With the credit crunch taking a hold and UK food prices soaring 12.6 per cent in a year grocery bills are now the highest they have been since 1997.

A friend of mine recommended using mySupermarket.co.uk which is a price comparison site.  She had been trying to find ways of saving money, and before finding this site was contemplating traipsing round to find the best deals in each supermarket, which she would probably not bother or have time to do after a few weeks but with this website they do all the hard work for you and she is making a BIG saving on her grocery shop.

If you already do your weekly shop on-line with either Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose/Ocado or Asda, and you’re not already using this site, then you really must check it out.  It really does pay to shop through this website as they reckon their system could save an average British family of four more than £20 on their weekly shop.  That’s more than £1,000 a year – enough to pay for a summer holiday! 

If you prefer to shop in store rather than online, you have the option of printing your trolley’s list out, so you can take it to your chosen store and know that you have found the cheapest store overall for what you wish to buy and the best offers, so there is no need to hunt about.

Another ingenious feature of this website (and this is entirely optional) is that it will also suggest low fat, low cholesterol, low salt and healthier options than those you’ve already chosen.  The site uses the Food Standards Agency’s traffic light system, which lets you see at a glance the difference in calories, fat, sugar and salt in food that you’re buying.

The good news is that this website is totally free to use and it is extremely user-friendly, and easy to navigate in fact its much easier to use that the supermarkets own websites as the images of what you are ordering are much larger, clearer and in greater detail  The categories are well thought out, special offers are displayed and you have the ability to sort for your products.  A big plus is that you don’t need to learn a new interface if you switch supermarkets.

To get started you click on the “Register” link and fill in a very simple online form giving your name, address and email address.  You choose a password for your account and your all set.  Once you have joined you get a confirmation email.

mySupermarket asks you what shop you want to shop from then you click the start shopping button.  As mentioned before it is NOT an in the frame version of your chosen shop’s own website, rather it is My Supermarkets own generic aisles.  This is because while it lists the items your store currently has on the website it also, in the upper right hand corner runs a tally for this supermarket as well as the 3 un-chosen ones, (Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose/Ocado). So you can keep an eye on how your shop actually compares.

When you reach the end of your shop, and elect to check out, the site informs you of savings you could make by changing to own brand items, cheaper alternatives and special offers.  If you decide you want to change to these items its really easy to accept the alternative with a click.  The site makes the changes to your trolley for you.  Once you are happy with your final trolley choices on My Supermarket you then click on Checkout and your trolley choices will then be passed over to one of the four supermarkets.  If you haven’t already, then log into the account you have with your supermarket (it is entirely secure.  They do not store this information on mySupermarket , where you will be able to make your usual payment for your shop. If you don’t have an account with this supermarket you then need to create one.

Once you’ve paid for your trolley items, you’ll receive your usual confirmations from your supermarket by email (and you’ll also get any Nectar or Clubcard points as per the norm).  In addition you’ll also get an email from My Supermarket confirming your final trolley choices (and the number of ipoints you’ve earned from the transaction if you’ve signed up via ipoints (sign up here).

I think this site is excellent and  award it 5 stars! – Let me know what you think