Five ways to cut your food costs

The price of food may be coming down, but many households continue to overspend during their weekly shop. Nathalie Bonney reveals how to beat supermarket tricks and cut your grocery bill.

It’s easy to pop into a supermarket to grab a pint of milk, or some extras for your evening meal, and come out with several bulging bags and a lighter wallet.

Follow our top tips and cut the cost of your food shop…

1. Buy reduced items

Supermarkets reduce their prices on items about to go past their sell-by date, even though it’s now widely acknowledged that food is still edible after this period and the government is considering scrapping sell-by dates to cut down on the amount of food we waste.

For real bargains go later in the day, when prices are slashed further.

2. Compare prices

You can compare the prices of products at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda at mysupermarket.co.uk, which could shave 20% off your shopping bill, according to the website.

Browse the virtual shelves or key in a specific item and the website will not only find you the closest matches, but cheaper alternatives too.

Buying online should also prevent those impulse purchases that tend to happen when you’re wandering round the supermarket.

Some supermarkets mark up prices in more affluent areas, so consider going a little further afield to avoid this.

3. Drop a brand

As shown in Moneywise’s recent drop a brand challenge, don’t forget that shifting from well-known labels to own-brands, and from finest to economy ranges, will give you further savings – and you don’t have to compromise on taste.

Most supermarkets will put the most expensive items on the shelves at eye level, so look around to see if you could get a cheaper alternative.

By Nathalie Bonney