frugal zeitgeist

How To Avoid Going To The Supermarket

Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by Dragon Sue in Featured, Recipes & Food, Saving Money & Finances

There is a good reason for wanting to avoid going to the Supermarket, and it is because they have a whole army of experts at parting you from your hard earned cash. The isles have been set out to tempt you in the best possible way, the higher priced goods are all at eye level and you have to crouch down on the floor to get the lower priced stuff, the sweets are by the till, the music is designed to make you feel good, …. The list goes on an on!

So the easiest way to save money is to avoid going to the Supermarket, simple.

“HAH!” I hear you shout, or words to that effect.

But it is simple really, as the Supermarkets have put the tools you need in your hands for you, and all you have to do is a little bit of planning.

Yes, I know, that means being organised, and in this day and age, few people feel they have the time to organise their own bed time, let alone a shopping trip. But trust me, with a little fore-thought, you will save yourself so much time, and money, you will wonder why you didn’t do it before, and all it takes is four simple steps.

Step number One.

Write a list of your families favourite meals, and the ingredients that go in to them. Think about how long you want to stay away from the supermarket, is it a week, a month, or longer? Lets, for arguments sake say you’re planning for a week. That means seven days of main meals, lunches and breakfasts. This will give you an idea of what you need in the food department.

Note from Forest: Check out my post on Once A Month Cooking Recipes, this ebook can save you a lot of shopping trips and help your meal planning…

Step number Two.

Go to your fridge, freezer and store cupboard and look at what is there. What needs to be used up? Is there anything that can be crossed off the ingredient list? Or better still, is there anything there that can be used to make a different meal from one of the ones you had planned, so you can cross the planned meals ingredients off? Now carefully think about all the other little things you need to get, detergent, toilet rolls, shampoo, that kind of stuff, all that needs to be added to the list too.

Step number Three.

Go to your computer with your shopping list in hand, and log on to your Supermarkets website and enter your shopping in. If your Supermarket is like mine, it will tell you if there are cheaper options available, and give you the choice of swapping if you so wish. Be tough, the Supermarket will try to tempt you with all sorts of special offers for things that are not on your list, and unless you have genuinely forgotten to add them to your list, don’t put them in your basket!

Step number Four.

This is the last and hardest step of all. You have planned your meals, and it took a lot less time than you thought it would, once you sat down and did it. You have ordered your shopping online, so have avoided all the pitfalls of visiting the shop and slipping the odd extras in to your basket. You deserve a medal for doing all that, BUT, if you visit a single shop before a week is up, it has all been for nothing! All your hard work will have gone to waste! DON’T DO IT! If you discover something has been forgotten, then it wasn’t all that important anyway, put it on the list for the next shop, and go without until then. You might be surprised at how little you miss it.

Note from Forest: Thanks go out to Sue again for another excellent article….. I try and avoid going to the Supermarket for the exact reasons Sue pointed out!!

Related Posts B

1. Free Printable Grocery Coupons
2. How To Save Money On Groceries
3. OAMC
4. Once A Month Cooking Recipes
5. Christmas Preparation, Are You Ready?

Tags: avoiding shopping, bargain grocery shopping, once a month cooking, saving money grocery store