Food is a necessity, which is why it’s so easy for shops to reel us in with careful product placement designed to make us spend more. However, you can easily save money on food shopping. Planning is the most effective way of avoiding spending.
If you have a meal plan for everyday of the week, you know precisely how much you are going to need to buy to fulfill it. It may seem boring, but it’s very easy to be tempted by thoughts such as “I’ll just get some pasta for Thursday”, which you don’t actually need. Impulse buying is very easy in a supermarket, but if you know that you don’t need anything for the week except for what’s on your meal plan, you won’t.
Shopping when hungry is one of the biggest pitfalls of over-spending. If you go to the shops on an empty stomach, every product will have a bigger sway over your decision-making. Watch out for deceitful “discounts”, such as “Carrots for 30p, any two carrots for 80p”. It’s another easy trap to fall into, as no one tends to read discounts, they just glance at a special offer tag and assume they’re getting their money’s worth. Try dropping down a brand for just one of everything you buy.
You never know, it might be just as nice, if not nicer, than the products you would normally get. Wasting food is another way of ending up spending more than you need to in supermarkets. If you’ve made too much to eat for dinner, then keep some overnight to have for lunch the next day. Also check to make sure your fridge is at the correct temperature, as having a fridge that is too warm will lead to food getting spoilt too quickly.