I often mention here on the blog about cutting costs when food shopping to save money, but I realised recently that many people don’t know exactly how they can do this for fear of compromising on the meals they currently eat. In this post, I want to show you how it really is possible to enjoy a well-balanced diet for less money without giving up all your favourite foods.
I was inspired to write this post after I watched an episode of Eat Well for Less, a BBC1 documentary which follows the supermarket spending habits of various families. TV presenters, Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin, are brought in to show these families how they can basically shop for the same food but without spending a lot of money in the process.
The episode I watched was about the Austen family – a family of four (two grown ups, a teenager and a young child) who spent around £260 per week doing the food shopping. Yes, that’s per week, meaning that their average monthly food shop was well over £1000! With only four mouths to feed, that’s a lot of money to be spending!
There are three people in my family, two grown ups and a child and our food shopping comes to between £200-£300 per MONTH. That’s around a quarter of what this particular family were spending.
So how does this kind of spending happen? How is it possible to spend so much money on food? Well, I think excessive spending like this is down to a combination of clever marketing / packaging tricks and just falling into the trap of buying what looks familiar instead of trying out different (i.e. cheaper) produce.
If you want to save money on food shopping, take a look at these top tips which could save you hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds/dollars per year.
Nice packaging doesn’t mean better quality or better taste
You might think that a jam with a nice name like Fortnum and Mason, dressed up in beautiful packaging with a hefty price tag to go with it is going to be the best jam ever, but actually it probably won’t be.
In a taste test on Eat Well for Less, Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference strawberry jam came out as the tastiest of them all and was priced at 44p per 100g, even beating the popular brand – Hartleys jam. The premuim option, Fortnum and Mason strawberry jam, was priced at a whopping £3.81 per 100g – and was identified as the worst tasting!
In this same documentary, one of the family members was asked to compare balsamic vinegars and put them in order of preference as to which had the most visually appealing packaging and then in order of which one tasted the best. Turned out that the one with the least attractive packaging (as in the one that wouldn’t get a second look usually) was the one that tasted the nicest!
The results of these little case studies show that you should get past the packaging and give supermarket own label products a try – and I’d encourage you for going a step further and try the extra value brands. We still buy many extra value products, including tinned tomatoes for just 34p per tin – they do the job just fine!
Stop buying unhealthy snacks or processed foods
The things that often push the shopping bill up are crisps, chocolate, frozen or ready meals and other processed foods. As much as it’s nice to have a treat, you can make your money go further by purchasing fresh produce instead.
Rather than buying frozen oven chips, buy a sack of potatoes from your local farm shop – you’ll be able to make healthy homemade chips until they come out of your ears!
Try baking your own cakes and biscuits with basic store cupboard ingredients rather than buying boxed cakes from the supermarket. Your body will thank you for it as well as your pocket!
Put together a proper shopping list
Planning meals might seem a bit boring but if you want to save money on your food shopping, you’ll need to know what ingredients to buy at the best prices to make those meals. The best way to do this is put together one main shopping list that you can go back to every month. Being organised with your food shopping is the key to staying on track with your spending!
If you need to mix things up a bit to avoid dreariness at mealtimes, just swap and change a few items so that you can make some different meals.
Compare prices across different supermarkets
When you have your shopping list ready, compare prices across different supermarkets using an online website like My Supermarket here in the UK. Sites like this can save you up to 30% on your food shopping and that’s just from being able to see where you can buy the things you need at the lowest possible cost.
It’s worth weighing up fuel costs to travel to and from different supermarkets. Try tagging shopping trips to supermarkets that are further afield onto journeys where you already need to venture out in that direction anyway.
Use the food you have in the freezer
One thing that my husband and I feel strongly about is avoiding food waste. We cook in bulk and freeze portions for later. When we think we’ve run out of food, we raid our freezer and combine random ingredients to make a meal. Tinned tomatoes, sausages and pasta can end up turning into a really nice baked pasta dish. Leftover veggies often get thrown together with chickpeas, lentils and spices to make a tasty veggie curry.
Eat less meat / fish
I’m not suggesting you cut back on nutritious meals in order to save money, but the fact is that meat and fish can be costly and it is perfectly possible to eat a vegetarian diet whilst maintaining a healthy balance of protein, carbohydrates and good fats.
If you don’t want to become a vegetarian though, you could try reducing the amount of meat in your meals, instead packing them out with more veggies, pulses and lentils for added nutrients.
Turkey is generally cheaper than chicken and most red meats plus it’s super good for you too. Instead of buying cod or haddock, try pollock instead which is a white fish that’s a bit cheaper, but still as good for you.
Can you squeeze more savings out of your food / grocery budget?
I conducted a survey recently to find out what problems my subscribers are experiencing right now when it comes to money. A common problem seems to be trying to find more savings when budgets have already been slashed.
If you can relate to this, just take a minute to revisit your food shopping habits. Is there any way you could save a bit more money by following some of the tips above?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on eating well without spending a fortune. What’s your experience of this? Please take a minute to share this article on Pinterest!
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17 Comments
It’s still my problem area, but not because I’m buying processed food or anything. It’s al really healthy stuff, but for some reason meal planning hasn’t really worked for me. Not going to give up trying to figure out a way to beat my challenging budget area though! I wish that series was available in the US!
We’ve been trying to make our own food whenever possible, like using free apples to make jelly. One of the most delicious and healthiest ways that we’ve saved money on food this year is with our breadmaker. We make up fresh bread instead of buying a couple of loaves per week from the store.
Harmony recently posted…Frugally Resourceful: Crabapple Jelly & Hard Cider
Great post, and so true. As a family, we meal plan Monday to Friday purely for convenience as well as budget. We purchased a slow cooker a little over a year ago. I have to say it was money well spent. There is a fantastic selection of recipes available on the web, all using fresh and budget-friendly foods.
We eat well, but do much of what you already suggest here.
The hardest change for me, personally, was reducing the amount of meat eaten. The first step we took was by increasing the vegetables at each meal, making sure we always had at least two vegetables. Then when you keep doing that but make the main dish a combination of meat, vegetables and starch, you can have a nice variety of flavors and textures without going full vegetarian.
Jack @ Enwealthen recently posted…Why I avoid Paypal, and you should too
Yes! These tips are GREAT! It’s completely possible to eat well for less. The biggest thing that’s helped us is a garden. We currently have both an outdoor and indoor garden, though the outdoor garden’s days are numbered due to the cold. If we eat meat, we only eat it at dinner. That’s significant savings. I also think people need to stop being afraid to eat the same thing several times a week. I truly eat the same thing for breakfast every day and it costs me less than $7/month. That’s been one of my favorite blog posts to write so far! Last month, one of my goals was a $200 grocery budget for the two of us, and we achieved it. I was so pleasantly surprised!
Penny @ She Picks Up Pennies recently posted…Simple Switches: Easy Bathroom Organization
What my family practices every weekdays is that we don’t have meat for the certain period of time. We just have fish and vegetables. Then, the only time we have meat is during weekdays but sometimes we still have fish by choice. Doing this really help us save more money and makes us healthy inside and out.
Michelle recently posted…What’s going on with the stock market at the moment?
We’ve been making an effort to eat healthier over the past year and a half while still keeping to our budget and it has definitely been a challenge at times. We use all the techniques you mention and that has made a huge difference. To put together our shopping list, we try to meal plan combining what’s on sale with what we already have in the house. I also learned to read nutritional labels as many of the foods you might think are reasonably healthy can be loaded with excess salt, sugar, or fat. The biggest thing I think has been avoiding processed foods as much as possible and cook them at home yourself. It’s a bit of extra effort but well worth it in the end.
Gary @ Super Saving Tips recently posted…Book Review: “Choose Your Retirement: Find the Right Path to Your New Adventure”
One thing that substantially cuts our budget while increasing the variety of things we eat is bulk/freezer cooking. By buying things that are on sale and getting them prepared to the “throw them in the over or crockpot” stage, we save time and money. We just need to do it more often; its that whole planning thing.
RAnn recently posted…Preparing for the Unexpected: Automobile Insurance
Not buying store brand is my weakness. I do it for some things, but I swear I can taste a difference in some products for Walmart or Aldi brands. Maybe I’ll have to do my own blind taste test to prove myself wrong!
Femme Frugality recently posted…Decorating on a Budget: Finding Your Style Frugally
That blueberries pictures is so vibrant it makes me want to eat one ;o)
I do think that a decent exception to picking up boxed meals is that it’s a great baby step away from eating out all the time – if you suffer with getting past that particular speed bump getting your budget on track.
I know when my work life goes haywire, I start eating out all the time and found that I literally slashed that budget number right in half by just picking up boxed meals. I’m not going to be able to talk myself into cooking properly during a week of 16 hour work days, but I can talk myself into spending 3 minutes microwaving.
Mel recently posted…Financially Savvy Saturdays #110
Such good ideas! I would love to watch this series. I like to buy an extra turkey or ham when they put it on sale for the holidays and store it for later. They can be put in so many dishes!
Vickie @Vickie’s Kitchen and Garden recently posted…My Menu this Past Week 10/3/15 -Time for Sauerkraut!
Unfortunately, cooking doesn’t work for us. Long story, but trust me, we’ve tried. So I try to keep costs down with as affordable of convenience food as possible. Frozen Healthy Choice meals are about $2.50 and aren’t bad calorie/nutrition-wise. I have a couple of $1 protein bars during the day. The cheapest is peanut butter toast (the PB has 1g of sugar). Not as cheap as cooking, but it helps balance out my husband’s love of processed/fast/junk food. Sometimes, the best you can do is a good compromise.
Abigail @ipickuppennies recently posted…Re-entry complete
Now that I am not getting any younger. It feels like I have to be more health conscious such as eating healthy food, more on vegetables and fruits, having a balance diet, and exercising more often. I do meal planning every weekend so it’s part of our practice to detail what we have for the following week and we consider the quantity and quality of food.
Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…What’s going on with the stock market at the moment?
You hit on the big ones for me: plan meals in advance, create a list, and stick to it. (The latter is hardest for me.) And you’re so right about meat and fist. My grocery bill is always a good bit cheaper when I don’t buy those items.
Amy @ DebtGal recently posted…2015 Meal Plan #41
These are great tips, I myself am often guilty of buying the ‘pretty’ brand.
One big thing I do to stretch meat further is I never cook it by itself. When I buy chicken breasts I make sure that I am making dishes like chicken chili or BBQ Chicken sandwiches with beans mixed in for filler. That way, we are still eating a good helping of meat, but it is mixed in with veggie fillers.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Cara! When I read your comment, I was literally cooking chicken chilli, how funny! This is a good tip to help stretch meat further, it is one of the most expensive food groups to buy usually, so appreciate the tip!