Beth from In Good Cents gives us tips on when and how to shop.
Shop to Stock
Each week, I use part of my budget to buy items like produce and dairy that I need to get through the week, but the other part of my budget is to stock up on whatever is a great deal that week. I’m not living week to week and buying items just to make meals for a few days. I’ve gone with an entirely different method of shopping. I shop to stock!
I recommend an 80/20 shopping method at first. Use 80% of your budget to get through the week and use 20% to stock up on whatever is cheap that week. So, if you have a $100 weekly grocery budget, use $80 to buy what you need to get through the week and use the other $20 to stock. If toilet paper and chicken breasts are an amazing deal that week, buy as much as you can with the coupons you have on hand and the $20 you’re using to stock. If cereal is a steal, walk out of the store looking like you have a cereal fetish! If it’s pork chops, grab a ton and freeze it for later.
One day, you’ll look around your kitchen and realize you have everything you need to prepare meals that week. Maybe you need a few perishables, but that’s it. And that’s when you do it! You drop your grocery budget dramatically, getting only the perishables each week and using the rest of your budget to stock, getting items to keep your pile replenished.
When is a sale a good deal?
The word “sale” doesn’t always mean you’re getting the best deal. Phantom sales are items that are marked on sale in the store or in the circular, but in fact aren’t really a discount at all. For example, Meijer often lists ketchup “on sale” during their 10/$10, 11th item FREE promotion, but if you lift the sale tag in the ketchup aisle, underneath you’ll find that it’s normally priced $0.99. Basically, if you buy the ketchup on sale without buying 11 items, you’re actually paying a penny more than you would when the ketchup isn’t on sale. Another phantom deal are hidden in circulars. Stores like Walmart often just stick regular priced items in their circular, making you think they are on sale, when really they are just advertising their everyday price.
So how do you know when you are truly getting a good deal?
This is a question I get asked almost daily and, unfortunately, it’s one of the hardest questions to answer. It depends entirely upon your shopping style. For example, if you are out of toilet paper this week, any sale going to look like a great deal to you. But if you have a good stockpile, you can wait until it hits rock bottom prices. On top of that, if you are brand-specific about an item, you need to know the rock bottom prices for that specific brand. On the other hand, if you are willing to use any brand, you need to know the rock bottom price for the entire product line. It also depends on what store you shop or if you shop around.
So basically, to answer this question, I’d have to rattle off great sale prices for every brand in every product line at every store. Sadly, I don’t have the time (or that knowledge). However, I can give you the tools to find the best prices for you and your family.
First, when shopping and searching sales, calculate every thing down to the unit price. To figure out if the large value pack of toilet paper is a better deal then the small 4-pack, you have to know how much it costs per roll. Next, start a grocery price list of all the items you buy regularly. With this, you can keep track of sales and see how low they go, so you know when to buy. This isn’t something you’ll have to do forever. Approximately 3-6 weeks of tracking prices will give you a good idea of when a sale really is really a good deal. Remember, to retrack prices as the economy changes and prices alter.
To get you started, here is an example of my grocery price book – Grocery Price Book Example. Use it to track sale prices and find the best deals for you. Remember, stacking the best sales with coupons is how you maximize your savings!
Finally, once you get a good idea of great sale prices, set reasonable limits for yourself and simply refuse to buy the product (unless you can’t live without it) until it hits that set price. You can, for example, refuse to buy regular milk for over $2.00 a gallon. With milk always hitting abut $1.98 a gallon somewhere each week, that’s a very easy and very logical limit to set.
Stack this idea with my tip on Shopping to Stock to cut your grocery budget dramatically!
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Beth Montgomery is very happily married and the mother of two beautiful little girls and a new little boy. She works as a part-time at her church, authors the frugal blog, In Good Cents and frugal cooking blog, Centsible Cooking. She teaches seminars to help others learn how to dramatically cut their budget on everyday items.
