Save Money on Groceries

Most people want to save money on groceries. Who can blame them? The price of food in the store has never been higher. Here are some money saving grocery tips. Some of these are common sense, and others are going to be eye openers.

The tips below are divided into three categories to help you save money:

• Savings at the Store - things you can do to same money while shopping at the grocery store. These include buying food and other products that are often found there.
• Savings at the House - simple things to reduce the need for groceries. You might call it grocery avoidance. (coming soon)
• Kitchen Tips - techniques for eating less and eating less expensive things. Another form of grocery avoidance. (coming soon)

Savings at the Store

BOGO - it's that buy-on-get-one gimmick. You buy a certain product, and you get the second one free. Sometimes they have limits, and sometimes they don't. Either way, you save money on groceries to the tune of 50% of what you would have spent if you had bought the same item when it was not on sale.

Gee, I wish they had that as a standing offer on all the products in the store. They would get more business - right up until they ran themselves out of business by selling things at essentially half the regular price.

Take advantage of BOGO for things that store well. Pasta, canned goods and frozen foods come to mind as a good item to double up on when it is offered two for one. It's a good way to save money on groceries.

Loss leaders - grocery stores are famous for offering loss leaders. That's the industry that started the trend and coined the phrase. A loss leader is a product offered at or below cost to lead you (the one with the money in their pocket) into the store.

Notice that grocery stores usually offer only a few really good deals in the form of loss leaders in their weekly ads. That's because they believe that's all they need to offer in order to lure you into the store.

Their thinking is that once you're there, you'll buy more of their stock that isn't on sale. That's the idea behind loss leaders.

If you want to save money on groceries, then you might want to visit all the nearby stores offering loss leaders that you want and can use. No sense buying something that you won't make good use of.

While visiting many of the nearby stores, it would be a good time to do other errands as well so you make one extended trip.

Shopping at many places during one trip saves on the cost of transportation. Make it a double whammy - save money on groceries and save money on transportation costs as well.

Try different things - often we get stuck on a certain product and never try alternatives. It seems that some are at least worth trying, if they might help you save money on groceries. Try different things like:

• a cheaper brand of the same type of cheese
• the same brand, but a less costly cheese that might work just as well in your recipes
• a less expensive per pound block of cheese instead of one that costs more because it's shredded
• less costly head lettuce instead of the lettuce that is more costly than meat because it's already bagged
• cheaper off brands of various products
• a new vegetable that is less per pound than most, and it's something you've never tried
• a variety of apple that is new and therefore at an introductory price, and you've never tasted it before

Often new things will be brought onto store shelves to test out marketplace interest. They can be much less expensive then, before they catch on in popularity. That's a time you can save money on groceries.

Jicama is a good example. It used to be dirt cheap when it was first introduced. When its popularity grew in just a couple of years, so did the price - it tripled.

Stay away from new items - okay, I know I sound contradictory with the item above, but sit tight and hear me out. When I advise against new things, I'm talking about new things to get your interest, just because they're new, and they don't necessarily add value. Things like:

• Peanut butter mixed with grape jelly - you can do this at home with one jar of peanut butter and one jar of jelly. You don't need the food manufacturer to charge you more for doing this for you. If you do buy the product, then you won't be able to use your jar of peanut butter without the jelly.

  So, now the manufacturer has you buying a jar of peanut butter mixed with grape jelly, and a separate jar of peanut butter and a separate jar of jelly. Trust me, this is exactly what they discussed while sitting around the conference table at Sell-More Foods, headquartered in Gobbletown, Oklahoma.

• New ergonomic containers with snap spouts that are supposed to be easier to handle and easier to seal. Check again, they are probably also smaller in size and asking the same price. Only you don't notice this because you are so enamored with the sexy new shape of the plastic bottle.

  Stop looking at that sexy new shape and stay focused on your task at hand - save money on groceries.

• Great new and improved drip-less pouring spouts. If you don't like the wine in the box, then who cares about the new spout? I'm not going to buy your wine because it doesn't drip. I'm going to buy your wine because it tastes good and helps me save money on groceries. Focus on improving the wine and lowering the cost, and let me worry about the spout and how I'm going to keep it from dripping on my carpet.

• Beer in the 6 pack, 12 pack and 24 pack now comes in the 18 pack and 30 pack. Isn't it the same beer? If I didn't like it in the 12 and 24 pack, I won't like it any more now that I get 6 more bottles or cans.

I'm often reminded of the comment so many years ago that "Meathead" made on the TV show All in the Family. He looked at all of the boxes and containers that advertised they were "new and improved" and asked out loud whether what they had been buying all along was "old and lousy".

It's a valid observation that points to the attempt by product manufacturers to get us to try "new items" just because they are new, modified, packaged differently and so on. Try the item if it might hold promise to save money on groceries, otherwise take it for the hype that it is.

Don't impulse buy - this should be a no-brainer, but it isn't for many of us. Have a grocery list and stick with it.

Impulse buying means you spend money on things you don't really need. You let the whim of the moment overtake you. You see a great offer, and then you buy some item even though you don't need it, and perhaps can't even imagine when you would use it.

You can't save money on groceries on a whim. It takes deliberate action and decision making. Remember, the grocery store is simply playing The Money Game - you have money, they want it, and they're going to figure out ways of getting it from you.

The many ways a grocery store can get your money include:

• little red flashing diodes that beckon you to investigate what's on that shelf over there
• bins filled with stuff and placed right in your way so you can't help but look at what it is you're having to push your cart around
• fish laid out on ice to convince you that it's fresh - it's the same fish they have wrapped up in styrofoam and food film sitting right next to it on the shelves - they put some in wrappers and laid some out on the ice, so you need to recognize it's all fresh
• hand written signs that promise "farm fresh" and "just arrived" as if the store really is a farm and other food items they leave in the back until they age a bit before they put it out for sale

Here is an example of using unit pricing to save money on groceries.

Now, if you think you can save money on groceries by looking at the unit pricing, I have to tell you that it isn't always a snap. Sometimes the stores will throw you a curve ball. Take your local warehouse "wholesale" store like Sam's Club. They often unit price the same type of product in different manners.

For example, several brands of tomato sauce might have a unit price per ounce, and another a unit price per item. To make matters more confusing, the two brands might provide the sauce in different size jars, one 28 ounce and one 32 ounce. Now you need to do even more math to figure out which one is the better buy.

Take a calculator along to help you save money on groceries. Then, beat the store manager over the head with it for making your job as his customer much more difficult.

Let them know. Stick it in their ear. They'll fix the problem when enough people (or just one customer repeatedly) tell them that you're going to shop somewhere else. Remember, this is your store. It isn't their store. Without you, they're nothing.

Look carefully at pricing - a trick they use in the grocery store is to price produce by the item and then switch for a week or two to pricing by the pound. Aha, a little challenge for those of us trying to save money on groceries. Maybe it's not a trick but merely a reflection of what they pay, but it doesn't seem rationale to me except from the standpoint of making more money on the product.

Eggplant, squash, cucumbers and broccoli at $2 each and $2 a pound can make for a very different cost for the same item of produce. Often it amounts to a doubling of the cost. If you want to save money on groceries, focus on the fine print. Is the $2 for one winter squash, or is it for one pound of winter squash?

Use the scale they have in the produce section to find out how many "thousands of dollars" they want for that squash. It's a good way to find out exactly what you'll be expected to pay, and that's essential if you're going to save money on groceries.

If they don't have a scale available for you to use, then find the produce manager and beat him over the head with that winter squash and tell him or her that you need a scale in the produce department if you're going to be a regular customer in their store.

Canned Goods Outlet - this is the type of place that sells off brand products, mostly canned goods, that you can pick up for much less than the well known brands sold in the major grocery stores. There can be some funky stuff there too, like fake cheese that doesn't melt, so be aware of what you are buying.

Canned goods have an indefinite shelf life, so stocking up on them makes sense and it's a good way to save money on groceries. I can remember my grandparents having canned goods at their home that still had the purple inked prices on the top long after sticker prices and bar codes were all you could find in the stores.

They even had steel soda cans that required a can opener, many many years after all beer and soft drinks had pull tops. Now, that tells you just how long something in a can will last.

I absolutely love canned corn. If I see a great deal on canned corn, I grab it. My shelves still have canned corn from many years ago. My friends fondly refer to it as my "vintage" food. I suppose I should rotate my stock a bit and consume some of that corn, if for no other reason than just pure nostalgia.

When you see a good bargain on canned goods, feel free to stock up to save money on groceries over the long haul. Oh, and don't beat anyone over the head with canned goods. I'm certain it will leave a mark. Calculators and squash are relatively harmless, but canned goods might get dented and they might leave a dent as well.

Done with Save Money on Groceries, take me back to Frugal Living Tips