I’m always on the lookout for a good deal and love being able to admit that I rarely pay full price for anything anymore! As food costs constitute a large part of my monthly outgoings, I’ve finally found a successful way to save between £25 and £40 on my food bill each time I visit the supermarket.
In the example in this blog post, I saved £35.17.
It’s easy to assume that supermarkets like Asda are the cheapest, after all, they do claim to be Britain’s lowest priced supermarket. However, prices here are usually only marginally undercut from their competitors and the “2 for £2” type offers tend to only save you a matter of pence. The quality of food is usually lower at these types of supermarket as well. After all (and it doesn’t matter what anyone else says in my opinion) – you ALWAYS get what you pay for!
So why do I think Sainsbury’s is the best for saving money? They do big deals, and lots of them. You may be thinking, “well last time I was in Sainsbury’s I didn’t come out with more cash in my pocket than expected”! To take advantage of the offers, you need to do your research. Invest a little time and it will pay off ten fold.
This is how to do it (from someone who does their food shop every three weeks).
- When planning your shopping list, log onto Sainsbury’s Groceries and click onto the “Deals & Offers” tab. Browse through all the sub categories and note down everything you want from the deals.
- Build the recipes you’ll cook for the next three weeks around what you’re buying from the deals – this also helps if you’re stuck for inspiration on what to cook.
- Get down to Sainsbury’s with your shopping list and take up all the offers – it’s amazing how visible you’ll find them after knowing their there!
A WORD OF WARNING FOR ONLINE DELIVERY!
It’ll obviously be easier to get your savings delivered to the door, but it’s rare that you’ll get them all in a delivery rather than picking the food yourself. The reason being – substitutions. You’ll find the best deals from Sainsbury’s tend to be BOGOF, half price and “3 for £10” type offers. If one of the products is unavailable, you’ll be stung full price for an alternative.
Here’s a “3 bottles of wine for £12” example which failed drastically for me! I chose 3 £8.99 bottles of wine in the deal (bargain), however, as one of my choices was unavailable, it was substituted for an £8.99 bottle of wine that was not in the deal (rather than another wine that was available and in the deal), so I ended up paying 3 x £8.99 = £26.97, a whopping £14.97 more than I expected.
It’s worth remembering that it’s a computer system that suggests substitutions to the picker which tend not to work very well with the deals.
Here’s a copy of my last receipt from Sainsbury’s, I managed to save a total of £35.17 on the food bill – just by checking what offers were going on at the supermarket before I visited.
Would you find deals like these at lower priced supermarkets… unlikely!
Product |
Normal price |
Offer price |
Deal |
| Basics frozen fruit salad | £1.00 | £1.00 | |
| JS chicken fillets | £6.76 | £3.38 | 1/2 price |
| AH roast veg cous cous | £0.69 | £0.69 | |
| JS pizza base mix | £0.57 | £0.57 | |
| JS summer fruit 500g | £2.25 | £2.25 | |
| TTD raw jumbo prawns 250g | £5.00 | £2.50 | 1/2 price |
| JS basics stir fry 700g | £1.00 | £1.00 | |
| Muller corners | £3.29 | £3.29 | 2-for-1 |
| Muller corners | £3.29 | ||
| Wild salmon – lemon/thyme | £10.00 | £5.00 | 1/2 price |
| Seeded loaf | £1.35 | £1.35 | |
| JS woodland eggs | £1.68 | £1.68 | |
| JS lean steak mince | £4.00 | £10.00 | 3-for-£10 |
| JS beef braising steak | £4.00 | ||
| JS 4 turkey steaks | £4.00 | ||
| Red wine | £3.99 | £3.99 | |
| JS 1% milk | £1.25 | £1.25 | |
| BGTY soft cheese | £1.00 | £1.00 | |
| Warburtons muffins | £0.85 | £0.85 | |
| JS red chilli’s | £0.50 | £0.50 | |
| Heinz tomato soup | £0.82 | £0.82 | |
| Tuna in Brine x4 | £5.98 | £2.99 | 1/2 price |
| Napolina Chopped tomatoes x4 | £3.88 | £1.94 | 1/2 price |
| Napolina Chopped tomatoes x4 | £3.88 | £1.94 | 1/2 price |
| JS grated mozzarella | £1.60 | £1.60 | |
| Red pepper | £0.80 | £0.80 | |
| JS apple & mango juice | £1.50 | £1.50 | |
| JS sardines in spring water | £0.42 | £0.42 | |
| JS sardines in spring water | £0.42 | £0.42 | |
| BGTY back bacon | £2.00 | £2.00 | |
| JS peppered ham | £1.89 | £3.00 | 2-for-£3 |
| JS peppered ham | £1.89 | ||
| Basics scourers | £0.14 | £0.14 | |
| PE american hot | £3.99 | £3.99 | |
| PE s/giuseppe | £3.99 | £3.99 | |
| Parma ham | 3.98 | £1.99 | 1/2 price |
| JS celery | £0.87 | £0.87 | |
| Crispy salad | £1.74 | £1.74 | |
| Basics tomatoes | £0.72 | £0.72 | |
| JS fresh mint | £0.79 | £0.79 | |
| Mild smoked salmon | £10.00 | £4.99 | 1/2 price |
| JS asparagus bundle | £3.00 | £1.50 | 1/2 price |
| Carrots loose | £0.12 | £0.12 | |
| Bananas | £0.60 | £0.60 | |
| Mr muscle shower shine | £1.60 | £1.00 | Save 60p |
| AA batteries x4 | £2.49 | £2.49 | |
| Dove shower | £4.50 | £2.25 | 1/2 price |
| Pineapple | £1.79 | £1.79 | |
| JS bog roll x2 | £1.85 | £1.85 | |
| Lilies | £5.00 | £5.00 | |
| JS malties | £1.19 | £1.19 | |
Total Price |
£129.91 |
£94.74 |
SAVED £35.17 |
It would be great to hear how this has worked for everyone else, so please leave your comments below.
Warren.
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This post was written by Warren Nash on May 10, 2011 |
