Secret 1 -Smells so good
Retailers go out of their way to give you good smells in
their shop. This is why merchandisers cook yummy things for you to sample and
bread is often baked on the premises. Other than shopping online there is
little that we can do to avoid the smells but there is something that we can do
to resist them.
Stuff yourself!
Yes we know that every bit of good upbringing teaches us
that gluttony is a sin, but honestly if you go into the supermarket with a full
stomach you will leave it with a fuller wallet. Why? Simple – when you are not
full you are continuously tempted to buy things that you did not intend to. You
walk in and see a delicious treat, so you put it in the trolley – I mean why
not after all. Within the next five minutes you will repeat the exercise
because the treat has given you no satisfaction.
Try it next time you go shopping and see the difference!
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Secret 2 - The list of course!
Shopping without a list is a guaranteed recipe to blow the
budget. No matter how small the purchases re to be always make a list before
you go into the shop and then make yourself never buy something that is not on
the list. Having a standard list for your big shop also helps a lot to avoid
forgetting to buy something that you do need. I always take my standard list
before I go shopping and cross off all of the things that I still have in the
cupboard before I leave.
Secret 3 - Package sizes
Not all packages have the same amount in them.
Most retailers now show the price per gram on the price
label on the shelf. While this transparency is fantastic we don’t always check
it. Secret 3 is to always check the price per gram, not only when comparing
brands but also when comparing what size to buy. Common knowledge is that the
bigger the pack the cheaper each item is, but this is not always true. Two
small packs are often much more economical to buy than one large pack – and did
you need the large pack anyway?
Manufacturers will also often vary the size of the
packaging. The toothpaste that you bought last month may have been 35g but this
month it is 30g and still the same price.
Secret 4 - Till Teasers
The road to temptation
Have you ever bought a small volume cold drink from a fridge
at or near the checkout in a supermarket? Chances are 50/50 that by the time
you got into your car you had either forgotten it or buried it beneath all the
other stuff you bought.
Retailers know that by the time we get to the till we are
likely to be thirsty, so they put these extra sells in front of us. Don’t get
me wrong, there is nothing wrong with getting something cool to drink while
out, but just so long as you DO drink it. What a waste to buy a small cold
drink to drink immediately, only for it to join the 2l bottles that cost almost
the same. Whenever I buy a drink like
this I hold it back to one of the very last items and then open and start to
drink it even as the last things are going through.
Secret 5 - Big shops are better shops
I’m often asked whether it is better to shop weekly or
monthly. In short the bigger you can practically do your shop the better, but
you also have to consider things like how you will be transporting the items
home and if you have enough storage space.
Why bigger? Also simple. Remember the temptations laid out
at us when we talked about going in with a full stomach? The more often you go
to the shops the more opportunities you are presenting retailers with to sell
you something that you did not need.
Whether you do your shopping on a weekly, fortnightly or
monthly basis one thing is for sure, make sure that you have your list and
stick to it.