2 days ago
The seven easy checks to make to save you £100s on your food shop including loyalty prices secret code
SEVEN easy checks could save you £100s a year on your food shop including a loyalty price secret code.
The price of food remains on the up, based on the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, so it pays to cut costs.
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Luckily, there are a host of small changes you can make on your weekly supermarket trip that'll save you £100s on your bill each year.
From loyalty price secret codes, to bags of surplus groceries and even product placement on shelves, here are seven revealed by consumer website Which?.
Check how long Clubcard and Nectar offers are valid for
Retailers offer customers loyalty prices on certain products to encourage impulse buys and repeat sales.
But, the idea that a deal might expire soon can make you buy an item when you don't actually need it.
However, you can actually check when Tesco Clubcard and Sainsbury's Nectar deals are set to end through secret codes and make sure you're buying products that won't go out of date soon.
You can find out when a Tesco Clubcard Prices deal will finish by checking out the date on the shelf label - the date an offer is ending will be written backwards in small print.
For example, if it says "251001", it means the offer will end on October 1.
Shelf labels for Sainsbury's Nectar Prices have the date the promotion started in small print, with deals usually running for a fortnight and ending on Tuesdays.
In any case, prices are often the same as items' regular selling prices at other stores, so make sure you're checking you're getting the best price.
You can do this through websites like
Shopping discounts - How to make savings and find the best bargains
Be eagle-eyed on pre-packaged fruit and veg
The big supermarkets have ditched "best before" dates from lots of their pre-packaged fresh fruit and vegetables to reduce food waste.
However, codes on the packaging can help you figure out when an item is coming to the end of its life.
At Asda and Tesco, letters are followed by numbers - "A" is January while "B" is February and so on, while the number is the day of the month.
For example, the best before date of an item with the code 'D27' is April 27.
Sainsbury's codes begin with "J" and end with "S" and contain the date in the middle.
So the best before date of an item labelled "JO811S" is November 8.
Morrisons uses the first letter and day of the month, so a product with the code "O23" has a best-before date of October 23.
Compare prices on pre-packaged and loose produce
Pre-packaged fruit and vegetables aren't always cheaper than loose items, as well as being worse for the environment.
Check the price per gram of items to work out which option is cheapest.
When Which? checked prices at Tesco this month, a bag of three courgettes was £1.39 (£0.46 each) or £0.44 for one loose courgette.
Pre-chopped vegetables might be more convenient for you, but generally offer less value for money compare to whole ones too.
Shop in the world foods aisle
The world foods aisle is usually tucked away in an inconspicuous area of most supermarkets.
But find it and you could end up getting the same ingredients for much less compared to other parts of the store.
When Which? checked, a jar of Sainsbury's paprika powder was £1.10 for a 44g jar - £2.50 per 100g.
However, in the world foods aisle, a 400g bag of Natco paprika was £2.20 - just 55p per 100g and £1.95 less per 100g than the own brand paprika.
Meanwhile, a 28g jar of Asda's crushed red chillies was £1 (35.7p per 10g) compared to £3 (15p per 10g) for a 200g bag of Rajah crushed red chillies in the world foods aisle.
The same rule applies to larger items too, and you can make some big savings buying in bulk.
A 500g bag of Tilda basmati rice was £3 in Tesco's rice aisle (£6 per kg).
However, in the world foods section, you could buy a 5kg bag of the same Tilda rice for just £16 (£3.20 per kg).
Move your eyes around the store
Supermarkets usually put the most expensive items at eye level where most shoppers' gazes won't stray from.
However, you can usually find much cheaper produce higher, or lower, on shelves.
Which? found 80 packs of PG Tips, costing £2.98, took up the top three shelves in Asda's tea aisle, while its own brand tea bags sat on the bottom three, with an 80-pack costing just £2.
Be wary of other tactics supermarkets use to try and get you parting with your hard-earned cash too.
Retailers will often put products near brightly coloured signs, at the end of aisles and promote seasonal offers to suck customers in.
But make sure you write a list so you're less likely to be cast astray.
Buy a surprise bag of surplus groceries
A host of supermarkets are on the Too Good to Go app which offers unsold bags or boxes of surplus food at drop down prices.
You just have to download the app for free via Google Play or the Apple App Store.
You then reserve a bag from your local supermarket, including Asda, M&S and Waitrose, and pick it up from your local store.
Aldi, for example, offers bags for £3.30 with £10 worth of food in them.
Just bear in mind you can't choose what's inside the box or bag.
Bargain fruit and veg boxes
Similarly, some retailers offer cheaper boxes of fruit and veg that is slightly damaged or misshapen, but still perfectly good to eat.
Lidl offers a five kilo Too Good to Waste box of fruit and vegetables for just £1.50, which can usually be found at the checkouts.
Sainsbury's sells £2 Taste Me, Don't Waste Me boxes with surplus fresh produce in more than 230 stores.
The boxes are made up at the end of the day, so you're most likely to get one in the early evening.
The Sun asked Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda for comment.
How to save money on your food shop
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how you can save hundreds of pounds a year:
Odd boxes - plenty of retailers offer slightly misshapen fruit and veg or surplus food at a discounted price.
Lidl sells five kilos of fruit and veg for just £1.50 through its Waste Not scheme while Aldi shoppers can get Too Good to Go bags which contain £10 worth of all kinds of products for £3.30.
Sainsbury's also sells £2 "Taste Me, Don't Waste Me" fruit and veg boxes to help shoppers reduced food waste and save cash.
Food waste apps - food waste apps work by helping shops, cafes, restaurants and other businesses shift stock that is due to go out of date and passing it on to members of the public.
Some of the most notable ones include Too Good to Go and Olio.
Too Good to Go's app is free to sign up to and is used by millions of people across the UK, letting users buy food at a discount.
Olio works similarly, except users can collect both food and other household items for free from neighbours and businesses.
Yellow sticker bargains - yellow sticker bargains, sometimes orange and red in certain supermarkets, are a great way of getting food on the cheap.
But what time to head out to get the best deals varies depending on the retailer. You can see the best times for each supermarket here.
Super cheap bargains - sign up to bargain hunter Facebook groups like Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK where shoppers regularly post hauls they've found on the cheap, including food finds.
"Downshift" - you will almost always save money going for a supermarket's own-brand economy lines rather than premium brands.
The move to lower-tier ranges, also known as "downshifting" and hailed by consumer expert Martin Lewis, could save you hundreds of pounds a year on your food shop.
