Are you a ‘professional’ supermarket shopper?

I roughly know what shops to go in for the cheapest products. Go to the market/Turkish supermarket for cheap fruit and veg, Lidl for cheese and ham, the butchers for meat and I make my own bread. I order online for bulky stuff and make sure I buy in bulk if, say, dishwasher liquid is on special offer.

If you don’t have any local shops and don’t/can’t order online, then you are at the mercy of your nearest supermarket. I wonder if local councils take this into consideration when they give permission for yet another large out of town supermarket to open up.

Agree with many of the previous comments. I would add that there are all sorts of ecologically-sound & economical ways to avoid or at least reduce the amount of time/energy wasted on supermarket shopping. Online & local shopping are good examples; alternatively, invest in greener ways of living, e.g. instead of spending money on endless packs of washing powder all year round, use eco-balls in your washing machine (a set will last up to 3 years for a one off purchase), or try to grow fresh herbs on your windowsill – they smell & taste much better than the dried stuff & are so much cheaper if grown from seed! With such tough economic conditions facing many families, maybe we need to re-consider not just our shopping habits, but our whole value system? Smart shopping is just the beginning…smart living should be the goal.

Why do Asda always have offers where the total cost of 2 individual items are cheaper than if you purchased a bigger items with the same volume? As an example – very often 2 packs of 6 eggs costs £2 on offer whereas a single box (of the same egg’s on the same shelf!) cost nearly £3? – Very frustrating!

I live alone and usually eat alone (aarh poor thing). Yet I buy in bulk and am canny about how much I spend. Not because I am poor but because I do not like being ripped off or wasting money.
If I see something advertised at too low a price – a glitch? I buy loads before they realise and put the price to what it should be. I study all the prices on the internet sites so that I see prices per kilo before choosing, I check all special offers. I do not bother to go to a shop just to buy one thing.
I get different things from different shops and always have it delivered – as I do not have a car or nearby shops. To me it is a paid hobby to go online, look up the special offers and find something I would buy anyway very cheap and stock up on it. It is a very small victory for human kind over the huge money making supermarket. Other people go online and play bingo and lose money. I spend less time checking prices and gaining money. Until it becomes illegal I will continue to do so.
(That is a joke by the way). I think people fall for so called special offers such as NUTELLA is 20 pence cheaper when the own brand chocolate spread is a lot cheaper and just as good.

Eleven tips to avoiding being ripped off by superstores…

1) Never go to a supermarket hungry, you will always buy ten times more than you need.

2) Always check the bargain at the end of the isle (Point Of Sale) with the same products stacked on the shelf, as the POS is often a con, usually more expensive.

3) Know what you want before you go into the store, and know the store layout so you are not turned around. Buy what you want and leave, do not be tempted to go into the non-foods section for a look.

4) Kids in the store with you are the supermarkets best friend, and your worst enemy. Ask yourself why the stores always put the sweets on the checkout, when your kids are at their most difficult.

5) Superstores pump the air from the bakery to the front of the store, to make you want to buy fresh baked bred. You may also notice that many of the items you would seldom buy are also right around the bakery.

6) Milk is always placed at the back or somewhere in the middle of the store. This is to get you to go all the way into the store, and get you looking at all the so-called bargains on the way in and on the way back out.

7) Always carry a calculator with you and DON’T be afraid to use it. Socially we feel dumb or stupid if we think we are being observed or judged for inadequate mental arithmetic, but the stores TOTALLY rely on this. This is why there are so many confusing offers, to make you just give up and buy, rather than appearing flummoxed or self-conscious of your perceived lack of abilities.

8) Always check the price per item, or price per weight, usually displayed in a much smaller font just below the displayed price. This gives you a quick and usually much easier way of working out if the multi-pack you are buying, is actually better value than buying the same number of items individually.

9) Always use your vouchers. We stuff these little gems into our wallets or handbags and they are lost forever. Yet with a little thought when you get home, if you take a second look and then work out what you need the next time you go the store for some milk or a loaf of bred, you will be shocked how often you can use them to your own benefit. Superstores know you are going to stuff them in with your receipts, which in turn will go into some draw, or some shoe-box of receipts you will never go back too, which is why they use them as a PR stunt, so check them out when you get home, they really can save you £££££’s if you use them.

10) Get to know someone who works for the store. Staff nearly always have a staff-discount card, usually about 10 to 30% discount. There is a buying limit on the card per year, but usually too much for most single people to ever take advantage of. So go shopping with them and not only do you get the discount at the till, your not so board on the way around the store, and you may even get the benefit of car sharing and save on the petrol and parking on the way. But don’t forget to get your friend an extra something at Christmas or on their birthday, it’s just good manners.

11) Buy one get one free? If it sounds too good to be true… Need I say more?

I Usually buy in bulk a few products that I like to have stocked up when they’re cheap.

One of these is for example Coke Zero Cans. I make the maths as a good price for 24 = 6£.

Oftenly i see asda selling 8 packs for £2 (which makes 24=6) then out of nowhere they stick pallets of them cans all over the supermarket saying SUPER OFFER 2 8Packs for ONLY £7! and people load up on those. that means it works. even thou people are paying £0.50 extra on every pack.

I just wish i increased my “price knowledge” list when shopping so i can buy more and more stuff when they’re low and less then they’re high.