Strategic Summary
Congratulations! You've stuck with it long enough to get to the summary of my grocery
shopping strategies. You are well on your way to saving money so don't stop now.
Here's a summary of the major points I'd like you to remember. Building Your Home Inventory Think of yourself as owning a small store which is supported by your inventory. Any decisions you make should be arrived at with careful consideration in order to maximize your profit (money saved). That is, you should buy your groceries at the best price possible. At the same time, you want to avoid wasting anything because this would eat into your profit (the money you saved when you purchased each item at a lower-than-everyday price). Related article: Americans Throw Away Nearly Half Their Food, $165 Billion Annually, Study Says Identifying Your Needs In order to properly identify your needs, you must consider (1) how fast an item is used up, (2) the shelf life of the item, and (3) whether or not you have sufficient space (assuming you are building a stockpile of the item). Creating Shopping Lists The creation of shopping lists is crucial to any shopping plan and is best done using a spreadsheet such as the one shown on the Essential Spreadsheets page. The most critical component of a shopping list is a column for the aisle number or location description. Including this column will help you to (1) avoid visiting sections of the store unnecessarily, (2) save you time spent shopping, and (3) will cut down on impulse (unplanned) purchases. As you complete your lists, you should be applying the results of your price research and envisioning deals you intend to bring to fruition. Tip: If you are using a spreadsheet to create your lists, sort the sheet on item name to make things easier to find (that is, in alphabetical order). Before printing the list, sort on store name, then product location, then item name. Later, re-sort the sheet on item name. At a minimum, you should end up with two shopping lists - one for your base (lowest-everyday-price) store and one for your primary sale store. Base Store List Items on this store's list should only contain items which are not on sale elsewhere and/or never go on sale anywhere. Attach to this list any applicable coupons. Remember that for items which rarely go on sale, you only need to buy enough to last for the period between trips. Buying more will only serve to tie up your money unnecessarily and to take up valuable space. Primary Sale Store List Your primary sale store is where you will realize your savings. Quantities should be tied to consumption rates and sale frequencies. All available coupons should be gathered and attached to your list. You may also have a secondary sale-store list. Reminder: Plan your trip route to avoid negating your saving with gasoline expense. Shopping Once in the store, stick to your list. And always check the expiration dates for items you are stocking up on. After you have checked out, look over your receipt to make sure it is correct (before you leave the store). Tip: Know beforehand what the value of your coupons should total and verify that your receipt reflects this total. When putting away your purchases at home, remember to put the new purchases in back of the existing stock so you will use the oldest items first. Check Your Progress Finally, refer to the deals you constructed before shopping and verify that they resulted in the savings you expected. Review the Basics Be sure to refer back to the principles and recommendations on this site as you venture forth into the formulation and execution of your unique strategic shopping plan. Good luck! Have a question? Send me a message. |
Food Facts
|