Shopping Habits = Money Spent

I don't think that anyone will argue that we are in difficult economic times right now. A lot has been written about how to weather this bad period and still be able to provide what we need for ourselves and our families.

One such piece of advice said that people need to be making fewer shopping trips during the week: reduce shopping to once a week. An article I read said that for every shopping trip that we take we spend about 10% more then we were planning on or had budgeted for on items that we originally did not go to buy, what they call impulse buying. A different article said that only shopping once a week is not enough: you need to limit your your food/clothing shopping to one store. Otherwise, the article stated, you still have the affect of having shopped more than once, with the resultant overspending. Yet another article says that people fail to factor in all the costs for shopping and so overspend without realizing it. They do not count the cost of gas into their expenditures, nor the wear and tear on the car. They do not count their time either, time that might be better used producing an income or reducing reliance on having household help for things that you are not around to do, such as laundry, cleaning, babysitting etc. There are plenty of other "theories," all purporting to be "the" way to get by in the most economical way.

None of the theories is wrong, nor are they all correct either. Where they are all correct is where they tell people that there are going to have to be changes made in how and when money is spent. What they do not take into consideration are some of the following.

Supermarkets, drugstores and most retail businesses in a geographic area are all competing for the same customers. What is more, they are all selling more or less the same items. So why go to more than one? Special sales. Every supermarket advertises in circulars found in newspapers and in the stores. Each market has its special sale items. But here is where some of the stores get you if you are not careful. Just because the store prints "sale" next to an item doesn't mean that you are getting a bargain. What is the regular price of that item in that store? Do other stores sell that item at the same price or are their prices higher or lower? Then there are the "Wednesday only" (or pick your day) sales. An item, or a few items are going to be on sale but only one day during the week. Again, is the cost of that item worth going to the store on that day? And then you have to ask, aside from the sale items, are the other things you need to get while you are in the store going to cost you more then you would have paid elsewhere? If you save $2.00 on a container of milk are you going to give the store back that savings when you pay $2.00 more for the bread you also are buying then you would have in another store?

In our area you have to drive to get to shopping. At $4.25 to $4.50 a gallon of gas, how much is it going to cost me to take out the car once or to take out the car many times? That depends. If an item on sale at a market on a Wednesday is a savings of $3.00 over the regular price but it costs you $4.50 to go and buy it, you have saved nothing. Or have you? Keep in mind that if the item were not on sale and you needed it you would still be paying that $4.50 in gas. The stores in our area are all pretty much within shouting distance of each other. Were I to visit all the major markets, a drugstore or two, the butcher, the bakery, a hardware store, a 99 cent store and the cleaners all on one trip, I still would not have used one gallon of gas. But let's say that I did. On my shopping trip I would need to save at least $4.50 just to reach the break even point. Any savings after that I could first start to count as actual savings.

The way a shopping list is organized also needs to be changed. First, people need to have a list of the items that they buy, and any brands that they specifically buy of that item. Organizing that list by type of item is helpful, that is, paper goods, laundry products etc. Prices may be helpful next to those items if the cost of the item is generally the same everywhere, or when the cost is always less at a particular store. A copy of that list should be prominently displayed somewhere or be within easy reach. On that copy place the number of items that you presently have in the house. Each time you use one of that item change the number. In this way you will see what you actually have on hand and what you might need to buy.

Next, make a blank shopping list with the names of the stores you shop at regularly as the subject headings (leave some space in between).

Next, check your supplies, figure out what you need, and just jot those items down on a piece of paper. Now comes the harder part. Start checking the various store circulars. Is something that you need on sale at one store? Is the savings more than just a couple of pennies? Put that item down on the store list under the store name that has the item on sale. Put the price of the item next to it so you'll be reminded of what the sale price should be (Don't count on the computerized cash register to give you all the discounts you are entitled to--they are notorious for not doing so. You need to know what the discount should be and you need to check your register tape.) Now check and see if you have any coupons for the products you are buying. If so, mark that next to the product on the list to remind you to use the coupon.

Now look at your shopping list. Is there a store where you are only going to buy one or two items? Ask yourself how much you are really going to save by making the extra trip. Is the savings only going to be a few pennies? Then it's probably not worth it. Is this an item that you can stock up on and maximize your savings? When All detergent went on sale for $2.99 a bottle instead of the regular $5.69 to $6.79 found in all the other stores I stocked up. At a minimum I saved $27.00 on ten bottles, and their expiration date is years into the future. That's all I bought in that particular store but it was worth the trip for that item.

And now you come to the really really hard part. Take your list, go to the stores and buy only what is on your list. Absolutely the only exception to this rule is if there is an unadvertised special on something that you forgot to put on the list or that you don't usually buy because the price is normally way out of range for what you will pay. I don't usually buy ice cream because the price has gone sky high even though my family likes it as a treat occasionally. But an in-store special last week had ice cream selling at about 75% off the regular price. I bought 4 for the price of one--they last just as well in my freezer as they do in the store's freezer.

Last week I shopped three times because of when things were going to be on sale, where, and when I needed them in the house. The register tapes showed my savings for each shopping trip. Adding them all together I saved $147.69, after I deducted 1-1/2 gallons of gas used. For this week my estimated savings is about $31.00 dollars, but I won't be shopping as many times and I don't need as much.

Yup, work involved if you want to save money shopping for groceries. But the days when you could just scratch a shopping list on the back of an envelope and head for the store are no longer with us. Shopping requires a business-like attitude and business skills. Going to the market without a small hand-held calculator to figure the differences in package sizes/price ratios means you're going to get rooked. Doing the leg work at home can save you a bundle. If you think that it's too much work for what you are getting, ask yourself what you could have done with an extra $147.69 in your pocket, or even an extra $31.00. I'll bet that you could even find a good use for the money if you "only" saved $10.00 dollars a week.

I look at my saving money while grocery shopping as a "part-time" job, one that pays me about $30-50 per hour year round.