Shopping, how to spend less!

http://www.beforeishop.co.uk/CouponWeb/HomePage.aspx?pid=11416&nid=29&zid=oj54

This is a great site ive found that give you coupons for everyday items like toothpaste and yazoo milk shakes!

take a look!

I have just put this idea into to practice at my place of work.

Create a board where people can leave unwanted coupons/vouchers.

The saying is.... 'One man's trash, is another man's treasure!'

Great deals on this website take a look!

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/reading/forbury-s-restaurant-and-wine-bar/291430/.vp4K0U

One of the things that has helped me save money is by having a shop points card. Loads of shops offer them! just a few are; Boots, Tesco, Sainsburys, Debenhams, GoOutdoors, The Co-operative, Shell, Waterstones, The Body Shop, HMV and more!

When you do your daily, weekly, monthly shops, your points will soon start totting up. I usually save them all up until before christmas and then i buy most of christmas presents for free!

Supermarkets are cathedrals of consumerism; they're almost perfectly honed marketing environments, benefiting from millions of pounds of research into how to encourage and seduce us into buying and spending more than we need.

It's one reason that if you want to teach an eight-year-old about money, the best place to start is a supermarket. Ask them what they can smell: it'll usually be bread or a bakery, as the scent makes us hungry and likely to buy more food, so the supermarket profits.

This means as consumers we must learn counter-moves. Obviously eating before shopping helps, but this is just one trick. Others include the following:

Sweets and magazines placed by the till.

These are impulse buys, so putting them near the till gives them one last attempt to grab our cash.
Store layouts make us walk the whole distance.

Regularly bought items tend to be spread around the store, so we need to pass many other tempting goodies to complete our shopping.
Eye level products are the profitable ones.

The most profitable stock is placed at eye level (or children's eye level if it's targeted at them), yet profitable goods tend not to be the best deals. The age old adage 'look high and low for something' really does apply.
Same goods, different prices, depending where in the store you are.

Supermarkets charge as much as possible and differentiate prices around the store. For example, if you're buying snacks such as nuts or dried fruit, they're much more expensive in the snack area than in world food or baking.
Sales type signage for non-sales items.

Seedless grapes and other attractive treats are usually near the store entrance, often below cost price, to entice us in. Similar signs and displays are used elsewhere to promote deals, even when they're not on sale. Bright colours and the words 'discount' and 'sale' make us feel good, yet the reduction may be pennies and cheaper equivalents hidden elsewhere.

Vouchers and deals are an integral part of most supermarkets' strategies. The promotions follow what I call a 'capture and exploit' system.

CAPTURE. The aim's to attract customers who wouldn't come otherwise. These are generally discount vouchers or codes or a small range of heavily discounted items.
EXPLOIT. This is about targeting existing customers, with the dual aim of making them feel they're getting better value to promote customer stickiness and trying to target impulse spending through promotions on attractive luxury items.
Turn the tables to gain
Correctly used, these promotions are a goldmine, allowing you to scythe chunks off your shopping bill.

£100s of free grocery coupons

Grocery coupons don't just come in magazines; many are available instantly on the web. Better still, supermarkets sometimes accept coupons for products they're not designed for a voucher for £1 off a box of Coco Pops could get you £1 off any shopping, not just the cereal.

Policies can vary store by store on this. It's worth a try, yet never be dishonest; be upfront and ask their permission. Do note that Tesco, which used to be fairly accommodating on this, now has a stated policy of not allowing coupons to be used for items they are not designated for (read the Tesco Coupons news story).

To get loads of free vouchers see the Daily Updated: Supermarket Coupons List
Get big discounts off your weekly shop

Supermarkets commonly put out introductory discount vouchers to 'capture' new customers e.g. £15 off a £50 spend at Waitrose. For a detailed list of free codes and vouchers, see the Daily Updated: Shopping Vouchers List

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FAQS View Past Emails Privacy PolicyWhen to BOGOF and how to find them

Bogof! No, not you! BOGOF stands for 'buy one, get one free'.

Often there to 'exploit' our impulses, these can be a menace or angel. The time to grab 'em is when the BOGOF (or three-for-two or half-price deal) is on a good that won't go off that you'd buy anyway. Classic examples include toothpaste, bog roll and batteries. If you see these offers, get as many as you can store.

To locate supermarkets' current special offers, check the forum's Food and Grocery Shopping board.
Ask for a raincheck voucher

If a special offer item is out of stock, some supermarkets will give you a voucher entitling you to the same deal at a later date.
Tesco 'Special Promise' vouchers. Some Tescos hand out 'Special Promise', also known as raincheck, vouchers when special offer products are out of stock. This policy goes way back and many old shop assistants still give them out, yet newer staff haven't heard of them. Try your luck and explain at the customer services desk that you want a voucher, to take advantage of the deal at a later date.
Asda 'Smiley' vouchers. Asda staff are allowed to give out 'Smiley' vouchers for up to £1, when a customer's had a problem or just becase they feel like it. One of these reasons is that a special offer product's out of stock. Vouchers are at shop assistant's discretion, so don't be demanding, yet a friendly smile goes a long way.
Sainsbury's 'Special Coupons'. If a special offer's run out, Sainsbury's shop assistants dish out 'Special Coupons', allowing you to buy the same product from a different brand, at the special offer price. Again, it's at the shop assistant's discretion and some haven't heard of them, but MoneySavers report that politely explaining about the coupons can help. Coupons must be used on that day.
Join Tesco clubs

Tesco runs a baby and toddler club that's worth joining, as members get special money-off offers through the post.
Grab loyalty cards

Both Tesco, with its Clubcard, and Sainsbury's, with the Nectar card, offer loyalty points. While these don't provide enough value to dictate where you should shop, if you are going to shop in these stores, always use the card.

Tesco is especially good: you accumulate points at a rate of two per pound spent. Trade in normal vouchers for Tesco's special Clubcard Rewards vouchers, available either online or in store, and each £5 voucher becomes worth £15. For detailed tips and tricks for Tesco Clubcard and Nectar, including the unique LoyaltyChecker tool to assess the value of your points stash, see the Loyalty Points Boosting guide.

It's possible to speedily compare the prices of your typical shopping trolley at all the online supermarkets, and, better still, once you find which are the cheapest, you can just export your basket there, without entering the details again.

This takes place on the website mySupermarket*, which looks at the cost of the four main online supermarkets: Ocado (Waitrose), Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's. It's simple to use and you can save your basket of goods, so you don't need to refill it each week. The savings from doing this can add up to £100s a year. Here are some quick tips:

Check out its 'shop and save' function.

As you're entering your data, mySupermarket also suggests alternative options that may be cheaper, for example, if you're buying two six packs of cola and a 12-pack is cheaper, it'll let you know.
Consider Downshifting.

mySupermarket's also now got a 'Downshift Challenge' section, based on my technique, allowing you to drop down a brand online.
Want to check out latest offers?

If you're just looking for latest deals in store or online it's worth checking out madaboutbargains which highlights the latest offers.

Everyday there are bargains to be had in the supermarket, as huge reductions are made on 'yellow ticket' items that are near their sell-by-dates. To build the info on this, we asked MoneySavers who work in supermarkets to spill the beans on their stores' reduction policies.

Reduction times varied by store/opening time, yet some definite patterns emerged. The first yellow stickers appear around 10am, and the silly-price reductions begin at 7pm, when stores cut prices by 75% and upwards.

Supermarket Rough Reductions Schedule Amount you may be able to save
Up to 25% off Up to 50% off Up to 75% and up
Asda 12pm 5pm 9pm
Morrisons - 5pm 7pm
Sainburys 10am 5pm 8pm
Tesco 8am 4pm 8pm
Co-op 8am 5pm 7pm
Source: Great 'supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies' hunt.

Who has authority to make reductions?

Most shop floor staff have the authority to reduce prices at their discretion, so it's worth keeping your eye out for goods that are damaged/nearing their sell by dates. Yet their overwhelming cry was: 'we will reduce prices for friendly customers, but if you're rude and demand a reduction - forget it'. A smile and a little politeness goes a long way.
Look for reduced 'multi-buy' items.

Watch out for reduced items that are part of multi-buy offers, as often the computer will still deduct the full-price discount at the till. Say there's a 'buy two get one free' offer on £1 shortbread, and you buy three reduced to 50p, the computer may still take off the extra £1. This isn't guaranteed, but worth a try.
Read the great 'supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies' hunt

There's no easier way to waste cash than by regularly throwing out old food that you never used. Staggeringly, the average UK home chucks away £600 worth a year, yet a few easy steps and tools for better stock management can easily reduce this.

Step 1: Don't throw 'best-befores' away
Can you define the difference between a best-before and display-until date? If not, the likelihood is you're throwing a lot of food away unnecessarily.

Always remember...

Supermarkets usually stack from the back, so reach to the back of the shelves to find the longest 'use by' and 'best buys' dates.

Whether you're rummaging for reduced price goodies, or doing a clear out of stuff that's gone off, understanding labeling pays.

The 'Use By' date: Chuck it immediately

Use By means just that. Perishable food such as milk, fish and eggs that go off quickly and should be thrown out after this date; if not, they're a health risk.
The 'Best Before' date: Still edible after the date

You'll usually see Best Befores on longer-lasting goods such as frozen meal and tins. It's usually safe to eat food after this date, as all it means is that the food will no longer be at its optimum quality. And the longer the time to the best before the longer it's likely to keep afterwards.

For example, if you buy tinned goods with a best before date two years in the future, then they're likely to still be pretty good three years ahead of time (though why you'd buy them and not eat them before then is anyone's guess).
Display until and sell by. Instructions for shops' staff not for you

These dates are instructions for shop staff to tell them when they should take a product off the shelves. Check the 'use by' and 'best before' dates instead.
Buy "Beyond Best-Befores" at a fraction of the price
As there's no explicit safety risk just from eating food beyond its best-before date, there are also many small independent stores who specialise in selling clearance, short-dated and out-of-date stock around the the UK. There's also now an online store, Approved Food, which, once a cash-and-carry, now sells directly to the public.

Typical goods include two big Walkers packets for 99p, six tins of Farrow's peas tins 99p and Hellmans 235ml salad dressing 1p!

There's a £5.25 delivery charge, provided deliveries are under 35kg, so it's worth bulk buying. As there aren't any finite rules on how far beyond a best-before date it's still safe to eat products, you need to make the decision yourself. Generally though, the longer the original shelf life of the goods before the best-before date, the longer you can go beyond.

Step 2: Use a 2D linear tracking device
Modern technology hasn't come up with anything to compete with 'the shopping list' and so hopefully by giving it a pretentious name, it feels more important. The reason's obvious: by planning what you need before heading out, it's easier to cut out anything that goes over budget and stick to it.

It should also stop those unnecessary small extra trips to 'grab some more margarine', which end up costing £20 a time, as you can't resist buying more.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. Spotting a substantial bargain while shopping, something you were planning to buy another day, may rightfully loosen the purse strings. Always ask yourself the three key questions first ... Do I need it? Will I use it? And can I find it cheaper anywhere else?

Step 3: Free menu planners
While it's admittedly time consuming, the best way to make your shopping list super-effective is by writing a meal plan for the week/month. That way you can work out what you're going to eat every day, incorporating the ingredients you already have.

To help, there's an amazing resource, where thrifty MoneySaving Old-Stylers have put together menu planners of various thrift levels to copy and download.

Step 4: Do a larder audit
Rather than throwing food away, try doing a regular 'audit' once every few weeks of what's sitting in cupboards, fridge and freezer to see when it dates. Then you can use it before you lose it.

Over the years, supermarkets have hypnotised us into spending more and moving up the brand chain. Many people gradually buy increasingly more expensive versions of the same thing.

The downshift challenge, which provides ENORMOUS savings, has a simple premise:

Drop one brand level on everything and see if you can tell the difference. If you can't, stick with the cheaper product.

Let's applaud the sheer marketing genius of this. The system allows supermarkets to justify huge price variations. Think about it for a second: when you're in Tesco, you assume Tesco Finest is glam and gorgeous and Tesco Value is cheap and nasty, so the immense price difference feels legitimate.

Yet who actually decides this? Tesco of course! Its packaging and product placement are all designed to support this myth.

Don't get me wrong, there are differences in ingredients and production quality. Yet it isn't uniform: just because the salmon en croute is great, it doesn't mean the same brand's gourmet mousse, made in a different factory in another part of the world, is too.

Watch The Video Guide

Courtesy of Five TV. Originally from It Pays To Watch!
05/2008 The downshift technique ... typical saving £800/year
Don't worry, we;re not about to argue you should buy no-frills everything. The aim's to downshift only where you can't tell the difference and, for many families, this alone can save 15% a year on shopping bills, typically £800.

The Downshift Challenge in-store.

The next time you shop, swap one of everything to something just one brand level lower. So if you usually buy four cans of Tesco's own-brand baked beans, this time buy three and one Tesco Value. If you use luxury lavender shower gel, drop to Asda's own brand.
The Downshift Challenge online.

The supermarket comparison site mySupermarket* now includes a downshift challenge section based exactly on this theory. So when you enter your shopping trolley, as well as comparing the price across online supermarkets, it gives you the downshifted option.

This is a quick system and a great way to see the scale of the savings, even if you don't shop online.
The impact is enormous:

Drop one brand level on everything and the average bill's cut by a third. On a £100 weekly shop, that's £1,700 a year less.

The proof of this stat is based on detailed research. Martin has done a number of TV programmes where he's downshifted a family's shopping and the 33% saving is staggeringly consistent. Yet for ITV1's Tonight Supermarket Cheap programme, they went a step further and number-crunched hundreds of prices from the big four supermarkets.

Again, there was a standard 33% average saving by dropping one brand level for every product. This consistency indicates that supermarkets deliberately devise their price structures this way. It's worth noting the biggest downshift savings aren't from premium brands to manufacturer brands, but for those already lower down the brand chain to begin with.

Downshift Challenge Savings by Supermarket Downshift from%u2026 Tesco (1) Morrisons (2) Sainsbury's (3) Asda (4)
Luxury to Branded 8% 16% 22% 12%
Branded to Own Brand 31% 36% 31% 35%
Own Brand to Value 37% 39% 45% 41%
An average one brand 29% 34% 34% 35%
(1) 400 items compared (2) 266 items compared (3 ) 314 items compared (4) 319 items compared
Downshift Challenge Example Savings Product Mainstream Brand Supermarket own Supermarket economy
Jaffa cakes (36pk) £2.88 £1.75 £1.08
Teabags (240 pk) £5.45 £3.00 £0.81
Toilet roll (4 pk) £1.48 £2.60 £1.00
Toothpaste (100ml) £1.00 £0.38 £0.31
Lager (4 X 500ml cans) £4.78 £2.49 £0.88

Remember, downshifting's about 'trying' not 'switching'
The downshift challenge isn't about automatically dropping a brand level, it's about seeing if you can notice any difference. If you don't like the lower brand level or the drop in quality is too severe, all but those who are in drastic need of urgent savings should switch back. Yet you'll be surprised at how few things you notice the change.

However there's an important point to watch for when trying downshifted goods:

Taste with your mouth, not with your eyes

The packaging and look of a product has a big psychological effect: just knowing something is more expensive means, after years of retail hypnosis, we assume it's better. Taste with that knowledge, and you often prefer it. If you can taste the food blind, great. If not, at least don't have the packaging out when you do.

A quick story from Martin: for a TV experiment, a professional chef cooked up two identical three course meals, one using normal ingredients, the other downshifted.

Off camera, I spoke to one of the assistant chefs; he'd dipped his finger first into a pack of I can't believe it's not butter and then the generic version, probably called I can't believe it's not better. He pointed at the cheaper brand and said, "you can tell the quality's worse as it's much saltier."

Yet a chef I independently asked said salty butter isn't automatically a bad sign. Was the assistant's reaction simply cognitive dissonance; spotting a difference and using it to justify it better, just because it was the expensive one?

Either way when the family tasted the three courses blind, they actually preferred the cheaper produce, never mind couldn't spot the difference.

Most spot the difference only on half the goods
The results of the downshift challenge again fit a standard pattern. Most people seem to only note the difference on around half the shopping. Therefore, it's worth quickly running through the maths.

For a family shop of £100 a week ...

Annual Expenditure: £5,200
Downshift everything - annual savings: £1,700
Downshift only 'no-difference' items - annual saving: £800
Downshifting can cut 15% off a family's shop saving over £800 a year, without noticing the difference

Please discuss/feedback/report your Downshift Savings

More quick downshift tips
If you're following the Downshift, there are a few more things to consider which can help boost the savings.

Downshift cleaning products and cosmetics

Rather strangely, reports show people are more likely to stick with branded washing powders, shower gels and other cleaning products than food. Yet these products don't even need tasting and the saving is huge. So try downshifting these too.

Then again, Old Style MoneySavers wouldn't forgive me if I omitted to say you can clean the whole house with white vinegar and lemon juice (read more on Old Style Cleaning and full info in the charity Thrifty Ways book).
Don't assume downshifting is worse nutritionally

Often lower cost products can be better, as there are fewer flavourings, colourings and chemicals; always check the label if this is a concern.
Downshifting is about price not brand

Some people religiously downshift brands, even if the higher brand is on special offer and cheaper. In that case, there's no need, pick the cheaper product, comparing on cost per gram.
Don't stop your downshift

Once you've successfully downshifted once, try it again a few weeks later; you may be able to drop yet another brand level on some goods and save more.
Downshift ingredients further

If you're cooking food, half the taste comes from your talents in the kitchen. So often you can get away with downshifting more, as you'll make up for it with time and skill.
Downshift your supermarket too

It's also worth considering the well known uber-cheap supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl and Netto, which, even if you don't want to use them all the time, are great for a monthly stock up of staple goods, at substantial savings. The same 'try it and see' technique can be used here too.
Finding the tastiest own brands

There's a great little website, SupermarketOwnBrand, that reviews supermarket own brands, pitting them against their brand name rivals and giving them a mark out of ten. Everything from shortbread to Chardonnay is covered.

Reviews are written by food critic Martin Isark; he's gradually tasting his way through the big supermarkets and has reviewed over 10,000 products from Aldi, Asda, Co-operative Food, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Netto, Morrisons and Waitrose. His view is it shows own-brands can smack the bottoms of posh ranges, even when it comes to taste; you definitely don't always get what you pay for.
Are own brands the same food in disguise?
After the downshift challenge, many people will be tempted to ask, "is there actually any difference between normal brands and own-brands?" Often they're made in the same factories.

To help break through this, there's a special discussion in the forum, which asks any current or past factory workers to dish the dirt on whether there's really any difference. Of course there's no guarantee it's true, but it makes fun reading.

Plus during the ITV1 Supermarket Cheap programme, Martin got a scientist to examine some own brands and compare them to the main brands. Surprisingly, almost none were nutritionally identical. The surmise is small differences are deliberately added so no one can say "they're the same". Even so, as they're often very similar in taste, it doesn't matter too much.

by: Jeffrey Strain
Unlike a fixed monthly cost such as your mortgage or car payment, the amount you spend on groceries each month is somewhat flexible. While the common advice of clipping coupons and buying generic brands to save money while shopping is sound, by far the best way to truly keep your supermarket shopping expenses under control is by understanding how supermarkets entice you to spend more than you really want. By fully understanding the ways supermarkets encourage you to spend, many of which you probably never even noticed before, you can combat their strategies and save money for the the merchandise you really need.

Supermarket techniques
Although a supermarket may appear to be simply a place to purchase food and other household necessities, in reality it's a cutting edge example of "how to sell more than consumers really need." Since you are the consumer, it's important that you realize these sales tactics so that you walk into a supermarket to get only what you need while avoiding everything else that the supermarket wants to sell you. Here are some ways that supermarkets manipulate you into spending more than you had planned and some simple steps you can take to save money

Supermarket Smells
One of the first things you'll notice when you enter a supermarket is the mouth-watering smell. There is a specific reason why supermarkets smell of freshly baked goods, and also why the bakery is almost always found near the store entrance. The reason is that a bakery making bread and desserts gives off an enticing smell, and that smell is likely to make you hungry. The supermarket also knows that if you feel hungry while you shop, you are likely to spend more money - a lot more - than if you are not hungry.

A simple way that you can combat this is by going grocery shopping only after you have had a meal and are full. If timing doesn't allow for you to do this, at least drink a couple of glasses of water before leaving to make you feel full before shopping. Shopping while you're full makes it much easier to resist the great smelling temptations that the supermarket will flaunt in front of you.

Overall Supermarket Layout
Did you ever notice that when you only need to buy a few staple items, you have to travel the entire supermarket floor in order to get them? While one might assume that the convenience of putting basic staple items in the same general area would make happier customers, supermarkets know that the longer that they can keep you in the store, the more money you are likely to spend. They also know that making you walk as far as they can inside the store will make it more likely that you'll pick up impulse items. Stores are specifically designed in such a way as to make you spend as much time as possible inside them and walk the entire store floor to get the basic staples that everyone needs.

Although there is no way around going to the far corners of the store to get the groceries you need, you can avoid the trap of impulse purchases on the store floor by taking the time to make a list of the items you need and sticking to it when shopping. Getting into the habit of making a single trip once a week to take care of all your grocery shopping needs instead of several smaller trips throughout the week will also greatly reduce your time in the store and the chances that you'll buy items you don't really need.

Item Layout in Supermarkets
Manufactures of brand named products pay hefty stocking fees to stores to have their merchandise placed on the shelves at adult eye level (and child eye level in the case of products aimed at children such as cereal). Manufactures are willing to pay these prices because they know that you are much more likely to purchase something that you can easily see as you are walking down the aisle than something you have to stop and search for. The result is that the products placed at eye level are usually the most expensive.

Before grabbing the first item you see, take a few seconds to look at the upper and lower shelves. Similar products are placed together and simply looking will often reveal the same product at a much better price.

Supermarket "Sale" Merchandise
Supermarkets will advertise a certain number of items at rock bottom prices (called "loss leaders") to get you to come to the store. While these can be genuine bargains, don't get fooled into thinking that everything that has the words "sale" or "bargain" above it is really that. While aisle ends are reserved for these "bargains," they aren't always the deals they seem to be and the discounted products are often displayed along side higher price products. You can sometimes even find similar products in the regular aisle section that are less than the end of aisle "sale" merchandise.

The important thing to remember when grocery shopping is to focus on the price of the product and not all the fancy advertising and slogans promoting the product. Take the time to check the other brands and see if there is a better deal. Also, remember that if you weren't planning to buy the item and you don't really need it, then it really isn't a bargain for you no matter what the price. Only consider those items that you regularly use and you have a need for.

Supermarket Product Appearance
Product packaging at supermarkets is bright, usually in red and yellows since these colors attract the eye. Just because something grabs your attention, however, doesn't mean that you have to buy it. Keep focused on your shopping list and don't get distracted by products you don't really need.

Packaging will also be much larger than the actual product for many food items. Manufacturers know that shoppers assume that larger sized packaging equals a better deal. It would make sense since bulking items together saves the manufacturer on packaging, shipping and stocking which they can pass along to you. With a mantra "buy in bulk" now firmly grounded in most people's minds as a way to save money, manufacturers are taking advantage of this. While still not the norm, more and more larger sized packages are less of a deal than their smaller sized counterparts since manufacturers know you will make the above assumptions and probably not compare the per unit cost.

Before grabbing the largest box of a product, take the time to calculate the per unit or per weight cost. More often than you would expect, smaller packages of an item are actually a better deal than buying the same item in a larger package.

Supermarket Check-Out Layout
The check out aisle of a store is like a mini mart in itself. This is because supermarkets know that they have a captive audience while you wait in line to pay for your groceries. They squeeze in every little thing that might remotely peak your interest to rack up a large amount on impulse sales.

The best way to avoid these temptations to is plan your shopping during off peak hours. Avoid the weekend if at all possible since this is when supermarkets are most crowded, as well as the evening when everyone has just gotten off work. With many supermarkets now staying open 24 hours a day, late night and early morning trips when the aisle and check out lanes are practically bare are the perfect time to get in and out of the supermarket as quickly as possible.

By taking the time to understand how the supermarkets try to influence your shopping and spending habits, you have now put yourself in control. Utilize the suggestions about how to counter the supermarket's selling techniques and you will be able to control your grocery spending to a much greater extent and should have a much easier time keeping to your monthly food budget.

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Read more: Supermarket Saving - How to Save Money when Shopping for Groceries
http://www.whatprice.co.uk