The Trickery of Grocery Stores

I often shop at local famers' markets, but now that it's November my only option is a grocery store and I have such a hard time shopping at grocery stores.

I am always on the hunt for ideas to save money on groceries. It’s a mandatory expense. Over the years, I’ve come up with some basic methods I use to save... 


Don’t send anyone else to pick up a few things! I say this because if I dare to send my husband to pick up only milk, he will surely spend $30 on other things he feels we “need” at the time. Ben and Jerry’s is not a “need” honey! Or he’ll pick up some “nice to have” items that maybe I was budgeting for another pay day. If you want to take control of the spending, sometimes some things you just have to do yourself.

Don’t bring anyone else with you when grocery shopping! I say this because just this morning I brought my daughter and she really really really “needed” a snow man soap dispenser and a Dora electric toothbrush, and a Hello Kitty electric toothbrush and a Spiderman electric toothbrush. No matter who it is... the fewer people adding to the shopping cart, the better.

If you are going grocery shopping – just buy groceries. I say this because my grocery store also carries toys, clothing, electronics, and household items. I saw the cutest pair of pajamas today that I really could see myself in, and they were cheap! And on sale!! Only $9! But I really don’t “need” them at all! What a waste of $9.00. And now that I’m home… I can’t even remember what they looked like – but I remember how much, at that moment of weakness, I really really wanted to buy them. See how easy it is to lose perspective of the point of grocery shopping? 

Also, keeping with this point. It’s hard to monitor what you spend on groceries if you regularly buy other non-grocery items. Budgeting is harder to do if other things are tossed in. I can see my bill from my grocery store and think “I spend ____ on groceries”, but that isn’t true if toiletries, cosmetics, toys, etc. are also in there. It inhibits my ability to properly budget.

Make a list and stick to it! I’m sure you’ve heard this one before time and time again, but it really does save you from the impulse buys and it’s hard to quantify. Meal planning also saves you substantially in groceries. 

Here’s my favourite trick… Maybe it’s something I made up myself… Add a dollar value to your grocery list before you go shopping! Today I made my grocery list of what I really needed and I put a dollar value to it. When I went to the store, some of the items were more than what I had on the list. Hmmmm. For instance, at my local grocery store I usually can get a tube of toothpaste for under $1. Today – none were under $1. WTH? There was some promotion to clear a bunch of other tubes for $1.89… but that was nearly double what I had planned to spend. I decided to wait and buy later in the week or from another store.

This can really add up if you have a long grocery list and you might end up spending hundreds/thousands more per year unnecessarily. 

This will require that you learn what the everyday prices are on the items you buy most frequently. It might be “work”, but how would you know if you are being ripped off otherwise?

Read the little labels!!! Often on the shelf of grocery stores they have a cost per volume. Did you know that? Back to my toothpaste example, they had a cost per 100 mL. I have never known before today what the usual volume of a tube of toothpaste was. But, I took the time to read. The item that had the huge flashy sign was $1.79 per 100 ml, but the non-sale brands were only $1.33 per 100 mL. Interesting!! It was less expensive to buy the items that didn’t have the big flashy “on sale” signs! 

When you go grocery shopping alone, without the pressure from your loved ones, you’ll have time to do one of the most important things… read the tricky labels!!!

Today I saw a display of yogurt at the end of an isle and it had a HUGE sale sign for “$2.39”. To me, this was exciting since I know that I usually spend $3.09 on my yogurt!! It would be so easy for me to toss a tub in my cart and feel good about myself thinking I just saved money and keep on walking. But I was smarter… I actually took the time to read the tricky sign – in order to get the $2.39 price, I would have to “buy multiples of 2”. So, what this sign was really saying was “Instead of paying $3.09 on yogurt, you need to spend $4.78 on yogurt.” I would have spent $1.69 more than I had planned to spend!!!

This would be cost effective if I usually went through 2 tubs of yogurt, but I don’t. I might, but usually, I don’t. So really spending more than the planned $3.09 would likely result in me tossing about half a tub of yogurt.

There are so many tricky signs in a grocery store that so many people do not pay attention to. Sometimes you have to buy multiples to get the price. Sometimes there is a limit to get the price. Sometimes it’s a simple price. Sometimes there is actually a sale. It’s very difficult to maneuver, especially since we often shop from store to store to store for groceries and every store has a different system. 

Those grocery stores are always one step ahead of most folks and they use so many tricky methods to get us to hand over our hard earned cash. I really like my money. I’ll take the extra time to learn what the real prices are. It might take extra time to learn, but once you learn what to look for it becomes easier and easier to learn the difference between a sale and a scam.

I think I’m going to make a special post about sale items. It warrants extra discussion.

The point for today is to take the time to really read about what you are buying, go alone and simply don’t spend more than what you initially planned to spend.