I’ve been surprised at how small changes in our shopping habits can make real and profound changes in our pocketbooks.
Like tiny pebbles rolling downhill, small changes in spending habits snowball into ever increasing savings – until one day you look up and see a giant avalanche of savings.
Let’s take a look at how the savings snowball.
Recently I have started shopping at Aldi’s. Aldi’s is a no frills supermarket chain featuring prices between 30-40% less than that of large chain supermarkets. Unfortunately, Aldi’s only carries a limited number of items – typically 1,400 compared to the 40,000 found in a typical supermarket.
I save significantly on dairy products, vegetables, canned foods, and paper supplies when I shop at Aldi’s. I have made it a simple habit of stopping by Aldi’s before I proceed to buy the rest of my groceries at a national chain grocery store. This simple habit of stopping at Aldi’s saves me about $20 each week.
Doesn’t sound like much until you realize that after one month I’ve saved $80, after 1 year $960, and after 10 years I’ve saved $9,600 dollars! All from one little change in my shopping behavior.
Here’s another example. Last year I made a small change in my buying behavior in regards to supermarket sales. Not every grocery store sale is created equal. Sometimes a product will be discounted 10%, sometimes even 20% or 30%. But occasionally an item will be discounted 40%, 50% or more. “Buy one get one free” sales are prime examples.
By waiting until one of these sales and then stocking up you can save an incredible amount of money.
I apply this concept to just a few items and still save big. By waiting for a big sale and stocking up on just a few things, namely, orange juice, frozen dinners, ice cream and cookies/donuts/muffins I save nearly $25 a week. Again it doesn’t sound like much until you realize that this represents a savings of $100 a month, $1200 a year, and $12,000 after 10 years!
As you can see, implementing just two changes in my shopping behavior, namely stopping by Aldi’s before I proceed to a chain supermarket and waiting for a significant sale and then stocking up, I save nearly $2160 a year.
The great thing is that these small changes in shopping behavior become a habit, ingrained like second nature. So you simply can’t help but save money.
Learning simple, easy to implement changes in your shopping behavior is the easiest and most cost effective thing you can do to shore up your household budget.
What are some of the small changes that you’ve made in your supermarket shopping to save money?
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I agree. Different areas have different stores to save at. We have no Aldi’s so my shopping is a little different. But yes, after a while it does become second nature and it is amazing how much it adds up. Just in coupons alone last year I saved over $13,000.00. This year I hope to do better and am becoming even MORE frugal.
It should also be noted that many shoppers, especially the younger ones, do not realize that you can use both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on the same purchase. This can add to the savings, especially on a buy one-get one offer.
Aldi’s is a great store…..can’t believe how much I save…i too go before another store, quality is excellent, better than other store brands, and you can get interesting things…like dark German chocolate with nuts at a very good price!! fresh vegs are great buys