Family Resource Management
Living for Today — Planning for Tomorrow
News You Can Use
Saving Money at the Grocery Store
For many reasons, it is important to plan your meals for the week before going shopping: One being that the grocery store is sometimes filled with busy shoppers. This can be distracting and cause you to lose your focus on what you are doing. Another disturbance may be your children. Having planned your meals and taking a list with you will help keep you on track regardless of distractions. It is also important to look in your cabinets and refrigerator to see what you have on hand that may be incorporated into next meal plan.
You know the old saying of “don’t shop when you are hungry?” This is true. You tend to overbuy if you shop while you are hungry. Shop alone if at all possible is also a good idea.
Most of the higher priced items are located on the shelf at eye level. Take a look at the top and the bottom shelves. You may also find that generic brands are just as good as name brands. So, try different ones and see what you can find.
Buy fresh foods when they are in season. Things like strawberries, watermelons, apples, etc. These kinds of foods are more expensive out of season.
Watch the newspaper ads for special sales and clip coupons.
Stay out of the store as much as possible. Make sure to get all that you need the first time so you will not have to go back for 1 item and end up with 10.
Bring only your budgeted amount of cash to the store. You’ll have no choice but to stay within your budget.
Remember that the more processing on a food, the more it will cost. That just makes sense that if you buy cheese already shredded, you will probably pay more for it than if you buy it in a block form.
There are certain aisles at the store that I avoid all together. These are: the cookie aisle, the potato chip aisle, and the candy aisle. These are foods that I can live without and save money.
