How to save money when you're out shopping

Last night was shopping night. The vastness of my local superstore always looms scarily and I need to prepare myself for the onslaught. Everything about a supermarket is designed to make you spend more than you intended. The lighting, the store layout, the width of the aisles, the product placement, all have been carefully thought out by psychologists to encourage you to buy, buy, buy.

So you have to have your wits about you when you enter a supermarket and there are a few tricks you can use to help hang on to your hard earned cash!

Make like the Scouts: Be Prepared!
First of all you need to plan your meals and know what your staples and favourites are. If you want to have ready meals in your freezer that will save you money on bought ones and take-outs then you have to know what you can do and what will keep.

You need to keep an eye on how much space you have in your freezer. That huge bag of salmon fillets might work out at less than 50p each but unless you have room to freeze them you're going to end up throwing them out.

Beware of the BOGOF
When you set off for the supermarket make sure you have a list. Know what you want, how much you need, and stick to it. You think that BOGOF celery looks like a good deal? Well, firstly, do you LIKE celery? Enough to eat two whole heads of it in a week? Because it'll go off if you try to keep it much longer than that. But if you're planning to make soup to freeze, then it's a bargain.

In my case it's a waste of time, effort and cash to have deals on biscuits. They usually WILL keep longer than a week - but not in my house. I shall just end up having one with every meal and maybe just another little one, and perhaps a couple before bed? And before I know it I've eaten two whole packets in spite of my good intentions to make them last a month. This is no way to save money.

Bargain or bum?
By all means check the bargain bins and Oops shelves. But don't buy things unless you can use them. A couple of packets of near-their-sell-by ham is great if you're catering for the cricket team tea tomorrow. What are you going to do with them otherwise? (OK - I make sandwiches for packed lunches and freeze a week's at once but even I get fed up with ham if I have to eat it every day.)

You might find after bank holidays that the bargain shelves have some rare treats on them. Supermarkets buy in lots of luxury goods for festive seasons because people want to spend more on long weekends. But they can't shift things after life goes back to normal and the prices are exceptionally good because they need the space. I've picked up quite a few jars of anchovies for less than a pound that way.  What do I do with anchovies?  Wait till I do Storecupboard 3!
And is it a bargain? 'Was £3.45, NOW £3 is only a good deal if you actually want the contents of the pack. If you're buying it just because it has an old price crossed off you've just wasted £3!  Even worse - some supermarkets will offer you 'was £3.45, now £3.40'. Perhaps not.

Take a look around for the things that you DO buy and watch out for bargains on them. Don't be too tied down to your list. For example, if it says roast beef for Sunday lunch but they're offering duck at a really good price, leave the cow till next week and indulge yourself.

There's a reason you haven't heard of them
Don't buy brands you don't recognise just because they're half the price of the things you usually get. Unless they offer you a taste of them and you're sure they are just as good. I promise you that the second (and sometimes third) packet will sit at the back of your cupboard uneaten. If you really want to try something new just buy ONE packet - however good the offer looks.

How's your maths?
It seems obvious but check prices! That's a 500g box of something for £1.20 and it's reduced from £2.50 so that's a big saving, right? No, not if there's a 300g box next to it for 60p. (I'll wait while you work that out) And always check that the 'buy three for only £1' deals actually work out cheaper. Believe it or not people have been known to fall for '30p each or three for £1'.

Above all, keep a rough check on the cost of your trolley load as you go round. You know how much you have to spend and you can stop before you reach it. Add it up as you go along. Work to the nearest 50p and always round up totals. That way you'll get a pleasant surprise when you come to pay. If you haven't got everything on your list but you've over spent, decide NOW what you can leave behind. It's too late once it's gone through the checkout and you're facing the bill. You planned to spend £50 but the total says £76? You have no-one to blame but yourself.

It's not all that bad
OK so I won't end on a nasty nag. You CAN find some real bargains when you want to as long as you're careful. If you're flexible with your cooking you can take advantage of things in season. If you know that jam season is coming, buy a box of sugar each week so you can stockpile it for when you need it. Same with Christmas. Buy one thing extra a week from September onwards and you'll have a great store and won't be facing a huge shopping trip when the streets are heaving.

Store cupboard 1: A taste of things to come

Auntie Anne's kitchen has a well stocked store cupboard and I don't know what I'd do without it. As long as you have a few key ingredients you can always rustle up a meal at short notice. So I thought I'd do a few posts on what I keep in my store cupboard to give you a helping hand.

Writing about my herbs made me think about what else I keep around that can help me make my cooking more interesting. As more and more of us are trying to save money we're being forced increasingly to buy less meat or go for the cheaper cuts.

Now some cheap cuts have plenty of flavour but in other cases they need help in the taste department. Consider mince. It's cheap and cheerful and extremely versatile but it can be horribly bland, especially if you go for the low fat option. Fat is where meat keeps its flavour (which is why belly pork is so yummy) but it's also really not good for you.

In our house we use a lot of turkey mince because it's very low in fat, relatively cheap and easily available. But it's pretty low on savour too! I use mince for its potential to be the base for a lot of really nice dishes. Think spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, meatballs, chilli, cottage pie. But that means having a good range of herbs and spices available to me.

As you've already read I grow my own herbs and keep pots on the shelf so they are in easy reach but I also have a good selection of dried herbs too.

So what do you need?

Well that depends entirely on what your favourite meals are. If you love curry but hate Italian you're going to need coriander but won't have much use for basil. But if you're like the majority of us and enjoy a range of different cuisines you'll want a varied selection of flavourings.

So where do you start?

Let's assume that you're setting up your kitchen from scratch and you currently have nothing in store. There's a few flavourings that you really need to buy up front. If you really are starting from scratch it can be an expensive business so you need to know what's essential and what can wait.

You will definitely need:

Salt

Don't mess around with separate table salt and cooking salt. Buy what's cheap and use it for both. You might like to buy sea salt if you feel the need for iodine but it isn't necessary for your cooking.

Pepper

Can't have one without the other really. If you can only afford one I'd suggest black peppercorns and a grinder (buy one you can refill). If you add black pepper to white sauce you'll get visible specks, of course, so have a small pot of ground white on hand as well if you can afford it.
Vinegar
If you can only afford one go for a white wine or cider one. Malt's best for chips but it isn't all that great in anything else, like sweet and sour sauce or salad dressing.
Mustard
A tin of dried mustard powder is a wonderful thing to have. It adds heat and spice to lots of foods and will perk up sad curries or chilli. Don't buy the ready made stuff in a jar. It goes off. And you can always mix a bit of your own if you fancy some on a ham sandwich - the instructions will be on the side of the tin.
Sugar

OK so you probably have this anyway if you take it in tea or coffee but you'll still need a small bag, even if you take your beverages as they come. It's handy for sweet and sour, freshening salad dressings and some people even put it on tomatoes. (Honest!)

Stage two

Got your first few items? Still got some money left? Let's go for stage two then.

Worcester Sauce

Or Yorkshire relish if you're in that part of the world. Not the thick stuff like ketchup - the thin stuff like vinegar. A dash of this will perk up the most boring of dishes and you must have seen the adverts where they throw it over all kinds of stuff like cheese on toast. A dash in tomato soup does wonders for it.

Tomato ketchup/puree

If you like tomato ketchup buy it and let it earn its keep off the table as well as on. If (like me) you're not exactly a ketchup fan, buy tubes of puree. A good squidge helps the colour of stews no end. It's also a great start for pizza.

Soy sauce

No it isn't the same as Worcester Sauce. It's distinctively Chinese and you can't do Asian food without it. Buy a low salt version if you can.

Stage three

We're getting a real start now! Onto the herbs and spices. Like I said earlier - it depends on what you like to eat. If you really love Mexican food buy chilli powder. If you really love curry buy a curry powder- how hot is up to you - and some ground coriander seed. For Italian fans buy dried oregano and basil. Chinese? Then it's five spice powder and star anise.

You can do that over the space of three weeks so it doesn't break the bank but you'll still be able to make some good tastes from day one.

Moving onwards

After that the world's your oyster. Buy as many as you can afford each week. Even if that's just a single new spice each shopping trip you'll soon see your store cupboard growing.

My suggestions? For the curry fan you'll eventually need black mustard seed, fennel seed, cumin, dried ginger, turmeric, garam masala, cardamom and fenugreek.

Just love aromatic spice? Cinammon, nutmeg (buy whole ones and a grater), allspice and cloves.

Herb fan? Parsley, bay leaves, tarragon (great with chicken) mint, marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme.

Other great flavours? Celery salt (you can't make a Bloody Mary without it apparently) Carraway. Cayenne pepper. Paprika. Smoked paprika. Garlic powder (for real emergencies when you don't have fresh) Juniper berries. Lemon grass. Anything you particularly like.

Now's also the time to start buying extra vinegars - a good balsamic, red wine, now get your malt for your chips!

Above all - enjoy cooking with all the different flavours and make sure you experiment to find your own style!