Grocery shopping is one family routine that determines if you're good at handling money and managing your finance. It takes an assiduous person to do grocery shopping to ensure overspending won't happen.
If you are a smart consumer, there are a lot of ways in grocery shopping that you can use to make sure you're on top of things on how to save money.
Top 10 ways to save money in grocery shopping
1. Determine your budget
Every expenditure starts with a budget. You must not spend beyond the predetermined budget.
If you go straight to the market without a clear budget but a wad of cash, you'll just go picking up items and put them onto your cart.
Comparing prices is vital in saving on grocery shopping. And you'll only do it if you know your budget.
2. Make a grocery list
It's important that you have a grocery list while doing grocery shopping. An unplanned shopping will result in overspending.
Categorize your list into different kinds of grocery items, e.g., vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood, bread, dairy, personal, laundry and cleaning, etc.
Under each category list down needed particular and specific items.
3. Schedule grocery on produce arrivals
Do you remember a time that you went grocery shopping and vegetables were already withered?
What about a time that you arrived in the produce section, and they were all fresh?
Newly arrived vegetables can last up to 5-6 days inside your fridge without starting to build bacteria.
Ask a supermarket manager what days the produce arrives from farms.
Normally, merchants bring produce from farms 3-times a week, including Sunday.
If you're working, pick a Sunday, but if you're available during weekdays:
- it's better to pick a day, not on the weekend
Whatever day you choose, be at the supermarket right before it opens, which is around 8:30 am to 9 am.
4. Shun branded meats
Here's what I've had learned in years of grocery shopping:
In-house items or those bearing logo of the supermarket itself specially poultry-products are much cheaper and with quality at par with those branded items.
Take chicken as an example. Ever since I bought a supermarket produced chicken that tasted so good, I never buy branded one anymore.
Branded here means the ones made by giant food & beverage brand in the country. You'll save a lot by avoiding those brands.
5. Maximize on-pack promos
Always be on the lookout for on-pack promos. Products sold with premiums attached to them are great ways to get savings.
Even if you don't need an item at the moment like pot scourer or water dipper, you'll definitely do in the future, and you will buy them anyway.
So why not get them when they are free? If you apply this in almost everything:
- from erasers or pens and notebook papers
- to vegetable strainers or water buckets and dust-pans
...as often as you can, you'll save a lot of money in the long run, just from this method.
6. Compare weight against the price
There are items like condiments, flour, milk, etc. that are sold with price differences depending on what brand.
You will only notice it by looking at the net weight on the packaging.
Get two or three brands of the same kind with the same net weight and buy only the one with the lowest price.
By adhering to this method always, you get yourself another source from which you save money every time.
7. Buy items sold in promo packs
In your budget, allocate fund for items with the long lifespan which are sold by bulk in cut-price.
There are quite a lot of products that from time to time in a year sold in bulk and as such wrapped in clear thick plastic bags for shoppers to easily grab them and put onto cart quickly.
The amount of saving you get on this other method will definitely amaze you.
Products like:
- bath & germicidal soap
- toothpaste
- laundry detergent
- canned goods
...are just some of many grocery items that are being sold in bulk during a particular season.
8. Don't rush your shopping
Allocate enough time solely for grocery shopping. As this involved both saving money and your family's health and well-being, profuse attention must be given.
You wouldn't sacrifice health over money, would you?
But in order to hit two birds in one stone that is saving money and providing high-quality food and supplies to your family, you must be willing to put-in the time and profundity to do the job.
9. Read food nutrition labels
Making an informed choice in buying food is another great way to save money.
You can achieve that by making sure you have read labels of manufactured foods before putting them onto the shopping cart.
- There are items that lack in nutrition and cost much than those with much high level of nutritional contents.
- By the same token, there are items with the slightly higher cost but compensate it on their nutritional facts printed on packaging.
If the difference is tolerable, get products which give so much value to you and your family's health.
But reading labels of enough number of brands will essentially help you get the cheapest with attractive nutritional compositions.
It's your call.
10. Don't buy according to TV commercials
Buying a product solely because of the convincing power of their TV ads is a sure way to waste money.
Commercials cost millions for manufacturers, and they've got to break even.
That's why a laundry detergent we've known before which had a tv commercial every break of a tv program is no longer known today. Their detergent contained powders and bars got liquefied fast.
- Here in the Philippines, there is no clear law strictly implemented with regards to the truth in advertising.
- In the United States, you can't advertise a shampoo as hair-lengthener, a misleading and prohibited statement there.
Just think about that very unassuming, inexpensive, unpacked and not advertised Filipino soap which is always recommended to us for facial care.
Why is it so popular? Being a smart consumer is a sure way to save money.
That being said, not all advertised products are not to be bought. You have to use your own pragmatical judgement.
Conclusion
How do you save money considerably in grocery-shopping? There's only one answer to this question — Be an intelligent consumer. From the supermarket to your home, avoiding influences from outside but yours, you managed to squeeze every penny that you spend.
Do you have a method that you apply to save money whenever you go buy your groceries? Let's say you apply all of the 10-ways to save money above, do you think you can save considerable amount? Share your thoughts below.
Share this
0 Comment to "How to Save Money in Grocery-Shopping?"
Post a Comment