Life Hackery

With the global economy getting a bit sluggish and close to faltering at its weakest points, even the average ordinary American consumer is feeling the pinch. The global credit crunch affects everyone from the stockbrokers at Wall Street to weekend shoppers at Wal-Mart. The economy is taking a downturn, but that doesn’t mean you have to sell all your assets and move to a poorhouse. Everyone should do their part to cope with the crisis. Rich and poor alike have to tighten their belts and make some necessary sacrifices to save money, which means making a few sacrifices on the lifestyles that you’re used to.

You don’t have to make fancy and complicated business decisions to save money. One of the small things you can do to save money – and the economy – is to find ways to save on your weekly grocery expenses. Here are some ways that you can get your weekly shopping done without burning a hole in your wallet.

1. Buy Wholesale

Bigger boxes and packages may look expensive at first, but you can save more money if you buy wholesale products. Whenever you go to the grocery store or the supermarket, the best things always come in the biggest packages. Wholesale buying limits the number of trips you have to make to the grocery store. Wholesale items are perfect for foodstuffs and supplies that you use most often at home, like flour, condiments, cooking oil, soap, shampoo, and cleaning ingredients.

Another advantage to buying wholesale items is that you can also find useful bonus items. Large boxes of soap may contain free items like sponges, scouring pads, promotional saucers, or even small plastic pails that you can use all around the home. If you’re at the supermarket, try to stay away from smaller retail boxes or packages as much as you can. You should only buy retail if you’re running short on grocery money.

2. Buy Supermarket Brand Products

Some supermarket brand products have the same quality as name brand products, but for a lower and more affordable price. Before supermarkets started to build up the quality of their private-label items, store brands were considered of inferior quality compared to name brand products.

With commodity prices on the rise, you may want to try store-packaged private-label items that come from the supermarket. There’s no harm in experimenting with non-name brand products as long as you’re confident they’re safe. Try to buy retail amounts of supermarket products. If you’re not satisfied with the quality of the product, then you can go back to the name brand products that you’ve always used. Chances are you would find the store-brand product just as good as the original.

3. Clip Coupons

Everybody’s clipping coupons these days. Coupons are not just for those who ran out of money paying the bills, but also for people who want to cut down a hefty grocery shopping bill. You can find coupons on magazines, product packages (like cereal boxes and detergent boxes), and promotional brochures and calendars from stores.

Even if you find coupon-clipping tedious and boring, you can save as much as 15% in cold cash when you shop with coupons. To make coupon-clipping and collecting easier, have the whole family pitch in. You can make clipping coupons a family affair. Have everyone in the family clip and collect coupons. Not only would you have enough to save on grocery bills, but you can also teach your children the value of thriftiness.

4. Schedule Your Shopping

Sometimes it’s very tempting to do grocery shopping after payday, where you wouldn’t have problems managing your money for your shopping needs. While this is a convenient way to shop, it does make you think that you have more money to spend. You may end up buying things you don’t need, or buy more expensive products because you can afford them for now. It’s smart practice to delay your shopping a week after payday, so that you’ll have a better idea of how much you can afford to spend.

5. Shop at Saver’s Stores

Saver’s stores have special offers like rebates and frequent-shopper discount cards. Not only do saver’s stores have a more affordable price for goods because they sell items wholesale, but you also have a wide-ranging choice of stuff to choose from. For a nominal membership fee, saver’s stores offer you many perks like rebates, discounts, and even free items for promos.

While you’re at the saver’s store, get as much of the stuff you can buy and you can afford. The trick to smart shopping is to make as few trips to the store as possible. Stock up your car with enough room and gas, and buy items wholesale. Use your rebates, discount cards, and other promotional discounts to your advantage.

6. Don’t Buy on Impulse

The old reliable grocery list is a very important part of smart shopping. Grocery lists may seem obsolete or time-consuming, but they’re the best way to keep track of what you’re supposed to buy. Whether you use the old reliable pen-and-paper grocery list or bring a PDA with you when you go shopping, you should always keep track of everything from quantity to cost.

Impulse-buying will get you nowhere, except maybe for being a few dollars short of the shampoo-and-conditioner package. As much as possible, stick to your list. Have everything settled from quantity, cost, and how much you’re willing to spend for a sandwich and a cola just in case you get hungry while shopping. Organize your list the day before you shop, and try your best to follow every item on the list down to the last punctuation mark.

At first, shopping may not seem like the best way that you can help a falling dollar and a faltering economy. Yet with the right mindset and a bit of discipline, you can help yourself, even as an ordinary consumer, roll with the rocky and often intimidating world of global business. If you enjoy reading this article, you’ll surely be interested in learning how to spend money wisely.

* Know how to live through a recession, By buying what is only needed, eating healthy on a budget and re-using stuff that will truly save money.