Do You Have A Grocery Budget
To Help Avoid Impulse Buying?

Expiration Dates

When trying to stick to a grocery budget you need to look closely at the expiration dates on perishable goods. You don't want to end up throwing out any items that goes bad and effectively lost the money you spent. That is not one of our grocery saving tips that will keep you on budget.

This seems pretty basic but it’s amazing how many people don’t pay attention to the expiation dates. Some items have relatively long shelf lives and others have a short expiration.

You can take advantage of expiration dates by looking for meats marked "reduced for quick sale." They should be consumed the same day or frozen. They are priced at a fraction of the cost of the regular item.

You need to be careful though.There is no point in getting anything that is going to go bad in a few days. It’s one thing to save money on groceries but another to compromise your health!

Unit Prices

Watch the per-unit-cost labeling that many stores place in front of you on their shelves. These are great to compare prices of similar products. It is interesting to find that smaller quantities can sometimes be priced less that larges amounts.

The assumption is that bigger is always less expensive. This is not always the case so keep an eye out for the unit price!

Multiple Item Sale

A common advertising gimmick that grocery stores use is to have multiple items for sale. Like 10 for $10 or 3 for $5 and so on. First of all, you are not required to buy the full quantities like they make it sound.

You can buy any quantity and still receive the discounted price and stay within your grocery budget. Most folks are aware of this but it's worth mentioning. Careful though, when you break down price per unit, you may find that you are only getting a small price break.

What if it’s only a 35-cent discount? Just make sure you like the item before you stock up on something that only has a small discount.

Buy Elsewhere

With Supermarket/Grocery stores stocking more and more general merchandise outside of groceries, it's no wonder we can spend a long time shopping.

Stick to buying groceries at the grocery store and avoid buying things you can potentially get for less money at a hardware or department store.

Impulse Buying

Everyone has noticed all of the products that they put right at the checkout lane in the stores (all stores included). This is because they have figured out the people are very apt to make impulse purchases when they are at the checkout line.

If you are trying to maintain a grocery budget don’t give in to the temptation to snatch thing off of those shelves at the checkout.

Five Second Rule

Try to get used to the five-second rule if you really want to stay within a grocery budget. When you pick something up at the store and prior to putting it in your basket, ask yourself why you're buying the item and if you really need it (giving yourself 5 seconds).

If you don’t have a good reason for purchasing the item then put it back on the shelf. This helps minimize impulse buying every time you use this method.

Check Your Receipt

Check your receipt before you leave the grocery store to make certain that everything rang up correctly. Sometimes they have the item listed incorrectly in the computer or an item that you thought was on sale does not ring-up with the sale price. It's also not uncommon for a cashier to accidentally scan an item twice. Did they deduct the free grocery coupons you handed to them?

Mistakes are sometimes made, so it pays to review your receipt for accuracy.

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