Food shopping advice

Cook for yourself instead of buying takeaways and ready meals!

Make your own sandwiches for lunch. If you buy a daily meal for £2.60 for a month, it will add up to about £60!

Avoid expensive coffee shops. A cup of coffee in one of these chain shops may cost more than buying your lunch!

Lots of shops have 'buy one get one free', or '3 for 2' offers. These may be impractical to buy on your own, but if you club together with your friends or housemates, they can save you all a bit of cash.

Buy the store's own economy brand of goods. Often these items are just as good as the big brand names, but cost much less!

Plan your week's meals in advance, buy as much of the food you need and can carry in one shop. The more often you shop, the more tempted you are to buy items that you don't need.

If you go to a supermarket just before it closes for the day you can often find a wide variety of reduced items that have reached their sell by date.

Don't shop when you are hungry. You will buy food that you don't need.