Food, household items, and personal care products take up a large part of most household budgets. From three dollar bottles of shaving cream to ten dollar packages of meat, grocery prices have steadily been on the rise and it doesn’t look like there is an end in sight any time soon.
The good news is that there are practical ways individuals and families can decrease the amount of being spent on groceries. These steps will not only impact the bottom line of your budget, but could even end up saving you time in the long run!
1.) Understand Sales Cycles: Almost all of the products that are purchased at a grocery store have a unique sales cycle. Stores are strategic as they move product through the cycle, so it is vital that consumers be just as strategic with their shopping. The length of a sales cycles can vary by product and by the area of the country that you live in, but is generally somewhere close to six weeks. What this means is that about every six weeks, a product will hit its “rock-bottom price”. This price can be as much as 50% or more off of the normal retail price of the product. It is at this time when shoppers should make their purchases. Shoppers who implement this simple strategy in their shopping habits can save sustainably.
Action Item:
Start to pay attention to the prices of the items that you buy the most. Get to know what is a good price and what isn’t.
2.) Use Coupons: Couponing is one of the latest and most interesting trends sweeping the country. With TLC’s new hit show “Extreme Couponing”, consumers are taking a second look at coupons. Although the results that are seen in Extreme Couponing are not typical or realistic for most shoppers, it is still very possible to use coupons to revolutionize any grocery budget.
There are many resources available online to help new couponers on their journey. Many major manufacturers are now offering printable coupons on their websites and through websites like coupons.com. Another resource that should not be overlooked are coupon blogs. Coupon bloggers take on much of the hard work of matching up coupons with what is on sale and post it on their websites for shoppers to use for free! There is really no excuse to not be taking a look at these shopping lists before heading out of the store. A few minutes of planning might even help you to get a product for free or for pennies on the dollar. That is one less product that is taking up valuable space in that grocery budget.
Action Item:
Find a local coupon blog in your area of the country and take a look at the coupon match-ups for the stores you shop at.
3.) Stockpile: Stockpiling does not have to mean buying thousands of boxes of Jell-o. Stockpiling is simply buying enough of a product when it reaches its rock-bottom price to get you through the rest of that sales cycle. Successful stockpilers have supplies of most staple products to last for at least a few weeks. When shoppers take the time to build a formidable grocery stockpile they are often surprised to find that they don’t have to go to the store some weeks because everything that is needed for that week’s meals is already on hand. At the very least, shoppers should be stocking up on meat when it hits its rock-bottom price. This step alone can greatly impact any grocery budget.
Action Item:
Start to stockpile items as they hit their low price points. Make sure to be patient as building a stockpile can take some time, but it will pay off in the long run.
What other savings strategies do you use to save money on your grocery budget?