Food shopping is without a doubt one of this biggest expenses for students, so we’ve come up with some simple steps and supermarket shopping tips in order to save you as much money as possible.
1 – Loyalty Cards
Every supermarket has their own loyalty system but some work better than others. Morrisons have a new loyalty card called Match & More. It compares your shop with other supermarkets and calculates how much you’d have saved if you shopped there. You then get points to balance the difference, and the points add up to vouchers. This is the best loyalty system we’ve found so far, as it is so easy to accumulate points that can be turned into vouchers.
Sainsbury’s Nectar Card scheme is useful but it is hard to earn many points unless you’re doing a big shop there. The advantage of the Nectar Card is that the points can be spent in a variety of places, such as Go Ape. This is similar to Tesco’s Clubcard system, but that has the added bonus of having vouchers sent to you.
2 – In store offers
The best way to save money on things you use regularly is to stock up on them when they’re on offer. 3 for 2, buy 1 get 1 free offers and 2 for 1 offers are a great way to save money and get the brands you want. For example, we went to Tesco and saw Radox shower gel for £2 per bottle, or 4 for £3. I was dubious at first, as it seemed too good to be true, but sure enough, we ended up with four bottles of high quality shower gel for just £3! It’s lasting forever as well!
3 – Shop at the end of the day
Towards the end of the day, supermarkets and shops begin to reduce the price of items which need to be sold that day. Bread can be as low as 12p for a loaf and we once got a bag of freshly roasted chicken drumsticks from the deli for £1.50! Remember not to go too mad though, or you’ll end up with 20 yoghurts slowly rotting at the back of your fridge because they were 10p each.
4 – Own brands aren’t bad
There’s a certain level of snobbery when shopping. We know that Asda’s smart price sweetcorn doesn’t look as appealing as Green Giant, but it tastes exactly the same, and it’s 50p cheaper! Sometimes it’s okay to go for own brands – they won’t kill you, but they will leave you with a bit of spare change in your pocket for another pint at the SU.
5 – Shop around
If you’ve got a bit of extra time, try to shop around. Different stores have different offers on and you can often save a lot if you take a little time to check. Another idea is to check local markets for fruit and vegetables. The produce is a lot fresher and you can get so much more for your money.
Hope this helps!
Emily & Shona
