Top Tips for reducing your shopping bill, without changing where you shop or what you buy.

Tired of wasting money on fuel and time chasing the cheapest price on groceries? Have a favourite shop or prefer to support your local supermarket? Here's how you can reduce your shopping bill and and still shop where you like. Here's the surprise factor. Reducing your shopping bill has very little to do with the actual supermarket, it has a lot to do with what happens at home. Tip 1: Organise your pantry. Is your pantry a mess? Are the items in your pantry tied up with rubber bands? Are your cracker biscuits stale when you go to eat them? Or are the mice getting to eat them before you do? Do you have two packets of icing sugar, both open? Putting your food in clear, plastic containers, that seal air tight and are stackable can help to avoid these problems. Clear containers that are labelled make it easier to find what is in your pantry. Look at the photo of the Rice Bubbles. By looking at the box you can't tell how much is left, not to mention that the bag doesn't seal to keep the contents fresh. The plastic container shows how much is left, and the contents stay fresher for longer.

This is a photo of my pantry. It is easy for me to find what I want and see what needs replacing.

When writing your shopping list this will help you to keep an eye on what is on special and buy it before you run out. It will also mean you don't waste money doubling up unnecessarily. Air tight containers also stop ants, mice and weavils (unless they are in the food when you buy it). Tip 2: Use a whiteboard marker to write the use by date on your plastic containers. You will then know when something is past its due date, saving extra trips to the shop to replace items that are no longer fresh. The marker washes off easily. Tip 3: How's your soup drawer? What's that, you ask? It's your vegie crisper in your fridge. Many new fridges have humidity controlled vegie crispers so you can adjust how much humidity your fruits and vegies are getting. I have one of those fridges. Great idea, unfortunately doesn't really work. Different vegies (and fruits) require different levels of humidity. For example, broccoli is a 'heavy breather', so requires a lot of ventilation and humidity to stay fresh. Carrots don't require as much, so why would you put them in the same drawer? Placing your goods in clear plastic containers with humidity control tabs and corregated bases will prolong the life of your vegies and fruit. You can place items that have the same breathing rate in together, and separate those that don't. The corregations allow the juices to drain to the bottom, but keep the produce up out of it. Consequently, no more soupy mess in the bottom of your vegie crisper (hence 'soup drawer'). You won't be throwing out and replacing your produce as often. You can always use the vegie crisper to store your alcohol, or remove it altogether to make more room in your fridge. Tip 4: Check out the specials in your junk mail and on-line. Many supermarkets are on-line these days, so you can check out what's on special before you leave home. Beware that the prices on their shop-at-home service may be higher than what's in the shop. Junk mail only shows some of the specials. On my shopping list I note any items that I will buy if they are on special. These are items that I am running low on, but don't necessarily need to buy that week. By following these tips I saved $22 on my last trip to the supermarket (total shopping was $169). My favourite supermarket prints how much you have saved by buying items on special on the bottom of the docket, which is a handy feature. These tips will help you save money on your shopping bill by helping you to plan your shopping list, reducing the number of trips you make to the shop each week to top-up purchases and can reduce how much food you throw out.