bacon, biscuits, baked beans or bolognese sauce, if something costs more it's got to be better, right? Wrong.

The phrasing and promotional language used in shops hypnotises us into thinking most costly is best. While the packaging looks more opulent, look beneath to the actual product you're getting and sometimes you won't be able to tell the difference.

Supermarkets separate their products into different categories, using loaded language to give you the choice of how 'luxury' or 'basic' you want to be.

As you move up the brand level costs increase, as do presentation and sometimes ingredients. Often a manufacturers' brand and own brand may well be made in the same factory by the same people (though it's tough to prove with specific products).
- Premium. Words like 'finest' or 'extra special' imply it's a treat.
- Branded. Products like McVitie's Jaffa Cakes or Kellogg's cereal.
- Own brand. These tend to be presented in a similar way to manufacturers' brands, but with the supermarket's own take on it.
- Value. With names like 'basic' or 'savers', the presentation is deliberately stark to imply it's cut back to the bones.
Take the Downshift Challenge

To fight back and save big, try the Downshift Challenge. The theory is simple:

Try dropping one brand level on everything. Then see if you can tell the difference. If not, stick with the cheaper one.

The next time you shop, swap one of everything to something just one brand level lower. So if you usually buy four cartons of Tesco's own-brand orange juice, this time buy three of those and one Tesco Everyday Value. If you use branded aloe vera shower cream, drop to Asda's own brand.

The point of this system isn't to force you to drop down a brand level on everything, but to ensure you're not spending money for no reason. If you can't tell the difference between the lower brand level goods, then why pay more for it.

It's far better to taste with your mouth than your eyes, so try giving family members a blind taste test with no packaging to ensure it's fair. Of course, let's not go extreme on this. If there's a 2for1 on a higher brand (and you'd use both packs) making it cheaper than downshifting, stick with the higher brand.

Try the Downshift Challenge tool

To inspire you, try our fun Downshift Challenge tool. Tell it where you shop, how much you spend and the proportion of each brand you buy (premium, manufacturers', own brand or basic) and it'll crunch the numbers.

Many can save £1,000s. Drop a brand level on everything you buy and you'll usually cut the bill by 30%. For a family's £100 shop that's £1,750 a year. Even if you only drop half the brands because you can tell the difference on others, that's still a saving of £875 a year.

It's worth noting the biggest downshift savings aren't from premium brands to manufacturer brands, but for those already lower down
Watch the Downshift Challenge video
Get trade down product suggestions

Supermarket comparison site Mysupermarket* includes a 'trade down' option based on the Downshift Challenge theory. So when you enter your shopping trolley, as well as comparing the price of all your items across online supermarkets, it gives you the downshifted option too.

This is a quick system and a great way to see the scale of the savings, even if you don't shop online.

Downshift cleaning products & toiletries too

Rather strangely, reports show people are more likely to stick with branded washing powders, shower gels and other cleaning products than food. Yet these products don't even need tasting and the saving is huge. So try downshifting these too.

Then again, old-style MoneySavers wouldn't forgive us if we didn't say you can clean the whole house with white vinegar and lemon juice (read more on Old Style Cleaning and full info in the charity Thrifty Ways book).

Find the tastiest own brands

Everything from shortbread to Chardonnay is covered by The Supermarket Own Brand Guide, which reviews supermarket's own brands. It pits them against their brand name rivals and gives a mark out of 10.

Reviews are written by food critic Martin Isark. He’s gradually tasting his way through the big supermarkets and has reviewed more than 10,000 products from Aldi, Asda, the Co-operative, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose.

He says own brands can smack the bottoms of posh ranges, even when it comes to taste. You definitely don’t always get what you pay for.

Hunt for disguised own brands

After the Downshift Challenge, many people will be tempted to ask, “is there actually any difference between normal brands and own-brands?” Often they’re made in the same factories.

To help break through this, there's a discussion in the forum, which asks any current or past factory workers to dish the dirt on whether there's really any difference. Of course there’s no guarantee it’s true, but it makes fun reading.

Read the 'Disguised own brand' Great Hunt.

For an ITV programme, Martin got a scientist to examine some own brands and compare them to the main brands. Surprisingly, almost none were nutritionally identical. The conclusion was small differences were deliberately added so no one can say “they’re the same”. Even so, they’re often very similar in taste, so it doesn’t matter too much.

Never shop when hungry

OK, so it may sound obvious, but it's true: if you're hungry, you’re more likely to buy things you don’t need.

Plus beware pick-up shops. If you pop into your local shop on your way home to buy a pint of milk as a catch-up midweek, don’t pick up a basket. Do that, and you’ll generally fill it. If you want a pint of milk, buy a pint of milk then leave.

Compare the cost of your trolley

Compare the cost of your shopping trolley at the major online supermarkets with Mysupermarket*.

It looks at the biggies: Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Ocado, Aldi, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. For toiletries, it checks Superdrug and Boots. The prices are often reflected in-store, so even if you're going in person, it’s worth doing a check to see which is cheapest for you.

As you enter your data, Mysupermarket also suggests alternative options that may be cheaper. For example, if you’re buying two six-packs of cola and a 12-pack is cheaper, it lets you know.

Got a top tip that we haven't listed? Feed back in the 30 Ways To Cut Supermarket Costs discussion.

Take couponing to the max

Extreme couponers source, gain and hoard hundreds of product and store coupons, then combine them for huge code-stacking discounts.

Many have astonishing success, such as forumite Purple Sarah: "I got £67 of shopping for 11p after offers and coupons. I used £39.50 of Clubcard coupons, £5 off 40, a price promise and other coupons."

Few will reach such hights, but many can cut costs with our 20 Extreme Couponing Tips.

Don't get 'ad by special offers

In February 2013, Which? investigated the price of 700,000 items on sale at the five big supermarkets and found some special offers were more expensive than products not on sale.

Supermarkets' tactics included upping the price per item when products went into a multibuy offer and exaggerating original prices to make special offers seem cheaper.

For a collection of nonsensical offers from supermarkets, see our When Promos Go Wrong guide. Users sent us their best spots, eg "Air freshener 75p each or 2 for £5!", and in best Tony Hart fashion we compiled a gallery.
Track if it's really a bargain

Most of us know just because a supermarket lists an item as "on offer", that doesn't mean it's cheap. The trouble has been sorting awesome offers from pants promos.

To help, supermarket comparison site Mysupermarket*charts products' price histories to show if a supermarket's 'was' price is realistic.
- How to do it: Simply sign up to Mysupermarket for free, then search for an item. On its page, scroll down and you'll see a chart of the supermarkets' average prices for that product over the last year. Results can be fascinating.
- Set up a price alert.You can get price alerts on your favourite groceries – ideal for stocking up on favourite items that don't go off. Search for a product, click 'add price alert' and Mysupermarket fires off an email as soon as the price drops in one or more stores.
Grab online supermarket vouchers

Online supermarkets commonly put out introductory discount vouchers to 'capture' new customers, eg £15 off a £50 spend at Waitrose.

For a detailed list of free codes and vouchers, see the Shopping Vouchers deals list. All hot new vouchers go in our free weekly email.
Special offer run out? Get a rain check voucher

If a special offer item is out of stock, some supermarkets will give you a voucher. Here’s a couple of examples:
- Asda Smiley Vouchers. Asda staff are allowed to give out 'Smiley Vouchers' worth up to £1, when a customer's had a problem or something isn’t quite right. One of these reasons is that a special offer product's out of stock. Again, vouchers are at shop assistants' discretion, so a friendly smile goes a long way.
  
  You can spend the vouchers on anything at Asda except tobacco, alcohol and lottery tickets.
- Sainsbury's Special Coupons. If a special offer's run out, Sainsbury's shop assistants dish out Special Coupons, allowing you to buy the same product from a different brand at the special offer price.
  
  For example, if it was doing 500 bags of PG Tips for £1, you'd be able to get 500 bags of Tetley for the same price - even if the usual price of both isn't the same.
  
  It’s at the shop assistant's discretion and some haven't heard of them, but MoneySavers report that politely explaining about the coupons can help. Coupons must be used on the same day as you get them.
Consider less choice, lower price supermarkets

When shopping in-store, consider Lidl and Aldi too if you haven’t before. These can often prove cheaper than the other big supermarkets – many shoppers go once a month to buy all their staples, then use the big four for the rest of their goods.

Get further money back with cashback

Once you've found the cheapest groceries, you may be able to get paid cashback on top. A number of sites get paid by online stores for sending traffic then give you a cut - full information and warnings in Top Cashback Sites.

Know when to BOGOF

Bogof! No, not you! BOGOF stands for ‘buy one, get one free’. Often there to 'exploit' our impulses, these can be a menace or an angel.

The time to grab 'em is when the BOGOF (or three-for-two or half-price deal) is on something that won't go off that you'd buy anyway. Classic examples include toothpaste, bog roll and batteries.

To locate cracking current offers, check the forum's Food and Grocery Shoppingboard. All top supermarket offers and loopholes also go in the free weekly email.

Loyalty schemes don't give something for nothing

Supermarkets use sneaky tactics to keep us in their store so we don’t take advantage of competitive markets.

Don't think loyalty schemes, such as Tesco Clubcard and Nectar, give you something for nothing. Loyalty points schemes are incorporated into pricing policies. So the golden rule is: choose where to shop on price, not because you get points, but always get points when you're spending there anyway.

Reclaim old Clubcard vouchers

Flash your Clubcard at Tesco and you bag one point per pound spent. Then every three months you’re sent the points as vouchers - 500 points equals a fiver to spend in-store.

Many lose or forget to use ‘em. But there’s an easy way to claw back the last two years' of unused vouchers (some report successes from even further back).

Log on to Tesco's site and tucked away is a ‘Your Vouchers’ area showing your voucher history, including those that haven’t been redeemed. See Reclaim Tesco Vouchers for more info.

Also note that a 500-point voucher is worth a fiver in Tesco, but you can trade it for up to three or four times that (ie, £15 or £20) via Tesco Clubcard Boost. Rewards include days out, restaurant vouchers, RAC membership and more. For full info on redeeming vouchers, see Tesco Points Boost.

Exploit price match policies

Five big supermarkets promise to refund the difference when groceries are cheaper at rivals.

It's usually done by the basket rather that individual items though, so the real trick’s to split your shop into bargains and full-price items to max the saving.

When you're shopping, separate uber-deals from full-price items. You could organise them in the front and back of the trolley, or even use different baskets. At checkout, pay for the two piles of shopping separately.

With luck, you'll have a basket full of full-price items that will hopefully score a price match discount or voucher. Then the separate basket of mega-bargains won't drag your average spend down.

The table below sets out each supermarket's policy. In Oct 2015, Tesco launched a instant price match guarantee. Morrisons closed its price match scheme in November.

Supermarket price promises compared

	ASDA	OCADO	SAINSBURY'S	TESCO
What's the deal? (i)	If not 10% less than next cheapest, you get a voucher for the difference	If not cheaper than Tesco.com, you get a voucher for the difference + 1p back	If not cheaper than Asda, you get a voucher for the difference	If not cheaper than competitor, it takes the difference off your bill at checkout
Does it work online?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Does it work in all stores?	Yes (petrol filling Stations excluded)	N/A - online only	Main stores (Locals, Centrals and petrol stations excluded)	In Metros, Superstores, Extras
Supermarkets compared	Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose	Tesco.com	Asda	Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's
Own-label goods?	Yes	Yes - those which are comparable	No	No
Special offer goods?	Yes, but only when "fairly included"	Yes on comparable promotions	Certain comparable promotions included	Certain comparable promotions included
Items needed?	Min 8, 1 must be comparable	Min 1 comparable	Min 10, 1 comparable	Min 10, 1 comparable
Min spend?	No	£40	No	No
Maximum paid	£100/month, max 10 claims	£10 per shop	£10 per shop	£20 per shop
Vouchers/ discount paid automatically?	No, you must claim	Yes, by email	Yes, at till	Yes, it takes a discount off your bill at the till or when you pay online
Vouchers valid for...	28 days	14 days	14 days	N/A
(i) Based on total cost of all comparable goods. Comparable items are branded goods or where weight and/or size is similar.

Time trips right to bag huge yellow sticker discounts

If you spot a yellow sticker discount – fantastic. Grab it and use it quickly as it’s a saving on perfectly good nosh. To build the info on this, we asked MoneySavers who work in supermarkets to spill the beans on their stores' reduction policies.

Reduction times varied by store/opening time, yet some definite patterns emerged. The first yellow stickers appear around 10am, and the silly-price reductions begin at 7pm, when stores cut prices by 75% and upwards.

Supermarket rough reductions schedule

	UP TO 25% OFF	UP TO 50% OFF	UP TO 75% AND UP
Asda	12noon	5pm	9pm
Morrisons	-	5pm	7pm
Sainburys	1pm	5pm	8pm
Tesco	8am	4pm	8pm
Co-op	8am	5pm	7pm
Source: The Great 'Supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies’ Hunt (2012).

Most shop floor staff have the authority to reduce prices at their discretion, so keep your eye out for goods that are damaged/nearing their sell-by dates. Their overwhelming cry was: "We will reduce prices for friendly customers, but if you’re rude and demand a reduction – forget it."

Don't be a waster

Do you know the difference between a ‘best before’ and ‘display until’ date? If not, the likelihood is you're throwing away a lot of food unnecessarily.

’Use-by’ dates mean chuck food away after this date, as otherwise it’s a health risk. ‘Best before’ dates mean food is usually still OK to eat after this date, so don’t waste money by throwing perfectly edible produce away.

The use-by date: Bin it! Use-by means just that. Eating nosh beyond that date is risky, even if it looks and smells fine. Typical foods to watch include dairy, milk, fish and eggs.
The best before date: Still edible after the date. Best before labels usually have nothing to do with safety, they're just the manufacturer's view of when they're at optimum quality. This is usually longer lasting foods such as frozen meals, tins, sugar, pasta and cereals.

You can eat after the best before. Use taste and sight - the only downside's the food may lose some flavour and texture.
Display-until and sell-by: Instructions for shops' staff, not for you. These dates are instructions for shop staff to tell them when they should take a product off the shelves. Check the ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates instead.

Find more ideas about saving food on LoveFoodHateWaste.

Get a free fridge memo print out

Try our free Food Saving Memo to print out and stick on your fridge.

As above, the key is that while eating beyond use-bys is a health risk, there's no explicit safety risk just from eating food beyond best-befores (except for eggs).

Grab big discounts for abandoning your virtual shopping basket

It’s possible to bag big discounts from online supermarkets simply for walking out the (virtual) shop. When you don’t complete an order, they often email you a discount as a way to entice you back.

To try it, pop something in your basket, without buying. You may well find a code or offer lands in your inbox a few days later. Sign into your account though or they won’t know who you are.

While we’ve no concrete proof, forumites reckon they’ve nabbed £5 off at Tesco, £20 off Ocado and £22 off Waitrose this way. For more insider shopping tricks like this, see our 13 Shopping Secrets guide.

Buy beyond best-befores at big discounts

Not only is it usually safe to eat food beyond best-befores, it's legal to sell them.

There are local specialists and even an online store, Approved Food, which specialises in out-of-date stock. Typical deals have included 29p Bisto stock pots (4-pack), five Snickers for £1 and 170g French's mustard for 29p.

There's a £5.99 delivery charge, so it's worth bulk-buying. As there aren't any finite rules on how far beyond a best before date it's still safe to eat products, you need to make the decision yourself. Generally though, the longer the original shelf life of the goods before the best before date, the longer you can go beyond.

Use a 2D linear tracking device

Supermarkets are great at targeting our impulses, so nowt’s more powerful than a good old-fashioned shopping list - hopefully by giving it a pretentious name, it'll feel more important.

The reason's obvious. By planning what you need before heading out, it's easier to cut out anything that goes over budget and stick to it. Buy only what you planned, with a little flexibility for promotions.

Write a meal plan

The best way to make your shopping list super-effective is by writing a meal plan for the week/month. That way you can work out what you’re going to eat every day, incorporating the ingredients you already have.

To help, there's an amazing resource where thrifty MoneySaving Old-Stylers have put together menu planners of various thrift levels to copy and download.

Get organised with the full index of free MoneySaving menu planners.

Nifty tools to use up larder leftovers

To stop wasting food that you don’t know what to do with, use sites such as Supercook, which suggests recipes for the items left over in your fridge or cupboard.

Tell the Supercook or BigOven tools what items are in your fridge or cupboard and they'll suggest a recipe for them from 1,000s. Alternatively, just go to this site's Old Style Recipe Index and scroll down to the relevant ingredient.

Get a trolley boost every Xmas

Many supermarkets urge you to save for up to 4% bonuses in their savings-stamps schemes. It's important to understand these DO NOT have the same protection as savings in a bank (see the Safe Savings guide).

In fact, this is exactly what happened with the Farepakdebacle back in 2006. It's the reason we've always cautioned against savings clubs.

Yet they're often paid solely due to what you’ve got on a set date, so it's possible to bag a year's interest in a day. Our fullSupermarket Xmas Boost rundown is updated every November with the top schemes.

Check out local market stalls

Supermarkets may be convenient, but local market stalls can kick their bums on fruit and veg prices. A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation in January 2013 found local markets and grocers were up to 35% cheaper than supermarkets.

Mystery shoppers visited local markets, independent shops and big brand supermarkets in 32 locations around the country. Big supermarkets were 12% more expensive, and small 'Metro' branches 35% more expensive.

As prices vary across the country, you'll need to do some comparisons of your own. Keep receipts from your supermarket shop, then write down how much you spend at the local market for the same quantities.

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