Life presents many different kinds of savings opportunities, which keep cash where it belongs – in your pocket. Big savings are easy
to see on major purchases, like automobiles and homes, but smaller savings also add up over time. While they might not seem like earth shattering moments, saving money on trips to the supermarket have a big impact on your family’s bottom line. Just think about the number of times you shop for food every year and it becomes very easy to see where the savings eventually become significant.
Repeated expenses are one of the best places to trim savings, because they come back to haunt you again and again. Losing a few dollars on a bad one-time purchase is one thing, but consistently selling yourself short on day to day buys is a budget-breaking endeavor. Regardless of how small they are, incremental savings have a long-term impact on your food buying costs.
Even though food is a necessary expense; the things you choose to spend money on at the supermarket still fall into a category known as discretionary spending. Left without monitoring, grocery spending can quickly get out of hand; especially for families feeding several mouths. The key to saving money at the market is awareness. Casual approaches, on the other hand, lead to difficulties for shoppers who let their guard down at the supermarket. Impulse buys and excessive spending ruin food budgets, so education and commitment to trimming costs help shoppers keep spending in line.
Look Around for the Best Buys
As consumers, we always want to feel good about the purchases we make, so a little bit of leg work helps us realize the best available values. Shopping at a single food store isn’t always the best approach to savings. On the other hand; running around town chasing bargain buys isn’t cost effective either. The key to successful supermarket savings is knowing where the proper balance lies and pouncing on the best deals as they become available.
We are creatures of habit, for the most part, so there is a certain level of comfort attached to shopping at our favorite grocery outlets. Moving through aisles quickly and knowing the way around our trolleys is convenient, but supermarkets use that to their advantage. For instance, some markets price a few items competitively, in order to present the illusion of low prices to the public. While the promoted pieces may indeed go for bargain buys, the money is made up in the price of other items consumers need. By targeting specific items from multiple sources, shoppers are able to have the best of both worlds by saving and shopping efficiently.
Fresh markets and other resources furnish great alternatives to one-stop supermarket shops. Fresh fruits and vegetables are competitively priced, and access is convenient for most shoppers. This local option requires flexibility, since each day’s bounty is based on the seasonal availability of crops.
Meat is an Expensive Addition to the Trolley
Where you shop is not the only thing driving your food spending; what you buy is equally as important. Budget conscious shoppers steer clear of certain categories at the market, or shop them wisely, at the very least. Meat is one of the most expensive supermarket sales categories, so saving money takes into account the amount of beef, pork and poultry purchased.
Savings money on meat doesn’t always mean removing the items from your diet, but buying the most expensive cuts every time you shop is unacceptable. When you need a nicel cut of meat, consider payday loans for a little extra cash. To save money on meat buys, learn to prepare less expensive cuts of meat, so that your lifestyle is not impacted – only your cooking methods.
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We really need to make the best choices in purchasing. We should look for alternatives as well such as making our own stuff 🙂
That’s why I only do meat-buying into a minimum.
Nice and informative article. My technique when I buy at the grocery is I always have a list of the things I need to purchase. In that way, I won’t be swayed to buy unnecessary things leading to less savings. And buying in wholesale is I think more cost efficient, for me. There’s another blogger I know who buys in retail (tingi) and he says that’s cheaper daw. So it depends actually. 🙂
We saved a lot by removing snack items, which are also not so healthy (but so good to eat). We usually buy our vegetables at the market on the day we need to cook them to get them fresh and avoid spoilage.
I like the “but so good to eat” part heheheh. It is also eating up so much of our budget. But in the household it takes two to tango as well. My husband couldn’t do away with it yet. Even if I don’t buy junkie, he would secretly go out at the middle of the night and buy himself from seven eleven..hayst!
I think the biggest part of our earnings goes to groceries. Thanks for sharing these tips.
I noticed that when I go to supermarkets without a prepared list, we end up spending more than we ought. It’s good practice for me to write down a proposed menu for the week then based our groceries from it. I do want to shop for vegetables from the market instead of getting them the supermarket.
I wish I have the luxury of shopping in different stores for what we need but we usually only have time in the evenings and we’re usually trying to beat closing at SM Aura/Market Market when we do go.
We cut down on our grocery expenses by going to this supermaket that has a membership card that earns points every time we make a purchase. They give you gift certificates in exchange when you decide to redeem your points. Every year, we actually get about Php 3,000 worth of groceries for free because of our points. I also take advantage of days when they have buy 1 take 1 deals in their meat section. We really get to save a lot.
To be honest I’m not much of a grocer but I get the psychology that some grocery owners get us into just to make us buy. At the end of the day, we still decide on the purchases especially when the aspect is long term savings. And try buying wholesale too instead of tingi when you could. There’s a reason why bulk order still work 😀
The points you outlined make sense. Being brought up by a cheapskate, I mean thrifty, mom, I’ve always had a “budget” mind set and I agree with what you discuss here, especially how small expenses add up. That’s something I always tell my wife.
And if I may add, mall sale don’t mean savings. A 70% off on an item you don’t actually need is a 30% spending.
I am currently cutting back on our grocery expenses. I don’t think we can do away with meat, so what I’ve removed from our list are unnecessary snacks. Plus, instead of buying fruits from the grocery, we usually go to the wet market where fruits are cheaper. 🙂
It’s my goal to always get the lowest price on items and even maximize offers (like “free etc.etc. if you buy this…”). Even if the grocery store we go to now is a pain in the ass to shop at (Puregold!) because of their system of checking the numbers of items per bags, checking the bag numbers, then having another set of people check them at the exit (!!!!), I still go there because it’s still relatively cheaper than Hypermarket.
I agree that shopping in one store is not a good idea. I shop in different stores to save money, I shop in S&R for big sizes and bulk products. I shop in Japan Home for tissues and other stuff because it is cheaper. For meat, seafood and veggies, we go to wet market.
I need to seriously learn to cut back on grocery expenses. I tend to get carried away with snacks. I also need to keep an eye out for deals. I know that if I discipline myself enough, we will actually be able to save a whole lot more.