Christmas is just over 10 weeks away and if you are a tad bit organised like me, you will have already started your Christmas shopping.

If you are stuck on how to spend less during the festive period or just shopping in general, then please read on :-)

Here are a few tricks on how to spend less money when you do your shopping:-

• Trick one- Go to the Supermarket Just before Closing:- The trick here lies in going to the grocery store not just really early in the morning, but just before closing time. Reason being that market traders often offer their products at lower process for not having too much unsold merchandise from having to reload the truck and bring it back. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's & Waitrose usually do this a lot and it come in very handy for me.

• Trick two- Diversify the Stores where you do the Shopping:-  When doing your shopping, try and choose the stores in operation of different purchases. For example, for basic products such as Rice, Pasta, Flour and detergent, you can choose a discount and do some economy. The markets are to be privileged to buy fresh produce. For vegetables, to give priority to the farmers market stalls that have more fresh, genuine and often cheaper.

• Trick Three:- Check the Expiration Dates- Be attentive to the promotions offered at the supermarket. They are often linked to the expiry date printed on the packaging. For example, the meat that comes close to the expiration date, it is often sold on promotion. Buy it to cook it the same evening and you will make some economies.
  For products such as yogurt or cheese, even if the expiration date printed on the packaging is close, they can consume even up to one week after the due date without any risk to Health. Then take advantage of the promotion on the yogurt due to expire allows to economize.

• Trick Four:- Make a Shopping List- If there is one thing I always do when I either shop online or in-store, it would be to always make sure I make a list. I do this so as to be sure not to give in to temptation of buying things that I don't actually need or are unnecessary. The best thing to do is to go to the supermarket with a shopping list either doing it the traditional way of writing on a piece of paper or writing it on my mobile phone's note pad :-) This was you will only go for the departments that you are interested in and will buy only what you really need.

• Trick Five:- Do your shopping Online-  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know how much I promote online shopping. I find it easier and more convenient. You get the items delivered to your door and you can get free delivery with some supermarkets or even as cheap as £1 delivery. The great thing about shopping online is not just the convenience, it is also the fact that you will be saving a lot of money on travel i.e. petrol or transport fee, the queues at the checkouts and also buying things that are not necessary. I also have a shopping list already saved on my online store with the same supermarket I shop with, so each month I either recycle or add more items to my basket. Easy peasey :-)