RESEARCH AND PLANNING CAN HELP YOU CUT COSTS AND REACH YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS SOONER

By Angela Martin

Many years ago, our letterboxes were overflowing with catalogues that included grocery items and special discounts from your closest supermarket. Families would get their pens and highlighters out to circle the ‘specials’ and subsequently plan their shopping trip to purchase certain items at different stores accordingly, or buy in bulk when the price was heavily discounted.

In today’s digital world paper-based catalogues have been superseded by easily accessible digital versions however, given the saturation of online information, reviewing the many catalogues available may be overwhelming. Particularly with the introduction of online stores that require you to register your details on each website separately to get the regular updates. Also, many discount tags displayed on supermarket shelves are misleading, and unless you have the time to check the accuracy of every tag you can end up purchasing items based on false expectations that the item is on sale.

In this article we will outline how to plan ahead in the digital age for items that are part of your weekly expenditure. 

The best approach is to firstly educate yourself on the average price of a consumable item that you regularly purchase at the stores where you buy your essentials. 

That way, when you get to the stores you know if you are getting a reduced price for that item and if the reduced price is significant enough to purchase multiple quantities of this item. 

Some other tips which you may be able to incorporate when planning for your weekly grocery run are:

• Buy most of your items at Aldi as many of the everyday items are priced lower and then go to Woolworths, Coles, IGA etc to purchase the balance of your grocery needs.
• Keep an eye out for weekly specials i.e., every Wednesday Woolworths release a new range of specials and ½ price buys.
• Buy in bulk at stores like Costco if you have the storage space or share the bulk purchase and costs with family and friends.
• Many stores have rewards schemes which are free to join and provide you with points that can contribute to reducing your grocery cost.
• Keep an eye on the cost of fuel. Fuel apps are worthwhile investigating as they alert you to the cheapest fuel prices in your area. 

Visit: moneymentor.org.au
Email: angela@moneymentor.org.au

This article completes a series of articles written by the Money Mentor team and its supporters with information and tips on, keeping track of your expenses, consolidating debts, putting money away in savings and reviewing your providers. The Money Mentor team would love to publish more articles that continue to support your financial wellbeing. If there is anything you would like us to cover in future articles, please contact us directly or through The Westsider Newspaper.