It’s important to consider your student food shop on a budget as much as possible. When that student loan comes through, you feel flush and feel free to spent it on takeaways and frivolous purchases.
If you don’t carefully carry out your student food shop on a budget you’ll be soon cancelling plans to save money. A lot of the money you spend goes on food and you’d be surprised at how much you overspend on your food shop.
To help you save money and get enough food, here are a few tips that will help you save money on your food shop as a student.
Look for Supermarket Own Brands
We all have our favourite name brands that we gravitate towards. However they often cost so much more than supermarket own brands. The own brands will cost a fraction of the price for the same product.
There isn’t much of a taste difference much of the time, and often they are even made by the same manufacturer. It’s an easy way to make a change and you’ll be surprised at how much money you can save.
Pick Your Time Right
The key to getting your regular shop slightly cheaper is picking the right time to do it. If you go later at night, you’ll find that many products such as dairy and bakery goods will have their prices slashed.
You’ll be able to save a lot of money on your regular food shop just by going a few hours later. This is because the shop needs to get rid of them as they are time-sensitive, perishable goods that they can’t sell the following day.
Avoid Convenience Shopping
The biggest culprit that can sabotage your student food shop on a budget is to just do it all at your nearest shop. It’s so easy to do a quick shop to get a few things at a time to avoid spending a lot at once and having to carry lots of shopping home. But this is something you should try to avoid if you can.
These convenience shopping trips add up and you will end up spending a lot more money than you should. Instead, plan out your meals for the next week or so and do one big shop according to this. This will save you a lot more money in the long run.
Don’t Shop When You’re Hungry
We’ve all taken a food shop when we’re already hungry and made impulse purchases based on our rumbling stomachs. But leads to you spending more money on unnecessary snack foods that won’t last long.
Instead, make sure to not be hungry when you do your shop according to your pre-planned list. You won’t make silly impulse buys and you’ll get more food for a longer amount of time.
Go to the Reduced Section
Every supermarket has a reduced section that you might skip by accidentally. But make sure to hunt them out every time you go shopping, you can find some real gems.
The foods in these sections are usually only slightly misshapen, minorly damaged or only slightly past their use by date. They’re still good to eat and they are often more than half price cheaper.
These are Some of the Best Ways to Save Money on Your Food Shop
You might not have thought about how much money you actually spend on your food shop, but making these small changes can help you save a lot more money. Sticking to your student food shop on a budget can mean you’ll have more money for more important things – like drinks!
Need more budgeting tips? Check out our blog post for more useful tips to help you save money.
