Comments on: 5 Ways to Avoid Overspending at the Grocery Store

By: Witty Artist

Witty Artist — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:05:30 +0000

What helps me avoid overspending: making a list; go shopping with a full stomach; paying with cash.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:04:47 +0000

The real #1 tip to avoid overspending is to go to the store with a full stomach, never go hungry!

By: M. Reid

M. Reid — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:04:02 +0000

Augh! The same hoary food shopping advice warmed over for the bad economy and most of it silly or just plain wrong!

“Make a list and stick to it”: No! Make a list of essentials you know you’ll need, then purchase meat and veggies for upcoming meals according to what’s on sale. Even scrutinizing the sale circular won’t necessarily help you make a list, b/c sales items are often sold out, or those bargain cauliflowers will turn out not to be such a bargain b/c they’re half-rotted. Store and economy brands and sales are your friend for everything else.

“Bring a calculator”: OK, fair enough, but if you’re a careful shopper, you should be able to do the basic math quickly enough in your head that you don’t have to pull it out often, KWIM? Indeed, to the extent that relying on the calculator keeps you from getting nimble enough with math to quickly figure these things out, I’m not sure it’s a good idea.

Bundled prices: this is so obvious, I’m not sure it really counts as a tip, but I guess there is someone out there clueless enough to need it.

The bakery aroma trap, also often prescribed as the “don’t go to the grocery store hungry” warning. Yes, you’ll go crazy with impulse shopping if you’re hungry! OK, this has never happened to me and I have never been accused of being a paragon of self-restraint. A better reason is that you’re likely to be too impatient to shop wisely, but better to go to the grocery store hungry than not have enough victuals at home and end up eating an expensive carry-out meal. The candy bars at the grocery store are almost always cheaper than anywhere else, so while it would be better for your health not to, don’t sweat the $.75 Snickers bar.

Ron is right, though, one of the sleaziest things the stores do is use different unit prices for identical products on the “consumer friendly” labeling to make it harder to figure out what the better value is. Then you may really need that calculator.

By: Carrie McAfee

Carrie McAfee — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:50:59 +0000

The large family perspective in different than all of yours. I’m 52, married, 5 kids, the oldest 26 married with 2 year old twins, 23 year old son in college, 20 year old daughter in college, boy/girl twins 17. We eat out once a month and have the oldest over for dinner once a week. My mom visits and always is invited to stay. I shop every two weeks. I do not go into a grocery store on any other day. I pick up milk at the gas station. It’s by far cheaper. I get 5 carts of food and it really fills my car. I never use a list. It would be to long. I shop in the same store and know the brands our family will eat. The biggest expense is meat. I get everything in the largest packages I can and we of course have to get plastic lunch bags for making serving sizes
easier. The things I have learned in my life is to only take one extra person shopping, to keep in mind all of our issues (diabetes, allergies, weight lose issues,
packing lunch issues). When I am rocking it will take me 3 hours to shop. I check out after one cart is full. Then put it in the car. Of course the frozen food is last. We are not into fancy foods and our meals are very basic. We found that
the more ingredients in a meal the more it costs. I aim for $35.00 a dinner.
For 12 people that’s great. The coupons are not worth my time. The only must
I have is going at 7am when the store opens. When other people are in the isle
I miss things as they are standing in front of them. I also use a store card and then every 3 months I get a store check for 5% of my purchases. That is another
shopping trip for free. I also pay with a debit card to keep track of my purchases. The store manager knows me by sight and always says hi. He gives me a free turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas and he usually hands me a $25.00 gift card in January. I am a valued customer. It’s not worth my time or
energy to go anywhere else.

By: rainy mom

rainy mom — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:41:41 +0000

I have found that making a weekly menu and plan the weeks meals. I base my shopping list from my menu.

By: The Prudent Scholar

The Prudent Scholar — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:17:00 +0000

Even if your grocery store doesn’t offer gift cards at a discount, consider getting the dollar-for-dollar one. I do this at the first of every month. I get one and the husband gets one and we stay on our grocery budget. It also encourages a more even distribution of grocery shopping in the household.

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:12:39 +0000

The best way to avoid over spending is to shop at 10 am

By: Everett

Everett — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:00:26 +0000

I agree with the comment above about using discount gift cards. The hard part is convincing people that it really isn’t too good to be true, that you really can buy a $200 Safeway gift card for $175 sometimes and save $25 over your next couple of grocery shopping trips. Since groceries are something we’re going to have to buy anyway, it makes sense to invest in savings. But I wouldn’t do it just as an “excuse” to buy something I don’t need.

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:31:51 +0000

Most of the time I will buy the store brand. Those items go on sale from time to time as well as the major brands. I find the quality is not inferior, sometimes better. I don’t buy anything from the bakery section except the stores English muffin bread, it’s round like an English muffin.

I don’t buy anything from the deli, too expensive. I always use a shopping list and try to remember my calculator. It’s just me so I can manage to buy what I need for under $50.00 most shopping trips. I don’t shop at places like Costco because what am I going to do with restaurant size products anyway.

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:18:37 +0000

Although many stores have the price per unit displayed on the shelf, next to the price, be cautious; sometimes one item is broken down into price-per-OUNCE, while a different brand of the same item is listed in price per POUND. Don’t know why they do that, but like the article says, CARRY A CALCULATOR.