{"id":119635,"date":"2022-09-21T18:27:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T17:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uk.stuk.co\/?p=119635"},"modified":"2022-10-27T08:54:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T07:54:03","slug":"supermarket-reductions-tips-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/blog\/student-life\/supermarket-reductions-tips-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Supermarket Reductions Tips & Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s rare to find something that feels as good as a yellow sticker bargain, if you\u2019ve got a large freezer then you can dine like a king for up to 75% off full price all of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three reasons why something gets reduced at a supermarket:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>It has a short expiry date<\/li><li>It\u2019s superficially damaged (such as dented tins)<\/li><li>It\u2019s no longer being sold (mostly seasonal items like advent calendars or Easter eggs)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Know when to find them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Reduction times are slightly different at every supermarket, but they tend to be at the same time every day, which is usually when you spot a crowd of people stalking a member of staff with a sticker printer around the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a rule, there are three reductions times a day. However, it\u2019s best to wait until late in the evening to bag your bargains. Watch out for items with two or three reduced stickers on top of each other, these are where you\u2019ll find the best deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Supermarket<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Reduction time<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>ASDA reductions<\/td><td>7pm – most reduced items are gone by 9pm<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>COOP reductions<\/td><td>Between 5-8pm, depending on the store<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>M&S reductions<\/td><td>Begin 6.30pm in stores that close at 7pm, and 7pm for stores that close at 9<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Morrisons reductions<\/td><td>No set time – depends on the store and individual managers<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sainsburys reduction<\/td><td>7pm onwards<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Real smart shoppers will know the exact days to go reduction hunting. If you find out when your local supermarket is closing for public holidays, when you go the day before it\u2019s closed you\u2019ll get the reductions for the day you\u2019re there AND the reductions for the day the shop is closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Christmas period is a great time for reductions. If you\u2019re having a flat\/house Christmas meal at the end of term, it pays to know that supermarkets often have a first and second wave of turkeys. The first wave of turkeys are often reduced before the second wave is brought to the store. This usually happens around early\/mid-December, turkeys can often be reduced to prices as low as \u00a38-9!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christmas eve is even more of goldmine. They often start selling off all the pricey cheeseboards and chocolates because they know people don\u2019t like to go shopping in the few day after Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Know where to find them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.stuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/text-ester-8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/uk.stuk.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/text-ester-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119637\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/text-ester-8.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/text-ester-8-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/text-ester-8-400x320.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Most supermarkets have a designated \u2018Reduced\u2019 section somewhere in the refrigerated aisles (it\u2019s usually the one with a crowd of people around it), but there are often separate sections for bakery and fruit and veg reductions, as these usually have a short life. In addition to this a lot of the time supermarket staff will spot things with a short date, reduce it and leave it where it is, so a quick scan of all the fridges is definitely worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The general rule is, if something doesn\u2019t have a long shelf life then it\u2019s going to be reduced, so it\u2019s worth a quick check of all the areas of the shop where these items are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reduced checklist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>\u2018Main\u2019 refrigerated reduced section<\/li><li>Fruit and veg reduced section<\/li><li>Bakery reduced section<\/li><li>Seasonal aisle (especially if post Christmas, Valentines, Easter or Halloween)<\/li><li>Dairy<\/li><li>Chilled ready meals<\/li><li>Meat counter<\/li><li>Cheese counter<\/li><li>Fish counter<\/li><li>Chilled desserts<\/li><li>Damaged reduced section<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Double discounts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The really great thing about daily reductions is that a lot of the time the offers that were on them before never get removed. We\u2019ve got it on good authority that items in the Tesco three for \u00a310 meat deal sometimes still get that discount taken off the price even when the three meats are reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously your mileage may vary, but it can be a great way to get extra bargains. Remember that coupons usually will still work on reduced items as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are you going to use it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you catch a glimpse of a yellow sticker it\u2019s easy to get carried away and buy everything in sight, but it\u2019s a total waste of money buying that 75% off fish pie mix if you\u2019re never going to make fish pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a general rule we try not to buy items reduced by less than 50% unless they\u2019re on our shopping list. A lot of the time 10% off isn\u2019t worth having to eat a whole trifle in a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What to do with your reductions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously you can\u2019t really eat all of the reduced items you buy on the day of purchase, so choosing freezable items, and having ample freezer space is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meat, bread, cakes, berries, most fresh herbs (inc. chillies), ready meals, pizzas and fish all freeze well, so you can buy them now, and throw them in the freezer until you want to eat them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What doesn\u2019t freeze well is more important to know, most \u201cwet\u201d fruit and veg freezes horribly, stuff like cucumbers, lettuce, raw potatoes, peppers, watermelon, apples and citrus fruit won\u2019t be the same once you freeze it. You can get away with things like tomatoes, but only if you\u2019re going to make a sauce or soup, they\u2019re not going to be good in a salad. Dairy is also a bit iffy, cream, yogurt, custard, blocks of cheese, cream cheese, and eggs in their shells will probably separate when you defrost them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scan like a professional<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re using self checkouts be careful to scan the correct reduced barcodes. The stickers can be in the wrong place so it\u2019s something to watch out for. It won\u2019t scan the discount, enter in the barcode on the reduction label manually and this should register your discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re going through the normal checkouts watch the screen, as sometimes even the checkout staff miss this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s rare to find something that feels as good as a yellow sticker bargain, if you\u2019ve got a large freezer then you can dine like a king for up to 75% off full price all of the time. There are three reasons why something gets reduced at a supermarket: It has a short expiry date […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104835,"featured_media":119639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Supermarket Reductions Tips & Tricks | Student Money Saver","_seopress_titles_desc":"It\u2019s rare to find something that feels as good as a yellow sticker bargain, if you\u2019ve got a large freezer then you can dine like a king for up to 75% off full price all of the time.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2222,1475],"tags":[2017,2172,2214,2174],"acf":[],"author_info":{"name":"stuk-co","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64248cf2bf427e1541663a856908166f?s=48&r=g"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-12-10 02:36:57","action":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"date_timeago":"2 years ago","primary_category":{"term_id":2222,"name":"money","slug":"money","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2222,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw"},"wpseo_title":"Supermarket Reductions Tips & Tricks | Student Money Saver","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104835"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120765,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119635\/revisions\/120765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentmoneysaver.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}