My first tip is to go straight to the reduced counter when you arrive at the store. This is the counter where they reduce the price on foods that are nearing the expiry date or have damaged packaging. It doesn’t matter if you are not going to use the food straight away, that is what freezers are for. Just don’t go buying things that you will not use ‘just in case’, that is a false economy as you will end up throwing it away in the end. If they have three packs of sausages, then don’t just buy one, buy them all and keep them for the next time you make a sausage casserole. A bag of bananas that are turning brown? They are perfect for making banana cake as they are much sweeter, in fact I won’t eat them any other way. Do make sure that you check the labels though, as I found out when recovering from food poisoning from freezing cooked chicken that had been previously frozen.

Keep an eye out for the ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers and stock up when they are there. You may not need ten bottles of washing up liquid right now, but you know they will definitely be used. Be careful when it comes to things that go out of date and can’t be frozen, such as bags of flour, don’t go overboard when buying those.

When it comes to paying for your shopping, always use two types of cards together. Firstly, a store card that gives you points on your shopping that you can redeem later – I always save my points for Christmas and use them to pay for the Christmas shop. If you can, get one where you collect the points elsewhere too, such as petrol (gas) stations, department stores, online stores etc. Secondly, use a credit card that gives you cash back or points, which convert to vouchers for your favourite store.

Using these methods won’t mean that you save straight away. You won’t really feel the benefit of this type of shopping for some time, but that time will come. Imagine not having to pay for your shopping on Christmas week because you collected enough points on your store card throughout the year to pay for it or those weeks when you only need to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and cooked meats because you have everything else well stocked