Ever wondered, just how much can you save by brand swapping?
And are own brand items any good?
When I was made redundant due to the recession, I needed to save £400 a month to stop myself going under. Luckily I managed it and one thing that helped was completely changing how I shopped for groceries.
Most of my grocery shopping was done online so I couldn’t make any unnecessary purchases, the kid’s couldn’t fill the trolley with sweets, toys and magazines and even if I was given a short dated product I could call up the store and complain – resulting in a refund and being able to keep the item, which I could freeze.
I would also go instore in the evening (while the hubby had the kids) and look for any yellow sticker discounted items.
However, the main change was by swapping branded items for supermarket own brands.
I was always a self confessed food snob, someone who turned their noses up at own brands and was adamant that branded items were much tastier.
That all had to change, I have no choice! I gave pretty much every supermarkets own brand items a try and I was very surprised at how nice the foods actually were!
I actually challenge you to go pick up a big bar of Asdas own brand chocolate – 30p for 100g and it is sooo good!
My family and I have tried a lot of different supermarket own brands over the years and they are now a normal part of the weekly shop. I saved around £150 a month just by making small changes to like this to our weekly shop and I would never go back to buying brands now.
I have listed some of my favourite own brands in the list below and will include totals for both shops at the end…
Pasta
£1.25
Swap for…
30p
Cornflakes
£1.75
Swap for…
25p
Pasta sauce
£1.79
Swap for…
55p
Bread
£1
Swap for…
55p – This is not the cheapest own brand bread but this is the nicer one.
Jam
£3.99
Swap for…
29p
Yogurts
£3.89
Swap for…
£1.90
Squash
£3.75
Swap for…
£1.25
Baked beans
£3.85
Swap for…
£1.75
Tomato soup
95p
Swap for…
45p
Spreads
£1.50
Swap for…
89p
Now this is just a short list of some of the changes you could make, the possibilities are endless really.
To buy this branded shop it would cost you £23.72
To buy the own brand shop it would cost you £8.48
Saving you £15.24 – Which would amount to a saving per year of £792.48!
Imagine if you swapped every item in your basket, that could be one massive saving!
Give it a try next time you go shopping and let me know how you get on 🙂
