Mastering the Shopping List Will Help Save Money

I think we all go to the grocery store nowadays with a list. We all know the old adages such as "Don't shop when you are hungry" or "Don't impulse shop" etc.What they don't tell us is what to put on that list.

Mastering the Shopping List Will Help Save Money
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Don_Lester]Don Lester

I think we all go to the grocery store nowadays with a list. We all know the old adages such as "Don't shop when you are hungry" or "Don't impulse shop" etc. What they don't tell us is what to put on that list.

For example I myself open all my cupboard doors and make up my list according to what is getting low in my basic stock. If I keep 2 cans of tomato soup in my cupboard and find I am now down to 1 or none then they go on my list accordingly. I do the same with the fridge supply.

Making up my list in this manner has only been in the past 10 years or so. I find I have become lax in making up my list and allowing us extras we do not need as well as buying some of those prepared packaged foods. These are expensive to say the least.There was a time when our kids were growing up when I had to be much more careful of what went on my grocery list.

Of course I watched for the specials and those prepared packaged foods were nonexistent.

If you are on a budget and you have a specific allotted amount set aside for groceries you may find that prepared foods and even picking up some of those specials puts you over your budget. It is all well and good to save money by buying those case lot specials but on the other hand you may find you have spent more by buying a case of soup, when you only needed 2 cans and now will go over your budget or not be able to buy something else you really need.

On my budget I found that quite often I just could not afford to buy in bulk. The old saying goes "You have to have money to save money" and that is so true on a low income, it is very difficult.

The old way of making up my list and one which I think now I may revert back to is to make up a list of the meals you will cook over the period of time you are shopping to cover. For example, if you are paid every 2 weeks then you are probably shopping for 14 days supply. What I did was to make a list of 14 meals and then place on my grocery list what I needed to make those 14 meals.

At times this was a challenge! I remember I used to buy 1 head of lettuce and 2 tomatoes. This would give our family of 4 a lettuce and tomato salad once each week. One day I went to make our salad and found someone had eaten 1 of the tomatoes which of course meant the whole family was out of luck for a salad that week. Maybe you think I was to strict with my shopping but it had to be done to manage on our income.

You may not want to be this strict with your grocery supplies but if you are in the position where every dollar counts it's the best way to keep control of your food budget. Of course this only works when you have control over the kids going into the fridge and taking things without asking. It helps to make snacks a requirement on your grocery list and explain to the kids that these and only these are for snacking.

In the long run whichever way you prepare your list to guide you while you shop mastering your list will definitely help you save money.

Don has been a financial consultant for over 20 years and tries to provide valuable information for people in difficult times. As someone who has been there. He supports a website called http://helpinhardtimes.com as a way for people to get their lives back on track and possibly even make the money they need to make it through rough times.

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