Saving Money on your Grocery bill.

A few tips for saving you some cash

Recently having moved out of my parent’s house into my own pad, I found that my grocery bill was seriously putting a damper on my bank balance. So I thought I would do some research into where my money goes, and give you a few tips on saving money.

The first thing I did was to keep my slips and add up in categories what I was spending money on. Now I’m not going to tell you where my money goes but what I am going to do is point out a few observations you can use to save money.

The first thing I noticed was how much I was spending on lunch, now I like my junk food, but when I added it up it just didn’t seem worth it, for example a Mc Meal will cost you about R24 now, this is pretty much the cheapest meal you can buy at a fast food place. 24 x 20 = R480 per month and like I said this is the cheapest, I don’t really like Mc D’s because it gives you that instant gratification and then makes you feel sick after. What I do love is the Wimpy or KFC now here we’re looking at +- R50 a meal 50 x20 = R1000 per month. So my first piece of advise is make your own lunch, Bread = 6 loaves per month = R60. Ham, if you like your ham R80 per month, Cheese R50 per month, Mayo R30 per month and butter R15 per month, total cost = R255 for lunch for the whole month. You could even add lettuce and Tomatoes into that equation and you will still be saving.

The second thing I notice was how much I was spending on Cold drinks, I’m a bit of a 24hour store junky. What I noticed was how much I spend on drinks at the local garage store; there were some weeks where I would buy a cold drink every day. These would cost close to R10, costing me an unnecessary R50 per week, or R200 per month. My recommendation is either pre-buy drinks from a hypermarket or drink water obviously this is the bigger saving and is obviously healthier, in fact a friend of mine has been doing this for years and he looks great. The same rule also applies for coffee, times are tough and looking cool is off the priority list; take a canteen to work this will save you a fortune.

Now another thing I noticed was how much it costs to buy food stuffs at a supermarket especially in current times. So my third piece of advice is to shop at a hypermarket it doesn’t matter which hypermarket obviously excluding specialised stores but generally speaking you’ll get the better deal when shopping at a hyper store. The reason for this is because the superstores are run by the store manager who sets prices according to the profit he wishes to make, where as the hyper stores prices are governed by the franchise. Also make a note what you’re paying, where and on what brand. If there is cheaper brand use it. Canned food is canned food.

The fourth piece of advice is simply create a shopping list and stick to it, if you find this difficult you could consider shopping online, this will allow you to compare prices and save on petrol. Also obviously you are less likely to buy from the temptations counter if you are not there. Another way to save money is to not shop when you’re hungry, this will only induce you to buy more.
The fifth piece of advice I actually got from Gareth but it applies in the context, we all need indulgences, so decided what yours is going to be for the month and have it once or twice, make the decision at the beginning of the month to not over indulge because then you can budget for it.

In saying this, the thought crossed my mind that you need to keep a budget, how can you save if you do not know what you’re spending.

Dinner time treats are fun but you can save a fortune by preparing them yourself for example Pizza. I have a friend who makes fantastic pizza which can feed a ton of people and I can grantee it costs less than the current up to R70 a pizza. Sure it’ll take you longer but if you save R50 per meal it’ll soon add up.

This is difficult one for city dwellers, but a great way to save money is to avoid shops, if you don’t want to spend money don’t go to places where you can. Just stay away from the mall.

My second last piece of advice is a difficult one, but here it is; I used to be Mr Party, going out all the time to night clubs and spending a pretty penny while I was there. Now What I’m not saying is don’t enjoy yourself. What I am saying is put a limit on it, I barely go out anymore due to a lifestyle change and what I noticed is how much money I have to spend on things I actually want. If we look at the cost of going out and add it up, it gets scary. I’m going to be a cheap date and say a night out at the club costs R300 on average. If you go out three times a week that’s R900, x 4 weeks = R3600 now I know some people who live off that. Bear this in mind. Like I said I’m not telling you to not enjoy yourself, so set limits. Say to yourself you’re only going out once a week. This will already save you R2700 on average, another strong recommendation is just don’t take your wallet, I’ve heard countless stories of people pulling out their credit card on a night out and then crapping themselves in the morning when they see the bill. So set aside the amount of money you expect the night to cost or the amount you are willing to spend and go out with that, when you run out you run out, inevitably you’ll spend less.

And lastly although it has nothing to do with Groceries I thought I would add it anyway. Don’t pay for a gym you’re not attending. Why pay for nothing, because you might use it one day, well when that day comes you can join again, but go out and cancel your subscription if you don’t use it.

I hope this was a useful blog please provide me with comment, it would be much appreciated.