Do you have a sneaking suspicion you’re wasting money when it comes to the weekly grocery shop? Well you’re probably right.
Getting organised and creating a plan of action are key to keeping a few extra Euro in your purse each week – and they add up quickly. Here are seven incredibly easy ways to eat better and pay less…
1. Make a plan
How many times have you filled the trolley with two-for-one bargains, then come home without the milk? Lots of us hate the thought of grocery shopping, never mind planning for it. But we’ll spend less and eat better if we figure out what’s already in the fridge, what we need and what we’ll actually eat for the week ahead. Nutritionist Regina Rattigan advises planning your menu in advance so your trolley isn’t loaded with high-fat and high-cost convenience foods. You’ll also avoid binning your bargain stockpile, or worse, finding them festering at the back of the fridge six weeks later.
2. Get the right apps
If shopping is a joint activity (and it’s good to share the load), a brilliant app for iOS and Android is Our Groceries, which lets you synchronise and merge your shopping lists – adding and ticking off items as you go.
Another brilliant free app for iOS, Android and PC is Out of Milk. It cleverly allows you to create a ‘pantry list’. You won’t end up doubling up on what you already have and you can synchronise shopping lists, store them in the Cloud and update them in real-time as you shop.
For online offers and vouchers, check out the Voucher Pages website or the app, where you’ll find details of discounts on groceries and all kinds of services from restaurants to health and beauty. Many of the top supermarkets also have their own apps which will keep you up-to-date with the week’s offers, compile shopping lists and meal plans. Some have a mobile shopping function – perfect for those days when you just can’t get to the supermarket.
3. Stock up on basics
For those evenings when you just don’t have the time or energy to brave the aisles, your fall back should be a well stocked store cupboard. It could be filled with everything from Pot Noodle to porcini mushrooms, but the general idea is that you’ve got the basics for a wealth of different dishes, as well as the ingredients for easy staples like a classic spaghetti. Recommendations range from dried pasta, tinned food, flour, spices, sauces and oils to dark chocolate and exotic coffee beans.
4. Know your BBDs from your UBDs
Just because a food product is slightly past its best before date, that doesn’t meant it can’t be eaten (just ask the freegans). It may, however, have lost a bit of its taste and texture. On the other hand, if something is past its use by date, it’s safer to bin it. The advice of Safe Food is that food may well go off before its use by date (or even its best before date) if it isn’t stored properly, either in the shop or at home.
5. Brush up on your cooking skills
Sometimes we’re tempted into buying expensive pre-prepared foods by a lack of culinary confidence – or complaints from the other half, the kids and the cat. Mastering a few basic techniques and dishes will make you feel like a kitchen goddess – and help you save money and eat more healthily. You don’t need to do the full Ballymaloe (though it does come highly recommended), there are a wealth of free cookery classes on sites from Coursera to Skillshare.
6. Involve the kids
Most of the experts advise shopping solo, when you’re focused and free of ‘pester pressure’. That’s a distant fantasy a lot of the time and shopping with the kids is an opportunity to educate them about healthy food, money and interacting socially. It’s also a time when the toy aisle, the toilets and the trolley bay take on a new level of temptation for children and terror for parents. It’s a really good idea to teach your children in advance about what to do if they get lost and to involve them in tasks like ticking off items on the shopping list, reading labels and figuring out the cost of products.
7. Look up (and down)
Research shows that retailers are a clever lot. They know our habits, the way we wander around the store, and how many seconds we spend looking at chocolate before we cave in (not many). They also know that the unprepared, impulse shopper can be lured into spending more money and buying stuff they don’t really need. That’s why most of the premium and branded products are stocked at eye-level. That kindly saves us the hassle of looking up and down, but also means we’re less likely to see the less expensive and own-brand items that can help save us a few bob. So, as well as shopping around, we should be looking around, comparing prices and bagging the bargains.
