Keep your shop simple and save on staple foods
Processed and packaged stock is pricer: it’s not sinister or illegal, it’s business
This winter irish families will face one of their biggest financial challenges yet. Energy bills have basically doubled and mortgages are going to go up by hundreds a month – with worse to come. Meanwhile, inflation is ravaging our household budgets.
The Government will help – giving us an extra €600 to help pay our energy bills – plus a raft of social welfare supports.
But it won’t go far enough: nowhere close in fact.
Our ongoing Beat the squeeze campaign is here to help.
Our household budgets have gotten very big and complicated. it’s hard to keep an eye on everything.
But if you do adopt the mindset of saving wherever you can, it’s amazing how it can all add up. This week’s theme is ‘smart savings’ when you shop. it shows how you can save a bunch of money just by thinking a bit more about what you’re doing, instead of mindlessly flinging stuff into your supermarket trolley.
Iam generally careful with money – a bit of a skinflint in fact. But when it came to shopping, like many people, I was a supermarket zombie. I used to spend hours roaming mindlessly around, popping stuff that grabbed my fancy into the trolley.
I was falling into a trap carefully laid by marketeers who are very adept at psychology and will ruthlessly punish consumer laziness – or mindlessness.
Lately, like everyone else, I’ve been a bit more careful about what I buy as we face into an unprecedented winter price crisis.
And I was amazed at how much money is wasted by making poor decisions when shopping.
When I put a bit of thought into the process – and processed is very much the operative word here – I found I could save hundreds of euros per month on the family bills.
Here are five tips that might help you to save on yours too:
1. KEEP IT SIMPLE
It stands to reason that processed and packaged food is pricier – not to mention often bad for you and the environment. It’s not sinister or illegal. It’s just business. But what’s good for business is bad for you. Companies want to make more money from you. So they love putting stuff into a fancy package, spending loads on marketing, and reducing the quantity, often to a very meagre portion – then flogging it to you at a much higher price than the simple basic product, to pay for all the marketing and packaging.
So, stick to simple, basic food products and you’ll generally get a better deal. (See Consumer Eye for examples, below.)
2. SIZE MATTERS
Big companies love turning basic foods into products so they can charge more and give you less. So always watch the price per kilo.
3. WASTE NOT
We all know food waste is a massive issue. We could literally save €700 a year if we didn’t waste food.
Drawing up a shopping list is a big help. Organising your fridge is another. But a survey by Aldi this week gave an important insight into what is going on. Almost half of people said they regularly toss grub in the bin. But which foods?
‘Fresh food makes up the majority of people’s grocery spending and is the food most discarded,’ Aldi noted.
The top three
wasted foods are:
● Bread (thrown out by 62% of people)
● Vegetables (55%)
● Fruit (52%
● Dairy (31%)
● Meat (27%)
Ok, so now we know – but what can we do about it?
I’m still getting to grips with this myself but I blame three-for-two offers and the pressure to buy everything in a single trip to the supermarket. Ok, go nuts on preserved foods – that’ll keep – but on a weekly shop, don’t overstock on stuff that won’t even last a week.
And getting three items for the price of two (all three probably about to go off) is not good value if you only use one of them!
4. A FISHY TALE
Frozen fish can be much cheaper than fresh fish.
But there’s nothing quite like fresh fish if you do fancy some fine dining. It can cost ridiculous money – or surprisingly little, without compromising on taste. I love fresh tuna, swordfish and monkfish. But boy are they expensive.
The first two are imported from exotic places – and while ‘monk’ is local, it’s all head and very little tail on each fish. So it’s naturally pricey.
However, there are many equally tasty locally caught fish that are just as good.
A bag of mussels is the easiest thing in the world to cook – just boil them with some wine and herbs.
Ray is delicious cooked in butter and garlic – and as cheap as the chips that accompany it. And mackerel is another much-neglected local fish that’s very cheap in season. Instead of turning up our noses at local produce, go for it! It’s cheaper, just as tasty and will support the local fishing industry too.
5. DON’T BEEF UP YOUR BILLS
Simple choices on the type of meat we buy can make a huge difference to our bills. Many families buy beef because it’s traditional.
Sirloin steak costs €16.92 – boneless pork chops are €5.74 a kilo.
I love a good steak. But pork chops with apple sauce are not much of a sacrifice as a substitute. Chicken is also ridiculously cheap in comparison to beef. A whole chicken costs just €6. That’s just €3 per kilo, albeit with bones included (which can be made into soup if you want to be a paragon of frugality.)
Other cheap cuts advised by my local butcher include heart and oxtails, which also make great soup.
Kidneys and liver can also be ‘offaly’ good value, if they are to your taste.
Personally, I hate liver but steak and kidney pie isn’t bad.
And if you want to get a bit fancy, rinones al Jerez (kidneys in sherry) was one of the best meals I’ve ever had (in a truckers’ café outside Malaga one summer.)
NOTE:
We’ve used Tesco prices throughout unless otherwise stated, simply for comparison purposes and because it is a major retailer in Ireland. These articles are about practices common to all retailers and no reflection on Tesco is intended.