5 Tips to Do your Weekly Food Shop

Over the previous two blogs we shared tips on how to plan your shopping list and tips to save money, but what’s the next step? It’s having a plan for when you are going around the supermarket. This may come across as surprising, but the difference it can make to your shopping experience is huge.

Before you go shopping, it’s important to eat something. If you are hungry, it will affect how you shop. A full stomach will help you view food more practically instead of looking at snacks and your brain thinking about what you can eat now. Now off you go to the shops.

1. Look at store brands as they are usually cheaper and usually located on the bottom shelf. Be conscious of the price per packet versus per kilo. For example, sugar usually comes in 1kg bags, but you might have a 500g bag right beside it for a few cents less (or even more sometimes!) Don’t be caught out, especially with products you use a lot.
2. Do a rough tally of the cost as you go along, or better still, use a calculator. Most phones have a calculator. Adding the costs as you go around ensures you don’t overspend and get no big shocks at the checkout. It also removes the urge to impulse-buy expensive items.
3. If possible, don’t bring the kids shopping with you.
   Those little hands and happy faces will surely put a few extras into your shopping trolley, or they will pester you until you buy treats. It’s not easy having to say no a million times. If you have no option but to bring the kids, allow them to have one thing, and factor this into your spending – for example, they can have something that is €1, this both starts to teach them the value of money and will get them thinking about what they want to spend that €1 on.
4. Buy frozen fruit and veg.
   They are just as nutritious and cheaper too. They rarely go off unless you forget about them in your freezer!
5. Have a look at the reduced section to see if there’s anything on your shopping list that you will be using immediately, this can be a quick way to save a few euro on your shopping bill and you’re also preventing food waste.
6. Check the dates on fresh goods you’re buying so that you don’t find yourself throwing away food because it has expired.
   Date rotate your fridge or your meal plan, ensuring that shorter-life food is kept to the front so that it is used sooner.

Have you got a tip or shopping hack that you’d like to share? Perhaps you have a question that we haven’t covered here? We’d love to hear from you, so be sure to follow us on social media, share your ideas or send us your questions.

You can contact your local office here, call the MABS Helpline on 0818 07 2000, Monday to Friday, from 9am to 8pm, or on WhatsApp 086 035 3141.

Increases in the cost of goods and services are having an impact on many people living in Ireland. This blog’s tips, tricks, and life hacks are suggestions to help you find better value and stretch your euro.

MABS advisers are here and ready to help you through the MABS 6-Step Money Advice Process. This process will help you maximise your income and tackle and prioritise debt and spending. Advisers can help you access social welfare entitlements and hardship funds to get you through.

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