Grocery Saving Tips

I saw an article recently about a grocery budgeting coach. This coach has a mission, which is to help families buy nutritious food while saving themselves up to $400 a month on food bills.
Obviously, some of her ideas are ones that you already use. But, maybe there will be something new for you.
Here are her ideas:

• Use coupons.
• Don’t buy fresh, cold juice – buy the 1L tetra packs.
• Buy frozen meats and vegetables (rather than fresh). She says you don’t lose any nutrient value and they’re often cheaper.
• Instead of bread, buy tortilla wraps. You can get 12 sandwiches out of one package that will cost you between $2.00-$2.50.
• Instead of buying real lemons – buy lemon juice.
• Use margarine instead of butter for baking.
  

Here are some more grocery saving tips, from myself and others: (even though we’re not grocery budget coaches!)

• Know grocery prices. Not everything advertised in the flyers are actually "deals", know what a good price is and you won't be ripped off.
• Make a grocery list of all the things you need before you head out to the grocery stores. This way, you can just quickly pick up the groceries on your list and head right out. The longer you stay in the store, the higher the chance that you'll be buying more than what you came for. Also remember to stick to your list!
• Ask for rain checks if the item is sold out. Rain checks allow you to take advantage of the sale price at a later date even after the sale has ended.
• Do not grocery shop on an empty stomach. When you're hungry, you will probably buy more and make impulse purchases because everything looks so appetizing.
  
• Always check unit prices. Don't assume that the larger sizes are a better deal. Check the unit price on the package when comparing products.
  
• Walmart will match all advertised prices. If Food Basics is having their $1 days and No frills have some items on sale, before you go to 3 or 4 stores just bring the flyers with you to Walmart and they will honour the advertised price. This will save you gas and time and you can stock up on all the items you need in one store.
• Don’t be loyal to certain brand names.
• Decide your weekly dinner menu based on what’s on sale at the store you shop at.
• Look at the flyers when they come to your house and decide which one has the most items that you need and then only shop there (okay maybe two stores total). The more stores you go to, the more you’ll spend and then the more you will buy things that you really don’t need.
• Use up what’s in your cupboard already.
• Decide how much you are spending before you go shopping and then take out cash for your grocery shopping trip. This way you are not tempted to spend more than you had planned on.
• Sometimes stores put their fresh meat on sale first thing in the morning or in the evening. You can call your usual grocery store and ask them if they do this. Usually it’s 50% off and it doesn’t expire for another day or two so I just bring it home and freeze it. In St. Catharines, I’ve gone to Metro (formerly A&P) and Zehrs and they have their meat reduced between 8:00 and 9:00am.
• Buy fruit when it’s “in season.”
  

If you have any other grocery tips, let me know!
Happy shopping!

Setting Financial Goals

Having goals for our finances helps us to measure our success and also will hopefully motivate us more with our financial planning.

For me, since I am an avid budgeter, I love setting goals because it’s something more exciting than just writing out your budget and following it.

Here is how you would go about writing your goals:

1.Make a list of five to ten goals you might have, either as an individual or as a couple.
These goals could be anything from paying off debt, buying a new lawnmower or saving for retirement. Think about short and long term goals. When you write down your goals think positively (I want to save for a vacation) rather than negatively (I wish I could stop spending so much money.)

Don’t spend time analyzing these goals at this time, just write them down.

2. Once you’ve written down these financial goals, think about and discuss what they actually mean. For each goal, ask yourself these questions:

• If you have a partner, do we both agree on this goal? If not, how can we compromise?
• When do I want to achieve this goal?
• How am I going to start working on this goal?
• Do I need help from anyone?
• What are some obstacles that need to be overcome before starting this goal?

There was a study done in 1979 of 1000 graduating Harvard students. Of these students, 84% of them had no defined goals. About 13% of the students had goals, but not in writing. These 13% of students earned twice as much on average as the students without a plan. Then there were 3% who had written goals and these students earned, on average, 10 times more than the other 97% without any written goals.

To have effective goals, use the following to help you: (SMART goals)

Specific: You might have a goal of “traveling” or maybe you want to “retire comfortably.” The question you have to ask yourself is “Where do you want to travel?” “How much will it cost you to travel?” As far as retiring comfortably, “How much money do you need by the time you retire?”

Measurable: It’s easier to achieve goals if you attach a money goal to it. That way you can keep track of how you are doing with your desired goal.

Attainable: This means that you know your goals can be reached.

Realistic: Your goals may be attainable, but are they realistic? For instance, becoming a millionaire is attainable, but if you are working from nothing, becoming one next week isn’t realistic.

Time-specific: Set a specific date for each of your goals. This could be one month, one year or even a day.

3.Next, you need to develop a plan. Keep in mind what you learned about SMART goals when writing in this next part. You need to decide exactly how you are going to reach your goals. For example, if you goal is to buy a home next year, your objectives might be to improve your credit scores and to save $7000 for a down payment.

Or if your goal was to start a savings account for your kid’s college education, your objective might be to find $100 a month in your budget and open up an account where they automatically withdraw this amount.

So – go to it. Write a plan.

Practically, I would make a table with there headings - Goal, Objectives and Key Dates.
For example, in my short term goal table it would look like this:
Goal: buy a new lawnmower
Objective: Save $35 a month
Key Date: Purchase a lawnmower in April 2010 (I would have $245.00)

Obviously your goals will change because you will go through different stages of life and also because you will reach some of your goals and want to set new ones.

The main thing is to have something tangible to work towards.

Have Fun!