Good With Money

There are some basic rules that should be followed when shopping for the average home. These shopping tips should help.

1. Make a list. If you do not have a list you are liable to buy lots of things that you do not need at all. The process of looking around the kitchen while making the list will let you know what you have and what you need. This will eliminate buying things “Just in case”, which means that you will waste less. Buying things you don’t need just means wastage. try to ensure that you have everything you are likely to need for the week. This will reduce trips to the local shop for things you forgot .

But, the local shop is infinitely preferable to the supermarket for things you forgot as you will surely buy far more than the item you forgot if you go the the supermarket. So pay the extra and go to the local for little bits like that.

2. Shop as late in the day as you can. Towards the end of the day the supermarkets begin to reduce the price of their perishable foods. If they do not sell them on the same day they will have to throw them out. This means a total loss. So they have to reduce any stock they have that they think will not sell. They reduce the loss by reducing the prices and encouraging people to buy them, but this is only done late in the day when they know that those items are not going to sell.

Some supermarkets have price reductions in the morning to encourage early shopping. These are different from the ones referred to in the paragraph above. So, get to know your supermarket and shop at the best times.

3. Use the coupons that companies give out for the products you buy. The cost of the reductions are factored into the selling prices of the items you buy. So, if you do not use the coupons they give out, you are paying too much.

4. Shop once a week or even less frequently. Every time you go to the supermarket you buy something you had not intended. We all do. The less often you go to the supermarket, the less of these impulse purchases we are likely to make.

5. Where possible, buy in bulk. It pays to have a freezer and to buy in bulk where there are bargains to be had. The trick is to only buy what you are already using. People so often buy products that they think they will use sometime in the future and then leave them in the freezer for years. That is money wasted. You can buy dry goods or goods that last in bulk when when the price is right.

You can sometimes get the opportunity to shop at a wholesaler and buy their bulk offers. This is highly recommended, but always be careful to buy only what you will use otherwise you will lose the savings that you have managed to get with other measures.

6. Try to avoid using a credit card for your weekly shop. If you do not pay the bill in time you will have to pay high interest rates and you will lose any savings that you might otherwise have had.

7. Try to plan your annual school shopping etc. for times when the shops are running their sales. This is not as difficult as you might think. The major shop chains have their sales at the same time every year. With the downturn in the world economy many of the shops even start their sales before Christmas, which means that there will be major savings to be had when you need them most.

8. Whenever you shop, do not do it on an empty stomach. Eat before you shop. Believe it or not this does make a big difference. If you are hungry when you do your shopping, you will be far more tempted by the pastries and extras that are not on your list. Also you will be inclined to buy more than you intended of the items that are on your list.

9. Know your prices. You do not have to learn the price of everything on the supermarket, but you should have a good idea of the price of everything on your list. This way you will know if the supermarket has increased the price of an item higher than you should be willing to pay or as sometimes happens the item is in short supply and the price increases. When this happens you should switch to a substitute item if possible. After all, if everyone is willing to pay the increased prices, they may not come down.

10. Stay away from convenience foods. i.e. TV dinners etc. You pay well over the odds for these meals and the quality cannot be as good as you can do yourself. If you pre-cook your dinners for the week this will not be a problem.

11. Network. Many of your friends will do their shopping on other supermarkets for many reasons. Take advantage of this. Because supermarkets are constantly changing their prices and reducing different items at different times, it makes sense to shop for the items you want where they are cheapest. For the price of a phone call you and your friends can keep each other up-to-date on all the offers in each other’s supermarkets. You can then either shop for each other or go to the supermarket that has the best offers and get what you need.

Let’s hear your ideas.

Be Sociable, Share!

•