Turn on the news and there’s constant talk of soaring inflation and the deepening cost of living crisis. It’s not just political rhetoric, it’s real life for most of us. Everything is costing more and one of the biggest outlays is the weekly grocery shop, with the average family of 4 spending more than £300 a month on food shopping.If you are a Liquid Friday umbrella contractor, you automatically qualify for our Reward Club, which among many other benefits gives you supermarket savings with all of the “Big 4” supermarkets.
How the savings stack up
In partnership with My VIP Rewards, with Reward Club you can make the following savings on your grocery bill:Tesco: 5%
Sainsbury’s: 4%
Morrisons: 4%
Asda: 4%So, wherever you shop, you can save on all the things you buy anyway - including food, household essentials, toiletries, toys and even clothes.
How it works
Through Liquid Friday Reward Club, you are able to purchase supermarket gift cards for the above retailers at a discounted price. So, for example, you can buy a £100 gift card for £95.It might take a little getting used to shopping this way but it really does save you money. If you shop at Tesco, buying a £300 discounted gift card at the start of each month would save you £180 over the course of a year. It also means that the money is ring-fenced for food shopping, so helps with organising the household budget.
Savvy supermarket shopping
Aside from taking advantage of supermarket savings through Liquid Friday Reward Club, there are several other ways to push your grocery bills down. Here’s some “food for thought” (sorry).
Ditch convenience stores
Convenience comes at a premium and retailers put steep markups on products in their smaller, local stores compared to their supermarkets. Consumer magazine Which? compared prices at Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local stores with their supermarket counterparts, and found that you could be paying up to 9.5% more in the convenience stores - wowsers!
Choose own-label
Big brands don’t always mean better! In blind taste tests, own brand products often come out on top so it is worth trying out supermarket versions.In fact, own-label versions are frequently made in the same factory, by the same people, with the same ingredients, it’s just the packaging and the brand reputation that’s different. Those pesky marketing people!
Stock up when you can
Don’t we all remember the pre-pandemic loo roll panic-buying? While there’s no need to take stockpiling to that extreme, it pays to buy things you use regularly in bulk, especially when they are on offer.Be sure to factor in use-by dates for perishable goods, but stocking up works well for household goods and store cupboard staples. If you’ve got a big freezer, that gives you even more options.
Stick to the list
Supermarkets have cunning strategies for how they lay out their aisles, quite often placing essentials like milk, bread and frozen goods at opposite ends of the store. This is all to make customers walk around and give into temptation. Make a shopping list and stick to it. This is even more effective if you plan your meals so you know exactly what you need and when. It also means you won’t forget anything and so avoid nipping to the convenience store to pick up coriander at an over-inflated price (true story!) One final tip? Avoid food shopping when you’re hungry. Trust us, there will be things going in that basket you would never normally buy!
About Reward Club
If you work through Liquid Friday, you automatically get access to Reward Club.You should have received an email from My VIP Rewards with your user name and how to set up your password. If you haven’t seen this in your inbox, please check your junk folder.There is also a My VIP Rewards app you can download to find the best discounts in your area.If you have any questions about Reward Club, please get in touch with the team.