Frugal Shopping Tips

Groceries

• Plan meals in advance. Always go grocery shopping with a list and, as much as possible, stick to it. Have a schedule of menus and a matching grocery list for a week or two and then just cycle through the same menus in the same order again. I've found having the same meals twice a month is not too repetitious for my family, especially my kids. I don't know how many meals of macaroni and cheese I'd have to serve before they got tired of it!
  
  One of my kids favorite meals is pork roast slow cooked in a crock pot ($1.88 pound), a cooked up box of macaroni and cheese from Trader Joe's ($ .99), sliced fresh oranges ( 20 cents for a pound from an ethnic grocery store), and frozen peas (99 cents a pound from a grocery warehouse store). So there is a whole meal with meat, a strach, fruit and a green veggie for under $4.00
  
  
• Be sure not to buy more food than you family can realistically eat. A 2004 study by Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona's Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, found that an average American family of four currently tosses out $590 of groceries per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.
  
  
• Pick one or two stores to go to for groceries that generally have the best deals and then stick to those stores. Remember that time is money, and it takes your time, gas and wear and tear on your car to drive all over town looking for bargains.
  
  
• Keep a price notebook of the lowest prices you can find on your regular purchases. When you see something you normally buy on sale, stock up, but only if you have the room and it is a nonperishable item.
  
  
• For groceries, I've found that warehouse clubs tend to have the lowest prices by far. However, for many perishables, the package quantities are so large that we often end up throwing unused portions out. So I try to go only once a month to either Sam's Club or Costco and then stock up only on nonperishables items.
  
  
• Some fugal living sites and books suggest stocking up on meat and produce from warehouses and freezing unused portions. This may be an economical choice in the short one, but may not be the healthiest choice over the long term. Food often tends to lose vitamins and minerals after freezing, defrosting and reheating, so personally I'd rather shop at the local grocery store for fresh meat and produce, even if it costs a little more. I still think you get more vitamins and minerals for you money this way.

Nonfood Items

• Except for food, avoid buying nonreturnable items. That way you'll avoid "bargain hunter's remorse", i.e. buying something because it was a good deal and not because you really needed it.
  
  
• Just because something is at a thrift shop doesn't mean it is inexpensive. I often see people paying as much for used items at the local thrift stores as they could pay for the item new at a store like Kmart or Walmart.
  
  

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