Thursday, December 20, 2007

Change Your Shopping Habits for Massive Savings

The weekly shop is a cost we all have to bare, but simple changes in your shopping habits could help you make big savings and give you the opportunity to invest your money elsewhere.

Here are a few simple tips to help you make more of your shopping budgets:

1 – Check how much you’re spending at the moment
Check back through your bank statements to see how much you’re currently spending on groceries – this will help you to set a new budget and target the savings you want to make.

2 – Set your budget
Set yourself a shopping budget at the outset. Specify exactly how much you want (or can afford) to spend on your groceries.

3 – Create a meal planner
Sit down and think about what you’re going to have to eat over the coming days. You’ve got breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacking to plan for – think long and hard and give yourself plenty of variety – you don’t want to get bored half way through the week and blow additional cash on fast food!

4 – Write shopping list
Use you meal planner to write a shopping list (this will be your secret weapon in avoiding overspend at the shops). Put two columns on your shopping list, one for the ‘target’ price of the item and one for the ‘actual’ price of the item.

5 - Go shopping with steely determination
You know what you used to spend, and you know what you’re going to save with your new budget. . . So stay strong and keep the faith. Ignore those BOGOFs, sales promotions and 3 for 2s – you don’t need them (unless they are on your list and come in under budget)!!!

6 – Do something useful with your savings
Now you’ve made your savings, do something useful with them. Don’t fritter it away on lottery tickets, cigarettes or alcohol – why not start a holiday savings account or save for a new sofa or something?

Making savings is all about measuring your spend, setting goals and then re-measuring in order to judge your success. In the past 6 month’s my family has managed to save over £700 just by being more careful over our weekly shops – enough to make sure we have a VERY nice Christmas!

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