Saving on Your Grocery Bill

I love grocery shopping. I can spend hours in the hypermarkets, browsing through the racks of food stuff, home appliances, colourful fresh produce, with so many brands to choose from, we are spoilt with choice, doesn't we?

But I dread check-out counters, hahaha. First, because of the long queue that always be associated with it (once, I had to queue up to 1 hour!) and secondly because of the figures at the small screen. For my fortnightly grocery shopping, I could easily spend about RM500 for a trolley full of grocery stuff. That about RM1,000 per month and could be more if there is special occassions like Eid, feast for guests etc. I consider that amount as ridiculous as there are only 4 adults in our household, plus one toddler. Si kenit Adeelia. More over, MH and I only eat dinners at home on weekdays and we are usually eating out during weekends and public holidays. So where does the money go, really?

Picture courtesy of Yahoo Image

I have to admit used to be quite ignorance on that. I never pay much attention on the bill eventhough I am the one who fork out my purse to pay for it. I used to fill up my trolley almost subconciously. But with a kid now and higher cost of living, I do feel that grocery stuff could create a heavy dent on my purse, so I have to be more prudent on my spending. Now I keep on track of prices of stuff and compare prices between stores.

Do you know that according to a survey done in the US, the average family of four spends upwards of $1,200 a month on food, or roughly $40 a day. I read up this article where Cooking Light contributing editor and host of Yahoo's Blue Ribbon Hunter Allison Fishman reveals that with smart planning and key ingredients, you can learn to bring that expense down to less than $15 a day! Of course I want to save up that few Ringgit as well, so I have more money for err..other stuff..heh heh..

These are some of my tips on streching my Ringgit that I would like to share:

1. Prioritize

Even if I really want to be a 'pengguna bijak', there are some stuff that my family couldn’t compromise on even there’s a cheaper product of a different brand. That includes: Adeelia’s formula (S26) and diapers (Mamy Poko Easy Pants), Kimball squeeze On Chilli Sauce, Florida Orange Juice (occasional indulgence!), Gardenia Whole Meal bread, my life-saver 3 in 1 Nescafe Rich, Whisper Sanitary Pad, Sensodyne tooth paste, Milo, brown sugar, Buttercup and Faiza Herba Ponni’s Rice. With that in mind, I don't mind substituting other stuff for a cheaper price from different brands.


2. Minimize
I try my best to minimize buying certain stuff that I can made on my own for instance I do not buy pasta sauce (it’s easy to make your own, plus it is a fresher and healthier choice too because no preservative is being used), I make my own bread crumbs using near-expiring breads at home, I avoid buying things that is so perishable (except for veggies, poultry and fish) because most of the time, I will not consume all of it, so there is a higher tendency for it to be ruined, i.e. fresh coconut milk (I used it sparingly in my cooking, so the whole packet is too much for our consumption and also it’s more convenient to use the powder type).


3. Making a Shopping List
I never go grocery shopping without a list in my hand. The reason is solely because I feel lost without it and I hate it when I want to prepare something, only to find that I am running out of the ingredients. However, according to Fishman, “The trick is you've got to plan for it. It's called 'intentional shopping,' which means make a menu, make a shopping list and stick to it. Mapping out your meals can actually save you about 20 percent." Wow!

4. 3 Cs - Compare, Calculate and Complaint
I am amazed how some consumers can remember the price of let say, a kilo of chicken, onions etc. It still doesn’t make any sense to me on how to make comparions based on that. But I do keep track of how much does it cost for a specific item like S26, flour etc.


I do price comparison based on stores. For instance, most of the grocery stuff are cheaper in Tesco and they have great variety too. But there are specific stuff that are cheaper in other stores, for instance Mamy Poko Easy Pants that is even RM4 cheaper in Sogo Supermarket as compared to other places even Tesco and Carrefour.


Another type of comparison is the price shown on the rack and the one on the packet. A few nights ago I found that this particular hypermarket proudly pasted a special Promotion tag for Faiza Herba Ponni's rice at about RM36. However, the suggested retail price of the rice is RM35.80 and it is printed on the packet as well. So who were they trying to kidding?


Basically the rule of thumb is the price of an item is cheaper if you buy it in a bigger packet. For instance, a 250g Milo will cost higer per gram rather than the 1 kg packet. But beware, before you reach out for the bigger pack, please do some quick calculation. To the extreme, at times, I even take out my handphone to use the calculator in order to know the actual price per 1g of an product, than times it with the weight of the bigger pack and get the real price. I do this because in many occassions, I find that some shops fail to address this. For example when I do calculation on the price of Adeelia's 700g pack formula x 2, it is still cheaper than the 1.4kg pack. So rather than taking the bigger package, I rather take two of the smaller ones if it is cheaper.


And if you ever find such discrepancy, please exercise your consumer rights and complaint. Even if it is not done in an official manner, you can at least inform the cashier or supervisor about it so that they can take corrective measures to avoid unsuspecting consumers to be 'tricked' as well.


Jadilah pengguna bijak! =)