You Gotta Buy Food…But You Don’t Have To Break Your Budget

With food costs rising and falling and rising again, it’s hard to stick to a budget and save a few dollars at the grocery store. Not to mention the hassle of looking for the best bang for your buck! Here are a few simple tips to follow that will help you stay on the right financial track when it’s time to load your cart.

1.      Don’t shop when you’re hungry - You’ve heard it before, you’ve heard it a thousand times. If you grocery shop on an empty stomach, chances are you’ll end up with a lot more in your cart than what’s on your list and in your wallet. Plan out your shopping trip and go after you’ve had a satisfying meal at home. You’ll be able to concentrate on your shopping and be able to differentiate between needs and wants easier.

2.      Don’t shop on a time limit - If you’re crunched for time when you stop to shop, you’ll end up grabbing the first product you see with the label “spaghetti sauce” on it, rather than looking at all of the brands of sauce and choosing the better deal. If you have less time to check all of the brands and prices, you’ll most likely spend a lot more than you anticipated.

3.      Make a list - Before you go to the store, make a clear and concise list of everything that you NEED. Don’t put down that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream you’ve been thinking about all day- unless you plan it into your budget. Temptations for buyers are everywhere at the grocery store. Avoid them with a specific list.

Saving while will truly bring a long list of benefits in your life. Just like any other changes, this can be a monumental challenge and oftentimes, you won’t realize its importance until you see it clearly i.e. the savings building in your credit union account!

Don’t forget to follow Honor on Twitter @honorcu!  Tweet us and let us know what you want to hear us talk about on Mason Jar Monday next week using #askhonorcu!

To listen to 97.5 Y-Country’s Wild Bill and Honor’s Kaylee Williams talk about saving at the supermarket, listen to the Mason Jar Monday episode below.

Tips To Spot The Best Deal At The Grocery Store

It’s cookout season!  As you prepare for your next family barbecue, a trip to the grocery store is most likely going to be needed.  Keep more coins in your Mason Jar with these tips on spotting the best deal at the grocery store!

• Look at more than just eye-level.  Shelf space and placement is a hot commodity in stores.  The eye-level items may not be the best priced, but rather the company that paid the most for that shelf space.  Look high and low on the shelf for other options of the same item.

• Take a second look at the generic brand.  Now there might be items that your family isn’t willing to go generic on, but many times the generic brand (like Meijer or Spartan) is just as tasty if not better for less than ½ the cost!

• Bulk is not always better.   Look at the price and total quantity of the per pound option vs the bulk before assuming the bulk is better.  Often times bulk is exactly the same cost per unit.  If your family really really loves that item and would have no issue eating it before it spoils, then bulk may be the way to go, but not always. There’s nothing worse than thinking you got a great deal, to end up throwing half of it away because it went bad in the back of the pantry.

• Read your coupons carefully.  Some coupons are the golden ticket and save you tons, and then some don’t end up saving you that much at all.  If a coupon requires you to buy 10 of the item to get the discount then you could run into the bulk isn’t always better issue.  Or sometimes a coupon on a brand name item still makes the item more expensive then the generic substitute!  

What other ways is your family being smart with their coins this summer?  Follow Honor Credit Union on twitter @honorcu and let us know using #askhonorcu!

Listen to Scott & Wild Bill talk about their tips for grocery shopping in this week's Mason Jar Monday!  

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