Grocery prices: Six ways to reduce your supermarket bill, expenses

Surging prices on supermarket shelves are hitting household budgets hard, but savvy shoppers are fighting back. See how they cut costs.

For Jenni Goodwin – feeding her family each week often sets them back $400 on groceries and takeaway.

So when offered the chance to put Budget Queen Rachael Hallet’s $200 weekly meal plan for a family of four to the test, Ms Goodwin jumped at it.

Ms Hallet – who runs the popular Mums Who Budget & Save Facebook group – devised the plan to include breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks – using mainly homebrands from Coles.

Rachael Hallett. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The Goodwin’s family’s first shop set them back $205.44.

“It was great because the meals were mostly what we would generally eat anyway,” Ms Goodwin said.

“We could have even saved more money because the biggest difference we found was the portion sizes – we could have easily split one meal into two”.

Ms Goodwin said while the family has returned to a variety of meals, she is much more conscience of what she is putting in her grocery trolley.

“We also make sure we use up the leftovers more now”.

Pictured at Coles supermarket at Schofields Shopping Centre in northwest Sydney is mum Jenni Goodwin (centre) with her daughters Jorja (left) and Sheriden (right). They are buying groceries to the value of approximately $200 to feed the family of four for a week. Picture: Richard Dobson

Surging prices on supermarket shelves are hitting household budgets hard – as one of our biggest weekly expenses gets severely impacted by supply chain squeezes and the war in Ukraine pushing up food commodity prices and transport costs.

Closer to home, there are several strategies that shoppers can use to get more bang for their buck when buying groceries.

1. Shop with a list – when we wander aimlessly up and down aisles we are at the mercy of impulse buying, often wasting money on goods we don’t need. Check your fridge and pantry before leaving home and always shop with a list.

2. Understand retailers’ marketing tactics. They will often put staples such as milk and meat in the back corners of stores so you have to walk past temptation to get there. They also can put the most expensive items at eye level on shelves. A list can help you avoid these mind tricks.

3. Use unit pricing, which major supermarkets must display on price stickers to how the cost per unit of measure such as per litre or 100 grams. This will tell you if a special is really a special, or if buying a different-sized package delivers more value for money.

4. Buy in bulk, because in the supermarket, good things almost always do not come in small packages. Use the unit price to confirm where bulk is better, but don’t buy a larger pack if you’re going to end up wasting three quarters of it before its use-by date.

5. Take advantage of reward schemes. When checkout operators ask you if you would like to scan your rewards card, don’t see it as an invasion of privacy but as an opportunity to save. Most people spend hundreds of dollars a week on groceries to those $10-off discounts or frequent flyer points pile up quickly. Savvy shoppers multiply their reward points by using rewards credit cards.

6. You may be a frequent flyer, but don’t be a frequent shopper. If it’s a daily habit to stop at the shops for supplies, chances are you’re spending more than you need to because of temptation and a lack of bulk-buying. Aim for one big shop each week, perhaps with a fresh food top-up midweek.

Originally published as Grocery prices: Six ways to reduce your supermarket bill, expenses