Grocery shopping tips and tricks that would make want to shop every day.
Shocking facts;- Lacking the tips and tricks for your grocery shopping is one of the most difficult tasks you will face in your cooking journey. Making a simple grocery list seems to be the hardest kitchen task but shopping for the items on the list is tougher.
If you are new to kitchen and cooking tasks, you should know that not all of the tips will be found in your cooking manual. Your manual is restricted to suggesting exact recipes for your desired meals and snacks.
In this article, I will share with you tips and tricks of grocery shopping you should be using to make everything easier for you. So grab your seat and phone to learn these simple hacks.
1. List Your Grocery Items
Living a healthy lifestyle will forever be a goal for everyone. Your grocery must include healthy items that will improve the conditions of your health. Don’t just assume you will remember to buy a grocery item when you get to the store.
It is advisable and important to jot things down so you won’t forget. At no point has a person remembered all the grocery items he/she wants to buy? Except the person went with a list of all needed grocery items.
Example
- Condiments: this consists of salt, pepper, herbs, honey sugar, and vinegar.
- Meat and Fish: Tuna, Salmon, and Mackerel.
- Grains and Bread.
- Tinned and Dried produce: such as kidney beans, tomatoes, fruits, and nuts.
2. Perishable Foods
Your perishable goods should not stay too long in your kitchen unless you have a stable method to preserve them. In case you may not know, see how you can preserve perishable foods here.
The best suggestion to shop for your perishable grocery is to buy them in the quantities you will need. Don’t buy them in estimation because they could spoil before you know it. Some of the perishable fruits can stay just for some time.
Having your freezer as a backup plan to keep your perishable food could go wrong. It will make you extra confident to overstock your freezer. Whereas, overstocking can damage your freezer as it will reduce the freezing rate.
SEE: Complete List of Foods You Can Freeze
3. Be Informed
Getting to know the market situation is important as knowing what you should take for lunch. Trash the idea that only experts should know the situation of the economy.
You might not go further into details of the state of the economy like the recession or the inflation levels but you should bother yourself with information on the season of the plantains or the bad fish and chicken sold currently in some stores that must be avoided.
Get informed by subscribing to newsletters, and picking up flyers and cards. That coupon code you need might just be waiting there.
4. Create a Pocket-Friendly Budget
The amount of money you hold is enough to let you know what you will include in your grocery budget. Having enough money makes shopping interesting as you will leave no item on the list unpurchased. When you do not have money, prepare your budget according to what you have left on you. Do not overestimate.
To save more on your grocery shopping, look out for discounts and coupons. I recommend that you check out Surveystor for such amazing offers.
5. Leftovers Should Be Used Over
Trust you have never thought of this. Your leftovers should never be put away. You will certainly have leftovers after arranging, sorting, and using the groceries you need. These leftovers can be turned into another dish if managed properly.
You will be amazed at what you will get after gathering all of your leftovers to turn them into new casseroles or bites as snacks. Instead of disposing of your leftovers, use your creativity and bring out the imagined meal.
SEE: Transform Your Meatloaf Leftovers Into These Delicious Meals
6. Grab a Sizeable Cart
If you are shopping for your grocery online, you do not need to bother about picking up a sizeable cart. It is automatic as you click your wished grocery. Going into a physical store mandates this. You will need to pick up a sizeable cart for the list of items you are purchasing. No matter how small the list is, you will need to get a cart to put them in. Do not be so lazy to keep picking and hanging them on your hands.
If your list is long, grab a rolling cart, and if your grocery list is short grab the handbasket. You can get both the rolling cart and handbasket by the side of the store’s door. When leaving, do not forget to drop your basket or cart by the conveyor after making payments for your goods.
7. Use Customer Service
Your friend when making grocery purchases is the Customer Service agent online or the Help Desk agent in the store. They are there for you alone. Don’t hesitate to make use of them whenever you have queries or feel unsatisfied with any of your purchases. They are always ready to let you know that you will get a refund for any of your goods if expired or are bad at the initial taste.
SEE: List of Foods You Should Not Refrigerate?
8. Profile Checking
All of your grocery products should be crossed checked properly before pick up. When shopping online, you can check the profiles of your grocery products just below the page of the good before you payout.
One major thing you must look out for is the expiry date of the goods. An expired product is harmful to your health. Stores also do not include expired goods on their stalls but there are times when mistakes happen.
In that sense, check and check again when at the store for the expiry date of any of the grocery products you are buying. If you are on diet and following your medical guide, you can check the profiles for their nutritional facts and allergies too.
SEE: Are Spring Rolls Safe for a Gluten-Free Diet?
9. Don’t Follow the Store’s Direction
Most stores are designed to entice buyers to follow the right path at the entrance. You will hardly see any store that does not give direction to follow the right path because sellers know that it is a psychological fact that most individuals are used to turning right at the entrance of any store.
To shop for your grocery, do not fall for the enticement to follow the right path. You can go left or go upwards. You will be lucky to find out that awesome goods are just placed right there. It is a strategy store owners employ to control what customers buy. Explore all directional pathways in the store effectively and carefully.
10. Make a Pantry Checklist
Another trick you need to know to shop for your grocery is to create a checklist for every item in your pantry. When you use an item you cross the sidebar to indicate it has been used. If you have more of the same item, you should also indicate it on the list with a slash equivalent to the number of items available. This list will help to know what you should buy as you prepare for your grocery shopping.
11. Buy in Bulk
There is a secret I will like to share with you with regards to buying your grocery in bulk. Bulk products are cheaper at stores. You save more and you get more. That’s the idea of buying in bulk. Try it out in your next grocery shopping.
But take note, this does not counter the rule that you should buy only quantities you need for your perishables. You do not need to buy your perishables in bulk if you are not sure of how to preserve them.
SEE: Food Storage Mistakes You Should Avoid From Now
12. Shop Midweek
Let’s remember what Pastor Jake said in the church a few weeks ago there are times and seasons for everything under the sun. This is true when it comes to shopping too. You have to know when and where to do your shopping. The common idea that the weekend is best for shopping is actually the worst time.
The perfect timing for your grocery shopping should be mid-week and must be done early in the morning or at night. When you go at this time, you will find out the best deals are waiting for you. You will also avail yourself of the opportunity to choose the best food items without being in a hurry.
Another secret I will reveal to you is to find out when your local grocery store will restock. If you know this, you will be able to get the cheapest grocery items for the new items that are just brought in to replace the old items.
13. Shop Only on a Full Stomach
The idea of buying your grocery on a full stomach is to cut off buying excess food items that you will not need. When you decide to do your grocery shopping the moment you are hungry, you tend to buy more than you need at home. The result of doing this is that you are treading on the path to food wastage.
14. Check Your List on the Aisle
As you shop, have in hand your list written before you left home. Offhand or imaginative list checking will not help your shopping journey. You tend to miss out on items you might have bought or not. But when you have the list right in your cart or on your notepad on your phone, you can easily tick the items as you’re buying them.
15. Pick Healthy Snack for Your Children
Sometimes your kids will tell you to buy junk for them. As a mother, you might want to listen but do not. Junks ain’t healthy for them. Buy only healthy snacks and goodies such as raisins, and popcorn to name a few for their school lunch and after play at home.
SEE: Are Crackers Gluten-Free? Read This Before You Buy One More Cracker
16. Walk down Aisles That Have What You Need
Although exploring all aspects of the stores, can help out in getting the best of any grocery item. It can be a little bit tricky if one does that. Exploring all parts of the stores leads to the temptation of buying what you do not need.
To save yourself from this temptation, all you have to do is to walk down aisles that have the items you need. You are sure to save more by abiding by this principle.
17. Avoid Food Samples
Making available free food samples is marketing strategy stores utilize to get consumers to buy more. A major thing these free samples do to you is that you are eager to know why it is made available whether you taste them or not.
Now check this out, the tag reads try out this sample and get a reduction of price. Isn’t that compelling enough? That’s the trick stores pull on you as a consumer. To counter this trick, you have to also learn not to try those free food samples.
SEE: Grenadine Substitute Most People Didn’t Know Are Good for Cocktails
18. Pay Attention to Unit Price Rather than the Overall Price
My pal once went to a store to buy a yogurt but didn’t realize the price stipulated was the general price. He ignored this and also forgot to ask at the point of payment. To his amazement, he paid more than what he saw as the price.
To avoid making the mistake my friend made, you should know that the overall item price is only approximate to what you will be getting the items for. Only unit prices are specific and accurate.
20. Buy Produce in Season
This rule works perfectly for fruits and vegetables. Referring to the rule I share about timing; as a grocery shopper monitor the seasons of food items. This will help you in making decisions about what to buy and when to buy it.
If you decide to buy fruits and vegetables when they are not in season, it means you are ready to pay more for less. Food items generally become expensive when they are out of stock and out of season.
SEE: Hidden Facts On Organic Foods You Don’t Know
20. Look at the Top and Bottom Shelf
Big brands love to liaise with stores to display their products at the top of the shelf. Not that the goods below the shelf were deliberately put there but the top-shelf slot is a first come first serve thingy.
As a buyer, if you are a fan of product names being displayed in your house, the top-shelf goods are the best for you. If you want to save a bit of your money, the lower-shelf goods are appropriate. They are tagged with low prices compared to the top-shelf goods.
FAQs
What is a grocery list important?
It helps you keep track of all the things you need, sometimes as long as 20 things or more, and also helps remind you when an item is already running low so that you can think of ways to replace it or whether it makes sense to replace it at all.
How do you know if an item is worth buying in bulk?
A food item is worth buying in bulk if it’s not perishable or you will be able to use it before it spoils or expires.
Final Thought
Grocery shopping can be a chore if you aren’t prepared. This can cause you to throw money away in food that spoils, rush through your shopping, make impulse buying decisions without thinking it through, or not have time to prepare meals with the foods you are buying.
Groceries are necessities, they’re not exciting. The goal is to buy what you need, and then get out of the store as quickly as possible. Being aware of the tricks they use will definitely make your experience more pleasant and effective when you do grocery shopping.
So before you go to the next grocery store that you have to go to, take note of the above tips and tricks of grocery shopping. They will come in handy.
Want to learn more tips and tricks to save more while you spend less? Check out these secrets to cut your grocery bill in half.
Please feel free to explore Cheffist for more helpful tips and guides. Thanks for reading.
