Saving at the supermarket: 15 great grocery shopping tips
“Why can’t I get hot cereal?” I asked. “I love hot cereal.”
“I know,” Kris said. “But you buy it all the time. You buy it faster than you eat it. Just last week, you bought another box of that blueberry oatmeal from Trader Joe’s. You never remember what we have at home. You need to shop with a list.”
She has a point.
A shopping list is a useful way to remind yourself what you do and do not need to purchase. But most frugality experts emphasize shopping with a list because it prevents impulse purchases. Impulse purchases wreck grocery budgets. In Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, Paco Underhill writes:
Supermarkets are places of high impulse buying for both sexes — fully 60 to 70 percent of purchases there were unplanned, grocery industry studies have shown us.
More than half of all grocery purchases are unplanned! No wonder creating and sticking to a list can bring down grocery costs.
But that’s not the only way to save money at the supermarket. Over the past two years, I’ve published a lot of tips for saving money on your grocery bill. Some of these have been obvious — others less so. All of them can help you save at the supermarket. Here are some of the best:
Make a List — and Stick to It
- This is the cardinal rule of shopping. The list represents your grocery needs: the staples you’re out of, and the food you need for upcoming meals. When you stray from the list, you’re buying on impulse, and that’s how shopping trips get out of control. Sure, a magazine only costs $5, but if you spend an extra $5 every time you make a trip to the supermarket, you waste a lot of money.
Compare Unit Pricing
- The biggest package isn’t always the most cost-effective. Stores know that consumers want to buy in bulk, and so they mix it up: sometimes the bulk item is cheaper, sometimes it’s more expensive. The only way you can be sure is to take a calculator. Our grocery store posts unit pricing for most items, which makes comparisons easy.
Ditch the Basket or Cart
- If you’re dashing into the supermarket to pick up milk and bread, don’t use a basket. Baskets induce people to buy more. If you’re limited to what you can carry, you’re more likely to avoid impulse purchases. Only use a basket (or shopping cart) if it’s absolutely necessary.
Don’t Examine Things You Don’t Need
- The more you interact with something, the more likely you are to buy it, says Paco Underhill in Why We Buy: “Virtually all unplanned purchases…come as a result of the shopper seeing, touching, smelling, or tasting something that promises pleasure, if not total fulfillment.” Do you know why grocery stores place those displays in the aisles? To intentionally block traffic. They want to force you to stop, if only for a moment. It only takes a few seconds of idly staring at the Chips Ahoy! to convince you to buy them. Stay focused.
Live on the Edge
- Health-conscious shoppers know that the perimeter of the store is where the good stuff is. The baked goods, dairy products, fresh meats, and fruits and vegetables are generally placed along the outside edge of the supermarket, while the processed stuff can be found up and down the aisles. But shopping the edges isn’t just healthier — it’s cheaper too. Stock up on the fresh food first, then venture to the middle of the store.
.jpg "The local Safeway produce department")
Discard Brand Loyalties
- Be willing to experiment. You may have a favorite brand of diced tomatoes, for example, but does it really matter? Go with what’s on sale for the lowest unit price. You may find you like the less expensive product just as well. If you try a cheaper brand and are disappointed, it’s okay to return to your regular brand.
Choose Generic
- Better yet, try the store brand. Generic and store brand products are cheaper than their name-brand equivalents and are usually of similar quality. But do you know why you’re reluctant to try generics? The power of marketing. Most generics have unappealing packaging. If they cost less and taste the same, who cares?
Use Coupons Wisely
- Coupons really can save you money. But you have to know how to use them. Clip coupons only the things you need — staple foods and ingredients — not for processed junk food. Learn to use special coupons. Once each month, one local store sends us a “$10 off a $50 purchase coupon”. We know it’s coming, so we plan our trips around it.
Make One Large Trip Instead of Several Small Ones
- Each time you enter the grocery store is another chance to spend. By reducing the frequency of your trips, you’re not only avoiding temptation, but you’re also saving money on overhead (time and fuel).
Buy From the Bulk Bins
Check Your Receipt
- Make sure your prices are scanned correctly. Make sure your coupons are scanned correctly. Sale items, especially, have a tendency to be in the computer wrong, and yet few people ever challenge the price at the register. You don’t need to hold up the line: simply watch the price of each item as it’s scanned. If you suspect an error, step to the side and check the receipt as the clerk begins the next order. If there’s a problem, politely point it out. It’s your money. Ask for it.
Shop Alone
- In Why We Buy, the author notes that people tend to buy more when shopping in groups than when shopping alone. “But men are especially suggestible to the entreaties of children as well as eye-catching displays.” Kris complains that we always spend more on food when we shop together. She’s right. If possible, shop alone.
Use a Grocery Price Book
- A grocery price book is an ongoing list of the items you most commonly purchase and how much you paid for them. This list allows you to detect price cycles, spot bargains, and plan your shopping trips for maximum savings. A price book allows you to practice strike-point shopping.
Shop on a Full Stomach
- Studies show that folks who shop when they’re hungry buy more. This is certainly true for me: If I go to the store for milk on a Sunday morning without eating breakfast, I’m likely to come home with donuts and orange juice and Lucky Charms, too.
Walk or Bike
- In our recent discussion about how to pay yourself first, Ross Williams suggested another way to reduce impulse purchases. By walking or biking to the store, you can automatically limit your spending. “It’s amazing how focused you can be when you are limited to one shopping bag full of groceries,” he writes. “Once you are very conscious of each purchase, it seems to carry over even to the small items where space isn’t really an issue.”
Any of these tips can help a savvy shopper save money at the supermarket. But when combined to create a cohesive shopping philosophy, they have the power to slash your grocery budget significantly. I’m not promising that you’ll be able to feed yourself for $15 a week, but you might be able to save enough money pay down your debt or to jump-start your savings!
Here are some related articles:
- How to save hundreds by playing the drugstore game
- The lazy man’s guide to groceries on a budget
- Grocery store vs. farmers market: Which has the cheapest produce?
Kris requested I offer some final pointers for the gentlemen. “Check with your wife before you go shopping,” she says. “Check with your wife before you put anything into the cart. And remember: Just because you like a food doesn’t mean you need to buy it every time you go shopping.”
Bulk food photo by mattieb.
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There are 74 comments to "Saving at the supermarket: 15 great grocery shopping tips".
We recently made the decision to bike to our local grocery stores (the farthest one is a mile and a quarter away, and all along bike trails). We’ve definitely found that having bikes limits our purchases to just what we need.
And amazingly enough, the first thing that’s cut? Anything that one drinks. Water is heavy!
Excellent idea, good sport and savings….
For me using the list is a significant part of saving. I am using a list on my phone which is always with me and also automatically sync with the rest of my family. I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gal.appshoppinglist
Not all ‘unplanned’ purchases are bad– IF you are buying staples that you use on a regular basis and if you’re picking up loss leaders.
Have a list– mental or physical– of items that you use up with regularity, and keep a sharp eye out for particular deals. That doesn’t mean hoarding 7 bottles of detergent, but buying ahead when it’s cheap means that you don’t find yourself buying 1.89 a pound macaroni, $2.79 ketchup, or $7.99 parmesan because you need it this week and it’s not on sale.
This is especially important when shopping at discount stores, because they may have, say, 2 lb cans of white beans for 59cents but no suitable canned soup.
This is exciting – my first comment after months of “lurking”!
This post is near and dear to my heart as I’m sure it is also to others. Everyday savings are what make you rich in the end.
In our house, we use the Grocery Game (grocerygame.com) to take care of the price book and coupons. There is a small fee (obviously) for the service but it’s not oppressive and saves TREMENDOUS time from doing it all yourself.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
I wanted to point out that your “Shop Alone” suggestion isn’t quite correct. According to Paco Underhill, women shopping in together tend to purchase more items and more frequently. However, when a man and a woman are shopping together, the man puts pressure on the woman to “hurry up and go.”
This is why Mr. Underhill makes the specific suggestion to put chairs in your retail store for the men to relax in while women shop. Believe me, as the owner of a brick and mortar retail store I see this happen every day.
I would suggest that a woman and man grocery shopping together would result in less impulse purchases.
While most of this is fantastic advice, I’m afraid I must disagree with a couple of points.
“Make one large trip instead of several small ones.” I find it better to shop several times a week – I only buy what I’ll need for the next few days, and this ensures that I don’t over-purchase, and thus end up wasting food when it goes bad in the fridge.
“Shop alone.” My wife and I are pretty good at keeping each other in check with “do we really need that?” I find myself less likely to buy something we don’t need if she’s watching 😉
All in all, a great post 🙂
Sounds like some husband/wife teams are able to keep each other in check! Christian’s right about Underhill’s conclusion regarding men and women shopping together. I’d forgotten about that. But I know for certain that he cautions against shopping with friend and/or with children. (And men shopping with children is a dangerous combination!)
List, list and list. Sticking to the list is the important thing. With a list, you will only buy what you need and not what you think you need when you see it at the store!
Your list of tips is excellent. I did not realize that those ‘roadblock’ displays in aisles were put there intentionally (just never thought about it!) It’s a bit annoying, being manipulated like that, and nice to have shopping strategies to protect ourselves.
I like to shop early in the morning when the grocery store is not busy. Saves time, and the ‘last day of sale’ stickers are put on produce and meats then, so bargains are available then. I figure that saving my valuable time is like saving some money, too.
We live 50 km. from town, and I only shop once every 3 weeks now that gas is so expensive. I have learned to make most things from scratch (using ingredients from bulk bins, as you suggested) which saves buying costly prepared foods.
I see food shopping as a chore, and prefer to do it alone (and as quickly as possible!). My man is an impulse buyer. It takes forever to shop with him; he stops to look at everything!
Our supermarket is in the process of rearranging all their aisles. Now, even the clerks don’t know where anything is. I assume they rearrange to make us look at everything. What a game.
I agree with #2, Jenne. Make a list of stuff you *use*, not so much *need*. If I’m low on tomatoes and tomatoes are on sale, I’ll buy them, but I’m not going to pay $4/lb for tomatoes. Same goes with chicken. I wait for a big sale and stock up; buying 10lbs at a time.
People need to learn to cook improvisationally as well. I don’t make big grocery store visits dropping a hundred dollars at a time. I make small ones during commutes or neighborhood bike rides – which usually limits me to what I can fit in a backpack. I plan my meals around what I have and what’s on sale. Been working fine for me the last ten years.
I agree with making one large trip instead of several small ones. My husband and I do one big shopping trip a month. In between we might stop by for milk or bread, but that’s it. It forces us to use everything we buy before buying more food and saves us a lot of money!
The one way that I just can’t follow these rules is with the purchase of meat. Due to the fact that I just consider it unethical to buy just any meat. It has to be pasture lived and pasture fed meat.
This is definitely more expensive, but there are ways to save. I often find special deals on it then buy it in bulk. Also my wife and I have been investigating and are close to purchasing straight from a couple of farms.
Unit price, unit price, unit price. I was at Winco this weekend, and so many of the items on sale had a higher unit price than the regular items. And the small containers had consistently lower unit prices than the “bulk” ones! They’ve got great prices, but it really seemed like they were using the discount warehouse shopping patterns against people. (But I love love love their bulk section. So worth the trip!)
In addition to the other things you’ve mentioned, I practise a different version of your last tip: I take my own (cloth) bag to the store. This way, I’m forced to keep my purchases to what I can carry out of the shop, because I don’t rely on the store’s shopping bags. (Works well in conjunction with not shopping with a trolley)
Great list. You didn’t include “belong to a food co-op”, perhaps because you need to live near one and not everyone is that lucky.
Shopping like an environmentalist is also financially beneficial: buy foods that are less packaged. No point in paying for a lot of excess, wasted, fossil-fuel based plastic.
ALso buy less meat. Get more of your protein from tofu and grains. Easier on the planet, healthier, and way cheaper in the long run.
Many stores in my area no longer have grocery hand baskets available. I fear that they soon will become extinct. I know that the stores are doing it because if a person has a choice between a cart or carrying their items, most will choose the cart and fill it up. Some stores haven’t gotten rid of the hand baskets but instead hide them inside of the stores. The Target near my work doesn’t have hand baskets near the front door (where it would be useful) but instead keeps them next to the make-up.
My kids hate shopping with me because I don’t let them dawdle. It constantly amazes my wife that I’m able to go to the grocery store with a list and return with only the items on the list. Just yesterday, in fact, she went shopping by herself for a couple specific items and returned with extras: chocolate chip cake, chips, ice cream topping, etc.
I do keep an eye out on the loss leaders and will stock up on items I know I’ll use such as dish soap or oatmeal if I see a good deal. But I’m a minimalist when it comes to groceries. The less I expand my palette, the less likely I am to want to buy impulse “goodies”.
Shopping on a full stomach is key.
I got stuck in line behind a hardcore “coupon shopper” this weekend and it was excruciating. The whole ordeal took over 15 minutes and by the time we realized our mistake it was too late to go to another check-out.
She had this huge binder with all her coupons but was still completely disorganized and appeared to be fudging the terms on a bunch of them.
The checkout person was double-checking *everything* and when certain coupons weren’t being accepted they had to subtract them from the total and then find them in the bagging area and remove them. Then the woman realized she hadn’t taken advantage of a buy 1-get-1-free deal on bread and ran off to claim her second loaf.
I’m all for coupon shopping but this was ridiculous. Maybe they need to designate a lane just for heavy coupon usage.
I have to say, if you actually look at what you’re writing, it’s contradictory. Buy store brands but use coupons. Rarely (ever?) are the coupons in the circulars for store brands.
Buy “whole foods” rather than over-processed packaged junk? But the packaged junk is (usually) what the coupons are for. Since I stopped eating sugar, I only get coupons out of about 1 out of every 3 weeks of papers, and I only look because the paper with the coupons and my grocery ad is free and I can sort thru them during the slow time at work before I recycle it all. I’m getting paid to see if there are coupons I’ll use. I wouldn’t spend my own time on it though. Too much hassle.
I pretty much stopped cutting coupons. I could never get my fiance to understand the concept of checking unit prices especially with a coupon–it was always “We have a coupon for this though,” even if the store brand is just as good and cheaper. It’s easy to fall into the trap, because you invested your time and energy into sorting thru the coupons, resisting the urge to cut the ones with the amazingly delicious cookies that we’ve never had, and now all you have to do is match the coupon to the shelf (even better if the item is on sale) and poof! Instant savings, right?
But the store I go to, your usual average grocery store, not a discount store, 11 out of 12 times (according to my savings tracking) it was cheaper to get the store brand or some other brand of an item rather than the one that is both on sale and I have a coupon for.
Many states have laws regarding mis-rung items. Check yours. In Michigan, you can get $5 if the sale item (or any item, even if regular price) doesn’t ring up as advertised, as well as your money back. You must not say anything at the register, you have to have actually already paid the money. Just go up to the service desk and ask for your scanner award. My mom makes around $100 a year or more on those things, because she checks her receipts and then is patient enough to wait in line.
You also can’t make one large trip if you’re walking or biking. You really have to pick. Walking and biking you save on gas, but you’re also more likely to linger and “rest” before you have to carry stuff home. That could cause impulse shopping just from exposure.
I stick to my list to a point, but if I find a really good deal on something I know I’ll use, then I still get it. Mostly though I limit those “really good deals” to something that I would buy full price if I needed it.
I’m really just insanely jealous that you have a trader joes nearby. I buy Bob’s Red Barn stuff at the local grocery store, but trader joes, oh how I miss that aspect of living on the West coast.
Please TJ’s, come to TX!
Great article! I wrote about this on my blog just recently, although I focused more on a variation of unit pricing which gives one more insight into the best way to think about how grocery stores price their item (and thus how much money you are REALLY sending), but the rest of the tips here are definitely essential (like sticking to a list, for example).
I think its true that if you shop alone you’ll buy less — but we’ll never do that. Ever since we were very poor graduate students a trip to the grocery store has been kind of like a date for my husband and me. We find it fun to shop together and often two heads are better than one for finding bargains or affordable treats…
@Brigitte
You’re right, of course. Perhaps I got a little over-eager when I encouraged people to do ALL of these. I plead 1 a.m. 🙂
As with many personal finance choices, it’s important to pick and choose the methods that work best for you and your situation. And combining several of these can increase your savings: Use coupons on things you’d buy anyhow. And when you can’t find coupons, buy generic. Try to make big trips, but if you can’t then bike or walk to the store.
Good catch!
You have to be careful on which items you choose to stockpile. I try only to stockpile items with fixed consumption and not expandable consumption. Fixed consumption items (like toothpaste) you don’t use more of just because there is more around unlike expandable consumption items (like cookies). Believe me – I spent many years working for a food company and we push multiple pricing because if it’s there you’ll eat it and eat more.
I agree and use almost all the advice above, and have for years but –
Before I go grocery shopping, I check the house and make out a menu for the next two weeks, then the list (hubby gets paid every 2 weeks – I go shopping once). I leave a few meals open, however. When I get to the store, if I see something we like is on sale, or a great deal on something, then I can use that as one of the “open” meals. Since we are vegetarian and eat a lot of raw food, often as not there is something on the produce aisle that looks too good to ignore and it fills an “open” meal slot. If nothing is on sale or appeals, we can always fill them in with leftovers or an inexpensive staple (which for us is macaroni and cheese or Ramen soup or salad)
Like Rai, I take four cloth bags to the store for the week for a family of six. I can fit everything we need in those four bags. I shop with my children and make a game out of who can find the lowest unit price. I do not let my husand and children do the shopping or my 250.00 a month budget will be gone in a week and won’t feed us for the month.
Stores often have specials such as Get two items for $5. If you only need one item, closely check the price tag. Most of the time I find you can get one for $2.50.
Just one tip: Know your store well before buying bulk. I worked in a bakery, and quickly learned not to buy a thing from our bulk department. Not that they didn’t clean out the bins, but there was often a problem of bugs getting in (and not just weevils in rice)and the beans and candies had their fair share of unsupervised children running their hands through them.
Bins that only allow you to slide open a spout tend to have less contamination, but do a good checking first!
I’ve been ordering my groceries online for the past year or so and have noticed significent saving in time and money. Whereas before it took me at least 3 hours to do the weekly shop, now I do it in less then 15 minutes and it usually delivered next day for a small charge. I use the faviourite tab on the site which means I dont have to search the site for things I want. I also make a rough meal plan before writing my list and try to stick to it and ignoring all the offers on the site. So try online grocery shopping if your supermarkets offer it.
X Matin
Another thing that I do is I set aside much more time than I think I will need at the store. That allows me to walk around and spend a lot of time, comparing prices. Items that are not in their regular spot are almost guaranteed to be more expensive, since items are not next to the alternatives and you can’t conveniently compare the price. Also watch out for the self-checkouts, if there is a sale price and its a limit of two, make sure you type in that you have two of the item. If you scan the two items seperately they will count as exceeding the amount, not sure why, but this happened to me very recently and it was a huge pain to get fixed… Still worth the savings tho…
All good tips. As far as “sticking to the list”, I do best if I go:
— Early with minimal caffeine: I don’t want to do anything but complete my list and get home!
— If I take my two energetic and impatient kids along. My mantras for their “I wannas” are: “It’s not on the list” and “Do you have enough money for that?” In any case, I have to keep moving, or they find more things to ask for. It’s like a race to complete the list and check out before I want to abandon my cart and haul them home. I don’t have a lot of opportunity to look at extras!
— Without DH. He always buys extra stuff when he goes into a store, and I tend to be weaker when he whines than when the kids do.
A tip from my bachelor days:
Shop on an EMPTY stomach, but with a FULL bladder!
Oh – you’ll get the essentials, but it’s amazing how little else you will pick up. In and out in 10 minutes.
this is a good list.
I keep a piece of paper magnetized to my fridge and I just keep track throughout the week of what I need, so I can just grab that list and go.
Also, I don’t use plastic bags, I take my own. So, instead of using a cart I just put my items in those bags. It saves time and waste, but I also know how much I’m carrying. I find that helps me get in and out with the best environmental and financial savings.
i ONLY shop on weekends. i don’t have time during the week anyway, but if i needed something i would go without until the weekend.
i find my spending gets much higher when i take my husband. he is easily seduced by things we don’t need that are cheap. he just gets a lot of them *because* they are cheap. as we know, lots of cheap adds up to expensive.
i only buy what’s on my list. i spend a good half hour deciding what we need and if it’s not on the list i had better have a damn good reason to get it. (ie, i forgot to write down that we’re out of milk.)
finally, i have this hatred for all plastic bags. i have my own reusable bags, and i only take as many as i expect to need. i don’t want to be forced to take more plastic junk home, so i limit what i can take with me that way.
I agree with @Matt. Buying in bulk only works if you have a large family that can consume the product faster than it can go bad. Sams Club is not a bargain for myself, my wife an two kids. We almost always end up throwing away food.
Better to do your grocery shopping ( from a list ) on the way home from work.
You have to watch out for the bulk pricing too. At my local store the flour in 5-lb. bags is cheaper per pound than the bulk flour. I’m sure most people don’t bother to compare, since they’re in different sections of the store.
I have a rule about certain foods: when I see them below a certain price, I stock up no matter what. My favorite kind of bread is usually $4.09 per loaf, but it goes on sale now and then. My rule is that I only buy it when it’s $2 or less. When I see it for $2 or less, I buy 4-5 loaves and freeze the extras. This means that I haven’t paid more than $2 a loaf for more than a year.
Actually I have learnt a lot from shopping with my boyfriend, he’s the attentive one 🙂
I do love using lists. I make a point of writing things down on my list and crossing it off — even if I am staring at it in the store and about to toss it in my basket. Helps me to focus and know what I’m getting into.
I’ve never been a big shopper-for-entertainment, but I’ve noticed that isn’t really true when it comes to groceries. Many the night I’ve been home and restless and have considered heading over to the grocery store (2 block walk) to pick up just one thing.
Since I’ve started tracking my spending I’ve been better able to resist, especially toward the end of the month when I’m focused on keeping my monthly spending below x dollars!
I still laugh about the time I forgot I’d walked to the grocery store, and had to “borrow” a cart to get all the stuff home! It was a short but noisy & embarrassing walk home, and yes, I brought the empty cart back.
Good list, but i have to question the idea that “living on the edge” is cheaper.
I can usually get frozen vegetable cheaper than fresh (not always, but usually).
Bread not from the bakery area is always cheaper.
And as for the meat from the butcher area…well, meat is never cheap, but the frozen meat is almost always cheaper than the fresh meat.
While I am certainly a fan of healthy, fresh food and farmers’ markets, it is starting to bug me to hear constantly repeated, here and elsewhere, the idea that fresh food is less expensive than processed food. I could eat far cheaper if I were willing to eat very unhealthy, processed foods. You can get frozen pizzas for a buck. There is no way I could make a dinner with fresh ingredients for a buck.
OK. My rant is done. And for all I know, fresh is cheaper for many of you. But it isn’t in Lexington, KY.
About supermarket strategies: they’ve been used for decades. Read Vance Packard’s book The Hidden Persuader, it was written at the end of the FIFTIES and still relevant.
Good tips…We don’t have unit pricing here in Australia…But they are working on it…’Not shopping on a empty stomach’ and ‘sticking to a list’ are important for me…
mis-rung items- twice in two days in two stores and on more than one item. I have to wonder if this is an error or a scam. I am reporting one store to the state consumer affairs office- it happens too much. The question is- Is it bad management or dishonest management? It can’t be the employee because the computer reads the bar code. The problems have been discounts shown on the register tape- but when you add it yourself- the discounts were not taken, items that were advertised as discounted but the full price showed up and bait and switch of a sort. I am sure most people don’t look at their receipts. Sure if you lose $.50 today or $8 tomorrow- it isn’t that much for you but how much is someone making at the store – off the error? Thanks for the tip on state law on this issue
This is a great article for my wife and I. Just last night we were going over our budget again and noticed an alarming trend that our biggest budget eater right now is food. We just spend way too much on it right now.
Our biggest problem is we make 5-6 small trips to the grocery store a week rather than one large trip. You don’t realize that those $20-30 trips add up so fast, but they do.
Great tips. Another one is to make sure to check items at the top and bottom of the grocery shelves. Costlier items are usually placed at eye level because that’s where we’re looking. ~ Daryl
Here in the United Kingdom, all items sold by weight in supermarkets are listed along with their cost-by-weight. Anything sold by quantity is listed along with a per-item price.
It’s also sold in metric rather than imperial measure, which helps with the math, should you need it.
As a result, it is always cheaper to buy the larger quantities, because rather than some complicated arithmetic with four-packs of eight-ounce cans, we actually get a note right on every item in the store that tells us the price per 100 grams.
I don’t know if that’s the law these days, but it’s certainly in every store I’ve been into in the last six or seven years.
For anyone out there who’s angrily anti-metric… Well, one kilo is around two pounds. It’s that simple.
Also, here in the UK, I have never seen a “coupon”. Stores will offer marked discounts and two-for-one offers, but they are available, and advertised, in-store, and are available to everyone. Mostly they’re there to promote a brand, or to use up overstocked items.
Stores over here didn’t start offering own-branded products until, I’d guess, around 1995, and for eight or so years you’d have had to be desperate, or just plan crazy to buy any of it. Now, though, store brands are pretty much as good or better than the branded products. Most of our biggest supermarket chains have three ranges of own-branded goods now, one cheap, one regular-quality, and one high-cost brand.
I don’t really know how much retail power supermarket chains have in the states, but to put things in perspective, the largest supermarket chain in the UK is called “Tesco”, and 25% of ALL retail spending is done there.
Our supermarkets carry a range of goods, from food items to cleaning-and-household products, to TVs and clothing.
I don’t know how much, if any, of that is different to how it is there in the USA, or how many of the differences are common knowledge; I thought it would be interesting to offer some kind of insight into how things are over here.
I don’t know how wide-spread Freihofer’s is, but they have bakery outlets where you can get staples insanely cheap.
I get a half gallon of whole milk for 2.09 and bread is never more than 1.39, but usually more like 1.19. And I am talking about nice bread, Freihofer’s country white, or any amount of Arnold Whole Grain breads. Thomas’s Bagels are $.99!
They also have a calander that they give out and each month they have two coupons which are very useful. Buy one item (anything) and get a free loaf of any Arnold of Freihofer bread is one they have each month, the other coupon varies.
I recently bought a dozen eggs, two loafs of bread and a half gallon of whole milk there for $4.40. It saves my boyfriend and I a lot over the regular grocery store’s prices.
We also tend to shop two or three times a week after work (we work together, so this is convenient) because we can buy just what we want for that day and maybe the next day’s dinner and we are usually in a rush to get home and relax, so we don’t linger. I find that if we go to the store with the intention of doing a big shopping, we actually buy more stuff than we need or want.
We also use our own bags, our store gives us $.03 for each bag we bring ourselves.
Oh definitely right on the walking thing. I walk about 1/2 mile to Trader Joe’s and always manage to buy the heaviest things possible that will fill up one bag. God forbid I decide to stop at the wine shop on the way back.
I agree with Aaron (comment #40): since I’ve been trying to eat healthier, I have spent a LOT more on food. Processed food is indeed much cheaper than whole food. I am paying the higher price because of the health benefits, but I come right up to the edge of my $200 food budget – for 1 person! I see commenters on here feeding families of 4 or more for that same price, and I have no idea how they do it.
Since my wife does most of the cooking, she makes the list. I do the shopping. Since I don’t really have much of a clue about what is actually in the house, I only buy what’s on the list. I spend much less than when she shops as she tends to find things that she forgot or didn’t think about.
My husband spends twice what I do when I let him do the shopping! When I say “Please pick up the groceries” he apparently hears “Go buy enough garbage to restock a frat house fridge”.
Some times I’m envious of people with access to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods…other times, I think it’s budget salvation.
Great tips! However I’ve got to challange a comment you made in “Live on the edge” as well as back up Aaron on post 40. I cant believe for a minute that buying fresh is cheaper. In fact I love to eat fresh food but find that my grocery bill is out the window when I try to buy a lot of it. I do my best to buy what’s in season as it’s cheaper, but that only applies to produce. Growing up my family didnt have a lot of money and we hardly every bought fresh items as we couldnt afford them. Instead we tried to grow as much as we could in the garden. So I think Aaron and I are challenging you to back up that statement, or at least clarify. If you know some secret to getting fresh food for affordable prices I’m sure we’d all love to know about it.
I wrote a post the other day about how high our grocery spending is, so this is very timely.
Checking your receipt and standing up for what is coming to you is very important. A few days ago I did a $119 shop and had two problems.
The first was that the cashier put through 2 apricots as weighing .530 kilos (over a pound!) and costing $2.87. It was late, there was only one cashier open with a lineup behind me but I politely insisted that I was not paying almost $3 for 2 tiny apricots.
He put them through again and they weighed in at .130kg. Great. Now I’ve been charged the right price but we can’t get the wrong price deleted because they don’t weigh what the scale thought they did the first time around. There was nobody around, the kid on cash was very young and very inexperienced and couldn’t make the intercom work.
He eventually walked away to look for someone to help and someone else showed up. The other employee was able to reverse the charge by putting it through as a coupon on produce. All told, it took about 10 minutes.
About 2 days later I entered my receipts into the computer and saw that I’d been charged for 3 jars of decaf instant coffee when I’d only purchased two. I went back today and got $5.25 back in cash. That took about a minute.
I’d actually love to see a post on food prices and whether or not they’re on the rise as I’ve read in the Wall Street Journal somewhat recently and heard elsewhere. It may make sense, for example, to buy more food when it is less expensive than less when it is more expensive. What good is making 4% in a savings account on what you don’t spend on food when food prices may be on the rise and your groceries may cost 10-30% more over the next year? That would seem to have a negative effect on the use and value of your money. Is it always wise, in other words, to be frugal by buying less?
I do all the grocery shopping and all the cooking…why on earth would I ask my wife about any of this?
And fresh produce is only cheaper if you get it all used.
Why is it that “shop with a list” is the number one item on every “save money on your grocery bill” story?
If you want to save money at the grocery store do *not* shop with a list of items. Shop with an idea of what you might like to eat, and then purchase whatever is on sale. Making a list is the easiest way to miss similar but cheaper products right down the aisle.
I used to work for a grocery distributor. There are many tricks they use to get you to spend more money. Some of them are listed in JD’s post.
I wrote about several in three posts on my website. The last one is at http://gettingaheadinlife.blogspot.com/2008/01/grocery-shopping-202-buying-in-bulk.html
The first two are linked from that one.
Jim
Can you follow my wife around the next time she goes shopping:) I swear, I cringe every time she comes home from shopping alone for fear of what the bill will be. I’m new to your blog, but I’ll definitely be returning for more insight. I love the tips and already forwarded your blog to my wife – I may have to sleep on the couch tonight:)
You’re so right about checking the receipt. Before my local health food store automated their system, I was once charged 24.00 for four oranges! You better believe I made a beeline for the customer service desk once I figured that out (even though it required driving back across town). I’m all for checking these things twice.
The people who think “misrung” items are scams don’t know anything about how a grocery store works. One group of people sets the prices for items. But in each store when a price changes, a worker has to go scan the bar code and manually change the price. More or less. So it’s not a manager conspiracy, because managers aren’t the ones manually setting the price. There are a lot of products in a store, and often people mix up different items or accidentally miss a for sale item.
I was a cashier in high school and sometimes a customer would get angry at me when an item came up with the wrong price – it was really rude, and clueless. I was more than happy to fix an incorrect price, but it’s not as if I set the price in the first place! Cashiers aren’t paid by commission. There’s no conspiracy to charge you an extra 30 cents. Seriously – don’t get angry at the cashier for a price you don’t like. If everyone is polite things work so much more smoothly.
Anyway. Checking things twice is a great idea. But if you notice that something is the wrong price, don’t wait until after you’ve paid to say something. It’s a lot easier to check a mistake before the transaction is complete, and a lot easier to fix it. Every so often someone would wait until after I had closed my till to point out that I accidentally charged them for the wrong brand of apples, etc. That was always frustrating because it would have been so easy for me to correct only minutes beforehand, and the customer could have gotten out of the store more quickly, but since they waited I had to take them to customer service and it took much more time than it needed to.
Of course – that’s assuming you notice right away. (If you do, say something! It’s not a big deal if the line gets held up for a minute!)
Grocery stores might do some things to encourage you to spend money (what store doesn’t?) but they’re not trying to steal from you. What kind of business practice would that be? Grocery stores live and die off of reputations for customer service.
i have noticed that my grocery bill is much cheaper when i shop without my husband. this is strange because he is really the minimalist in our relationship. but i leave him alone on saturday mornings and do the shopping by myself 🙂
I just tried the farmers market and it’s sure cheaper than the grocery store – for € 8.50 I bought quite a lot of fruit and vegs.
I have found that when my wife and I go grocery shopping together she wants to stop and work out which item is cheapest but I just want to get out of there as quickly as possible. I take that view that there is no point saving $10 on your groceries if it takes you an extra hour to do it.
All such great tips! The one thing I will warn people about is buying store brands for everything.
While you should check the ingredients and the nutrition values for any packaged food, it’s especially important to check this information on store brands. They’re often much cheaper, but sometimes you pay a health price in areas like higher fat, unnecessary sugar levels, and/or extremely high sodium content.
Compare the first 5 ingredients of any store brand with your favorite name brand and the name brand on sale, just to make sure you are spending money on real ingredients, and not things you can’t pronounce or even just plain junk. Also be sure to compare the per-serving levels of saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and insoluble fiber, and do the math on how much of that container you’ll actually eat in one sitting. That’ll give you an idea of how much of the product is made of better ingredients versus junky stuff, and how much you’re actually spending/saving.
Depending on what packaged things you’re buying, sometimes a good solution from a health perspective is to buy whole foods and cook stuff in advance. Not everyone has the time for this, but even if you pick one dish a week, making homemade batches of prepackaged equivalents like soups, mac and cheese, and pasta dishes and freezing them makes for inexpensive, easy, and healthy heat-and-serve meals.
Great tips as usual, I’d never thought of “Ditch the basket or cart”. Good one.
I agree When you go grocery shopping you have to have a grocery list on hand.
I always keep my grocer list on line at http://www.GroceryWiz.com that way I can add to it when I need to and have it ready to go at the end of the week when I go shopping.
I have found that buying less is always better than buy more. When you buy more sometimes the extra stuff doesn’t get eaten and just goes to waste.
I would rather run back out to the grocery store and have to do more grocery shopping than waste the food.
Hope this helps.
These are great tips overall – especially about not using a cart if you don’t need it; or at least use a hand basket instead of a large wheeled cart.
But, one point I disagree on is going shopping less often and buying a lot. That’s exactly when most people tend to overspend. When you’re buying for two weeks, you can’t always anticipate and you grab potentially more than you can use; if you’re not careful, items go bad or don’t get used the way you expected. I will stock up on items I always use like rice or canned tomatoes, but I find I’m more frugal and efficient, and waste less, by stopping at the market two or three times a week just for the fresh items I need.
This article is a little older but there are a lot of great, relevant suggestions in here. One way that we’ve found to save money is to be disciplined about buying some of our groceries online. Not all products are a good deal, but non-perishable items, bulk purchases, and products on sale make up at least 25% of our groceries now, and we buy them all online.
Absolutely agree with the advice in the article. Seems like every trip to these stores and you find the prices are going up a few cents per item. If you do a list and stick to it and coupon then you still can save the money.
As it is said above, for me using a shopping list is still the most useful advice. I use the application on my phone (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gal.appshoppinglist) which is always with me, and automatically sync with my partner and kids. It saves me money!!! by buying what I need rather than buying on impulse
The best advice is still the oldest one… Have your shopping list with you, updated and stick to it whatever happened. I use an app on my phone which also automatically updated my partner and kids changes so I have with me always the most updated list. You should try it… https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gal.appshoppinglist
Great article with wonderful tips one must follow these tips you will definitely save good amount of money.
I never knew that people tend to buy more when they are in a group compared to when they are alone. My wife and I have been trying to eat out less, so we want to be able to be smart whenever we go to the supermarket. I will be sure to tell my wife that we should go to the supermarket separately so we don’t buy anything that we don’t need!