How To Save Money On The Weekly Shop

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How to Save Money on Food Shopping (UK Grocery Tips)

Grocery shopping is a necessary task that can quickly add up in terms of time, money, and effort if you don't have a proper system. Over the years I've picked up a set of habits that genuinely keep our food bill down without making meal times feel like a chore, and I've pulled them all together here.

Make a list, and check what you already have first

Making a list before you go shopping is essential to getting this right. Plan your meals out for the week, then write a list of the ingredients you actually need.

Check what you already have in the cupboard and freezer first, so you don't end up duplicating things you already own. That alone cuts down on both wasted money and wasted food.

Don't go shopping hungry

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given is to never go shopping on an empty stomach. You're far more likely to come back with armfuls of stuff that's unhealthy and wasn't on the list.

Shopping can be a stressful enough task on its own, so make sure you're well fed and watered before you leave the house!

Grow some of your own veg at home

Growing even a small amount of your own veg is genuinely satisfying, and it's a great way to teach kids where food actually comes from.

We've been growing our own since 2012, and over the years we've turned our whole garden into an allotment-style space. This year alone we're growing over 30 different things, fruit, veg, herbs, all sorts, and it's cut down what we need to buy during the growing season considerably.

If you end up overrun with anything, simply freeze it, or batch cook it into meals to freeze for later. We also love making fruit and vegetable smoothies and homemade green juices, which is always a good way to use up excess produce in a healthy way.

Using homegrown veg in soups and batch-cooked meals also means you end up with ready-made meals in the freezer, so you buy less on your next shopping trip too. If you want ideas on what's actually worth growing for the money, I've written up the best food to grow to save money.

Subscribe to the household items you always run out of

It's always the same items that catch you out, toilet roll, washing-up liquid, that sort of thing. Subscribing to the products your household uses regularly solves this properly, since they just turn up before you run out rather than being a last-minute dash.

We subscribe to eco-friendly toilet roll from Who Gives A Crap that supports good causes, along with razor blades and natural deodorant refills. There are genuine discounts to be had for doing this too:

Use up your food waste properly

It's easy to overestimate what you'll actually get through in a week, especially with fresh produce that goes off quickly. The "better safe than sorry" instinct often just means more food waste.

Freezing veg that's about to turn, then batch cooking it into a soup once a week or month, means fewer ingredients to buy on your next shop and a lot less food going in the bin. We rarely waste food at all these days, and a big part of that is composting, since any scraps and leftovers that don't get eaten go towards feeding our vegetable patches instead of the bin.

Another one we swear by is freezing bananas as soon as they start browning, just peel and pop them in the freezer, then blend them straight from frozen into ice-cold milkshakes and smoothies. It's a genuinely good way to make sure nothing goes to waste while getting a treat out of it too.

Buy in bulk, and choose concentrates

There are two good reasons to buy in bulk. Sometimes a larger size simply works out cheaper per 100g or per unit than the smaller version, so it's worth checking the unit price rather than just the sticker price when you're deciding what size to buy.

Other times, it's about something you use regularly, like toilet roll, tinned goods or cleaning products, being on a genuinely good offer. In that case, it's worth stocking up rather than just buying what you need for that week, as long as you've got the storage space and it won't go off. Grabbing two instead of one costs a bit more on that shop, but it means you're not paying full price again next week or the week after, so it saves money overall.

Concentrated versions of things like laundry detergent, cleaning products and squash are also worth switching to where you can. You're mostly paying for water in the diluted versions, so buying concentrate and adding your own water at home stretches your money much further.

Build up a pantry when you can afford to

When money allows, it's worth stocking up on long-life products and building a bit of a pantry of extra goods, tins, rice, pasta, that sort of thing. It's genuinely useful to have a backup in an emergency or during a lower income month, so you're not caught short.

It also helps you save money overall, since food prices keep going up, especially in recent years. The more you can buy while it's still at a cheaper price, the better placed you are as prices continue to rise, so building a pantry is a genuine way to beat food inflation rather than just paying whatever the price happens to be each time you shop.

Track what you're spending as you shop

It's easy to lose track of the total until you get to the till, especially in-store. If you're shopping online, you can see the running total the whole time, so it's simple to stay on budget.

In-store, it's worth checking whether your supermarket offers a scan-as-you-go system with a handheld scanner. We don't have it in our local Morrisons, but we do in Sainsbury's, so we can see exactly what we're spending as we go round rather than getting a surprise at the till. It makes checkout a lot quicker too, since everything's already scanned by the time you get there.

Sign up to loyalty cards

We use Tesco Clubcard, Nectar and Morrisons More regularly, and it's genuinely worth having whichever ones cover the shops you actually use.

It's not just about collecting points on what you spend either, they regularly send personalised offers and savings on the specific food and household items we already buy, which makes a real difference over a year of shopping.

One thing worth knowing is that a lot of these apps now require you to actively activate the offers, once a week or so, rather than just applying them automatically. I have to open the Morrisons More app and the Nectar app for Sainsbury's and tap to activate the relevant offers before they'll apply at the till. It's a bit of a faff, but worth the couple of minutes it takes for the savings you get.

Take your own bags

It's small, but it adds up. Paying 10p or more for a carrier bag every single shop is a waste of money that's completely avoidable.

Both my husband and I keep a batch of bags in the boot of our cars, so we've always got some to hand for a proper shop. When I'm out and about walking and might pop into a shop, I also keep a small foldable reusable shopper in my backpack or handbag, just in case.

Buy fruit and vegetables in season

Buying produce out of season usually means paying a premium, since it has to be shipped in from somewhere it can actually grow at that time of year. Strawberries in December are a good example. Sticking to what's in season, and supporting local produce where you can, keeps costs down and usually tastes better too.

Make use of new customer offers

Plenty of companies run new customer sign-up offers that give you free food or money off your first order. I've used these myself:

For more ideas along these lines, I've got a much bigger list in how to get free food.

Traditional cashback apps for online shopping

These track your online purchases and pay you cashback for shopping through their links, including your online grocery shop:

Receipt snapping apps

These pay you for uploading a photo of your grocery receipt:

I've rounded up the full list of receipt snapping apps if you want more options.

Coupon apps: buy specific products, then get cashback

With these, you buy a specific product listed in the app that week, then claim cashback on that item afterwards:

Pre-buy supermarket gift cards and get cashback

Buy a discounted gift card for your usual supermarket through one of these, then simply pay with the gift card at the till like normal. This is one of the easiest wins going, and I use it every week.

I use Sprive for this myself, sign up using my referral code 3OVDPUBK for a welcome offer. You can read my full Sprive review for more detail on how it works.

JamDoughnut, Cheddar, EverUp and Airtime Rewards all work the same way, so it's worth having a few of these apps set up so you can compare which one has the best cashback rate on your supermarket's gift cards before you buy, if you have the time, or you might just find a favourite.

Sprive is my go-to app for this currently, since it sends my cashback straight to my mortgage as an overpayment with one click, reducing my overall interest and mortgage balance every week.

Final word on saving money on food shopping

There are plenty of easy ways to save money as a family on groceries every week, and none of them require a complete overhaul of how you live. Small changes, a proper list, using up what you've already got, buying in season, genuinely add up over time.

How to Save Money on Food Shopping (UK Grocery Tips)