How to checkout cheaper food

As we all know, food is costing more. But there is one easy way to slash your check-out bill. Some foods are worth paying extra for, but others simply are not. The key is to work out where to make savings without having to accept poorer quality — and one website could prove very useful.

Called supermarketownbrandguide.co.uk, it has insider information from food factory workers, supermarket experts and thousands of ordinary shoppers about which store’s own-brand products are the same, or almost identical to, their pricier equivalents, plus whether they are tastier (or the same) as their competing brands.

If you buy the same branded foods every week you could make major savings by finding these cheaper equivalents.

There are plenty of other good supermarket bill-trimming ideas, too
Make the most of just-out-of-their sell-by date foodstuffs. The supermarkets won’t sell it - but other places will.

My favourite source is market stalls and the website approvedfood.co.uk. gives other sources. It sells excess stock, discontinued lines, stock in old packaging, and food nearing its best before date at bargain prices.

Top current deals include 200 Cadbury’s Creme Eggs for £20 (or 10p each), nine rolls of Nouvelle-brand toilet roll for £2.75, and a pack of eight Sharwood’s poppadoms for 25p.