Outsmart The Supermarket
When you’re trying to budget, there’s plenty of things that you can get rid of straightaway. But everybody needs to eat. There’s no way you can avoid food shopping completely, that doesn’t mean that you can’t slash the cost of it though. Every time you enter a supermarket, you engage in a battle of wits with the marketing materials and price promises. They’re all claiming to be the cheapest and the best and a lot of the time, it’s hard to work out who’s telling the truth. With these simple tips, you can outsmart the supermarket and walk out with massive savings.
Don’t Fill Your Trolley
Supermarkets have been making their trolley’s bigger over the past few years. Studies show that people tend to fill the trolley to the top and use that to gauge when they have enough shopping. This means that people are buying a lot of stuff that they don’t need because they think the trolley looks empty. Don’t be fooled by this trick, write your list and get what you need, nothing more. It might be worth choosing the smaller trolleys, you’ll probably find they are plenty big enough.
Don’t Stick To One Supermarket
Most people tend to choose the supermarket they use and stick to it, it’s usually whichever one is closest. However, the deals that are on offer change all of the time. If you have some Sainsbury’s vouchers, shop there until they run out and then check again to see where else you could get great deals. It’s also worth doing regular checks on the offers that you can find, then shop at whichever supermarket has the best prices on the things you need, you can make big savings. Once the prices change, switch to another supermarket.
Work From The Inside Out
The layout of your supermarket took more planning than you might think. As soon as you walk in the door, you’ll be bombarded with offers and deals, designed to entice you into buying things that you don’t really need. Walk past them without a second glance and head straight for the middle of the supermarket. All of the things that you are actually likely to need are going to be in these sections. Work your way out and by the time you leave, you won’t be tempted to impulse buy because you’ll realise that you’ve already got everything on your list.
Get Rid Of Things
If you do find yourself grabbing things on a whim, don’t be afraid to put them back. Supermarkets have actually been making the aisles narrower to discourage people from doing this. If it’s too hard to get back down the aisle, give it to somebody who works there to put it back for you.
Reduced Section
The reduced section is a goldmine for cheap food. The law says that the supermarkets can’t sell it full price once the expiry date has passed. A lot of people are put off by things that are out of date. The truth is, those sell by dates are massive overestimations and things will be perfectly fine to eat for a while after. As long as you get things that you know you will eat in the next few days you should be absolutely fine.