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There’s nothing wrong with picking up a tip here or there on how to buy cheap groceries. It’s all good and every little bit helps. But it's summer time and we'd like to extend you an invitation to attend our buy ch eap grocery training camp. If you make it through this rigorous training session, you should end up with an extra hundred or two in your pocket a month - every month. Many of you have already completed a good part of this course and you’re buffed up and good to go. But even some of our veteran cheapsters might learn a thing or two to hone up on their grocery saving skills. Here's 7 lessons to get cheap groceries:
1. Buy Cheap Store Brands
Resist the branded propaganda. We’re not saying it’s easy. You need to work at it. This is absolutely essential. If you’re actively working to control your grocery budget, avoid paying a stiff premium for reaching out for emotionally comforting products that gives you nothing but a familiar package. Remember, 80% of generic products are considered as good or BETTER than branded products.
Related Article: 10 Ways to Shift to Buying Generics
2. Avoid Shrinking Groceries
Don’t be fooled by packages that look full size but have shrunk. Manufacturers are shrinking the contents of everything from pasta sauce to orange juice. The key is to learn to read the size information on the package and compare the cost per ounce, gram, pound or whatever other measurement they give you. Don't worry, you'll likely have a calculator on your mobile phone if the math makes your head spin like 8th grade trigonometry.
Related Articles: Shrinking Groceries and our update Six More Shrinking Groceries from our readers.
3. Know the Grocery Scams
Grocery stores know how to work you over. Manipulating you starts the minute you walk through the door. Make sure you know all the tricks like pumping water into your meat and the trap of going for the milk and bread and ending up with a basketful of stuff you probably don't need. The more you know the less you are likely to blow your grocery budget. A great technique to keep from overspending is making a list and sticking to it and avoid going to the store hungry.
Related Article: 5 Grocery Scams
4. Use Coupons: Or Not
To Coupon or Not? Good question. The plus of coupons is that you can save money especially if you double the coupon or even triple it. Combine that with a sale and sometimes you can even get an item for free. The downside? The time and effort. If you are pressed for time, go for the easy layups like store coupons that often build upon sale prices to offer excellent deals. Sit down for 5 minutes before you go to the store and figure out what you are going to "steal" by getting the loss leaders that you need. More power to you if you can use coupons but you can still cut 20% or more off your food bill by being smart about what you buy and stocking up on super deals. Cheap groceries don't always mean using coupons.
Related Articles: Free Groceries at Target and Cheap Groceries Without Coupons
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