02121 Frugal Shopping

The need for social interaction ... is very much a part of why women shop. All our interviewees commented at some point that social interaction was part of the shopping experience. Many people now live alone in 'dormitory' suburbs, are often working from home or in isolated jobs, may be home with young children or part of the aging population of retiring baby boomers. All these groups need social connection, and shopping strips and malls provide many opportunities for reliable, safe and interesting social connections. — Stella Minahan, Michael Beverland

You too can find fun and fortune by avoiding grocery merchandising tricks! Here are 15 Shopping Rules that save you money!

The First Rule Is: STAY OUT OF GROCERY STORES. Of course, you think you have to go to the store to buy food, but remember this bit of commercial truth: the more times you go to the store, the more money you will spend. Organize your shopping to limit the number of trips to the store. Never go to the store for "just one thing." Buying food directly from farmers and growing some of your own food are two ways to avoid or limit your trips into grocery stores.

The Second Rule is: Plan Carefully. Plan every meal including your snacks. Add up the list of ingredients and make a shopping list from that plan. Buy only those items on your list. Never go to the store without a list. Beware of impulse buys.

Rule the Third: Scout the Territory. Check the advertisements for specials. If there are two or three stores close by, each with good deals on various items you want to buy, cherry pick the best deals in the individual stores.

Eat Before You Shop. Never go to a grocery store hungry. Shop after a meal or a big snack.

If you have kids who watch television — Don't Take Them Grocery Shopping. Television programs kids to say — "Mommy, buy this" — during shopping. Yielding to whining is a good way to go broke. The items advertised on TV are almost always the most expensive items. Teach your kids to ignore television advertising. All kids need to learn discipline and responsibility and this is one way to teach them these important values. Show your kids how planning meals and snacks, and shopping smart, is part of what it takes to succeed in life.

Keep Track Of What You Buy. Using a calculator and/or pencil and paper, keep a running total of everything in your basket. That way you know what you've bought and how much you have left to spend from your budget.

Avoid The Name Brand Game. And its first cousin, the Coupon Game. Buy the store brands, unless a price comparison brings the big brands or the coupon deal into competition. Coupon items are often more expensive than store brands, even when you include the value of the coupon. Stores that offer “double coupons” often have higher prices in general.

Avoid Prepared Foods. Learn to Cook. You deserve first class meals. Prepare your meals from basic ingredients. Make your own sauces and gravies, snacks and meals from basic ingredients. You pay a premium price when you buy prepared foods that are inferior in taste and nutrition to those you can prepare yourself for your family.

Watch Out For The Snack Food Games. The lesson is: You can have two or three times the snacks at one fourth the price. Make your own snack foods. Get the kids involved! It's more fun, more better tasting, more healthy, more nutritious, more money left for other things. There is no snack — from potato chips to sugar-coated popcorn, and on past pizza, burritos, and bean dip — that you cannot do a more better job with yourself.

Meat-Smart Shopping. A value priced roast — slow cooked in water, seasoned with onions, celery, carrots and pepper — is every bit as tasty and as tender as the big bucks roast and the high priced steak. A better way to buy meat is to find local farmers and buy meats through them. If you have to buy supermarket meats, my advice is to eat less meat due to the grave concerns about the production practices involved with supermarket meats. Regarding supermarket chicken, our best advice is "don't buy it under any circumstances,” even though it is often really cheap. If you could follow a supermarket chicken from egg to market, you would understand why we say this, and why it is cheap.

Cheese Hints. Sliced or shredded cheese is rarely a good buy. Sliced cheese packaged in individual cellophane packages is a worst buy. The cellophane isn't for convenience, the product is so low in quality it won't keep together unless individually wrapped. For sandwiches, a cheese slicer saves you money. For the convenience of grated cheese, buy a pound and grate it all at once! Remember, a lot of the products sold as "cheese" in a supermarket really aren't cheese. They are cheese-flavored manufactured food-like substances. It is only courtesy of an act of Congress that they can be referred to as “cheese.” Buy real cheese and slice it yourself.

Don't Shop In A Hurry. Good shopping takes time. You'll want to compare prices, check out more than one store, etc. Why not enjoy your shopping excursion?

Watch Out For Non-Grocery Items. Do you really need to buy these products at the grocery store? Are they perhaps cheaper at a dollar store or discount center? And consider using alternatives to expensive packaged cleaning products, such as bleach to clean toilets and porcelain sinks, baking soda to clean the refrigerator, and ammonia for floors, walls, ovens. Warning: never mix chlorine bleach or cleanser with anything other than laundry soap as it can produce dangerous fumes when combined with some other products.

BAKE YOUR OWN! Avoid the high priced bread section at supermarkets, make your own breads, pies, cakes, cookies, and other such goodies. Teach the kids to help. Tastes better, costs less! If you must buy bread, go to the local bakery outlet/bread store and purchase your bread items there. No, you don’t have to have an oven to bake bread. You can make stove top flat breads with any recipe for bread. Pinch off a piece about the size of a golf ball, flatten it, bake it a couple of minutes on each side on top of the stove in a hot skillet. Voila! Flat breads! Naan! Whatever you want to call them, make extra because everyone will want more and will gobble them up as fast as you can make them. If you know how to do this, you will be a hero to friends, family, and housemates.

It's OK To Save A Few Cents. Save a few cents on every item, and it adds up. Since money is scarce, you can use that "free" money for other necessary items.