As we all know household costs are on the rise and our last blog was the start of a series looking at ways to beat the current crunch.

Today we are exploring ways to reduce your food shopping bills.

Local Markets

Local Markets are a good place to start, especially for fresh fruit and veg. Markets generally work out much cheaper than supermarkets so you can grab yourself a bargain.

Own Brands

Set yourself a challenge to reduce your bill by swapping some of your usual items for the supermarket’s own brands – some of the leading companies even make some of the ‘no frills’ products, check the ingredients!

Discount Vouchers

The internet is a great way of picking up deals and discounts. There are a number of sites that you could look at for the most up to date deals. For example http://www.hotukdeals.com/ is a site that promotes various deals which other members find and post.

Check out any magazines as often these have money off vouchers that you could use, and stores sometimes have money off vouchers if you spend over a certain amount.

Bulk buy

If you have a larger family it may work out more cost effective to bulk buy products. This could include using a cash and carry or local supermarkets.

Be careful with ‘buy one get one free’ offers, often they can seem tempting but if they are perishable you could end up throwing the free one away!

Meat

Look at shopping for cheaper cuts of meat, they have the same nourishment and taste as the more expensive cuts but do require slower cooking.

Here are a few suggestions - brisket, beef skirt, mutton, breast of lamb, hock, shank or liver and kidney.

Dig out those old cook books and brush off the cobwebs. There is nothing more satisfying on a cold winter’s night, than tucking into good old fashioned stew and dumplings or a home made soup.

Cut Down on Waste

Planning your meals and only buying what is needed when you go shopping helps to cut down on waste, and will help reduce your bill.

If you do have left over food you could look at making this into another delicious meal for example, vegetables could be turned into a soup and left over chicken makes great stock which you can freeze until required.

Use Comparison Websites and Shop Online

Use price comparison websites such as http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/. Not only are these regularly checked for the cheapest supermarket prices, they also take into account offers. So potentially you could swap and change supermarkets on a weekly basis to stay ahead of the game.

These are just a few of the many savings you could make, if you have any ideas or would like to let other members know about deals you can use our forum. This link will take you directly there.