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 For most of us these days, a trip to the supermarket can be a financially challenging experience. After dramatic price increases in dairy produce, meat, and fruit and veggies, we can find it hard to fill our trolley and still keep within budget.
Here are some tips to help NZ parents take the stress out of shopping and make your food budget go further:
- Always make a shopping list and stick to it.
- Don’t go shopping when you are hungry, stressed, premenstrual or after Friday night drinks at work!
- Don't take the kids if you can possibly avoid it - they will usually persuade you to add more items to the trolley.
- Take a calculator with you so that you can check that bulk deals are really worthwhile, and that you are staying within your food budget for the week
- Buy house brands that look plain with minimal branding, but provide good quality and excellent value.
- Think about shopping online – this will ensure you stick to your list and will save you time and travel costs. Do the sums – the savings will often exceed the delivery costs.
- Watch out for vouchers or coupons in the supermarket fliers in your letterbox – by collecting a number of these each week, you can save many dollars on your grocery bill.
- If you have a choice of supermarkets close by, then make sure you regularly compare prices to get the best deal. My sister shops at Sylvia Park - and gets to compare the prices of three supermarkets - as well as The Mad Butcher and The Warehouse.
- Buy in bulk – as a general rule bulk purchases are cheaper than smaller ones, so go for the biggest pot of peanut butter, a tray of eggs, or the biggest bag of rice (make sure you use your calculator to check that you are really getting a good deal though).
- Another trick is to buy from bulk bins, so that you do not pay for fancy packaging. Dry foods like flour, sugar, raisins and cornflakes are often cheaper from bulk bins.
- Explore other stores in your area for even better deals – I often buy dry goods from a local bulk bin store that is cheaper than our local supermarkets. Large fresh produce stores often have much better prices on fruit and veggies.
- Whilst it is tempting to put treats into your shopping trolley, try hard to avoid chippies, chocolate, fancy desserts and alcohol by staying out of these aisles – you will only succeed in reducing your bank balance and adding to your waistline; when most of us are trying to achieve the exact opposite result!!
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Budget Busters
Try to avoid the following if you want to save money:
- Cigarettes
- Alcohol
- Lollies & Chocolate
- Snack foods
- Ready made dinners
- Ready made desserts
- Expensive brand names
Family Friends
Look out for the friends of family budgeters:
- House brands such as Pam's and HomeBrand
- Bulk deals of any sort
- Fillers for dinner such as beans, potatoes, rice, split peas, lentils and pearl barley
- Ingredients for home baking (big bags of flour, sugar, and bran)
- Cheap cuts of meat that can be slow cooked to make them tender
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