According to the ONS, the average weekly food shopping bill in the UK is £96. That’s for a ‘two parent and two child’ family, and includes spending on alcoholic drinks and tobacco.
With the cost-of-living squeeze still ongoing, and wage rises continuing to be behind the rate of inflation, here are four ways that can help you save up to £1,165 per annum on your food shopping bill!
Shop Online
While shopping online can be a little long-winded the first time you use it, as you get used to how it works and need to select all of the items you wish to buy, it can prove highly worthwhile when it comes to saving money.
For example, Sainsbury’s currently has an offer where you can save up to £55 on your first five online shops. It breaks down as £15 off your first online shop, followed by £10 off your next four shops. Furthermore, it includes free delivery, which saves you on petrol or the cost of public transport, too.
Cashback Cards
Despite cashback cards having been around for a number of years, many shoppers still don’t use them. However, they could prove to be highly worthwhile, with American Express paying cashback of 1.25% for all supermarket spending.
This may not sound a lot, but over the course of a year it really adds up. With the weekly shop costing on average £96 per week, this works out at £4992 per year. Saving 1.25% of that amount equates to an annual saving of £62.40, simply by using a different credit card!
Loyalty Cards
As with cashback cards, using loyalty cards can really add up throughout the course of the year. For example, Tesco’s Clubcard scheme sends the user vouchers to use in store, with every £1 spent at Tesco equating to 1 Clubcard point, and every 100 Clubcard points accumulated equating to £1 of vouchers.
This works out as a saving of around 1%, but could be even more if you decide to ‘boost’ your Clubcard points via various deals, such as at restaurants and tourist attractions.
Saving 1% on your annual food shopping bill would equate to savings of £49.92, so seems to be well worth doing!
Compare Prices
Various sites have popped up in recent years that compare the price of your weekly shop at supermarkets in your local area. For example, mysupermarket.co.uk allows you to compare up to 11 supermarkets and states that you can save up to 20% on every shop.
This equates to an annual saving of £998.40 from the average shopping bill of £4992 per annum. And, when added to the £55 discount from shopping online, the £62.40 from using a cashback credit card and the £49.92 from using a loyalty card, amounts to a total annual saving of £1,165.72!
With the cost-of-living squeeze set to continue for a little while yet, such a saving could prove to be most welcome for people across the UK.
