Shopping just got cheaper than ever on the Costa Blanca

One of the many good things about living in Spain is that food shopping is so much cheaper if you know where to go. I thought I had it sussed, with Lidl being my first port of call, then top up shopping from Consum and Mercadona, all of which are within 7 or 8 kilometers of my home in Algorfa. However, a few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised when, on the way home from a meeting in Torrevieja, I ventured into Hiperber.

If there's a Hiperber near you, you'll know, because their livery isn't exactly subtle. The stores are painted bright yellow with green writing, and they're hypermarkets, so they're pretty big. While the stores themselves might be considered a blot on the landscape, the prices and selection available make up for it, and the staff are really friendly.

Hiperber's strapline is 'Todo mas barato,' – 'Everything cheaper,' and that's pretty much what I found. Of all the items I looked at, the only thing that was more expensive was the chopped ham and pork roll I buy for Paddy's weekend treat, and that was just 10 cents more than in Lidl.

As well as special offers and generally low prices, Hiperber also have a number of multiple buy savings. It's not quite like BOGOF Britain, but on a number of items, you snagged a better price by buying two or three products together. The star of the multiple buys on this occasion was Amstel sin alcohol beer – Tony's favourite non-alcoholic beer. The regular price is 45 cents a can, which is lower than most places, who charge around 50 cents at full price, but if you bought 3 cans, you got them for an incredible 30 cents each. I got 24 cans, and saved a massive €3.60 on that single item. San Miguel O.O was also regularly priced at 39 cents – 12 cents less than usual, so there was another €1.40 saved.

Soft drinks were much cheaper too, with 9 cans of Fanta coming in at €2.97. It's normally 43 cents a can, so on 9 cans of naranja and 9 limon, that's another €1.80 saved. By buying two bottles of Pepsi, I got them at 89 cents each instead of just over €1.00, and the two litre limon I buy to go in my vodka – because it works out too darned expensive using Fanta – was just 39 cents, compared to 69 cents for own brand limon in Consum and Lidl.

Tony might be on the wagon at the moment, but I'm certainly not, so I was delighted to find my favourite cava – Dubois semi-seco – on sale for 30 cents less than in Consum, at just €1.69 a bottle. So I can get 7 bottles in Hiperber for the price of 6 in Consum. There's a good selection of wines too, all at very reasonable prices, but I'm still ploughing through the stuff we brought back from Portugal, so I averted my eyes as I headed for the dog food section. There I managed to buy Paddy's favourite mixer biscuits for almost €2 less than elsewhere.

That particular shop was mainly for drinks, because in this heat, we're going through an awful lot of water and soft drinks, and not eating much food. However, I saved around 70 cents a pack on some of those lovely huge seedless raising, and got 3 bottles of sunflower oil for the price of 2, saving almost €1.40. That's even cheaper than buying a 5 litre bottle to fill the deep fat fryer. The frozen chips for Tony's once a week treat were also around 25 cents cheaper than elsewhere.

All in all, my bill came to just shy of €47, and the trolley was absolutely laden. I also got a free Euro 2016 beach umbrella because I'd bought 12 cans of San Miguel. Even better, when I added up the total savings when I got home, I'd saved at least €12.75 on the prices in Consum, Mercadona and even Lidl. And that was just on the restricted list of items I was purchasing. Yes, it's a few extra kilometers to drive, but even assuming the return journey uses a litre of diesel, that's an extra €1 spent to save almost €13.

I'll be heading back to Hiperber regularly, and maybe you should too – especially right now, when the Euro to Sterling rate is so volatile in the wake of the Brexit referendum. As one British supermarket famously says – every little helps!

Source: Sandra Piddock - http://www.sandrainspain.com