WANT to slash hundreds off your food bill and still leave everyone satisfied around the dinner table?
There are plenty of tricks and tips for reducing what you spend each week and reducing any waste at home.
Here, Fabulous reveals six easy tips you can try today, which don’t require hours of meal prepping….
1) Switch to online
Online shopping can be a great way of avoiding impulse purchases as it prevents you being swayed by store offers.
One fan of this technique is Kayleigh Murray and her fiancé Perry Foster, who save a staggering £1,800 a year on their food shop by ditching ready meals and shopping online.
They began by switching to online shopping to avoid pricey impulse purchases, as well as meal planning for the week.
The couple have now slashed this down to just £67.31 a month, which takes their yearly total down to £807.72 – saving them £1,832.08 over 12 months.
To make sure you're getting the best value for money, always compare prices on sites like MoneySupermarket.com before handing over any cash.
It lets shoppers compare prices at Tesco, Asda, Ocado, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl, to name a few.
2) Use waste boxes
Picking up a waste box from leading supermarkets can be a great way to bag a bargain – and help prevent food items going unused.
Laura Williams, 30, from the West Midlands, bought a Morrisons Magic Box on food waste app Too Good To Go.
With this she bought £35 of fresh food for just £3.09.
Lidl sells Too Good To Waste boxes, which weigh roughly 5kg – and they cost just £1.50 each.
They contain fruit and vegetables from Lidl's store shelves, which have become slightly damaged or discoloured, but are still fine to eat.
3) Ditch chicken fillets and buy whole chickens
A money-saving mum has shared how ditching expensive chicken breast fillets for a single roast can make your meals go further each week. – she turns one chicken into four family meals.
Mum-of-two Laura Swain, 28, from Weston-Super-Mare, used to spend £11 a week on pricey chicken breast fillets, but now spends just £4 on a single roast chicken a week.
After doing a Sunday roast, she then turns the leftovers into a BBQ pasta bake, enchiladas and noodle soup.
4) Make a family meal plan
Instead of filling your trolley on your weekly shop and then making dishes on impulse, making a meal plan can limit waste and keep costs down.
A savvy mum has shared she uses a simple meal plan and now saves around £360 a month on the food shop.
Vickie Williams, 42, used to spend around £120-£140 a week on food for her family-of-five, but would still find herself popping to the shops mid-week to top up.
Vickie now spends around £150 a month on food for the five on them, saving herself hundreds.
Once you’ve made your plan, you can easily form a stripped back shopping list.
AnyList is an app that’ll make quick work of your weekly shop by categorising items to save time in store, plus it’ll recognise items you regularly buy.
Better yet, it’s free to download.
Here's how to cut the cost of your grocery shop
MONEY.CO.UK has shared some top tips with us to help you keep your supermarket spend down to a minimum.
- Write yourself a list – Only buy items that you need. If it isn't on your list, don't put it in the trolley
- Create a budget – Work out a weekly budget for your food shopping
- Never shop hungry – You are far more likely to buy more food if your tummy is rumbling
- Don't buy pre-chopped veggies or fruit – The extra they'll charge for chopping can be eye watering
- Use social media – Follow your favourite retailers to find out about the latest deals
- Be disloyal – You may want to go to different stores to find the best bargains
- Check the small print – It’s always worth checking the price per kg/lb/litre when comparing offers so you’re making a like for like decision as a bigger box won’t necessarily mean you get more
- Use your loyalty cards – Don’t be afraid to sign up to them all. They all work slightly differently – work out what bonus suits you better and remember to trade in your points for additional rewards
5) Become a yellow sticker fiend
Ah, yellow sticker discounts – they offer great reductions on pricier goods and aren’t as hard to spot as you might think.
It’s not uncommon to nab savings on pricier items like meat and fish with shoppers picking up food for pennies.
While there’s no hard and fast rule, MoneySavingExpert has a list of roughly when reduction times start in store.
You can check when you supermarket should start reducing right here.
A mum shared how she managed to bag a whopping £133 of meat at Morrisons for just £20 after being in the right place at the right time.
Her haul included numerous meats, including different cuts of steaks.
6) Don’t be a brand snob
Just because something is more expensive, doesn’t mean it’s always better – and it could be needlessly costing you more.
MoneySavingExpert recommends the Downshift Challenge to swap out branded goods with cheaper alternatives.
If you like what you’ve tried, then stick to it and MSE says you could save up to £1,500 a year.
Those who are still sceptical can read reviews on SupermarketOwnBrand which conveniently rates supermarket-own products against their branded rivals.
We shared 10 clever ways you can save money at Asda that most shoppers don’t know.
And these are the Eat Out to Help Out menus for supermarket cafes, including Tesco and Morrisons.
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