Shopping for the essentials (Supermarkets/Foodhalls - Tips & Comparison)

Member Name: shuttlex

Product:	Supermarkets/Foodhalls - Tips & Comparison
Date:	24/08/09 (8 review reads)
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In today's economic climate, cutting costs and saving money has become more important. One great way of saving money is how one spends money at the supermarket. This review is aimed at basic survival, spending the bare minimum possible so that you can survive while still allowing the human body to mainting it's every day human fucntion to operate. The bare minimum required for a human is food and water.

My first piece of advice when shopping, do not buy any fizzy drinks, crisps, snacks or junk. You want to spend your money on the essentials which is carbohydrate and protein. You will need some carb products such as apples, salad, bread and tomatoes and some protein.

When it comes to carbohydrates try and buy the cheapest possible. Once your body has digested a tomato it won't know the difference. For example Sainsbury's has budget range and "taste the difference" range. Just stick with the budget range. Make sure you check the expiry day with fruit, vegitables and bread. I find this especially a problem at Sainsburys which tend to sell food near its expiry date.

Second of all, you will need to buy some meat based products. Unlike carbohydrates the quality is extremely important and can affect your everyday ability to operate. If you're buying ham or Turkey, it would be better to buy it from the cold cuts counter rather than packaged. Packaged food seems to cost twice the price. I rarely buy chicken at Sainsbury's, since it doesn't taste very good. On the other hand chicken from Waitrose seems to taste good. For meat, either Waitrose or Sainsbury's, however check the colour first. If it looks too dry, it's stale. My general rule when shopping, one should first prioritize their spending on high quality meat protein.

In reality one doesn't need to spend much on food. Just make sure you have a balanced diet on the raw materials and one can live off less than £40 a week.

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