Money is something just about everyone is short of nowadays, not just students. So if you regularly find yourself over spending on your weekly shop, this could be the post for you.

As someone who loves a good bargain, here are my favourite hints and tips for saving money on a food shop.

Offers may seem like a great thing at the time, but beware. Offers don’t always give you the best deal. They’re only worth while if you use the item, but even so, have a look at the other options as they can work out cheaper.

If you take your search for a bargain to an extreme (like I do) and if you time your shopping right, you can find some wonderful reductions. All the big supermarkets reduce near to the sell by date and they are often reduced more than once. If you’re lucky, there might be further reductions being made throughout the day.

Tea time tends to be the best time to basket yourself a rock-bottom bargain.

You can usually get branded, good quality items for less than a pound!  If you’re worried about not using it in time, you can check the label to see if it’s freezer friendly. Once frozen, you can safely eat it at a later date.

To satisfy my sweet tooth, I’m regularly on the hunt for a good cheap cake (just the other week I got two egg custard tarts for just 7p!)

Hope you’ve found these things useful and save yourself a few pennies (maybe even pounds) on your next shop.