Beanz meanz a better basket

Kate Hodal puts an expert’s theories to the test with a trip down the aisles.

He’s so persuasive I’m afraid that I might leave my boyfriend for him, and all he’s done so far is look at me.

But the UK’s ‘Money Saving Expert’, Martin Lewis, isn’t here to romance me; he’s just convincing me he can save me money, and lots of it.

Having already conquered the world of mortgages, insurance, banking charges and credit-card debt, the TV- and radio regular has now turned his gaze on the supermarket: how it operates, what its tricks are, and how to avoid them.

“There’s a competitive market in every single sector of our society,” the 35-year-old economics guru says, “and if you don’t exercise your choice, then you are being a bad consumer.”

He says this because I tell him I buy the same things every week: cardinal error number one - in his book, at least. I agree that, yes, a good consumer would shop around to find the best deals and take him up on his ‘downshift challenge’: swapping branded products (my coveted Heinz baked beans, for example) for the ‘lower’ brand version (like Tesco’s ‘Value’ brand).

Although I actually find this challenge akin to forced political activism, I remind myself that I am an adventurist and am lured by his theory that I would save a third on my weekly shopping bills by downshifting.

That evening I go to my local Sainsbury store, or “cathedral of consumerism” as Martin terms it. Although I’ve been shopping here for the past two years, I still get lost.

None of the items I need are close to one another and the layout doesn’t make any sense. The sultanas are next to the flour, Quorn is by the chilled wine and chocolate syrup is in the mayonnaise aisle. A blind orang-utan could have stocked this market better but, says Martin, such puzzling randomness is actually entirely deliberate.

Honed

“Never assume that the supermarket design is accidental,” he confides. “Supermarkets are the most perfectly honed marketing device ever developed by man. You want your bread, your milk and your eggs, but they’re not next to each other so you have to walk the long way round. See more, want more, buy more: that’s how it works.”

I realise I’ve made two more cardinal errors. I am without my “essential two-dimensional shopping equipment” (Martin’s phrase for a shopping list) and, even worse yet, I’ve entered the shop starving hungry. I roam the aisles like a harried scavenger looking for a quick fix, enticed by smells and sights of fresh bread, barbecued chicken and delicacy cheeses.

Martin did tell me to avoid falling prey to these common mistakes, as they would only lead me to buy more in my confusion and my desire for food. He’s right: my basket now contains Scotch eggs and Twix bars, items I definitely do not need.

I remove them and attempt to concentrate on finding my “variables”: the lower-brand Jaffa cakes, loo roll, wine and pasta sauce to test against my regular purchases. But again I get distracted, this time by the “profitable products” at eye level, and realise how much of a sucker I am for packaging. It is physically difficult to pry myself away from the pretty-looking products and duck to floor level where the Sainsburys ‘Basics’ branded white-and-orange packaging sits. But a quick price check and I marvel aloud that my variables are a third of the price of my normal shopping items.

“You let the supermarket decide what is better and what is worse,” Martin had scolded me. “Every supermarket has four gradations of brand: normal, savers, gourmet and the household brand. When Tesco has a ‘Finest’ good, who says it’s finest? Tesco does.

“The downshift challenge is about simply slashing through your normal shopping habits and seeing whether you’re making shopping decisions based on brand hypnosis or a real, factual, consumer decision of what you prefer.”

I’m so hungry when I get home that I’m not sure my head is in the right place to analyse preference, but I begin my taste-test anyway. I rip open the Sainsbury’s Jaffa cakes to snack on while I cook and am startled at how unsexy they look in comparison to the McVitie’s brand, but more surprised to see that they have more chocolate and taste just as good. My Italian sausage and penne pasta is far more delicious with ‘basics’ boxed tomato and onion sauce than the normal expensive sauce I buy, and I wash it down with Sainsbury’s Valpolicella. Not bad.

My trip to the loo, however, is a different story: I’ve ditched my quilted comfort loo roll for what feels like newspaper and curse Martin and his stupid challenge. Then I remember something important: “I am not saying to downshift everything on your shopping list,” Martin had said. “I personally would not use saver’s toilet paper. I’ve tried it and don’t like it.

“I am not a ’stop the cappuccino’ guy. I want to try and give you exactly the same result that you already have, while costing you less.”

Price comparison website Mysupermarket focuses only on the biggest supermarkets, meaning it excludes the Ÿber-cheap supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl and Netto. But Martin says: “Even if you don’t want to use them all the time, they are great for a monthly stock up of staple goods.”

Having watched Martin weave his magic with a family of four on TV, I am hoping my downshifting will be as successful as theirs (savings of around £1,500 a year, Martin reckons). Looking through my receipts, I see that I cut £6.29 from my usual £25 weekly shopping: not exactly Martin’s target of a third, but not bad.

It still bought me a decent meal and two bottles of Valpolicella to coax my boyfriend back into remembering that he, not Martin Lewis, is the most persuasive man in my life.