Weekly Supermarket Shop

I think that is exactly the point Shalloran, welcome by the way!

It's important to remember we don't actually "save" ANY money when shopping. You may spend less, but often when you see a lot of things on your usual list a lot cheaper, you may throw in the extra "luxury" item or two, so you find your usual spend stays about the same. I know I am terrifically guilty of this. Especially on the two for one offers, when I tend to put four things in as it makes sense to me that I am "paying for two anyway!"

The supermarket cutting prices is needed and necessary. However what is more needed and necessary is a MASSIVE cut in domestic fuel bills. They are the what cripples many people financially. The 10% reduction by British Gas announced this week was laughable, bearing in mind we have all paid 35% more over the winter for our gas.

So in effect it is still a 25% rise. At a time when natural gas costs have fallen dramatically.

Have fun shopping!

Yep, I do that too. I always think "Well they may not be on offer for this price next week..." So I buy more than I actually need. This is ok if it is items like Dog Food, Washing Powder or loo roll, but it is problematic when it is crisps, biscuits and sweeties as we just end up eating more of them in the same time!

I have had a look round Aldi and Lidl in recent weeks, but not to do the weekly shop. They do have some good bargains and unusual stuff from Europe, but stock levels are very hit am miss. I have head that you can Turron and Chorizo cheap, but I have never found it in stock.

We have a guide here that may be of use:

Top 10 Food Shopping Money Saving Tips | Consumer Information
Save Money and Eat Healthy Food | Consumer Information

Tony

I haven't looked in that section for a while probably need some extra money saving guides.

I have a constant battle in convincing my wife that we don't need that 'excellent' buy 15 get 1 free offer. My thought process is that if we didn't need it in the first place it's not a bargain. I'm also aware of many of the clever techniques retailers use to convince us to buy things - I'm not knocking it as it's their job but I think you have a duty to know about them yourself to fight back!

We currently spend around £40 a month, though it's less some months and more in others as we usually do a 'huge' shop once in a while at somewhere like Lidl and Iceland to stock up the cupboards and freezers. We find Lidl fantastic value for similar products to other supermarkets.

In between we'll nip in Tesco and I usually get fruit from a small fruit and veg shop a small walk from my workplace and potatoes and veg at a local farm shop, as these are ironically cheaper than at Tesco and Asda (2.5kg of fantastic potatoes only a couple of pounds, and they keep for ages as they're in a thick brown bag and still in mud.