Smart Grocery Shopping Tips
Going to the grocery store seems like it should be a simple weekly chore. But grocery visits are filled with many potential pitfalls, including impulse purchases, forgotten items, and overspending. Become a grocery store expert by following WhatCollegeForgot’s smart grocery shopping tips.
- Get to know the grocery stores in your area
- Set a budget
- Stick to your budget
- Plan your meals
- Buy unprocessed foods
- Find coupons and learn to love the unit price
- Make a shopping list
Get to know the grocery stores in your area
Every grocery store is laid out a little bit differently, which can be overwhelming at first. Erika Pijai, a Registered Dietitian who works in the D.C. metropolitan area, suggests that new grocery shoppers spend a little time learning the layout of the grocery stores in their area. Find out where the different sections are, the store’s sale cycle, and what brands are carried. If you don’t see a brand you like, ask at the customer service desk. Many grocery stores will order specific items for customers.
If you have a couple different stores in your area, take the time to explore each store. Each grocery store tends to carry a unique set of products and a unique pricing structure versus other stores. A store with pricy produce may have the most affordable breads.
One strategy is to create a price book that contains multiple stores’ prices for items you typically buy. This can help you figure out where you should shop for certain types of groceries. Once you’ve discovered which stores offer the best deals and the foods you want, you can plan your shopping trip based on your needs for the week. If you’ve found that you’ll need to go to multiple stores to get the best deal on your grocery bill, consider buying enough at each store to last for several weeks so that you only need to make one shopping trip per week.
Set a budget
It can be easy to overspend at the local grocery store, but setting a monthly grocery budget and sticking to it can help you avoid paying too much for food. According to the Economic Research Service, a department within the USDA, Americans spent 9.6 percent of their disposable income on food in 2008. Over half of this amount includes food eaten at home. If you bring home $3,000 a month, you shouldn’t be spending more than $300 each month on food, including what you eat at home and in restaurants. Cooking your own meals is one way to trim your food budget, but shopping smartly will help you trim it even further.
Stick to your budget
Once you have a budget, sticking to it is important. You can keep track of your grocery budget by using free online budgeting tools like Mint.com and Yodlee. Paying cash at the grocery store can also help you stick to your pre-set budget, as consumers spend about ten percent less when they actually fork over cash in the check-out line. Withdraw your budgeted amount at the beginning of each week or month, and think of it as your maximum food spending for that time period. When you pay for your groceries, it’ll be easy to see what portion of your monthly budget you’re spending.
Plan your meals
If your parents took you along on shopping trips or let you help in the kitchen when you were younger, you likely already know a few easy recipes you can make on your own. This isn’t always the case though. If you aren’t sure what you should even buy at the store, take a look at some easy-to-prepare recipes that need five ingredients or less.
Staples to consider buying include fish, chicken breasts, tofu, beans, fresh vegetables, rice, pasta, sauce, and bread. You’ll need a few other ingredients and items such as salad dressing, spices, eggs, milk, and butter in order to make some simple meals.
Before going to the grocery store, plan out your meals for the week. Try to choose dishes that use similar vegetables so no produce goes to waste. Meal planning may be easier if you make a weekly schedule. You may want to plan a different type of ingredient or dish each night of the week; try chicken night, pasta night, or sandwich night. Making a pattern for your meals can help you plan your meals more efficiently.
Pijai recommends that reluctant or busy chefs pick one day of the week to get most of their prep work out of the way. Spend a few hours chopping vegetables so you can throw together quick meals when you get home from work. You may also want to invest in a slow cooker. You can throw the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning and enjoy a hot meal after work.
Buy unprocessed foods
When planning your meals, don’t try to get too fancy all at once, or you’ll give up and go for processed meals that are both expensive and unhealthy. Unprocessed foods are almost always cheaper than foods that haven’t been prepared by food manufacturers. True, your college standbys of ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly may be cheap, but most foods are cheaper to prepare yourself. For example, instead of buying pre-marinated chicken, buy chicken and prepare your own marinade. Not only will you save money, but you’ll also know exactly what you’re eating.
Pijai recommends that shoppers stick to the perimeter of the store. Pijai explains that foods like produce, low-fat dairy and lean meats are usually located outside of the inner aisles.
She also suggests that grocery shoppers look at food labels carefully. If you see a lot of unfamiliar ingredients in a food, it may not be the healthiest choice. Also look at the Percent Daily Value (%DV) section of the nutrition information. The %DV is based on a 2,000-calorie diet. For example, a serving of skim milk has a 30 percent of the calcium a person on a 2,000-calorie diet should consume in one day. You can use the %DV to determine how closely you’re meeting your nutritional requirements.
Find coupons and learn to love the unit price
If you don’t have one, take out a subscription to your local Sunday paper. The Sunday paper usually includes several coupon inserts that offer savings on many brand-name foods, personal items, and household cleaners. Also check the weekly sales at your local grocery stores and stock up when an item you eat frequently is on sale. Many manufacturers, such as Pillsbury, post coupons on their website. There are also dozens of websites that aggregate coupons and post them in one spot. For example, Red Plum, which also puts together coupon flyers for newspaper, offers free, printable grocery coupons.
While using coupons, purchasing sale items, or sticking with generics will usually save you money, the only way to know the true price of an item is to look at the unit price, according to Pijai. The unit price is the cost per unit of measurement, which may be ounces, pounds, quarts, etc. You can use the unit price to determine if a sale price is really a good deal by comparing against the unit prices of comparable items. The unit price also helps you figure out which size package is the best deal. For example, a smaller box of cereal may cost less, but the bigger size may cost less per ounce. Buying bigger sizes of perishable items is usually a bad idea, but buying larger sizes of non-perishable staples is a good way to save money.
Make a shopping list
Impulse purchases are one of the biggest potential downfalls of grocery shopping. Grocery stores place craveable and expensive items on prominent displays throughout the store, making it all too easy to fill your cart with unnecessary food. Bringing a shopping list to the store makes it easier to avoid impulse purchases because you can see exactly what you need to buy. If you know you’re prone to impulse purchases, limit your shopping trips to once per week and remember that one or two impulse purchases per shopping trip can put you over budget.
When you make your shopping list, divide it into sections for produce, dairy, meat, pantry items, and household goods. Dividing your list into sections can help you shop more efficiently. There’s nothing more annoying than getting to your car and realizing you forgot the asparagus; instead, an organized list can help you remember every item. Many websites offer free PDF downloads of blank grocery lists. OrganizedTimes.com has several different options, but you can find what works for you by doing a search for ‘blank grocery shopping list’.
While these tips may seem like a lot of work, a focused grocery shopping strategy can save you time, money, and even health problems down the road!
By: Jessica Bayliss
4-06-2010
Jessica Bayliss is a freelance writer specializing in finance and education. She has degrees from the University of Illinois and Texas A&M-Kingsville and is still learning all about what college forgot.
