Streamline Your Grocery Shop Bill Format for Product Quality

Grocery shop bill format for Product quality

hi this is Tanja and in this video I'm going to share some tips on how to reduce your Supermarket bill it's no secret the prices in the supermarket are going higher and higher and just when you think they can't go any higher they're actually going higher today I just want to share some tips which you can Implement on your next grocery run to see how much you can actually reduce your bill you don't have to try to occupy yourself with doing all of the tips all the time but if you implement a few of them I'm sure that you can actually reduce your Supermarket bill number one buy generic brands I know there are some of us who are brand loyal and we think of certain brands when we think of certain products like you may think of bleaching you automatically think Clorox you think of ketchup and for you it may be hind there are some products out there that you can actually use use the supermarket brand because the quality of them is pretty much the same as the name brand not all of them and I'm not asking you to give up those products that you know for sure like cereal that you know for sure that the store brand is nowhere near the quality of the name brand but there are some products out there that you can switch out look in the aisles of your supermarket and see those products in which you can switch out the ones that I always refer to or things like flour you know if you have a supermarket brand and they have just basic white flour then that's the same flower as the one that has the name brand I mean the supermarket doesn't have its own Mill so when you look at those type of things then you are able to save some money by using the store bought brand number two and this one has the potential to actually save quite a bit of money on your Supermarket Bill especially if you live on a small island the Caribbean or pretty much any small island regardless of where it is and that is to buy different cuts of meat you may have in your head I want chicken wings I want thighs I want XYZ and something that people don't always look at is to see the price per kg or the price per unit when they're buying meats you would be surprised that a whole chicken may be let's say at $5 a kg or whatever the weights is being sold in and when you look at a chicken which has been cut up that then goes to $7 when you look at buying Pacific Parts like let's say you just only want the ties that may go to $9 if you want it without the bone for the tie that may be just $10 so once you start to realize that different cuts of meats in different types of meats have different prices then you're better able to use or to be able to buy those ones that actually fit into your budget yes sometimes it's a bit more work because it's just easy to get the chicken if it's just already cut up it's just probably easier to get it if it's already seasoned and I know once you come back from some of those conveniences then it's more work that you have to do at home but it's also you saving a lot more money if it's just for one individual persons you may be like yeah it's not worth my time but if you're doing this for a whole family you have a large family then you really want to pay attention to the cost of the different types of meats and the different cuts of meats tip number three Buy in season and this could be either when you're buying from the farmer because they have excess amongst or this could be even one you're buying from the supermarket and they have particular produce that are on sale and I know that there are some places where persons are saying things go on sale in the supermarket yes things do go on sale not not a whole lot in the Caribbean but things do go on sale and if you have those type of products let's say they have tomatoes that are on sale I know when I lived in one of the other Islands Tomatoes This the the lowest price that you would get them for was like $1.99 per Bunch or per Vine and I knew that that was the lowest price so whenever I would see them at that price I would buy extra amounts blanch them freeze them and and then you have tomatoes readily in your freezer for whatever dish you want buy your produce preserve them in whatever way you're doing it whether it's freezing them or whether you're going to dehydrate them but find different methods in which you can store them to use at her later date number four pay attention to the basket of goods and this is one specifically for Caribbean persons because I don't know that there's a basket of goods um outside let's say in the US or the UK but in smaller islands in the Caribbean especially there is what they call a basket for goods and it is pretty much a group of food that the authorities have deemed are necessary or basics for human consumption or for people to survive so what they have done is that they've either reduced the taxes or there are zero taxes or no taxes are all on that basket of goods and it would be for your basic things like potatoes rice vegetables there are some countries that now included a few glutenfree or a few of those type of speciality type foods there are some that are still not on board but you get the idea of what a basket of goods look like so when you get your Supermarket building next time go through it and look at it and see which items you've purchased which there don't have any taxes attached to it like there's no vat or any duties and that will tell you that those items are within the basket of goods now you can also see the items that you have purchased that don't fall into that category and a lot of times those things that you have purchased that wouldn't fall into those categories are either going to be specialty items as I said like if you're gluten-free or vegan there are not a lot of options in that category or it's processed food so things like your cereal things that have the extra sugar TS attached to them or you know those foods that just aren't really good for so that gives you an idea not only in terms of what you're consuming as a nutritional value but it also gives you an idea of what you're spending money on in terms of those things that fall out of the basket of goods it's a good way for you to actually look to see you know what I can stop buying these particular items because they're really not good in value number one in terms of nutritional value and they're also not good in terms of financial value soay pay attention to your basket of goods cut out the processed foods as I said I know this is wor for the Caribbean people and processed food is very expensive here when you're looking at things like your cereal your chicken nuggets waffles and those type of things they cost a lot more than what you would pay for the foods that are falling within the basket of goods tip number five make your own Cleaning Solutions most of them either have ammonia or they have bleach as the main ingredient ingent and once you figure out that then you realize that pretty much they're all the same it's just a difference in terms of how much of something one particular product have in and also the different scents and fragrances that they add to them but once you realize that then you can stop spending money on a lot of these expensive Cleaning Solutions and also because a lot of them are not good for your health they contains a lot of toxic things that they also not good for the environment I will say that your best bet is to buy a big bottle of vinegar and look on the internet Google a recipe and use that for whatever Solutions you need for your home you can actually make up a cleaning solution that works is non-toxic and is also very cheap compared with store bought products tip number six buy those nonp perishable things or items that you need in bulk and I'm speaking about things like your toilet paper like the same vinegar like um hand towel even as it relates to female products and those type of products buy them in as bulk as you can obviously it reduces the cost per unit I'm just going to say that make certain that you're not using twice as much because you know that you have and sometimes that is something that happens when we don't really think about it let you know that you have um hand towels that will probably last you for the next three 3 4 months so because of that you're kind of reckless in how you use it but may certain that you're not using it little more Reckless just because you know that you have a lot on hand but obviously if you do buy them in bul the price per unit is a lot better than if you are buying these individually and again depending on your financial situation it may not be a case where you can just go out tomorrow and buy these things in bul it may actually be a case where you have to work your way up there where you're buying a few more every time you go to keep a stock so then that you can actually get to the point then where you can embark on buying them both or it may be a scenario where you have to set aside a bit of money every week or every month until you have enough money that you can say okay I now have enough that I can buy a six months stock of XYZ and know that I have these there for that particular amount of time but also know that I'm getting them at a better price so it isn't always something that you can do like right away but it's something that you can work your way up towards and the next tip is to meal plan and this is one that's actually very important if you're meal planning it means that when you go to the supermarket you are only buying those particular items that you know that you need number one how you're saving money is that you're going to be checking your cupboards and your fridge before you actually go to the supermarket market so there's no possibility of you buying items that you already have and also you're able to see if you have items that you need to use so once you get to the supermarket you know I have to I've created my meals already because you've created your meals based on the fact that you have some produce or some fruit that you need to use up within the next few days if not it will spoil so when you go to the supermarket you are only filling in the gaps so you only buying the things that you know you need based on the meal plan that you have already set out for the week and that tip can actually save you quite a bit of money because sometimes people get to the supermarket and they're saying oh I could get this or I could do this maybe if I cook this and you're just buying items free will I'm not really knowing exactly what you plan to cook so the week May actually pass and half of those things are still sitting down there you didn't end up cooking meals where you've used half of the items or produce that you actually bought and the next tip would be to look for markdowns again I know it's not something that you see in Caribbean supermarkets very often but I know it's something that you see in the wider outside where there either whether there's produce or even canned stuff or whatever that they have marked down this is an opportunity for you to get some of these items at really good prices like I know in the UK most of the UK supermarkets will start to mark down some of their perishable food at 7:00 or at night or a pacific time at night and once you get into the habit of understanding what time it happens then you know what time you can ease into the supermarket and get things for really cheap and I mean like they get a whole chicken for like a pound and less than that or some other type of perishable foods that you would have that would have normally be three four times the mon even if it's not that scenario sometimes supermarkets will also have meat like I used to do this a lot in Bermuda with um fresh turkey mints and they mark it down after they've been out there for two days or so in the fresh section they will mark it down and I mean to like sometimes it's half price or less than half price and I will buy a few trays of that and put it in the freezer because they've mark it down when it came from the Fresh section it doesn't mean that it spoils or it doesn't mean that it's out of date so you can actually take that and freeze it and still continue to use it and it will be quite fine so these are different tips or different tricks that you will want to understand how your Supermarket works and how you can make it work for you tip Number Nine stop buying condiments yes I said that condoms are getting expensive or I guess they were probably always expensive and again just like cleaning supplies they're very easy to make at home and some of them actually use the same Main Ingredients condiments like maybe your mayonnaise or your ketchup or Bas even your mayonnaise and ketchup are things that you can make at home but once you have basic ingredients there are a lot of things like let's say salad dressing that you don't need to buy because whatever salad dressing is that you do like I'm sure you actually have the ingredients in your house so stop buying those expensive salad dressing stop buying those expensive condiments and actually make your own it's far better for you they taste way better and the thing with condiments especially salad dressings is that when you purch purchase them you would realize that they have a very short expiration date on them it doesn't make sense buying them in very large quantities unless you really have a big family to go through them and it really just makes more financial sense to make them yourself tip number 10 wastage and this goes back to going to the supermarket not knowing exactly what you plan to cook during the week and just buying food and a lot of times you end up then with wasted I think one of the biggest Financial costs attached to food is really wastage and it's shocking to see how much wastage that even with food this expensive how much wastage actually happens in different parts of the world every day and yes there are parts of the world where people don't have enough food to live and there are parts of the world that there is a lot of wastage from food because people buy food and just don't get around to eating it they buy food and just don't get around to to cooking it and unfortunately because of the way food is now shipped around the world when you get this food especially when you live on small islands and you get imported food the expiration dates for some of them are very close uh I mean some of this food actually don't last very long because it Tak us such a long time to get to its final destination so you want to make certain that you're not wasting food by buying more than you really need and that when you actually do buy it you have planned to cook a Pacific meal so to make certain that you actually use it up tip number 11 I'm going to say the dreaded word again budget you must have a food budget whether it's weekly or whether it is monthly you must know how much your food is going to cost you when you do your budget you know how much you're going to allocate for food and depending on where you live your food budget actually takes up a large portion of your overall budget and you want to make certain that you're getting banged for your buck when you go into the supermarket every week or every month you should know how much money you're going into the supermarket with you have an idea that I'm going this is $100 I have or I'm doing my big monthly shopping I have $300 I have $400 that's my budget you have an idea of what you are going to pick up and the best thing to do is to keep a little mental tally of how much you are up to at any point in time while you're shopping if you have a little one with you give them a calculator give them a pen a piece of paper and give them it as a you know as a little fun thing to do but to keep a little mental tally because you don't want to get to the supermarket cashier and then realize you have more items than you can actually pay for or it's a situation where you go ahead and decide okay I'm here already and I have all of them but now you've walked over to the supermarket knowing that you're $100 over budget so make certain that you have a budget before you go into the supermarket and make certain that you keep a tally on it while you're in the supermarket also you can rate this out monthly if you do one big shop and you know that big shop is three or $400 then you know okay I'm going to go back into the supermarket every two weeks or every week just to be able to pick up the perishable stuff whether they fruits vegetables or milk and know when I go in I'm going in with $40 and if it's a case where you feel that you cannot go in and come up with that $40 then I'll suggest leaving your cards at home or leaving them in the car secured of course and walk into the supermarket with that $40 in cash so you cannot spend more than that $40 there are different ways in which you can keep yourself on track with the supermarket budget but you must set a budget before you start out and the final tip that I'm going to share is to make certain that if you're using cards that you have cards that work for you or that you belong to a loyalty program if it is a supermarket that you frequent a lot You' be surprised that at the end of a year or how much ever period of time have passed you may be able to get half your groceries free or a whole month groceries free from your activi during the year so if you have a cash back card you have a loyalty card from your Supermarket or you have one of those cards where you earn airplane miles then go ahead and use it I've spoken about this in my book I've also spoken about this in other several videos where you use your credit card responsible you get the benefits of using it whether it's cash back or whether it's airplane mes and you pay off for it because these are things that you had within your budget if you doing something like that then you're going to get added benefits from buying groceries and there are persons who do this all the time they have picked up enough rewards join the year to actually pay for the extra things that they're going to pick up at the holiday season I hope these tips were helpful to you and I hope that it helps you keep AF flat with the ever Rising Supermarket cost if these are tips that you've already implemented tell me how it's going for you and if you have any other ones that you're currently using please do share in comments thank you for watching