by Amy Barnett

Created on: August 08, 2008   Last Updated: August 22, 2008

I am a thrifty person and so is my husband. One behavior that endeared me to him when we were dating was my habit of shopping with a calculator. Over the years I have picked up a few more habits for saving money at the supermarket.
As mentioned, one habit is shopping with a calculator. Of course, this does not help if you do not have a budget in mind. So, along with your calculator, have an idea of how much you are going to spend. What a relief it is to not be shocked at the cash register total!

You also need a shopping list. Saving money starts before you ever leave the house.
In our lean years, I would often estimate how much the groceries were going to cost by writing down an itemized estimate of each item and then adding all the items up. For example, eggs cost about $1.50 a dozen, milk $4.00 a gallon, etc. I would only estimate to the closest dollar or half dollar. By the time I was finished with my list, I knew if there were some things I should eliminate, or perhaps I could splurge on a non-staple item like ice cream.
A very expensive item at the grocery store is boxed cereal. Of course, these are convenient and yummy, so I like to keep them in the pantry. One way to save money on cereal is to buy the store brand. Be warned...some store brands are just as good as the original and some are not. You just have to experiment to find out which ones are worth buying. It's worth it for the savings you will see in the long run. Of course, kids always like the "sweet" cereals, but these are the most expensive. For this reason, I prepare the kids ahead of time and let them know that I won't buy these unless they are buy one get one free (BOGOS). These are also "special", and are not necessarily replenished at every trip to the store. My kids have had to learn to like wholesome cereals as well.
Back to BOGOS...this is a great way to save money. Take advantage of these sales. However, don't fall into the trap of buying a bunch of junk food or items that you wouldn't normally buy. For example, at my visit to the grocery store yesterday, there were two items in particular that I always buy when they are BOGO. Other BOGOS that were items that I don't normally get were ignored.
This leads me to point out that you should have certain items that are on your "sale" list. In other words, you know in advance that you are not going to get them unless they are on sale. The two items that I mentioned above were two such items.
Although there are other ways to save money at the grocery store, these are some that I have found to be the easiest to remember to put into practice.

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