I was told by a friend, to plan your meals for the week or fortnight, afternoon teas, lunches etc before you go shopping and only buy the products you need, also don't go to the shops hungry as you will buy too much food. ( she saved a hundred dollars in one week)

I worked for Safeway for 12 years, and did all my shopping at bi low, there not around anymore, Aldi all the way now. I can do my shopping for $140 per F/N thats without meat I buy it from the local in town.

Asian supermarkets are good for cheap noodles

Anitaxxx

Hey FD - hmmm, think I'd rather call you Kerri  8-)

Spot on re the cheapo shops - even if a product only lasts 1/2 as long as the name brand, its usually cheaper to buy 2 el cheapos anyway! Roll on home brand - we use heaps in our household, for no obvious loss of quality.

Also - check out your local IGA supermarket. Some are really good, some are ripoffs...our local guys (Coolum Qld) have comparable prices to the 2 big boys but also source fruit/veg from the local area, so not only much fresher and better quality, but supports local farmers. In addition, they directly support a lot of local schools, sporting clubs and charities, plus have a customer loyalty program - and you can get your 4c/litre discount on fuel from ANY petrol station.

As far as meat - look out for "meat world" type stores, basically bulk butchers. Say $60 of meat from one of them will buy you easily twice as much as the big guys, and for some reason seems to last longer??! - so you only need to go monthly or so (obviously freezing lots).

Great article, the big chains are raking in the money and giving very little in return. Excellent reminder to all to seek alternative places like markets, fruiters, butchers etc to get better quality/tasting produce.  Gone are the days when the big chains carried cheaper produce, if one looks around they will find comparable prices(if not cheaper)elsewhere.  Incidently if one happens to find dearer produce compared to the big store eqiuvalent, I'm sure it would  last longer, taste better and be higher in nutritional value.

I use the cheap outlets for deodrant and some other stuff....I can get deodrant(top brands)like $2.00 a bottle!!!so i buy 10 at a time....why pay $4.00-$6.00 a bottle? Yet at other times dont mind paying abit extra if more mileage is to be gained.

rue

great advice .my wife and i buy the home brand products too . we even buy the home brand  nappies . we always look for sales to and for apples we go to a farm and buy them the girls love it

kenny

great advice and for me i shop around, to micks disgust hehe, but he doesnt complain when we save money from it...

xx cazza

Hi there if you check out your chemists you can usually get toilet paper,soap,dish washing liquid and laundry det and sometimes shampoo and cond cheaper there then the super markets.Thanks for the tips.

                                                                      cham

Small veggie shops and butchers are always fantastic... Also at the butchers you have more choice too.. Same as the small veggie shops...  :)

I agree, the veg at bigger supermarket chains like Coles is getting pretty bad. I actually went there  to buy groceries the other day and the eggplant looked absolutely pathetic. I had bought an eggplant probably a month before that at an independent which looked like a real good quality eggplant.

Hi,

I very rarely shop at supermarkets these days but when I do I tend to steer clear of the veg section and also the meat section as some sights are just too horrible to look at . . Interestingly I have found myself saving money shopping at fruit and veg shops as you can't stray to other items, just the fruit and veg.

Cheers Kellz

we only buy homebrand. it is actually made by the big brand places just it has no  pretty packaging