shoppingonabudget

Whether you are a person with a headache that just won’t go away on its own or the parent of a child who has a nasty cold, over-the-counter medications may be needed. The good news is that you have a number of different shopping choices.

If you are looking to save the most on over-the-counter medicines, you will find the best prices at discount stores. We always make our purchases from Wal-Mart or Dollar General. These stores are known for their everyday low prices.

If you buy your over-the-counter medications from a grocery store or drug store, you could find yourself paying $1 or more for each item.

*NOTE: As mentioned above, children get colds. Before treating one of those colds with an over-the-counter product, speak to your child’s healthcare provider first.

Do you live in a small town? If so, you may travel to a nearby area to do your grocery shopping. This is nice, but what if you realize when you return home that you forgot something? Worse yet, what if you realize that missing ingredient right before you start to prepare dinner?

If you live in a small town, your only last minute option for a small amount of grocery shopping may include a convenience store. Unfortunately, these stores are known for their convenience, but not their great deals.

If you must purchase an item, such as a brick of cheese, only buy what you need. Don’t buy a second one just in case (like to prevent this from happening again). Usually, convenience stores have high prices for food. Get only what you need to make it through the night.

Lately, I have been examining popular moneysaving grocery shopping tips. These tips included paying with cash and not shopping when you are hungry. Today, I will focus on where to find the best deals in store.

You have likely heard that you find the best deals up high and down low. At eye level, where you look constantly, are the higher priced items. I have heard this shopping tip hundreds of times, but never given it much thought. In fact, I didn’t even know if it applied to my local grocery stores, but now I do.

When looking for the best prices, as well as store brands, be sure to scan the whole shelf with your eyes. For instance, the Malt-O-Meal cereals are known for their large sizes and great prices, but not so convenient location. They can usually be found on the bottom of the shelf in a bin.

Although finding the best deals can have you crouching down low or standing on your toes, scanning the entire shelf section can help to save you money by finding the lowest priced products.

If you are looking to save money on groceries, you may have heard the tip pay only with cash. Yes, this may be able to save you money, but it does have its pros and cons.

As previously stated, paying for groceries with cash can help you save money. This is because you only have a specific amount of money in your wallet or purse. You cannot spend more than needed on impulse purchases, as you do not have the cash. Having cash forces you to stay under your budget.

As nice as it is to reduce your grocery bill, paying for your groceries with cash does have its downsides. One of those being large amounts of money. If you are like me, you may only have one big shopping trip a month. In that shopping trip, I can easily spend $300. That is not money that I want to be carrying around. That is why I, personally, opt for my debit card.

Speaking of which, I also receive a reward for using my debt card as a credit card. It is a PayPal card. If you have a PayPal account or card, consider this option. While you only receive 1% on purchases processed as credit, those cash back savings can easily add up.

In my last post, I mentioned the ever so popular grocery shopping tip of not shopping while you are hungry. Many claim this causes you to spend more money. Although I do not think it causes me to personally spend extra money, when you are hungry, you are hungry.

So, if you find yourself walking through the grocery store when hungry strikes, refrain from making an extra purchase, even just a bag of chips. Why? Because chances are, there is something already on your grocery list that you can snack on in the car.

For example, do you have cereal on your grocery list? If hunger is getting the better of you, open that box of cereal in the car and munch on a handful or two. This will allow you to stop the hunger pains, while not spending more at the grocery store.

For years, I have always heard the grocery shopping tip “never shop when you are hungry.” This is such as popular moneysaving tip that you may have heard it as well. But, it is something that impacts you?

Personally, I have found that it doesn’t matter whether I am hungry or not. I still stick to my list and refrain from making additional purchases. I honestly have always wondered how many people were the same.

I actually find it to be the opposite. If I am hungry, I try to get in and out of the grocery store as quickly as possible. I want to get home to prepare a snack or make dinner. If anything, I think it helps me save money on groceries, as I want to get in and out real quick. So, I spend less time browsing.

So, do you find yourself spending more on groceries when you are hungry?

I know that a large number of students have already returned to school, but it does not start until September for my daughter (we live in the Northeast). So, this weekend we shopped for back to school. One of the first places we headed was our local outlet stores, about an hour away.

If you want to save money shopping at outlet stores, you need to be careful. There are some stores were you can find AMAZING deals and then others where you may actually end up paying more.

My three favorite stores were OshKosh, Carter’s, and VF Outlets. At OshKosh, a lot of their clothes were on sale, including their jeans for $12 each. At Carter’s, it seemed like more than half the store was 50% off. I was just shocked at the VF Outlet. Not only did I get back-to-school clothes for my daughter, but jeans for $5.97 for me!

However, I will say that I was less than pleased with the Old Navy and Gymboree outlet stores. I know that Gymboree is already an expensive brand, but many items in their store were regular price and not on sale. As for Old Navy, I visited their website before I left. I was surprised to see that some of the t-shirts available online were on sale, but not in their store. Although I did make a few purchases, I was careful with what I bought.

So, if you decide to shop at an outlet mall, remember that you may not always receive the best price. If you know what stores you intend to shop at, visit their websites first. This will allow you to quickly compare prices in-store to make sure that you actually walk away saving money.

In the past, I was under the assumption that coupon inserts were only found in the Sunday newspaper. I learned this wasn’t the case when I needed to pick up a Friday paper for an article that was about a family member. Inside, I was thrilled to find a coupon booklet. I paid .50 cents for that newspaper.

That Sunday, I still went and bought the Sunday paper. To my surprise, the coupons were all the same. They weren’t different and there wasn’t additional grocery coupons inside. So, on Friday I paid only .50 cents for the newspaper and grocery coupons inside. However, on Sunday, the paper cost $1.75.

By seeing if any of your Friday or Saturday newspapers carry coupons, you could easily save yourself a $1 or more each week. Remember, that $1 will add up overtime.

Online, you will find moneysaving suggestions that outline making some of your own products or variations of them, but can you really save money? In all honesty, it depends on the product in question, as well as your own personal preferences.

One easy way that you can save money is if your family drinks chocolate milk. I do not recommended buying a premade gallon of chocolate milk. It is expensive and doesn’t always last long. Instead, buy a bottle of chocolate mix. This will save you money and your chocolate milk will last longer.

Orange juice is another tip. Instead of buying premade orange juice, you can buy the frozen ones and mix your own. In our home, however, this tends to be a problem. My partner is picky with his orange juice. So, we tend to alternate between the two.

Another tip that I have seen is shredding your own cheese. Some people recommend buying the brinks of cheese and then shredding your own. This is only a good idea if your shredded cheese prices are a lot higher. In my local grocery store, the prices run the same on the two, unless there is a sale.

When you start saving money on groceries, possibly by implementing a few of the steps outlined here, you may notice extra money accumulating. While that money may only be $10 or $20 a week, remember that it can add up over time. So, what should you do with it?

The best way to tell if you are saving money on groceries is to create a reasonable budget for yourself. For example, make your grocery list and estimate the amount of money that you will spend. If you plan on spending $150, but only walk away spending $125, you have an extra $25.

What you choose to do with that saved money is your choice to make, but consider depositing it into your savings account. If you don’t have a savings account, open one. Many banks now offer free saving accounts. Overtime, you may have enough money to take a short vacation or money to pay off your outstanding debts, should you have them.