To this day I can still remember my first big grocery bill after we were wed. I didn’t get anything fancy-just the fundamentals. We were poor newlywed students and food expenses were a necessary evil that I could not get around.
Buying groceries was my responsibility in the union and I was determined to live within our meager budget. I dove right into the challenge and years later found myself teaching community classes on”couponing” (“yes”, I needed to tell my sisters,”couponing is a word”).
I no longer spend hours finding, printing, cutting and organizing coupons but there are some invaluable shopping principles I learned from those studies that I won’t ever change. My favourite one is purchasing more to save more.
The simple idea behind the strategy is to buy more of something when it’s on sale so you don’t have to pay full price for it later when you want it. Applying this principle will appear different in everyone’s home. Take some time to consider the following questions to be able to maximize your savings.
*How much space do you need for food storage?
This may seem like an obvious question but this has landed me in jeopardy more than once when it comes to frozen foods. With my freezer space from necessity. Even though this is obviously not the answer for everybody, we invested in a deep freezer for a consequence of one of the best sales I’ve ever seen on meat and cheese. I convinced my husband that after a few additional sales like that one we would pay for the freezer with the sum of money we saved.
*How much of this item will we use?
No matter how great of a sale it is, it’s never a good deal when the food goes to waste. Make sure you don’t purchase more than you can use. Think about the expiration date and your own schedule and meal rotations. I always try to make meals where the bulk of my ingredients are things I already have stored so that nothing is forgotten or wasted, but that’s a whole other principle. Austin Wildlife Removal
This is something you will get better at knowing over time. The worst feeling is when you stock up on a favourite item since it’s on a great sale, only to learn the next week the same item has been sold at a significantly better price at a neighboring store. You will become familiar with prices in your area and begin to know what’s a good price for unique items. Also, don’t be afraid to ask people! I have talked to my butcher in my grocery store many times about prices. I don’t know of a grocery store where they pay their employees commissions on sales so that they will honestly tell you if you need to wait for a better sale or whenever an upcoming discount can be expected. Be kind and friendly to workers – they have a wealth of knowledge!
*How often is it on sale?
This question is one of my favorites because it is such a game changer. Sales go in rotation. Not only can you expect certain items to be discounted around certain times, you can organize your food storage ! By way of example, my grocery store has meat earnings over a two week rotation. This means that I just need to buy enough chicken to continue my family two weeks until I know it will be available again. It also gives me a reason to never need to buy chicken at its whole cost in between those sale prices because I can pull it from my freezer.
Another sale rotation that is extremely helpful to know about and watch for are seasonal sales. By way of instance, barbeque sauce is generally marked at its lowest around the Fourth Of July and nutrition and health bars are normally at their lowest in January for everyone’s New Years’ resolutions. Oftentimes these items don’t expire for more than a year so if you’ve got the space, buy enough to last your family that long.
Once your stock piles reach a successful rotation you’ll find that you’re shopping completely differently. It’s not uncommon for me to come home from the store with 25 boxes of cereal, 10 bags of cheese and then only a small number of other basics like bread, milk and bananas. I really don’t need to get every ingredient in my list for meals that week since I have already stocked up on them when they were available. Because of this, I can make the identical tasty meals at a far lower price for my loved ones. Purchasing more to save cash is all about time your larger purchases using their selling prices and ironically you will soon find that buying more can indeed help you spend less.