BritanniAmerica

We supplement our shopping with Lidl, too. We never count on it because it's difficult for us to get to, but if we go then we can take the items off of our regular shopping list that week and save quite a bit of money. We even prefer some of the Lidl / German brand foods to the brand name equivalents. We did blind taste tests of super noodles and baked beans and the Lidl brand won both tests.

My aunt ant uncle used to go shopping at THREE different grocery stores, depending on what the sales fliers said.

I miss sales fliers.

For us, we don't mind the larger meat portions since I package up leftovers for Tim's lunches. We've got a stockpile of containers in the freezer so he can just grab one in the morning. (I did this for him before I left in April and he was still eating my cooking in August!)

I do that with certain things. It's great!


The thing that saves us so much money is: Buying meat from the butcher! Yes it's true, believe it or not... Our butcher puts meat into value packs in a cooler and they always have big packs of steaks/pork chops/chicken for 10 pounds. And they have marinated chicken in nice sized packs, 3 for 5 pounds. We stocked up on meat for a WHILE today for really cheap!

If you miss sales fliers sign up for store emails. Tesco send out weekly (sometimes more often) emails on store offers. Morrisons do this as well, you can alternatively check their website to see what the big offers are. Also sign up for Lidl & Aldi (Aldi's come out for their sales on Thursdays & Sundays). I don't think the Co-op do the emails, but you can see what's on offer from their website. We get sales fliers through our local free paper that gets delivered weekly, they also deliver Tesco's and Sainsbury's newsletters on occasion.

If you haven't already sign up for every one of Tesco's little groups to get extra vouchers and points. They have their Healthy Eating club, Wine Club (even if you only buy wine once in a while) etc. They're all free to join and they usually have competitions going where you just scan the voucher at the til. Most of their vouchers can also be used online which are better than Sainsbury's who only give out vouchers to use in store.

Be double sure to check the unit prices on items you're buying. I was just in Lloyd's Pharmacy the other day to pick up a prescription for DH & get him Ibuleve. Name brand actually worked out cheaper than buying Lloyd's own brand, which they were making out was on offer! This was also true for buying 2 12pks of Ipuprophen over a single 24pk. The pharmacy tech lady couldn't believe the price difference! Just goes to prove buying store's own isn't always the cheaper option.

If you've never done online shopping before with Tesco's, Sainsbury's or ASDA you may want to check out going through a shopping site like Quidco or Top Cashback. This goes for shopping from other stores too. Don't forget to go through Nectar too to collect Nectar points for online shopping. There are other sites, like Airmiles (you can convert Tesco points for travel), iPoints, Cashback Kings etc - you can find full listings and more info off of [url=http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/]Money Saving Expert/url] (you also may want to sign up for their weekly money saving email - it gives tips for banks, bills, shopping etc.).

I feel ridiculous because I don't buy fruit and veg from the town market on Sundays. I stopped by there yesterday to get a couple of things, and had a look at their lovely fruit and veg which is locally produced and FAR cheaper than the sutff in the supermarkets. They had GIANT bags of mixed vegetables (I saw a cabbage, a swede, some carrots and parsnips) for only £2.00 for the whole bag. I don't know why I don't usually shop at the Sunday market. I'm going to start this week, though, for sure! I think I just avoid it because the fishmonger van smells so rank.

If you have a boots advantage card, check at the kiosks each time you shop, as they sometimes have offers (like x number of extra points if you spend y). And with Boots, the points get translated into money you can spend at the store - either on toiletries you need, or to splurge on something special (make-up, perfume). If you don't have a card, sign up! You can sign up for a card on their website, and when they send you your card, they send coupons. Just like anywhere else, don't use the coupons unless it's for a product you use.

Boots also has a lot of 3 for 2 offers (for some reason, sometimes the signs read "buy 2, get one free" instead) Again, only good if they have what you use. When they put the offer on haircare, I always wind up buying 6 so I have an even number of shampoo/conditioner. It's not like this stuff will go bad.

I use a shampoo that's only available at boots (Trevor Sorbie), but I think their prices are comparable to Tesco for other toiletry items.

If the grocery store charges based on how soon you want your groceries (like Tesco), order a handful of items (even if it's not what you want), pick your delivery slot, and then check out. You usually have until the night before delivery to go back in and edit your list with what items you actually want, but you still will keep your cheaper delivery rate since you technically ordered well in advance!