Last Saturday morning, I found myself standing in Tesco with three kids in tow, watching our trolley fill up at an alarming rate. When I got to the checkout and saw £180 on the screen, I nearly choked on my coffee. That was the moment I decided enough was enough — it was time to seriously tackle our supermarket bill.

Over the next few weeks, I tried every trick I could find, and honestly? We’ve consistently been hitting 25-35% savings on our weekly shop. Here’s exactly what worked for our family.

Plan Before You Shop — Properly

I know, I know — everyone says meal planning. But there’s a difference between a rough idea of meals and an actual plan that saves you money. Here’s how I do it:

• Check what you already have first. We used to have three jars of pasta sauce on the go at once because we kept forgetting we had them. Now I do a quick fridge, freezer, and cupboard audit before writing any list.
• Plan around what’s on offer. Rather than planning meals then shopping, I check the Tesco or Sainsbury’s app first to see what meat and veg is reduced, then plan meals around that.
• Make a strict list and stick to it. No list means no structure, and no structure means £40 of stuff you don’t need.

Go Own-Brand on the Basics

This is the single biggest win for most families. Supermarket own-brand products are often made in the same factories as branded goods — they just wear a different label.

In our house, we’ve swapped to own-brand on: tinned tomatoes, pasta, rice, cereals, butter, milk, yoghurt, ketchup, and most cleaning products. We genuinely cannot taste the difference on most of them.

The rough saving? About 30-40% on every item you swap. If you buy 20 of those items a week, it adds up fast. We reckon this single change saves us around £25-30 per week.

Use the Reduction Aisle Like a Pro

Yellow sticker shopping is an art form. Most supermarkets reduce fresh produce and meat in the evening — typically between 6pm and 8pm, though it varies by store. Pop in, grab whatever’s reduced, and freeze what you can’t use that day.

We’ve had weeks where we’ve got our meat for the next four or five dinners for under a tenner because we timed our shop right. The key is flexibility — you plan your meals around what you find, not the other way round.

Download the Apps and Stack Discounts

Every major supermarket has a loyalty app now, and they’re worth using. Clubcard prices at Tesco, Nectar at Sainsbury’s, MyWaitrose — these aren’t gimmicks, they’re significant savings on things you were going to buy anyway.

But here’s the extra layer: pair them with cashback apps. Shopmium and Checkoutsmart offer cashback on specific branded products, often things you’re already buying. It only takes a minute to scan your receipt.

And don’t forget to check for digital coupons inside the app before you shop — our Clubcard app usually has 5-10 offers we can activate that week for products we actually use.

Stop Wasting Food — It’s Like Throwing Money Away

The average UK family throws away around £700 worth of food per year. That’s money you’ve already spent, just binned. In our house, we tackled this a few ways:

• The fridge audit rule: Before putting new shopping away, move older stuff to the front.
• Batch cooking on Sundays: Anything that’s about to go off gets turned into soup, a pasta sauce, or a curry that goes in the freezer.
• Bread goes in the freezer: We’d constantly lose half a loaf before. Now it goes straight in the freezer and we take out slices as needed.

Cutting food waste alone can save the average family £50-60 a month — that’s without changing what you buy at all.

Buy in Bulk for the Right Things

Bulk buying only saves money if you actually use it before it expires. For our family, the items that make sense to buy in larger quantities are: pasta, rice, tinned goods, toiletries, cleaning products, and frozen meat.

We’ve found that a Costco membership (£33.60/year) pays for itself within the first couple of trips on just toilet roll, washing powder, and coffee alone. Worth investigating if you have a larger family.

Start saving more money this month — small changes really do add up.