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• Make your Christmas dollar go further

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Save on Groceries

Shop on a Friday, according to a survey by the Bailey Group, you can save up to $30 a week on a typical $150 basket of groceries. Read more.  

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Bulk buy items such as laundry powder, nappies and wipes when the large department stores (Kmart and Target) have their store wide 15% off sales.

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Restrict the number of lavish meals you make, the usually require alot of ingredients and expensive ingredients as well. Keep it simple, 4 - 5 ingredients. 

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Use farmers markets, you can find out if there is one near you through the Farmers Market Website.

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Aussie Farmers Direct provide a great deal of value in fresh food and diary produce, best of all its delievered direct to your door! www.aussiefarmers.com.au.

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Don't do your next shop until you have cleaned out your pantry, you will be surprised what you will find and can make do with for a couple of days.

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Make sure your are aware of expiry dates, you can waste alot of food by neglecting to notice when it has expired. Organise your pantry so the current food is always at the forefront. 

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Choose your fruit and vegetables wisely, there are tell tale signs to look out for. An orange with a thick skin will be drier and have less juice than a thin skinned orange. For further information, be sure to visit Cooking Amercia.

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You can still get good value out from bakery items discounted because they are a day old. Simple reheat in the oven for 10 mins to freshen up. Chocolate mud cakes go down a treat when warmed, and served with a touch of ice cream. 

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Take the time to work out the value, what volume are you truely getting for your money, would you get better value if you purchased the larger item, instead. For example, Huggies baby wipes, retail for approximately $12.99 for 240 and $10.99 for 160, you actually get better value for money spending the extra $2.00. 

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Grow your own herbs and vegtables. Check out Bunnings How to Guides. 

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Have you checked how much money you spend on junk food, chips, chockies, or other little treats you buy whilst shopping? It can really add up over the year in money and kilos, too.

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Or perhaps you are shopping at the wrong time? For instance, if you shop on an empty stomach, you will more than likely buy more food than you need at the time.

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Shopping with the kids also leads to buying treats just to keep the gang happy. However, with many supermarkets open to midnight, it works a treat to shop in the evening without the stress of the kids, and after dinner when all those delicious foods you wanted when you where hungry are less enticing. Not only that, but if you go straight after dinner, you will not only avoid peak times at the supermarket, you can also leave the dishes for dad and or the kids.

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The best way to save money at the supermarket is to buy only what you need. Make a list before you go and stick to it. Basic food items like milk, cheese, and bread are essential needs. That bottle of expensive olives, just because it is reduced, is not. Buying things simply because they are on special, or because you like what you see, is impulse buying.

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One of the oldest methods of encouraging impulse shopping is to put the necessities like bread and milk as far away from the checkout as possible. That means you have to thread your way through the whole store to get to them—and maybe see something on way that you just must have, and ‘pop’ it goes into your trolley. There are many more. Ever wonder why the chocolate bars, magazines, and refrigerated drinks (which cost twice as much) are at the checkout counter? They look so good and it’s so easy to just put them straight on the counter and you’ve paid before you’ve thought properly about it. So stop befoer you get to the cash register and review what you have put in your trolley.

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Even the small treats can add up alarmingly. If you buy one small $1.20 treat on an average per week, it will cost $64.20 in a year. That’s real money!  The problem is that even when you are aware of the tricks (most of which are not obvious), it is sometimes still difficult to separate a genuine need from a simple desire for that item.

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To help refrain from impulse shopping, try to reduce the chances of encountering a situation that may motivate you to make an eventually unwanted purchase. One way to help in the supermarket is to always shop with a checklist of the items you need and stick to it. The most fundamental way to save when shopping for groceries is to buy only what you need. Walking into a shop with a vague idea of what you want is asking for trouble. It is the quickest way to fall victim to the saver's worst enemy, impulse buying.

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Another way to keep from buying what you don’t really need is to plan your family meals. Try to get into the habit of preparing for meals a week or two in advance. That will take a bit more time to start, but you’ll save time and money in the long run.

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Do a little research, too. Ask yourself, what are the most cost effective meals that would be suitable to your family’s palate? For me, I know the kids love mince. (Luckily it’s cheap, too.) But you can’t serve the same dish too often. What I do is Google recipes + mince meat to find new and exciting dishes I can serve up with out the gourmet price tag. My family quickly becomes bored with the same dish each week, so I make an effort to source new recipes to keep dinner interesting.

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Once you have an idea of the meals you intend to serve over the coming week or so, you can start to work out what ingredients you need. Get into the habit of writing shopping lists. Working out what you have in the pantry and what you need will ensure you buy only necessary items. If you don’t need it right away, don’t buy it. You may never need it or it might go bad before you get around to using it, and just be a waste of money.

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Also, be sensible when planning meals. For instance, use recipes that have some of the same ingredients as others. For example tomato paste is a lot cheaper in a big 500gram jar rather than the smaller tubs. If you are going to use it in one of the meals you have planned for the week, buy the bigger jar and plan recipes for the next week that incorporate this same ingredient.

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To save even further, don’t throw out those ’junk mail’ catalogues from the supermarkets. There are often many good specials that you could incorporate in your next week or two’s meal planning. If you lack a little inspiration, try Googling a few ingredients and see what recipes are out there. Planning your meals around the weekly specials will ensure you maximise every opportunity to save money.

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And don’t forget to compare supermarket prices. There is definitely money to be saved by checking who’s got the lowest prices. However, it will only be worthwhile when the product saving is greater than the cost of actually frequenting the cheaper supermarket. If you have to travel some distance to get to the cheaper supermarket, the cost of transportation could well outweigh the savings made. If you need to travel far to the cheaper supermarket, make sure you are gaining savings across a number of items.

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When deciding on the weekly menu, consider all-in-one dishes like casseroles and stews. All-in-one meals often use cheaper cuts of meat that tenderise by long cooking times. During the winter months especially, I often resort to one casserole dish everybody likes, throw everything into it, then straight into the oven and dinner is done.

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You can set up a regular shopping list, at www.myshoppinglist.com.au.

 

 

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