Pricing the shopping to the penny.

jetplane

I have often wondered about the actual savings of doing this. I have a retired friend who will drive the 2 miles to the supermarket to buy milk as it is a few pennies cheaper than the local foodstore which he can walk to? I think his petrol probably wipes out the saving.

How long do these price comparisons take for a full shop ? I work full time and never seem to have had the time to sit down and check. While I always look on the reduced shelves, buy offers in any of the supermarkets and wouldn't buy anything I had seen cheaper elsewhere I do wonder do the savings of pennies justify the extra cost of time spent checking, travelling and multi shopping?

Mind you my Grandmas motto was look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves

mandragora_2

spike7451 wrote: »

I know roughly how much I get each fortnight from my sick pay & this week,after paying my bills,it's £38.
.The total came to £38.15.I have a list of what I need from each shop & the price total.
.

Really well done, I do admire you - I have a strong urge to sub you the 15p, though! Your 'so near but so far' just reminded me of Dickens:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

terra_ferma

I do that too, not all the time though, and it works well. I do a virtual shop online, then visit the shop (only one at the time but try to alternate to catch the good offers).
I also leave some spare cash for deals like yellow stickers, and the odd item I can't live without...;)

Kitchenbunny

I do this too, or try to. The items I buy week in, week out stay on the shopping list no matter where I go to get them as there will usually only be pence difference and the fuel cost doesn't work out. Items that cost more than £1 with a big saving to be had DO get taken into account and, if I can walk to get them from somewhere else, I will.

I have been known to walk around supermarkets with a calculator. I do wish my brain was better at arithmetic!

K xx

jpscloud

Not as well planned as your expeditions Spike but I do something a bit similar - I have a list of things that are usually cheapest in each shop that I want... so if I'm passing Aldi, I check my Aldi list (it's usually fresh veg, a frozen dessert that I love, hazelnuts, cheeses and some meats). I am about to switch from Tesco to farmfoods for frozen fish/chicken, but you see what I mean.

I do come unstuck sometimes because there could be a better deal in another shop that I'm not passing that week, but it works quite well on the whole.

sonastin

I do it to a point. There are things that I prefer from particular shops so if one of those runs out, I tend to stock up on the other bits I'm out of from that shop while I'm there rather than making a special trip elsewhere, unless something is *significantly* cheaper in another shop. But the bits that are just getting low or the shops that I do when I'm not short of anything that needs to come from somewhere specific come from wherever I can get stuff cheapest.

I try to plan so that I stock up on stuff that is getting low when I happen to be in the shop that sells it cheaper, rather than waiting till its gone and find I'm shopping where I have to pay more or making a special journey but I'm not always so efficient or disciplined!

PipneyJane

I have a friend who has a "price book" where she records the unit price of everything she buys, for each of the supermarkets, so that she only buys those items when she goes to that store. (I had a colleague who did this, too, 20+ years ago. First time I heard the term.). She uses unit price or price per gram so that she doesn't get caught out by shops selling bigger packets at a higher cost per gram than smaller packets.

I've never been that organised. I do shop with a calculator and add up my spend as I go. Our housekeeping budget is 100% cash so the calculator saves embarrassment at the till.

mrsd

I used mysupermarket.com for the first time for the shopping for our Jubilee do. It was good as the first part was for the alcohol (I was buying for the whole street with my neighbour, everyone who was planning to attend had to chip in) as Tesc0 was cheaper, but as we started adding the fizzy drinks, juice etc. Asd@ was by far the cheapest making it better to go there than anywhere else. Both stores are similar distance so travel cost not an issue.
For my regular weekly shop I am a big fan of Aldi and top up with Tesc0 and Asd@ when needed. I now take cash with me and add up as I go along rounding up prices to avoid embarrassment at the checkout.

maman

jetplane wrote: »

How long do these price comparisons take for a full shop ? I work full time and never seem to have had the time to sit down and check. While I always look on the reduced shelves, buy offers in any of the supermarkets and wouldn't buy anything I had seen cheaper elsewhere I do wonder do the savings of pennies justify the extra cost of time spent checking, travelling and multi shopping?

Mind you my Grandmas motto was look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves

I'd agree about the extra travelling but if you're lucky to have a range of local shops then it definitely pays to shop around. I've always made a meal plan and a shopping list to go with it. I found it saved me huge amounts of time (and money) when I worked full time. It's so much quicker to just go to the shop(s) and get around as quickly as possible with an organised list than do what some friends do which is just wander around putting stuff in the trolley with no plan and probably having to go back a few times in the week for stuff they've forgotten! I also knew I had a meal sorted for every evening so didn't waste time there or order a take-away.

I'm also one of the hordes who does a main shop in Lidl/Aldi followed by a tiny shop in Asda/Sainsburys. That's what I do weekly but I do go to Farmfoods and £1 shop and Asian supermarket occasionally for some items.

I don't need to stick to a budget at the moment so I just spend an absolute minimum for the week plus any bargains I can store/freeze.

Happy Returns for yesterday Spike, hope you enjoy your drinks! They'll taste all the better knowing you've saved on them!:D