By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:45:11 +0000

First of all, do not take the whole family to the store. Even just two adults can end up spending more as each gets fancy ideas about ways of spicing up the week’s menu. One adult should go shopping, alone. Two of you can alternate shopping trips if you want, but only one of you should go at a time.
Next, set a regular shopping day. Try to be realistic about how often you will need to shop. For example, if your family drinks a lot of milk and you only have a small refrigerator, you may need to shop more than once a week. If you don’t use any products that would spoil in a week or that can’t be frozen, then you can go every two weeks. Longer than that is probably not practical for most people, but if you have a lot of storage space and don’t use many perishable items, it may work for you.
Then, get in the habit of keeping a running list of things you need. Don’t wait until five minutes before the shopping trip to take out pen and paper and brainstorm for ideas. Instead, keep a list on your refrigerator with a magnet all the time. As you think of things you need, add them to the list. It’s especially helpful if the list is arranged in categories based on the layout of the store you usually use. For example, my store goes PRODUCE/DELI, FROZEN, MEAT, FOOD GROCERY, NON-FOOD GROCERY, DAIRY, NON-GROCERY. You can simply write those broad categories on a sheet of paper, or type a template on your computer and print several in advance. If you want something more detailed, see if your store offers a free list or store map.
Try to leave a little flexibility in your list. For example, don’t necessarily say “hamburger”. Say “meat”, so that you’ll remember to check the price per pound on the various options available. One week, it may make sense to buy hamburger and make a pot of chili. The next, there may be a sale that makes frozen turkey breasts less expensive. There’s nothing like a Sunday dinner with roast turkey on no special occasion whatsoever to keep you from feeling deprived!
Sometime before each shopping trip, you should look at the list and make a mark next to each high-priority item, in case you can’t afford to buy it all at once. Also, make sure that between the food on your list and the food in your cupboards, you have ALL the ingredients to make the meals you want to have before the next shopping day. A single extra trip to the store “just to pick up a few things” can tempt you to buy things you don’t really need.
Next, set a clear budget, one that you can stick to. In the context of your overall family budget, figure out how much you are willing to spend on groceries, phrased as a certain amount for a given time period (a week, two weeks, however often you want to shop).
Of that amount, set aside about 5-15% for “impulse spending” (more toward 5% if money is especially tight or more toward 15% if you are especially good at grabbing bargains on impulse). It can be helpful to get your grocery money in CASH rather than writing a check or using a debit card. (If money is tight, NEVER put recurrent necessities like food on a credit card! It makes it too easy to overspend.) Pull off the “impulse dollars” before you walk into the store and put them in a different pocket from the main fund. You can use them to buy anything you choose, either on the regular shopping trip or (if you are disciplined enough to stay within the impulse budget) between trips. This can help you to take advantage of great sales on things that aren’t on the list and that will not spoil if you “stock up” before you need them. Also, it allows you to buy occasional “surprises” for the family. Without that, it can become a real grind to keep within your list all the time. If you never make an exception until you are feeling frustrated and deprived, eventually, you’ll end up splurging and spending way more than you should. Anything you don’t spend can be carried over to the next shopping period, allowing occasional bigger treats.
Consider setting a separate budget for non-food items like detergent and toilet paper. Even though you can buy these at the grocery store, they tend to be high-ticket items that a small family does not need every shopping day. If you have a day when you need toilet paper, laundry detergent, bath soap, mosquito repellant and floor wax all at the same time, it can really be hard to buy food. You’ll be tempted to go over-budget “just this once”. If your schedule does not permit you to make a separate trip to shop for these non-food items, at least separate them in your cart and have the cashier ring them up as a different order. You can pay for them out of a different envelope of cash.
When shopping day comes, try not to go when you are tired or hungry. A tired shopper will lose track of how much he or she is spending, while a hungry one will want one of everything in the store. Even if you have to budget several dollars of your grocery money for the shopper to grab a fast food meal, it may save you money in the long run.
As you shop, keep track of what you are spending as you load the cart. If you are really poor at arithmetic or you really enjoy technology, you can use a calculator. (Most cell phones have a calculator function.) However, most people can learn to estimate accurately, with practice. This is my method: Round the price of each item to the nearest half-dollar and add to a running total that you keep repeating in your head. For example, if you have already spent about $15.50, you would repeat to yourself “fifteen and a half, fifteen and a half.” When you put something in your cart for $2.42, you would round it to two and a half, for a total of eighteen. (When you are first getting used to this technique, you may want to shop at a store where no one knows you, because you may find yourself walking around saying out loud, “Eighteen. Eighteen. Eighteen.”) If you notice that you’ve had to round up several items in a row, deliberately round the next few down, and vice versa. When in doubt, estimate high rather than low, because it’s better to find that your actual total is lower than you thought than to find that you have gone over budget.
When selecting items, keep in mind that size does matter. A particular size (not always the biggest!) may be the cheapest per ounce, per serving, etc. Make sure that if you buy a lot, that you have the space to store it and that it will not become useless, such as by becoming stale, before you use it up. Food you throw away is not a bargain!
The same goes for different brands. Store brands and generics can be a great way of saving money, if your family likes the product. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different brands, but try not to experiment on too many things in one shopping trip. If there is nothing familiar in your cart, then you will start to feel insecure and deprived. That’s when most people break their budget, abandon their list, and go nuts.
The same goes for different stores. You may find good bargains by going to different stores, but don’t stress yourself out over it if you can avoid it. Most stores have roughly the same prices on the majority of items, with a few big sellers that are higher and a few other big sellers that are lower than the competition for the same approximate profit margin. Depending on what particular products your family normally buys, it may or may not be worth your while to chase sales, or to get dairy products at one store and produce at another.
Good luck! I’m sure that in today’s economy, many people are in the same boat–I mean, cart!

By: awommack

awommack — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:32:28 +0000

save money

By: donny

donny — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:26:48 +0000

use coupons for somethings, stock up when things are a bargain,use store brand if possible, buy family pack of hamburger divide into 1lb packages,buy family pack of meat if possible, grow garden

By: Watching in Westminster

Watching in Westminster — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:51:04 +0000

Tom had some very good shopping tips. The only thing I can add to his list is to make sure you are NOT hungry when you go. I always eat before I go to the grocery store. You ain’t tempted to grab extras that way.

By: iLOVEmus

iLOVEmus — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:52:46 +0000

don’t go grocery while you’re hungry, this will lead you to buy more. since you want it to last for 2 weeks buy the biggest size of a product or go wholesale.. it might look expensive but it will last longer…

Comments on: What Are Some Useful Tips When Going Grocery Shopping?

By: Trish

By: awommack

By: donny

By: Watching in Westminster

By: iLOVEmus