Shopping Tips for Frugal Thinkers

 Read more Oily Rag articles by Frank and Muriel Newman 

We all know what you buy has a major influence on your household budget, but according to the annual supermarket price survey released by Consumer, where you buy makes a big difference to your food bill.

Pak'nSave has retained the top prize for being the cheapest place to buy groceries (for the 10th year running!). At the other end of the price scale, Woolworths was found to have the highest prices of the chains.

The survey compared the price of forty top selling products. The difference between the highest and lowest varied by about $20 a week, or just over $1,000 a year.

The Foodstuffs stores were found to have a smaller range of goods than Progressive and more use of local specials so there was greater price variation.

For the record, there are two major supermarket owners in New Zealand. Progressive owns the Woolworths, Countdown and Foodtown chains, while Foodstuffs owns Four Square, New World and Pak'nSave.

Oily raggers have lots of shopping tips which they have shared. Here are some of their tips.

• Reduce meat consumption. Have meatless meals, use smaller portions or less expensive meat like mince and sausage meat. Canned fish is a good way of adding protein.

• Shop to a list and stick to it. Only vary from that list to buy bargains. One oily rag club member tells us they only ever shop for specials. The special goes into their pantry and whatever’s in the pantry is what they use to cook.

• Don’t shop when you are hungry. Those rotisserie chickens are just too tempting, and the cream donuts… oh they’re irresistible!

• Pay cash… not plastic to pay for the groceries; that way you will not only see the money going out of your bank account you will feel it slipping through your clutches like goo!

• Only have $100 notes in your purse. Most oily raggers will die before breaking a $100 note, whereas it is less traumatic parting with those $20 green ones!

• Think of your grocery bill in terms of hours of work. If your after tax pay is say $15 an hour (in the hand) then a $150 grocery shop is 10 hours of hard, gruelling, sweat bearing, torturous labour!

• If you do buy fruit and vegetables (and why would you when you can grow your own!) then only buy in season.

• Allow plenty of time to compare prices and find those hidden specials. This may involve complex calculations like dividing the price by the contents so take a calculator!

• Don’t buy highly processed food – like microwave meals in a minute – as you are paying for the preparation.

• Attend SA (Shopaholics Anonymous) if necessary. In fact we are not sure it exists but it should if it doesn’t! It probably goes by a less imaginative name, like the budgeting advisory service.

• Shop at supermarkets near closing time to pick up the last minute bargains of perishable items.

If you have favourite shopping tips then share them with the oily rag community of frugal thinkers. Log on to our website (www.oilyrag.co.nz) or write to Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag, PO Box 984, Whangarei.

* Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily rag tips on-line at www.oilyrag.co.nz. The book is available from bookstores and online at www.oilyrag.co.nz.