Depending on where you go and who accompanies you, trapessing round a supermarket can either be a bore or it can be relatively enjoyable. To make your shopping experience the best it can, students should follow these easy tips in making sure they leave supermarket checkouts feeling fulfilled.
Supermarkets are nearly as old as time. There's plenty of choice of where you can shop - whether you shop at your closest one for convenience or you head further afield as it's slightly cheaper. Here below are the six best tips and advice on how to food shop.
1. Plan your week ahead
This can be quite difficult depending on your situation. First of all, try and plan your meals by day and then by week. This can be stressful and difficult for students who are unsure of what their work rota is going to be like or how many times they have to be in University.
For the most part, for the days you know you'll be at home cooking, start there. When you know what your week is going to consist of, then add more meals around them days. For the days you are coming back from University or College, try and plan a relatively simple meal that doesn't require too much time preparing or cooking the food.
2. Make a list
No, it's not Christmas time just yet. Once, you've planned your meals, start jotting down what you'll need to pick up from the supermarket. A list is really good and it makes you think about each individual element of your dinner. The good thing about making a list is that it doesn't take long to do and if you stick to it whilst shopping, you won't stray off-course and end-up buying food you won't have and overspending - which leads to the next part.
3. Stick to a budget
If you are trying to keep costs low, thinking about how much money you can afford to spend at the supermarket will go a long way. This is why so many students try to plan and organise their weekly food shop. If they didn't, going out to the shops day-after-day, they'll end up spending more money than they would doing a weekly shop.
Remember to look around your cupboards for any other essential household items such as shampoo, washing up liquid or kitchen roll and take this into consideration as well. If your budget is getting tight, consider buying household items over a period of a few weeks in an attempt to spread the costs.
4. Look at the dates
Normally, the dates on most fresh items such as mince, pork, fishcakes are generally quite good and their shelf-life can last up to four to five days of purchase. However sometimes the dates on some products are quite short and this could impact your weekly meal plan. If this is the case, look at the products right at the back of the shelf - these sometimes tend fare better that the products at the front of the shelf.
Take a look at the reduced section of the supermarkets - most have them - and there's mostly a good selection of items that are going out of date. If you've got the frezzer space, consider picking a few items up and storing them in your freezer. This way you'll save on your costs, helping to reduce food waste and you'll have a meal already waiting to be cooked.
5. Learn from your experiences
Once you've finished your shop, keep a hold of the reciepts. Take a look over them and see if you've keep to your original list and stuck to your budget.
Some supermarkets (Aldi and Lidl) have a weekly brouchure while Tesco offers a monthly version. These supermarket magazines offer a look into their best products, some recipes to try out, up and coming products that are due to come into stock and some promotional material also.
Take note of what you think you did right and what you could improve on next time you go food shopping.
Comments