3 things to remember when grocery shopping

It is generally considered by many that a visit to the supermarket is a time to spend money and unavoidably influence negatively our family’s budget. However, this way of thinking is just the one side of the whole truth.

For a money spending conscious person, even grocery shopping is a time to save money. This is derived from the fact that grocery shopping is an unavoidable expense for all households and it could be utilised as an opportunity to limit the amount spend for this specific purpose by adopting different saving techniques.

Amazingly there are many things you can do or avoid doing while being in a grocery shop that could allow you to save money and make your household’s budget more sufficient. Simple savings command simple thinking. Three basic techniques you can use for this purpose can be found here below:

Write a shopping list

The traditionally given advice by family budget experts is to always prepare a shopping list before going to the supermarket. It is true that a shopping list can be a valuable money saving tool for its user. A well planned shopping list demands a preparation of at least 20 to 30 minutes. During that time you have to go through your home grocery stock and be sure that all things on the list are really needed and nothing will be over and above your home needs for a given time frame.

While being in the supermarket, be sure to stick to the list. This will always demand some extra personal psychological effort as you could be easily fooled by different marketing techniques to purchase products that are not on your list and which usually are totally useless for your family's needs.

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Don't shop on an empty stomach

Never, but never, visit a supermarket with an empty stomach. Many psychological tests proved that going for grocery shopping while being hungry could affect your spending considerably. The fact that, your stomach is empty and is urging to be filled, commands your mind to purchase bigger quantities of food products than you actually need. You may try it yourselves the next time you are planning to go to the supermarket. You will personally recognise your need to buy bigger quantities of foodstuff and finally ending up with a bigger receipt in hand and less money in your pocket.

Special offers are not evil

Many consumers have the tendency to conceive the "special offer" technique practiced by the majority of grocers as a devious act to sell them faulty or near to expiration products. This way of thinking might not be totally unjustified especially if you have been tricked once in the past. However, in the majority of the cases "special offers" are real offers which you should take advantage of. In several occasions, product marketers in an effort to promote their products to a wider number of consumers allow special offers such as, one plus one for free or buy one product and get a complementary product for free. In cases where these products are long life products such as detergents or deep freeze foodstuff and you are convinced that your family will be using them at a point of time, it would be a good idea to purchase them.

Implementing such simple saving techniques could lead to an aggregate money saving balance that could definitely worth the whole effort of trying them out.

Source: Spyros Tsiamandas, owner of Savings and Loan Advices

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