Introduction
Shopping in the UK adds new meaning to the word shop. They have the loveliest boutiques on High street (similar to our Church street).
It can be rather daunting at first, not knowing where the local supermarket or Spa is, but again the local Thomson’s telephone directory comes in handy.
Food and Household Goods
Like in South Africa, England has a few large supermarkets. These are:
- Sainsbury (similar to Checkers)
- Tesco (similar to Pick 'n Pay)
- ASDA (similar to Hyperama)
- Marks and Spencer (Similar to Woolworths)
The first thing you must do is to get yourself a Reward card as this will save you between 1% and 2% of your shopping bill. It costs you nothing to get one and can start using it straight away.
A usual monthly shopping basket inclusive of meat, groceries, cleaning goods, and drink for two people should be in the region of £400. For four people you can bank on £500-£600 including your wine and beer.
The really amazing thing is that you do all the packing yourself. There are no packers in English stores (the same goes for putting petrol in your car - you do it yourself!)
Make a list and stick to it when shopping otherwise you will find your food bill going through the roof! Also be aware of there specials - usually they are just trying to push a specific brand or product and the 'Buy One And Get The Next Half Price' is a classic incentive to push a particular product.
Appliances and DIY goods
Everybody in England is a DIY fanatic and there are a number of stores that cater for this market. They are like our hardware stores only a lot bigger. Try the following stores for DIY goods and gardening:
- Homebase
- B&Q
Again when it comes to buying electrical goods you should try the following stores:
- Dixons
- Curries
- Tempo
Be aware when you buy anything electrical, they will try and sell you an extended warranty. Usually it does not pay for you to take this out as the consumer rights are in the favor of the consumer and putting it on your household insurance is far easier.
Shop around. The same item can be 10% different in between shops. Look out for specials - they usually have a particular day in which you can save up to 25% on certain items.
Catalogue Shopping
There are a number of excellent catalogue based stores. These stores sell everything that you may need from electrical to furniture. Most of the furniture (cupboards etc) is sold in the flat pack concept which means that you will have to put it together yourself. This can be fun if you are not a DIY enthusiast. But it can save you up to 50% of the price to do it yourself. If you are going to put it together - get a power screw-driver as you won't believe the amount of screws you will have to insert to put a cupboard together.
The best catalogue stores are:
- Argos (for everything!)
- Littlewoods
Always compare your prices to a catalogue store - they offer the best value and they have a 14 day money back guarantee with a no questions asked policy. So even if you don't like the colour -you can send it back!
