The Jersey Consumer Council were concerned to read the results of a recent cost of living survey by Island Global Research. The survey reports very worrying statistics such as 10% of Jersey residents having to go without their essentials, 36% find it difficult to keep up with the rising grocery prices and over 50% strongly agree that they are feeling the impact of the rising costs of living.

In times like this every little helps so we've compiled some top tips for saving on your grocery bills.

Depending on your circumstances, we know not all of these may suit you or be possible, but we hope you can use some of them.

Top tips for saving on grocery bills

1. Prices.je – Use our price comparison site and find out the best price. We compare around one hundred grocery and household items in the six main supermarkets (Alliance, Co-Op, Iceland, M&S, Morrisons and Waitrose).

2. Make a list and stick to it – Supermarkets might put their essential items across different sections of the shop, making sure customers walk past as many shelves as possible, even if they’re only intending to get the basic items.

Keep to your list and don’t be distracted by other products, we know it’s difficult, but it is a good way to save money.

3. Create a weekly menu – Planning what meals you will be cooking for the next seven days, will help limit the chance of over buying and reduce the amount of unused food that you bin.

4. Leftover food – Look up recipes that you could use leftovers in. Vegetable soup is a good use of leftover veg, and a chicken carcass can be boiled to create a perfect stock or soup base. Jamie Oliver has a great range of leftover recipes.

5. Own-brand options –  Most stores will have a couple of differently priced options from the cheapest ‘value’ item, usually their ‘own-brand’, a ‘mid-range’ and ‘premium’ selection.

You can make a big saving by going for an own-brand product. Don’t be put off, many supermarket brands are actually made at the same factories as branded items and in some cases branded items taste better!

These cheaper options might not be displayed where you would expect them to be and could be on the lower shelves, so make sure to look around.

6. Supermarket promotions – Keep a look out for promotions and, if you can afford to, bulk buy. The most important point about promotions is not to be tempted to buy just because something is on promotion, especially if you can’t afford it or don’t usually eat/use the item.

Sometimes promotions are not exactly as you might expect, so the easiest way to keep track of how much an item usually costs is to keep and compare your receipts.

Don't be fooled by supermarket trickery - two packs of 5 might be cheaper than a pack of 10. 

7. Batch cook and freeze – If you can afford to make the most of promotions, it’s a great way to bulk buy so you can batch cook. Whether it’s tins of chickpeas to make a large vegetarian curry or kilos of minced meat to make a Bolognese, you will have your own family favourites and there are loads of ideas online.

8. Be flexible with best-before dates –  Don’t be confused between use-by and best-before dates. Food with a use-by date must be used by midnight of its expiry date otherwise it’s unsafe. 

Best-before dates can be a looked at a little more flexibly. If an item is at it’s best-before date it will usually be fine to eat over the next day or so. Supermarkets will mark the food up with a yellow sticker and it will usually be significantly cheaper.

9. Look around to find the bargains – Sometimes supermarkets will have promotions of products at the end of the aisle or other different areas than you would normally see it. For example, cheaper rice, coconut milk and chickpeas might be found in the world foods shelves, than in other parts of the shop.

10. Grow your own – Whether you have a garden or a windowsill, growing your own food is always fun and is significantly cheaper than the supermarket version.

Tomatoes, peas and herbs are all very easy to grow and taste better than shop bought. You don’t even have to buy the plant pots. You can recycle the plastic supermarket food containers.

Nobody wants to pay more than they need to on their basic grocery items. Always shop around and use Prices.je to help with this.