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Posted by admin on September 04th 2011
Top Ten Tips To Save Money On Food In Croydon
According to an article in the Times the rate of inflation on UK food purchases is set to rise by 4.9%! Given the economic market its safe to safe that income levels are unlikely to rise by the same rate. So inevitably this mean that you may want to take some time consider how to save money on food.
1. Start cooking
It’s surprising how many people don’t know how to cook a basic meal. Learn how to cook a few simple recipes. You will be surprised how much money this saves you. A great website to do this is BBC Good Food.
2. Buy in Bulk
Buying food in large amounts such as big bags of rice and dry pasta is a great way of saving money provided you don’t eat it all at once. Remember buying in small amounts can be expensive! Not sure? Drop in to Wing Yip or Makro. If you don’t think you can eat it all, share the cost with your friends.
3. Don’t buy lunch out
Take lunch to work; this might sound like unsocial but buying things like sandwiches and pasta out is a waste of money! Take some time out and make your own. Experiment with your sandwich and your personal pasta sauce. Developing your lunch menu will mean you don’t have to go to the supermarket to buy your lunch.
4. Shop later and grab bargains
In the early evening the supermarkets discount a lot of fresh products going out of date, so it’s a great time to get some heavily discounted items. If for things like bread you don’t think you will eat them before they go out of date, why not freeze them?
5. Takeaways
As a nation and as a borough Croydon love a good takeaway so if you’re going to have one make sure you get a get a good deal. There are plenty of deals around so make sure you get one! I have found the perfect website to do this – Just Eat – where you can search restaurants in your local area and see what’s on offer.
6. Loyalty cards
When food shopping it’s so important that you are benefiting from your supermarkets loyalty scheme. If it’s Sainsbury’s get a Nectar card, if it’s Tesco’s get a Club Card and so on. If you’re sceptical about the benefits of loyalty schemes, try to work out the number of points per £1 spent with the retailer. Alternatively, join the Co-op and take a share of the annual profits for spending your cash with them.
7. Look for offers
Take advantage of products when they are on offer, but only buy items you will definitely use! If you’re organised you can go to Supermarket.co.uk to see if any offers take your fancy, if not keep your eyes peeled when you are out shopping!
8. Share with friends
This is a perfect way of saving money and developing better social skills because you can take advantage of offers and bigger quantities and then split the food, the money and conversation. It also means your food is less likely to go out of date and you get a bit of company shopping, so why not try sharing with friends next time you go shopping?
9. Freeze food
This basically means you can take advantage of a lot of offers that catch your eye and you don’t have to worry about the food going off. You can freeze basically anything so the next time you see some great offers make sure you grab them. For advice about buying a new freezer take a trip to John Lewis.
10. Don’t go shopping on an empty stomach
Shopping when hungry can be a one of the worst things you can do as it means you’re much more likely to have impulsive buying habits and consequently spend more money! So make sure you have had plenty of food and drink before you go shopping. This may sound stupid, but it will help, trust me!
