Seven secrets your supermarket won’t tell you that could save you money on your food shop

RISING food prices mean the weekly supermarket shop is costing more than ever but with a few tricks you can save when feeding your family.

Supermarkets deploy many methods to help push our spending higher than needs to be.

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It comes as favourite foods are edging up in price with the cost of some items such as olive oil and chocolate jumping significantly.

This makes it more important than ever to slash costs where you can.

Whether you shop at Waitrose, Tesco or Aldi, here's how you can pay less when heading to the supermarket...

Ditch packaging

Opt for fruit and vegetables that are loose where possible and you'll find that you pay less for the same amount packed up.

This includes apples, bananas, carrots, potatoes and more.

Not only is it a more environmentally friendly and cheaper option but you can also pick the exact amount you want which can help create further savings, plus cut down on food waste.

Yellow Stickers

Most days supermarkets need to clear out food that is nearing use by and best-before dates.

To get a quick sale, prices are slashed.

These items are often marked down at the beginning of each day — typically with yellow stickers.

Then, towards the end of the day, products that still haven't sold might be more heavily discounted.

Tesco is going a step further and offering food about to expire for free in selected stores at the end of the day.

It’s always worth looking out for reductions at your local store while grocery shopping.

Some stores have a dedicated section - ask a worker if you can't find it. Sometimes, they'll also share the exact time that items are marked down.

Even if you can't eat it immediately, consider whether it could be frozen to use at another time.

Switch aisle

The World Food aisle in supermarket has food items including spices, grains and tinned products.

You may not recognise the branding, but the prices are often much lower than equivalent items elsewhere in the store.

It's especially worth scouring this aisle if you buy the likes of coconut milk, tinned tomatoes, lentils and

If you’re buying spices, grains and tinned products such as tomatoes or coconut milk, head to the world-food aisle where you’ll often get more bang for your buck.

It will often feature items that are cheaper than you will pay for similar goods elsewhere in the store. Most supermarkets have this aisle, except Aldi and Lidl.

Ready to reach

Stores tend to display fresh produce in order of its expiry dates.

Items with earlier dates are at the fronts of shelves while those with later dates are often tucked behind or underneath.

If you reach to the back, you can often get fresher items such as meat and fish with later expiry dates.

This will help to cut down on food that goes bad before you get a chance to eat it, which stops you wasting cash.

Unit price

Checking how much a product costs per unit is a handy way to find the true price of exactly what you are paying for compared to different sized packs.

All labels should have the price per kg/lb/litre below the headline price, so you can make a like-for-like decision.

It can often be that a bigger pack costs less per kg and is therefore better value.

But this isn't always the case, and special offers on smaller packs can push down the price per unit so check carefully.

Get Appy

Some supermarkets have partnered with apps to help distribute food that is past expiry dates but still good enough to eat.

App Too Good To Go offers surprise bags that contain a selection of goods at a discount price.

You can get some great deals but you won’t know what you are getting ahead of pick-up, so could end up with grub you don’t need or like.

Wonderfully wonky

Many supermarkets now put slightly misshapen fruit and veg on sale at discounted prices.

It means you can make unexpected savings on some of the items on your shopping list.

For example, Sainsbury's sells £2 "Taste Me, Don't Waste Me" fruit and veg boxes to help shoppers reduced food waste and save cash.

But always consider carefully whether you’ll be likely to use the produce — so that you don’t end up wasting cash.