What’s your best tip on keeping you food shop cost down ?
Best money saving tip for your groceries
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The five finger discount aisle? Watch out they're cracking down on it.
Aside from finding bargains themselves, try this:4
Keep a log of what your purchase and how much it costs. We have a book that we write the cost of each meal per person as well as combined household costs, Junk food costs and this weeks portion of bills.
At the end of the week totally up how much you spend each category can help you be mindful of spending, especially when it's snack/junk food.
Eg: Last week for two people we spent $112 on just dinner for the 7 days, $18 on household stuff, $40 on junk food (Chips/snacks/soft drink) so this week, I'm vowing to not spend any money on junk food and cook dinner for 6 nights instead of 5 nights.
Buy the e-gift cards and get a 5% saving. Can also then use it for fuel purchases for 5% off.
The ACCC found that consumers were spending more rather than less by doing this.
Fair enough but this doesn’t happen in my case. I buy the gift voucher as I’m at the register.
Absolute rubbish.
Paying 5% less is saving money. We all need to eat/shop.
Buying fuel when it is at the low end of the cycle with 4 cents off (spend in woolies >$30 (with 5% off) PLUS buying 6 litres of milk (another 4 cents off) Plus paying with 5 % OFF.
I wish the ACCC would tell me WHY this is paying more and kindly show me exactly what I am doing wrong and then teach me how to get it cheaper…..
Don't get me wrong I never blindly shop in Coles/woolies without knowing that I am paying the absolute least.
Don't get me started with Aldi, I have never seen anything cheaper in there that I couldn't find cheaper when on special with my 5% off….The ACCC found that consumers were spending more rather than less by doing this.
Have you got a link to this. Or is it more of your made up rubbish comments?
Don’t go shopping when you are hungry.
But you might die from starvation.
What I meant was, if you are hungry while shopping, you’ll end up impulse buying food that you may not really need.
very true…
Or hungover… Or stoned
Never go for grocery with an empty tummy.
EnoughSaid.
I prefer shopping when hungry as it makes it easier to choose stuff. Otherwise I only buy a couple of items.
Either way it's food you're going to eat.
Aldi is almost always cheaper for everything they have stock of.
Coles/Woolworths Select brand is the next best thing for most items. I always look for the Coles brand items and am disappointed when they don't make some things.
Use price hipster to see where the best price/discount is for the rest of the items on your shopping list.
We are lucky to have Woolies, Coles & Aldi in the same shopping centre. I can organise my list to buy the cheapest product from each store.
I mostly buy things that are 1/2 price or on sale.
- Make a list of things to buy. Classify them as needs or wants. Buy the needs first and if budget permits, then buy the wants. But if you skip buying the wants, you will save a lot of money. Stick with the list.
- Plan your meals for the whole week. This will help you come up with the list of things to buy.
- Just buy the right amount of fresh produce or perishable items. This will prevent unnecessary food wastage.
- We only go to the grocery every forth night. As much as possible avoid going to the grocery just to buy one or two items because you forgot them on your weekly shop. Chances are you will end up buying more and unneccessary items.
- Stick with your budget. I pay by card on groceries and good thing my bank mobile app has a feature to categorize your purchases. This gives you a realtime overview of how much you have spent for each category (e.g. Groceries, Petrol, Utilities) for the month. This will help you assess if you've gone beyond your set budget.
- Look for meats that are on half specials because they are nearing the best before date. In my local woolies, I usually find this in the early morning. An example, one time I got a whole marinated roast chicken original price is $11. I only got it for $5.50. Good bargain. For breads, they usually reduce the price from 7pm onwards.
- We also make sure we finish almost everything in our pantry before we start replenishing it.
I think it takes planning, research and discipline to cut down your grocery spend. Hope this helps.
I agree with everything you've said except for finishing everything in your pantry. It's important to have an emergency supply of food in case of natural disaster or civil unrest.
Even when I lived in the city we kept a minimum of one months food in long term storage.
I have rice + salt + oil + spices + lentils. That can be stored for few weeks without even electricity.
How do you plan to cook without gas and hot water?
Shop after a feed.
Shop without kids.
Shop without husband.
Shop without wife you mean.
I thought husband helps to keep spending down?
I’m a terrible husband shopping! I would easily add 20-40% more groceries.. mainly junk food though 😟
hahaha… ok, your wife should leave you at home LOL
everytime i go into coles i imagine myself as one of those contestants in a tv show where they have 60 seconds to load their trolley with anything, for free. i run up and down every isle throwing random stuff into my trolley and then bolt out the front door to my awaiting car.
The two feet discount
- Use a grocery list when shopping. Buy only what you intend to cook and use. Do not aisle browse in the supermarkets. Get in and get out as fast as you can and you will not be tempted to buy things that are not on your grocery list.
- Cook at home as much as possible. Eat a plant based diet supplemented by smaller portions of meat. You will see your food bill go down drastically.
- Do not waste food. Prepare proper portion sized meals. Do not overeat and try to adopt a habit of eating until you're only 80% full.
- Drink water instead of soda or juice. Eat fruits instead of snacks. It's easier to eat a whole bag of chips than eating 5 apples in 1 sitting.
If you're able to give it up from your home cooking, don't buy meat, you will save a ton from your shop
Yes very true, simple diet of pasta, rice, potatoes, corn is much healthier and cheaper by 10x.
I generally can't tell if you're taking the piss or not, but yeah I guess that's cheaper, definitely not healthy though
Well you know I read my specific nutrition books and I base my diet on them.
You can read an interesting excerpt of a book I have here https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl/feb/excerpt.htm
No I'm not taking the piss.
@freemoneyhunter: Oh right, I thought you meant a diet literally just of starchy carbs and corn, which of course would be terrible haha.
@greater mimic: No that is exactly what I am saying, just eat corn, potatoes, rice etc, of course ideally 10% fruit and 20% vegetables along with the starchy foods too but you will do fine without it. Did you read the excerpt?
My grocery bill each week is roughly 60% spent on meat. I need my gainz though. :(
Swap some of that for lentils and chickpeas, cheap and full of protein. Can't go wrong with a spag bol full of lentils.
I'm not a soy boy! It's not a substitute for real meat though and I'm too much of gym junkie to come off chicken and beef.
I visit a Greek/Mediterranean wholesale grocer (open to the public) about once a month. I find the prices to be consistently cheaper and the quality higher than Colesworthaldi. I don't need to bother with rewards cards, deals, specials, buy one get one free or any other time sucks. Just consistently good quality produce at a much cheaper price than supermarket specials.
- Grains: oats, rice, quinoa, bran flakes
- Cheese: danish feta, aussie feta, mil lel parmesan, haloumi
- Legumes/Bean: dried chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, lentils etc
- Olives: bulk olives, cheap and fantastic quality
- Spices/Herbs: much much cheaper than supermarkets
- Nuts: raw or roasted cashews, peanuts, almonds, walnuts etc
- Dried fruit: anything you can think of and more!
Many other pantry staples can be found for good prices.
If you live in a major city, expand your horizons beyond the mainstream Colesworthaldi to find the best bargains!
And the whole foods, plant based ones in your list are really good for you and bloody cheap.
Where did you go about finding your store? I have no idea where to start!
What city are you in?
Sydney. Inner east if that makes a difference.
@Leuke: Can't personally vouch for these but see if any are near you and give them a visit!
Bossley Park General Store & Deli
Danas Fine Food Deli
David's Fresh
Gima Supermarket
Gymea Fresh Deli
Lamia Super Deli
struggling to find a cheap one in VIC
Shop at a local roadside market for fruit and veg. There seems to be a lot of these in SA. Every time I go into Coles or Woolies I cry at the prices and packaging you get with fresh produce.
Work out the times they go around marking down meat and shop then.
Buy rice, spices and natural yoghurt from Indian supermarket. Some things can also be cheaper (or at least better) at the Asian/Chines supermarket as well.
Work out the cheap items at Coles and Woolworths. E.g. Coles Pesto is $2. Don’t be lured into always buying Colesworth home brands, as they are often crap or expensive.
Shop Foodland (if in SA) as so much more variety and the home brand is better quality most of the time. Gaganis is also amazing, but again a SA thing.
fasting, absolute money and time saver. less food & less toilet paper to buy…
Preach it, 7 days into my fast and I've used toilet paper once, and saved $60 on food this week alone… No complaints here!
What prompted this? To save money or to live longer or both or other reasons?
I usually find seasonal produce from farmers markets are cheaper and better than super markets.
Roadkill for meat
Extreme Cheapskates is one of my favourite shows
Buy the home-brand/sale stuff for the simple non-perishables
E.g:
Toilet Paper
Laundry Detergent
Dish waster Detergent
Just remember: Never pay more than 19c per 100 sheets of toilet paper.
Be flexible and buy seasonal produce and cook meals based on seasonal produce, rather than fixed recipes.
My 2 cents…
Reduce wastage. Put some thought into where you tend to waste alot when it comes to groceries. Try to shop online. This way you wont get distracted with all the things you dont want to buy, but shop owners do. Also when total exceeds than your budget you can go and edit your cart which you can’t do if you shop at store.
Get discounted gift carfs for shopping. I use suncorp’s app that offers 5% off woolies and coles gift cards (you will need to have insurance account with their group of companies, im not sure about bank account eligibility). It may seem negligible but do your math. If you spend $400 on groceries per month thats close to $5000 per year. That means around $250 savings just by using giftcards.
*edit: oh and $5000 spending is roughly about $50 cash back with rewards card points.
I use a Colesworth in a wealthy suburb.
Being located in a wealthy area ensures:
1. They have a low theft rate
2. They have a high proportion of elderly customersWhich in-turn ensures that the self-serve scales are always turned off.
Works a treat ;)
he's joking (i hope) but research has found that basic staples, meat, fruit and veg, etc. are more expensive in less affluent suburbs so it does actually save you money to shop in expensive suburbs.
Buy clearance/reduced to clear items
This has been mentioned before but for me Price Hipster (www.pricehipster.com) is an awesome way to track grocery prices, when they go on sale and if a price one week is the lowest price it has been.
Most products that go on sale do so in a cycle. They might be full price for some weeks then reduced slightly (10 to 20 %) reasonably regularly. And max discount (30 to 50 %) only a few times a year. This is the time to buy and not when they are 10 to 20 % off. This will save you plenty.
And best of all with Price Hipster, you can set up an alert system for all the items you usually shop for and you will be notified when the price is at your buy price. So no need to check catalogues, etc to look if the item you might want is on sale or not.
Do you have any recommendations for items to track on price hipster? Like things that only drop in price a few times a year instead of fortnightly.
You should track everything that you usually buy or want to buy (not just groceries). You would be surprised at the price cycle grocery items go through.
Jalna yoghurt is one which has a low price of 30% off and it is generally at this price every 3 weeks or so (quite often it is 30% off at Woolies one week and 30% off at Coles the next week followed by a couple of weeks at full price or a higher special price). I sometimes buy a couple of tubs to get through a couple of weeks when I don't think a 30% off special will be coming up or else will do without for a week or 2 and wait until it is at this price again. And I will only buy it if it is 30 % off.
Nerada Camomile tea bags is one item which in the last few years at least, has not been 1/2 price. But once or twice a year it goes down to about 45% off and this is the time for me to buy and stock up.
It is so easy with Price Hipster to track an items price and know when it is at its low price.
I didn't know this - thank you!
be single is probs the best advice
This is what I do :P.
Can be as cheap arsed as one likes and you never have a partner complain.Isn't this false economy? What's your net cost after getting serviced?
What's your net cost after getting serviced?
Cost? These days you just use Tinder…
Get mum to buy groceries
You could try your hand at dumpster diving?
Saw this on the The War on Waste, it's just unbelievable how much food food goes to waste.
Lots of places lock up their Dumpsters. Once saw someone reselling bread at the market from Coles’ dumpster.
(1) have multiple rewards card, use the one with the best spend:point ratio offer. e.g. I currently have a "spend $50 per week for 4 weeks and get 10,000 points =$50"
(2) collect discarded receipts from trolleys which have high spends but aren't scanned with a rewards card.
(3) go back in to the store, show receipt and say you scan your card. sale/points will be added to your card(s). coles can add point to your card within 7 days of purchase.
(4) ????????
(5) Profit
Do people really just leave receipts in trolleys?
yes
Say you what? Forgot to scan?
yes "Hi, I was here earlier and I forgot to scan"
this evening I picked up a $127 receipt. I asked for it to be added to my flybuys card.
that's one week of my 4 *$50 spends to get $50.
so basically that receipt was worth $12.50
plus 127 points = 65cents - so not huge. but hey a small extra.
if , as another poster wrote earlier, you have 10 flybuy cards then at least one will have a good offer. with multiple receipts you can add points to whichever cards have a great deal.
I can confirm your method works and I want to keep it to myself till someone leaks. The problem with this is that it really relies on your local shopping centre(with a Coles) layout and the people shop there. For some places with loads of other supermarkets/grocery shops, you can not easily find eligible receipts coz people tend to not shop everything in one place. If the time spent on searching receipt takes too long, it negates the profit. Other factors affecting results include parking location, windy/raining day, rich/poor area.
Personally, I do not follow 4 weeks offer now, only one time bonus points if find one.
@Neoika: Went to Coles to tonight to get connoisseur ice-creams( $4.20 on special) . Receipt on ground next to my car was for $93, not scanned with flybys. Took it in and said I forgot to scan earlier. Bam! Weeks 2 of the offer done. Receipt = $12.50.
@altomic: What's the net value/cost of doing this? Your time hunting for a receipt and calling flybuys. One week might land in your lap, but you need four.
Then there's your ahem… conscience.
net value/cost of doing this
- $12.50 per receipt.
time hunting the receipt
- less than 15 seconds each time. they were sitting there in front of me.
Then there's your ahem… conscience.
- each receipt is worth $12.50
@altomic: Did it again tonight. Receipt for $118 outside the supermarket in a trolley. Worth $12.50
One week left of $70 5pend to get $50
@altomic: Did you get your 10,000 points at the end of the promotion or did the manual entries get ignored by the multi week offer.
@[Deactivated]: It defintely works. I have been doing this occasionally for years. Actually, some stores are cracking down on this behavior because staff members might get into trouble by doing these too often. You can image the staff working there can collect many unwanted receipts and if they are found adding points to their own flybuys cards, they may be subject to discipline punishment including being sacked.
UNIT PRICING!
Check this. You'll be amazed at how a bigger version of the same item does NOT necessarily cost less per unit! Or the other way around. Also it's much cheaper to make your own things and NOT buy it prepackaged. Hummus for example. Flavoured yoghurt. Muesli or cooked oats. Flavoured drinks.very much about unit pricing. it doesnt matter if the 150g peanut butter is 50% off, if the unit price is still higher than the 700g container.
one will then need to factor in other elements such as; 'Will i be consuming all 700g before expiry'.
Tasman Meats is literally 20 meters from my local Coles. Now the only meat I buy from supermarkets is ham and occasionally bacon. I also preferentially use baker and grocer instead of supermarket on most occasions.
Sort of a grocery tip, sort of a life tip.
If you're overweight (find out here) then lose weight. This doesn't require eating particularly healthy. Just less. And eating less costs less. You'll save a substantial amount losing weight and keep saving money maintaining a lower weight.
What got to do with saving tip ?