What Are Shoppers Doing Wrong When Shopping At The Supermarket?

We all know how to shop at the supermarket, but yet many of us are making mistakes, which results in us overspending.

Shoppers often make common mistakes when grocery shopping that can lead to overspending, food waste, or missed opportunities to save money. Here are some of the most frequent errors I know I’ve made and how I avoid them!

Shopping Without a List

Mistake: Going to the supermarket without a plan of what you need to buy leads to impulse buys and forgotten essentials.
Fix: Make a list of what you need and try and stick to it! Most importantly, don’t make that list sitting in front of the TV, make sure you physically check what you already have in the cupboards, fridge and freezer while you make the list and move things around to make sure you’ve not missed anything! You can waste so much money purchasing things you don’t actually need, or don’t need right now, by not checking properly!

Scan & Go To Save!

When you go shopping, try using one of the handheld scanners to scan the products as you go. This has saved me from overspending many times, as I was always just throwing things in the trolley and not having a clue what I’ve spent; even if I tried to keep a tally, I usually got it wrong!

Scanning as you go is helpful in knowing exactly what you will have to pay at the till, as it keeps the prices updated. So many times, I’ve scanned something and seen the difference it’s made to my price total, so I’ve put it back again! It really helps to reduce impulse buys and keep you on budget.

I’m always hearing people saying that these kind of scan-as-you-go schemes are just a way for supermarkets to avoid paying so much in staff, and we’re doing their job for them, but I disagree; I think they are an invaluable way for a shopper to keep in complete control of their spending; not using it is a sure-fire way to overspend!

It’ll also be tied to your loyalty card, so you can’t forget to scan it, and as I know I’m self-scanning, it helps me to remember to take bags with me, so no 60p charges for bags for me, and even that can save a fair chunk of money over the year!

Ignoring Unit Prices On Products

Mistake: Focusing only on the total price of something you buy, instead of comparing cost per unit (e.g., per 100g, 100ml, kg). of the product is a sure-fire way to overspend!
Fix: Don’t assume that just because you’ve seen something on promotion at a lower price than another product you might usually buy, it's actually cheaper! Tempting as it may be to grab the product with the lowest price, you may find that when you compare the cost per unit, the promotion item is more expensive as it weighs less!
The jar of spice is £1, and the bag of spice is £1.90, so the jar seems cheaper, but when you compare the price per unit, you can see the bag works out at 6p per 10g, and the jar is 35.7p per 10g, and so although more expensive to buy initially, far better value, as you get more in the pack and it works out cheaper in the long run; in fact its 142% cheaper!

Yes, it might be that on your till receipt, the price is less, but you’ll get less actual product and end up buying more sooner, which means you’ve saved nothing!

Look at convenience food options such as grated cheese or sliced chicken, for example. If the supermarket has employed someone or is paying a supplier to grate your cheese for you or slice up your chicken for you, that will come at an extra cost, as these costs will be passed on to the shopper.

Buy a block of cheese and grate it yourself (you can always grate a whole block at once if you want the convenience of having grated cheese ready to go in the fridge!); the same goes for sliced chicken; you will pay more per kilo for your chicken being pre-sliced for you, and worse still those meat products that are being sold pre-seasoned, so perhaps Cajun spiced chicken pieces, or herb spiced as an example; you are paying a hefty premium to have someone season your meat for you; it would be far cheaper to go to the spice section and invest in a tub of spices and season your own chicken! You don’t need much spice for each piece of meat; you might spend a quid or two on the spice, but this will last a long time and pay for itself almost immediately!

Remember, convenience foods aren’t convenient to your wallet!

Overlooking Store Brands & The World Food Aisle

Mistake: Assuming name brands are always better, even when store brands offer similar quality at a lower price, can be an expensive mistake! We all know that buying supermarket-owned brand products is cheaper, yet many of us still purchase big branded products and spend far more than we need to when you compare these products with incredibly similar own-brand products! There will always be certain products you won’t buy a store brand version of, often because perhaps you were brought up with that brand, and so stick to it, but that loyalty costs you money. If you are trying to save cash but don’t want to lose the quality, try mixing up a brand version of something and a supermarket’s own version to stretch out that brand product.

Fix: For example, I mix brand coffee with my own brand coffee (similar styles), and I don’t notice any difference,, in the taste, but do notice it saving me money over the year. Another example is pasta sauce; those jars of tomato sauce can be expensive (and small), and we used to buy two jars for making dinner, and that cost was getting expensive, so now I’ll add a jar of branded (or non-branded) pasta sauce to the pan, but instead of another jar of expensive sauce, I add a carton of cheap tomato passata instead, which is usually a third of the price of a jar, and nobody notices, even my fussy kid, and its saves me money every time!

Speaking of cheaper foods, don’t forget the World Foods aisle. This area can be a goldmine for savings! Spices are a great example; the price per 100g of the bags of spices you can buy over the jars in another part of the store can be dramatically different. I never buy the jars anymore; I buy the world foods spices, and they are just good and way cheaper! It’s not just spices; look at the cost of staples such as rice, flour, canned vegetables, and even cooking oil; it can be far cheaper than similar products elsewhere in the store.

Falling for Marketing Tricks!

Mistake: Being swayed by eye-level displays, end-of-aisle promotions, or colourful packaging!
Fix: I’ll admit to being drawn towards the end of aisles and the big signs showing discounts and feeling the shopping adrenaline of ‘getting a good deal’ – I’ve often bought, spur of the moment, because the price labels show a decent discount, (have you noticed how few buy 1 get 1 free deals there are these days, as a side note?!), and it's only later on that realise that yes it might have been a special price, but very likely it’s not the lowest price I could have got!

I’ve started ignoring the end of aisles completely, as I know those promotions are on the end of the aisle because THE SUPERMARKETS want you to buy it, and it’s not because they are only thinking of you and giving you a discount; it’s because they are thinking of themselves, as those products will have a high margin, or the manufacturers are paying them a lot of money to have those products in your line of sight!

Try to ignore those deals, look at alternatives, and again refer to the price per unit for those alternatives; you’ll likely find something similar for less money, and look down when looking for other options. The stores plan down to the inch where things are placed on the shelves, and you’ll likely find the more premium/higher margin on shelves that are at eye level because they know it’s where you’ll be looking, so they display those more expensive/premium items directly in front of you!

The cheaper items will be on lower shelves; the really cheap items on the lowest shelves. While working for a supermarket a few years ago, I was told that those cheap items go low because many people don’t like to bend down in supermarkets or perhaps can’t, and the supermarkets know this and so stock the shelves accordingly; I was told that the really low shelves are often very low; to the point that people may have to kneel down to get something off that low shelf, and people won’t as they don’t want to get a dirty knee or worry about falling over, so those people will often buy from the premium shelves to avoid doing that.. sneaky huh!

Overlooking Frozen or Canned Options
Mistake: Assuming fresh is always better, even when frozen or canned items are cheaper and just as nutritious. There are some things I’d never buy frozen or canned, I’ll admit, but there’s a lot I will do to make sure that I reduce the cost of what I purchase!
Fix: Incorporate frozen or canned goods into your meals, fresh items such as meats and vegetables are always more expensive, often because they factor wastage into the cost of what you buy.

For example, you‘ll often find frozen meat much cheaper than fresh, the same with convenience foods such as ready meals and popular products like pizza. This is because the supermarkets know that there will be X amount of wastage on those products because of the shorter shelf life and sell-by dates of fresh products over frozen. They know that a percentage of those products are going to be sold off cheap (yellow stickers) or, worse still, thrown away/ (hopefully given to food banks!), and so they add X amount to the cost of these fresh products to account for any wastage costs they’ll encounter. Frozen foods are less likely to be thrown away /sold off cheaply as the shelf life is much longer, and the stock is likely to be long gone way before the sell-by date becomes an option! I worked as a code checker/yellow sticker man for a couple of years, and I NEVER once added a yellow sticker to a frozen product!

In my opinion, Certain frozen items aren’t worth the cost. My friend will only buy frozen onions as it's easier for him to cook with as he can just take a bit out of the freezer when he needs it, but he pays so much more for that chopped onion than fresh onions; he should buy fresh onions, chop them and pop them in the freezer instead, it’ll save money!

Items such as frozen berries are much cheaper frozen over fresh; the downside is that they’ll be mushy once defrosted, so buy those and use them in dishes where it’s not noticeable, such as in desserts like cheesecake or for making fruit sauces much cheaper, especially out of season!

Not Using Coupons/Loyalty Cards/Cashback

Mistake: I’ve been a money-saving expert for a long time now, and I’m always amazed at the number of people who don’t utilise discount opportunities. Fix: Most of us use the supermarket's loyalty cards/apps these days, although a significant number of people still don’t, which can cost them a lot of money! We know that supermarkets now often offer special prices for loyalty card users, and many of us will scan the app at the till to get the better price. However, many people will only scan the card when buying something thats on promotion, and that’s a mistake. Scan the card/app every time, even if you’re buying just a drink or a snack, even if it doesn’t have a loyalty card discounted product; this is because the loyalty card are clever bits of software; they record what you buy and over time they know what you buy, when you buy it, and this allows them to offer you loyalty discounts on things you’ll actually buy, over generic discounts on things you may have no interest in, so scan every time to make sure you have the best chance of getting better discounts in the future, plus you may still rack up those useful loyalty points as well! Coupons are still about, just so long as you look for them! Most companies will use social media to distribute their coupons. Therefore, if you go to social media and enter the term coupons or discount coupons, it will likely bring up any coupons that are available at the time, but those social media algorithms don’t stop there, as they’ll start to keep showing you coupons and offers for weeks to come! Make sure you like the social media pages of brands you buy from a lot, then there’s a higher chance you’ll start getting coupons from brands you actually buy from!

These days, a lot of coupons/discounts are distributed via supermarket cashback apps such as Shopmium, GreenJinn, and Checkoutsmart. If you haven’t seen these apps, they are apps that offer you discounts, via cashback (of up to 100%!) for a range of different products from a range of manufacturers, for use in supermarkets (and other stores too).

You buy the product and, via the app, upload the receipt for what you purchased. The discount/cashback amount will be debited to your account. Once you have enough in your account, you can withdraw that money to your bank account. If you make sure you’ve signed up with all those apps, you’ll likely find something on the apps when you go shopping! Talking of cashback, one of the best ways to save on your food shop is absolutely to use a cashback service to grab back a slice of what you paid for your shopping.

Gift card cashback apps are the best, as so many supermarkets let you pay by gift card these days, and using a gift card cashback app, such as JamDoughnut, to buy your gift card gives you a percentage of the gift card value, back as cashback. For example, if you bought a £100 gift card for the supermarket you're shopping in, you might get 4% cashback, meaning you’d get £4 back on that £100 gift card purchase. Many people have said to me that £4 isn’t much, but I tell them to work that out over a year, and then you’ll see why it’s so good, as that will really add up! I’m saving up my gift card cashback this year and will cash out at Christmas; I know it’ll be enough to pay for Christmas, as I’m already at over £88 sitting in my cashback account, since January, so by Christmas, it should be a lovely big chunk of cash, and all just by changing my payment method on something I was going to buy anyway, it‘s a no brainer!