A money saving expert is urging everyone to go to Aldi on a Wednesday for the biggest reductions. His advice comes as supermarket inflation continues to skyrocket, leaving many people struggling to afford their weekly food shop.
According to analysts Kantar, last week inflation rates hit a whopping 17.5%. The figure is up from the 17.1% recorded the month earlier.
The increase in inflation means that, on average, people are now paying £837 more in supermarkets than in the previous year. But there are ways to try and avoid the price hikes.
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The co-founder of the shopping community LatestDeals.co.uk, Tom Church, 32, revealed exclusively to Mirror Money his top tips and creative hacks shoppers could use to try and cut down their food costs.
He said: "Inflation figures of 17.5% are very scary, but if you get creative and start thinking like a deal hunter, you can drop that to 0% or even less for your personal shopping."
1. Iceland has the best loyalty scheme
Tom has researched every single supermarket's loyalty scheme throughout his career and says that Iceland's is by far the best. However, most people don’t even consider it because it works "in a different way" to other supermarkets.
Tom explained: "Unlike Tesco and Sainsbury’s who reward your loyalty after you shop by giving you points, Iceland rewards you for your upfront loyalty with cash." The Iceland Bonus Card is a savings card and when you top-up £20 Iceland gives you £1 extra, if you top up £40, you get £2 extra and so on, which overall equates to 5%.
Tesco Clubcard points, by comparison, are worth just 1%. So if you top up on an Iceland Bonus Card before you shop, you instantly drop 5% on your grocery bill and you can also get free delivery when you spend over £25 in-store or £40 online, which Tom says can help save you on fuel costs.
He added: "An advanced tip is to stack this with a cashback credit card, such as the Amex Platinum Cashback Everyday which gives you 5% cashback for the first three months."
2. M&S is cheaper than Aldi and Lidl… sometimes
M&S has a reputation for being an upmarket and expensive brand and a lot of shoppers tend to avoid it if they are wanting to find cheaper deals. However, Tom says this could sometimes be a mistake, as it can actually be cheaper than shopping at a bargain supermarket like Aldi or Lidl.
He said: "A pack of six free range eggs is £1.29 at Lidl, but only £1 at M&S and chicken wings are £1.99 at Lidl but just £1.45 at M&S. You get more chicken wings at Lidl but the M&S ones work out cheaper gram for gram!"
Other staples highlighted by Tom included sugar, which was priced at 99p at Lidl and Aldi but at 95p at M&S and a pack of 20% fat beef mince was £1.99 at Lidl and £2 at M&S. Tom added: "A 1p difference, I think I’d still go with the M&S to be honest!"
3. Supermarket home delivery is only cheaper if the supermarket is more than four miles away
A lot of Brits use home delivery with many opting for the service as a bid to save on petrol costs however, Tom noted that this money-saving tactic could be costing you more. He said: "I find the average cost of getting home delivery on grocery shopping is about £2.99. But this only works out cheaper than driving if the supermarket is more than 4 miles away.
"This is because the average cost of driving a mile is £0.40p, according to new research by NimbleFins. So if the supermarket is two miles away, that’s two miles there and two miles back, four miles in total which costs £1.60 to drive. Cheaper than getting home delivery."
4. Shop at Aldi on Wednesday
If you thought the day of the week when you do your food shop was not important, then you need to think again. Tom says that Aldi usually drops their Specialbuys prices on Wednesday as the new middle-aisle arrivals are set to come in the next day.
He said: "If you want to save more money, planning your shop for Wednesday can help you beat the crowds and bag some bargains before they’re all gone." Aldi is renowned for its Specialbuys and it is incredibly popular with shoppers keen to find a bargain on things ranging from air fryers to clothing, to garden furniture.
5. Try "Too Good To Go" as your primary supermarket
Too Good To Go is now a well-known app that connects you to Greggs, Costa, M&S supermarkets and loads more retailers to sell reduced-to-clear food that otherwise would have gone in the bin. Tom says that the app still has a reputation for being quite "quirky" and one you would only use on occasion.
However, some people are using the app as their "main supermarket" which tom thinks "is a brilliant change of perspective". He said: "My colleague Mia got a Too Good To Go bag from M&S this week. She got four items which would usually cost £19.75 in total but the Too Good To Go bag was £4.99.
"That’s a 74% price drop, beating inflation by a mega amount. The items Mia purchased were M&S' Hot Cross Bun BLT Sandwich, Crayfish and Mango Salad, a pack of pineapple chunks, and roast chicken slices.
Tom added: "Of course, shopping on Too Good To Go exclusively isn’t going to work well for everything but rather than think of it as a fun thing to try now and again, switch to thinking of it as your primary source of food, and then topping up the rest at the supermarket."
6. Buy reduced-to-clear food on Ebay
Another way to cut your spending on food according to Tom, is to turn to eBay. He said: “There are dozens of secret ebay stores that sell food close to or past its best before date.
“For non-perishables these are usually fine to eat and you can pick up proper bargains such as half-price Nespresso coffee capsules, Walker’s crisps and more."
To find these items, Tom says you need to search the product and add a specific word to the end of it.
These can be:
- Best Before
- BBE
- BB
- Out of Date
- OOD
- Short Date
- Short Dated
- Expired
- Clearance
Tom says sellers usually list these products with the best-before date in the title so you would get results such as “Pringles BBE 20/03/23”.
He added: "For an advanced tip, follow these sellers on the eBay app and add products to your watch list.
"Often they’ll give you a unique discount such as an extra 20% off, so you’re halving the cost of your shopping and getting some on top. Most give free delivery too and you should use PayPal for added payment protection."
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