10 ways to help you save at the supermarket

How many Moneywise readers have nipped to their local supermarket for a pint of milk or some tinned tomatoes, and ended up buying some meat to freeze, some store cupboard ‘essentials’ or a box of tasty doughnuts?

Often we believe that we actually need these items – and in many cases, we will eventually use them. But if your freezer is bursting with packs of mince, chicken and ready meals, and your cupboards can’t even fit another jar of thyme or chili powder, you have to ask yourself why you keep on spending.

Skilled marketing ploys

One of the main reasons is that supermarkets are skilled in the dark art of marketing their produce. They have to be - competition between the main stores is stiff and they need you to keep on spending in order to keep profits healthy.

From wafting the smell of freshly baked bread around the store, to hiking the individual cost of items on special offer and playing music to get us to walk slower, supermarkets know the right tricks to encourage us to part with our money.

But as long as you are clued up on the supermarkets’ tricks, you’ll be able to enjoy the smell of fresh bread without buying, find the best bargains and avoid the worst ones, and ultimately cut your shopping bill.

Negotiating the maze

Supermarkets these days are vast, and have more in common with their equivalents in the US than the traditional British store. They are also meticulously designed with merchandise deliberately arranged to encourage you to spend.

In a perfect world, most of us would prefer to whizz round the supermarket, grabbing items from a well-thought out list and hitting the tills in record time. Unfortunately, that is rarely possible – mainly because supermarkets cunningly move things around on a regular basis to ensure you have to traipse up and down the aisles before you find what you are looking for.

And while you’re searching, the chances are you’ll see something else you want - or think you need - and stick it in the trolley. If you’re shopping with small children, you can virtually guarantee this will happen.

The quickest way to walk from the frozen section of the supermarket back to the fresh fruit and vegetables is to go directly along the central walkway. Supermarkets know this, which is why they position special offers on the end-aisles to catch your attention. But beware – these promotions are not always the bargains they appear to be.

BOGOF

Since the onset of the credit crunch, buy-one-get-one-free (delightfully known as BOGOF) offers have soared in popularity. But before you assume these offers are saving you money, it pays to check the price of the individual items and see how much of a discount is really up for grabs. Unless you know you'll eat the food – or can freeze it – then taking advantage could be a false economy.

In addition, the brands that feature in special offers are paying for the supermarket to promote them – check the cost of these against other brands as well as the supermarket’s own range, to see if they really are the best value option.

While you’re at it, look at the item's size – chances are, packs of BOGOF mince are less than 400g each, rather than the standard size of 500g. Another way supermarkets try to tempt you into falling for special offers is to position these near essentials, such as bread and milk.

Location, location, location

Speaking of essential items, have you noticed how these are often at the far end of the store rather than near the entrance? This is to ensure customers that only want to pick up a few items still have to walk around the store, potentially deciding to grab a few more things while they’re at it.

Upon entering a supermarket, the first thing you are likely to see is a glistening display of fresh fruit and vegetables. Whether you like nothing better than a healthy salad, or are more of a carb and protein type, we are all attracted to the sight of fresh produce.

The bright colours, and our own perceptions about eating healthy, mean it can be hard to bypass this section without falling for a bag of apples or a pack of cherry tomatoes. That’s right, a bag and a pack – although buying these items loose would probably be cheaper, it’s just so much easier to pick up food that is packaged without noticing the price difference.

Next up tends to be several aisles of ready meals, meat and essentials such as butter and cheese, which most of us buy each week despite the cost. There’ll also be plenty of ‘special offers’ heavily promoted in these aisles, simply taking advantage of the sheer numbers of people jostling around.

Um, what’s that smell? Certainly not raw meat or fish; it is normally at this point that supermarkets stick their deli counters selling an appealing array of cheeses, cooked meats and mouth-watering rotisserie chicken.

Product placement

By this point your trolley might already be looking pretty full, but there’s more to come. The next few aisles tend to be dedicated to store cupboard essentials – pasta, rice and tins of tomatoes line the shelves. These aren’t the most exciting of products, yet I personally struggle to walk past them without some unusual product catching my eye. It might be some new fancy spaghetti with a posh Italian label, or a small jar of spice with a big price tag.

It is in these aisles that supermarket tactics come into their own. Just imagine you’re standing in front of shelves trying to pick out a ready-made jar of pasta sauce. The products on the shelves at eye level will probably be the first you look at – funny, isn’t it, that these tend to be the most expensive ones for sale. Own-brand and economy items will probably be on the bottom shelf.

Here at Moneywise, we regularly advise people to consider dropping a brand while in the supermarket – read Nathalie Bonney's attempt to get her parents to drop a brand. However, the one major difficulty in doing this - and it’s one the supermarkets do deliberately - is the fact you can't always compare like for like.

For example, imagine you are looking at bottles of squash – there will normally be a range of different brands on offer, and all in different size bottles. Is it better to buy a bigger amount for more and save in the long-run?

Who knows? The shelve labels make it near impossible for you to compare the true cost of these items with the price per weight or volume all written in different units. Swotting up on your metric measurements is the best way to get round this sneaky trick.

The sight of jars, packets and tins isn’t that appetising. Luckily, the next aisle you’re likely to encouter is bread products – and that includes cakes and pastries, sugary doughnuts and freshly baked and 'oh so squeezable' loafs. The smell of fresh bread makes it a mission to get through this section without being drawn in.

After this point you’ll have stocked up on fresh food, plenty of cupboard essentials and potentially half a dozen cakes for tea, but what about the rest of your essentials like cereal. Logic suggests this should be near the bread section, but in fact it’s likely to be some aisles away yet. In the meantime, you’ll have to manoeuvre through the cleaning and beauty aisles, on the way possibly spotting some new carpet cleaner that gets rid of 99% of stains.

While you’re choosing the best breakfast to keep you and your family full until lunch, any children you’re shopping with are probably starting to kick up a fuss. Supermarket shopping isn’t the most exciting pastime for kids. Isn’t it lucky, then, that within sight of the nutritious packages of cereal is the biscuit and chocolate aisle? 

Subtlety

At this point you’re nearly there. Now you will find the rest of your essential weekly shop, such as milk, eggs and yogurt. There are also rows and rows of juice and deserts to consider. Finally, the frozen food section is so badly designed that you normally have to walk around it all peering through the fridge doors or into the freezer boxes in order to find a packet of peas. And some potato waffles. Ooh, and ice cream.

And subtle marketing of products doesn’t end until you’re out of the store. While you’re waiting to pay for your goods, you may find yourself flicking through one of the magazines at the checkout counter – mind, you probably won’t have time to read it all before you're served, so you might as well buy it too.

And the rows of chocolate bars, packets of sweets and chewing gum are too tempting – and cheap – to leave behind on the shelves. Supermarkets that offer financial products also put leaflets advertising insurance, savings or even loans at the checkout in the hope you’ll be so bored waiting that you’ll actually be prepared to read these.

Ten tips on saving money on food

1. Write a list and stick to it. Even if you have to search long and hard for an item on it, don’t be swayed by pretty displays or special deals, unless these offer genuine value for money.

2. Never go shopping hungry or with no idea of what you’re going to make for dinner. That rotisserie chicken will be less tempting if you eat before you go.

3. Compare prices and consider all brands before you buy – it might take longer but it could save you plenty.

4. Leave the kids at home or, if that’s not possible, refuse to give into their demands. Let them choose one treat if they must, and nothing more.

5. Check 'best before' dates. Whatever your views on these, there’s no point in buying three ready-made meals that can’t be frozen when they will all be out of date before you have time to eat them.

6. Don’t fall for special offers without first comparing them to what else is on offer.

7. Buy fruit and vegetables loose rather than in packets. Try and get seasonal produce too, as this is likely to be cheaper, and avoid convenience deals – is it really worth paying extra for pre-peeled carrots when you can just as easily do it yourself?

8. Don’t buy in bulk unless this is genuinely cheaper and you are confident the food will be eaten.

9. Look at labels on shelves to see how much items cost per unit – this should make it easier to compare different brands. Be aware, however, that supermarket’s use different units to make this harder, so take a calculator if need be.

10. Finally, compare the different supermarkets on mysupermarket.co.uk to see which one is the cheapest for the items in your basket. Also, if you live in an affluent area, consider traveling a bit further as supermarkets may use ‘dynamic pricing’, where prices vary depending on the locals’ ‘willingness’ to spend.