When it comes to your food shop, how much do you spend on a regular basis? Do you take advantage of the special offers? When buying those special offers, do you find that you sometimes end up spending money that you don’t really need to?
The Money Advice Service have recently done some research into people’s food shopping habits and how special offers when they are doing the food shop affects their food budget. Shockingly, on average special offers make us spend £1,300 more a year! Whether those special offers are BOGOF’s or multi buys, we are often encouraged by the supermarkets to spend 21% more than we originally intended to! On average, shoppers are parting with an extra £11.14 on average per shop because of the special offers – crazy, isn’t it? With the average person now going to the supermarket more than twice a week, they could be forking out an additional £1,274 over the course of a year!
I know myself and my partner often get enticed by the special offers, especially now we are both actively trying to lose weight. It makes sense in our heads to get those products when they are on BOGOF as we are going to need them again shortly but then I have often found myself putting 4-6 in my trolley instead of the 1 I originally intended to, just because they’re on an offer. The way supermarkets phrase things can really confuse us as shoppers – sometimes a singular item is a better deal but because we see the words special offer and similar, we automatically think that will be the better deal and don’t even consider checking the singular item instead.
Another way to see your food shop bill creeping up is going shopping on an empty stomach. We no longer do this as otherwise we get tempted to throw all manners of stuff in that we don’t need but just fancy because we’re hungry. This isn’t any good for our wallet or our diet so we avoid this now – but others still do it often. With this, women are more likely to choose confectionery or baked goods whereas the men are more likely to pick up meat, alcohol or ready meals. Shopping with children or being susceptible to items at the till are also other surefire ways of seeing your bill slowly creep up.
What are the best ways to avoid this?
Preparation is the best way to guard against overspending. Those who always make a shopping list are three times less likely to overspend than those who don’t, spending close to £200 less on groceries over the year. When it comes to checking prices, look at the price per unit or compare the prices of similar weight products to make sure you are getting value for money. More than 10p of every £1 we spend goes on food, so being savvy with spending in this area will really be noticed.
These are things we have started to do and have found it is making a huge difference – our food bill has decreased dramatically after taking a few simple steps to avoid it. We try to go food shopping when Jack is at school or online, having eaten before and taking a list – and we both encourage the other to step away from the special offers.
John Penberthy-Smith, Customer Director for the Money Advice Service comments: “The problem is that quite often we see a special offer at the supermarket and we don’t want to miss out – so we throw it into our trolley without really thinking about whether it is a good deal or whether we actually need it.
“Often deals can be difficult to understand and compare with other prices. Then there’s waste – even if the offers are cheaper, bigger packets or 50% extra are not always good value for money if we end up chucking most of it away.
“The best thing to do if you want to save cash is to write a shopping list and try to stick to it. You can also try shopping when you’ve just eaten and you’re not tired. Just remember, buying own brands and being savvy when it comes to tempting ‘offers’ will save you money in the long run.”
For more money saving tips to help you shop smarter visit the Money Advice Service website. What tips do you have for shopping smarter?
In collaboration with the Money Advice Service
