It never fails. We go into the supermarket to buy a few things and come out with a cart loaded with groceries. The problem – those impulse grabs that fill our grocery carts.

In fact, depending on the study cited, nearly 40% to 50% of our grocery purchases are impulse buys – items we never intended on purchasing when we set foot in the store.

So how do we avoid these costly impulse purchases? Below I list nine simple tricks that you can use to keep more of your hard earned money.

Skip the grocery cart and go with the hand basket.

Have you noticed the growth in the size of grocery carts over the past decade? Supermarkets understand the larger the cart the more likely we are to fill it up. If your grocery trip is only for a few items simply walk right past the carts and take a small hand basket instead.

Skip the hand basket and use your arms.

Need only one or two items? Skip even the hand basket. With only two hands you’re only able to pick up what you can carry. This almost ensures that you’ll have to walk right past those impulse temptations.

Leave your credit card in car. Instead bring just enough cash.

So you only need a bag of sugar and some butter. Simply leave the credit cards in the car and instead bring in just enough cash to cover the cost of the butter and sugar. If you notice a REALLY good deal you can always run back to the car. This also gives you more time to think about whether or not you need to take advantage of that good deal anyway.

Park your grocery cart at the end of the aisle.

One of our readers submitted this tip. If you need to buy a week’s worth of groceries avoiding a grocery cart is out of the question. But you can still lower your chances of making impulse purchases. Simply park you cart at the end of each aisle. Walk down the aisle to pick up what you need and then head back to your grocery cart. Head to the next aisle and repeat. Again, with only two hands you force yourself to pick up only what you need and can carry, thus avoiding impulse buys.

Do a grocery cart check before you check out.

There’s nothing that says once you place an item in your cart you can’t remove it. Make a habit of finding a quiet corner in the grocery store where you can calmly examine your grocery cart. Does it contain items you really don’t need? Perhaps you have items that can be bought cheaper at the drug store or local Target. Do you really need 10 cans of pinto beans?

Don’t get fooled by a “sucker sale”.

Sales are one of the ways in which supermarkets trick us into making impulse purchases. I’m not talking about the great deep discount sales but what I call the “sucker sales”. These are sales in which the regular price of an item has hardly been reduced at all.

You notice that delicious bag of cookies on the shelf with the big bright red sales sticker above it. You instinctively grab a bag even though you know you don’t need cookies – but hey they’re on sale. If you’d look closer you would have noticed that you’re only saving ten cents on a $3 bag of cookies! – you’ve just become another victim of the “sucker sale”.

When you can’t find an item ask for directions.

Supermarkets don’t want you to become too comfortable with the store layout. This would allow you to enter the store, quickly find what you need, and walk out. Not the optimal situation for the supermarket because the more time you spend in the store the more money you spend.

This is why supermarkets periodically relocate items in their stores. In fact, store shelves actually contain retractable wheels on the bottom that make this task of relocating items all the easier.

The next time you notice that your store has moved an item you buy on a regular basis, don’t waste time wandering the store looking for it’s new location. Just ask the nearest clerk or checkout person where it is.

Place a snack in your car ahead of time.

Common advice is not to go to the grocery store hungry as you are inevitably much more susceptible to impulse purchases.

Sounds great in theory, but in practice many of us have such hurried and hectic schedules that we’re not even thinking about eating something before we arrive at the supermarket.

One way to make sure that you’re not hungry when shopping is to always have a snack available in your glove compartment – chips, energy bar, or gum for example. I get stock up on cheap snacks at my local dollar store.

Finally, watch out for those cheap $1 Redbox video rentals.

Those frugal $1 video rentals from the Redbox kiosks located outside the supermarket entrance are a great entertainment bargain. Be careful, however, because they may also lead to more impulse spending.

When you rent a video you naturally have to return it. It’s the return visit where you may be tempted to step inside the grocery store and again open yourself up to impulse shopping. In essence, the cheap videos serve as a way for the supermarket to get you back to the store within a short period of time – a recipe for increased grocery spending.

Do you have tips for stopping impulse buying? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below.

Yes, I’ll admit it. I have my grocery store indulgences – those sinful over-priced temptations that quickly inflate shopping bills.

My particular Achilles heel is silky smooth, delicious Dove  ice cream.  At $4.79 a pint its nearly twice as expensive as quality ice creams like Breyer’s and Edy’s. Yet, I just can’t resist the taste of Dove ice cream.

I’m sure I’m not alone with my budget busting supermarket indulgences. For some its the Godiva chocolate bars in the candy aisle. For others its the Milano cookies, butcher counter filet mignon steak, or those premium coffee beans. We all have things that we enjoy but which dramatically inflate our grocery bills.

So how does one enjoy these expensive indulgences without feeling financial guilty in these tough economic times? Here are a few tips we use.

Offset Your Indulgent Spending.

So you’re addicted to Haagen Daaz ice cream bars or to Dofino Gouda cheese. That’s understandable. Just make changes in your normal shopping behavior to compensate for the indulgent purchases. Force yourself to buy store brand sugar, butter, canned vegetables, and bread to compensate for that expensive box of macadamia nuts you just placed in your grocery cart.

Tempted by that expensive cut of wild Alaskan salmon, offset the cost by visiting a bakery outlet for your bread and other baked goods.  Purchase the cheaper apples instead of the more expensive plums and pick up the heads of lettuce instead of the shredded and packaged lettuce in order to offset the cost of the premium brand of frozen cheesecake you just purchased.

Limit Your Costly Treats.

Allow yourself to indulge once in a while. Just limit the number of indulgences. Give each person two treats per shopping trip, for example. Just before hitting the checkout counter,  double check to make sure that you’ve stuck to your limit, or have spouse or child keep track of these purchases for you.

Stock Up on Expensive Indulgences at “Super Sales”.

As I said I love Dove ice cream, especially the chocolate cherry variety. Yet I also realized how extremely expensive this indulgence can be. Now when I see  this temptation I walk right past knowing I can get it on sale. Not just any old sale will do though. I have to wait for the “super sales”.

Every store item has a regular rotation of sale prices. At one point a product may be on sale at a 10% discount, a couple of weeks later at a 30% discount, followed by a sale a few weeks later at a 20% discount. Periodically an item will hit the rock bottom sales price in what I call its super sales price – typically discounted at 50% or more!

For my local Chicago stores the super sales price for my Dove ice cream is usually $2.50. Compared to the regular $4.79 price this is a bargain.  Its at this point that I stock up, allowing me to enjoy my sinful indulgence at half price.

Every family has expensive budget busting indulgences. But there are ways we can still enjoy our little pleasures while watching our budgets.

So what are some of your family’s sinful indulgences? What suggestions do you have for enjoying them without breaking the bank? We’d like to hear from you. Leave a comment below.

How many times has this happened to you? You stop by the store to pick up a gallon of milk and some eggs, but end up leaving with a whole shopping cart full of groceries.

Supermarkets are masters at making you purchase more than you ever intend to, even when you only want to buy a few items.

Here are four simple tips to make sure you leave with only what you want after making a quick stop for a few essentials.

Forget the Hand Basket. If you need only a few basics, skip the hand basket or grocery cart. With only two hands and arms you’ll only be able to carry the few essentials you came in for. A sure-fire way to avoid impulse purchases.

Continually Remind Yourself. If you only need a few items, make a shopping list. At the top of the list write something to the effect of  “I am in the store only to buy the items on my list.”

Every time you pick up an item and check it off your list, you’ll see this statement which will remind you to stick to your plan.

Bring Just Enough Cash. You can usually figure out ahead of time how much that gallon of milk, dozen eggs, and bag of sugar is going to cost you. To avoid the temptation of extra purchases just estimate how much money you’ll need.

Bring that amount plus a little bit more into the store with you. Leave your credit cards at home or in your car. When you have only enough cash to cover what you came into the store for, you leave with only what you intended to leave with.

Make a Bee-Line for the Products You Need. Most people shop by waking up one aisle then down the next. This causes us to walk past aisle upon aisle of temptations and dramatically increases the number of impulse purchases we make.

Instead, make a bee-line for the products you intend to buy. Don’t know where one of your items is located – its better to simply ask one of the grocery store clerks than to walk up and down store aisles confronted with endless temptations.

By using these simple techniques you can make sure the next time you go into the grocery store you’ll leave with only what you planned to.

Between 40% to 60% of our shopping purchases are impulse buys – purchases we had no intention of making when we first entered the grocery store. One of the most notorious impulse traps is the check-out counter.

Here grocery stores understand they have a captive audience as we patiently wait to pay for our purchases. It is here where they tempt us with a variety of candy bars, chips, and magazines.

Here are some simple ways to avoid these temptations and save money.

Candy and Snacks. Grocery stores place every variety of candy bars, peanuts, and potato chips right in front of our faces as we wait to check out. The best way to resist these temptations is to make sure you don’t go shopping hungry. Hungry shoppers are much more likely to grab a snack or two while in line.

Personally, I keep small snacks in my glove compartment. Usually gum, candy bars, chips, or energy bars that I’ve picked up at the local dollar store. Knowing that I have something to eat close by allows me to pass on supermarket temptations.

Magazines. Here is an especially subtle trap.  Why do grocery stores place magazines near the cash register? They simple understand that magazines are masters at creating riveting headlines that make people want to read the articles inside.

Hooked by a magazine cover headline, we start reading an article but of course don’t have enough time to finish. So what do we do? – we simply place the magazine with the rest of our purchases. Another $3.99 against our food budget.  If we buy just 2 magazines per week, we have just spent another $32 per month or nearly $415 per year!

To avoid the trap realize that most magazines have the very same articles posted on their websites for free! Get caught reading an article you can’t finish, simply go to the magazine’s website and finish reading it, without taking a bite out of your budget.

Alternatively, get a subscription to those magazines that continue to tempt you in line. While most magazines cost between $2.99 to $4.99, most magazine subscriptions can be purchased for $1 or less per issue. Common places to take advantage of cheap subscriptions include the magazine’s own website, Amazon.com, and websites like mags4cheap.com and magazines.com.

By taking simple steps to avoid check-out temptations, you can save literally hundreds of dollars per year.