HOW TO SAVE OVER 50% ON YOUR DAILY FOOD BILL. UK FOOD HACK.

My three favourite words are food, cheap, and free. For the entirety of my adult life I have always lived as frugal as possible and in many ways it’s always been a challenge. If it’s the end of a working day it’s easy to spend £30 on an evening shop without thinking, and usually when shopping in that mode the food only covers two meals at best. So back when I was at university I got into the habit of planning every week meticulously in order to save and it’s a habit that has stuck. So in this post I’m going to show my fellow steemonians in the UK the in’s and outs of shaving 50% or more off their weekly shop.

Here in the U.K all of our major food retailers have a mark down policy on food that is going out of date. On the day a product does go out of date it’s marked down gradually through the day until the last minute when they take 60% or more off the product. All U.K food retailers do this at a set time as a policy across the country. So below I’m going to list the retailers, the time they mark their food products down, and the Sunday time tables for this as well.

If you are like me and own a large freezer shopping at these times can save you loads. But even if you don’t own a means of storage that’s large the options for jarring, making preserves, and salt curing meats such as pork are always available. I do it all the time.

So Tesco is one of my favourites. Just last month they brought all their stores over to a policy of having the final mark downs for the day out by 7:00 pm. I tend to show up at 6:45 as I don’t mind waiting around for over 50% off my shop. One of the things I’ve noticed is most people go for the sweets and junk food. The intro pictured on this post was food from my freezer from these guys. Fish, fruit, and vegetables are always easy grabs.

Oh, and if you don’t want to compete with the other bargain hunters at the big retailers then head to their metros. For the non Brits reading this our metros are basically big retailers miniature shops made to cater to residential or crowded city areas. Sunday hours for clearances are at 3:00 for these guys.

ASDA (owned by Walmart) is a tricky one. I’ve had luck at around 6:00 for their large mark downs, but have also found shops in different locations mark down their clearance closer to 7:00 pm. Their Sunday’s are a bit hectic and it’s sort of like playing rugby to grab a bargain. Most of their shops have everything marked down by 3:15 on Sunday in my experience. So if it’s 3 o’clock on a Sunday and you have an hour to kill popping in doesn’t hurt.

So M&S is one of our more expensive high street chains. The food is excellent quality though I can’t remember when I last paid full price for food with these guys. Most high street shops start their mark downs around 4:00 pm. On Sundays it’s around 3:00.

The best time to hit this store for mark downs is after a major holiday. I.e. Christmas and Easter. I managed to get a large ham and a large turkey for under £12 last year from these guys. I followed up by going to Tesco at half six and walked out with several freezable Christmas party platters with loads of veggies as well. So popping in and milling around after work or on a Sunday won’t steer you wrong when trying to save a few bob.

So Waitrose markdowns on weekdays always start at 6:00 pm in my experience. Sunday’s at 2:45 to 3:00 pm. These guys are my favourite for deli and meat products and I normally shoot straight to the cheese or meat counter at the back. It’s less hectic than competing around the floor item mark downs and grabbing aged cheddar, cured meats, and prime cuts at 60% off is usually a sure thing.... oh.. being polite and making friends with the folks behind the counter is a must. They deal with rude snooty people all day so good manners and simple conversation goes a long way.

So it’s always a gong show for me at my nearest Sainsbury’s. They do their mark downs around 7:00 at my local store and the locals over there are competitive. But there smaller local stores have always been relatively easy. On Sunday’s you can catch their mark downs at 3:00. I’ve done ok out of them but they aren’t my preference for cheap healthy food.

Well guys that’s it for now. This was just a quick post covering how to shave half or over off your weekly food bill. It’s a great habit to get into and with a bit of proper planning you really notice a difference by the end of the month. The pumpkin seeds pictured above I got from Tesco and in my next post I’m going to show you guys how to make a tasty alternative to peanut butter with them.

Thank you so much for reading and looking forward to checking out all your posts and projects. Steem on. :)

Image credits:
Sainsbury’s.
Asda.
Waitrose.
Tesco
Marks and Spencer’s
My kitchen