How to cut your grocery bill in 10 easy steps
A little bit of knowledge goes a long way at the checkout. Here are our supermarket secrets to help take the sting out of rising grocery costs:
1. Write a shopping list – and stick to it. If you plan your meals and only buy what you need, chances are you’ll eat more healthily, and won’t have to resort to Friday night tuna surprise. Noone likes Friday night tuna surprise.
2. As every failed dieter can tell you, never go shopping when you’re hungry.
3. Don’t be seduced by incredible bargains. If you would never have considered buying the item at full price, chances are you don’t need it at half price. And those limits per customer? That’s just the supermarket’s way of making something seem scarcer than it really is.
4. Resist sneaky layout traps. Suppliers pay extra to position groceries at eye level. Look up! And down! Supermarkets also discount necessary items such as milk and bread and place them at the back of the store in the hope you will buy more as you pass through.
5. The more you see, the more likely you are to buy, so keep your wits about you, especially in the checkout queue.
6. Pay attention to the unit price. Big supermarkets and online food stores are now required to display the cost per unit, so you don’t have to be Stephen Hawking to figure out whether it’s cheaper to buy 800 grams for $26 or 250 grams for $8.25.
7. Buy in season. Fresh produce is cheaper – and tastier – when it hasn’t been flown in from the other side of the world.
8. Consider doing a “bulk buy” once in a while and storing non-perishable goods. American chain Costo is now in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. Campbells Wholesale is a similar concept available in most states if you have an ABN. Aldi is also a cheaper alternative for some items that won’t spoil.
9. Don’t steal! As this story shows, supermarkets are onto people who use the self-checkout system to pilfer billions of dollars worth of food, so you might get caught.
10. Leave the kids or grandkids (AKA “impulse buy bullies”) with someone else, if you can. It’s a jungle out there. Good luck.
How do you try to keep your supermarket bill down? Have you got some handy hints you can share?
Click here to have your say and see what tricks others have discovered in the FiftyUp Club Forum.
