Most of us are gullible buyers, which means that we are an easy prey for all-powerful marketing strategies and budget spending on products in stores. If you are used to dealing with food shopping in supermarkets, take on board our economic councils - and you do not have to overpay for your food basket, making a more budgetary expense for products in stores.
The fundamentals of the "edible" economy
Do not succumb to the "magic" of numbers. "Buy two products and get a third for free!" - here, perhaps, the most widespread trap in which the inexperienced consumer can please. But keep in mind: for such a "profitable proposal" usually hide goods, the implementation of which is about to end. So do not be too lazy to check it out.
Avoid free tastings
The proposal to test the novelty is by no means a gesture of good will of marketers. It is noticed that most people after the test feel obligated to make a more budgetary expense for products in stores, and the prices for the proposed product are slightly overstated. Can not resist the fragrance of the novelty? Try, praise, and with a clear conscience go on!
Specify special prices from the cashier
Price lists placed on grocery shelves can sometimes be confused: this may be due to the usual negligence of sellers, and their secret intent. It also happens that information about the discount on certain goods is not entered in the computer. Then, having flattered at a show-window for the reduced price, you risk to pay on cash desk usual cost of a product. Do not feel excessively embarrassed - check with the cashiers for prices for special offers, and if they exceed the promised, do not hesitate to refuse unprofitable acquisition. The buyer is always right!
Do not waste time walking in rows
The location of any store and budget costs for products in stores are specially planned in such a way as to make you defile along the shelves with product temptations for as long as possible. That is why the most necessary products (milk, eggs, cereals) are located in the most inconvenient place, which can be reached only by passing numerous shelves with expensive delicacies. Marketers know: the more time you spend here, the more money you will spend. So never walk down the aisles, even to cut off the path, and do not be tempted to stand in line at the cash register. According to statistics, the consumer spends an average of 5-7 minutes in such a queue, and, as a rule, this time is enough to make an impulsive purchase of an unnecessary magazine, a chewing gum, a chocolate bar.
Look carefully at the shelves
A well-known marketing method: the most expensive, and therefore the most profitable for the store brands of goods are always located at eye level. Do not be lazy to glance at the lower shelves: most likely, the prices for similar products will please you. Budget spending on products in stores is a real saving of your money and energy.
Rules for profitable grocery shopping
Remembering them is easy, following them is easy. You will only have to calculate your benefits. Always keep checks. They will need you to understand how much money (per week, month) you spend on food and what is the structure of these expenses. About 80% will be for products that are present on your table constantly (most often the list includes dairy products, bakery products, eggs, pasta, cereals, sugar, vegetables, meat). Reasonable savings on the "basic set" (for example, switching to more budgetary costs for products in stores) will help you cut food costs by 20-30%. Not bad!
Make a list of budget spending on products in stores. Keep it always at hand, for example, attached to the refrigerator, in order to make timely corrections. This will allow you to prepare for a trip to the store and save not only money, but also time that you could spend on a second visit, if suddenly something is forgotten. By the way, the most diligent housewives make up a shopping list based on another list, which reflects all the family stocks. This is very convenient: as the products are dropped from one list, they fall into the other - promptly and in the right amount. And one more trick. Choose shops and markets, where you can make purchases for the maximum number of items on your list. Financial advisers believe that on average this saves about 15% of your normal account.
Choose the right time to go to the store and budget for the products in the stores. And it is better that you spend this time without children and on a full stomach. The council is not new, but, alas, it is still very few people take to armament. And completely in vain, psychologists say: a hungry buyer fills in a supermarket a basket of products on average 15% more than full. Children also make a significant contribution to waste, and marketers specifically place candy, chips and chocolates within reach for small sweeties.
Plan a family diet for a week . Once, after evaluating the advantages of this strategy, you will remain her fan forever! Firstly, the idea of "what to cook for dinner today" and the related troubles will go away with the risk of buying something unnecessary. Secondly, such a long-term planning (the menu is simpler for weekdays and some delicacy for the household for the weekend) will help you to save strength for evening communication with loved ones during the working week.
Be indifferent to brands. To be a slave of one's habits, including food, is an inadmissible luxury. Therefore, trust not advertising, but your own taste and common sense. Products in modest packaging - own brands of network supermarkets - are in no way inferior to their more "smart" seductive counterparts in quality, but they are 5-15% cheaper. After all, their cost does not include the costs of advertising and promotion of goods.
Buy mini-wholesale . This is how you replenish the consumer basket of your family with goods that can be stored for a long time: from canned food and mineral water to paper towels and other kitchen consumables. For convenience, lead the group costing and budget spending on products in stores where you usually make purchases, for example: fruits and vegetables, cereals (cereals, pasta), meat, dairy products, and so on. By the way, an excellent solution is to translate into a wholesale category such products as nuts, dried fruits, crackers. Forming with their help portioned sets, you not only prepare food for tasty and useful snacks (especially for children), but also save on their less useful counterparts: chips, bars, rolls.
Study the label carefully . The most important information for you is the shelf life of the product and its composition. From products containing many preservatives, artificial colors, transgenic and hydrogenated fats, additional sugars (for example, in juices) should be discarded in favor of fiber, vegetable fats, proteins, calcium and vitamins, that is, natural foods.
Eat on your pocket and on the season. Local fruit-vegetables are definitely more useful, fresh and tastier than imported overseas and at times cheaper. Well, if you wanted to exotic, but not in season, give preference to canned in your own juice or frozen foods.
Avoid budget spending on products in stores that have undergone additional processing. After all, it's not a secret: chicken minced meat or fillet is more expensive than whole chicken, cheese in portioning is more expensive than a piece for weight, and fish steaks are much more expensive than unbred fish. The statement "Time is money!" it is true for our cuisine: if we want to save money, we will have to work hard to prepare food. In addition, it has long been noted that a dish over which the mistress herself "conjured" herself, having put all her love and care into it, is always tastier than the finished delicacy. Do not believe me? Ask the household!
How to save on tasty and healthy food
Of course, only with the benefit of both the stomach and the family budget for food in stores! A full dinner for 1 person on average will cost less than 14 hryvnia.
Hungarian potato soup with paprika
Ingredients: 900 g of peeled potatoes, cut into large cubes; 4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth; on 1 table. a spoonful of ground sweet paprika, coriander and vegetable oil; 1/2 tea. spoons of hot paprika; 1 finely chopped onion; 2 table. spoons of chopped dill; 1/4 tea. spoons of nutmeg; 1 cup of milk; salt; black ground pepper to taste.
Preparation:
Season with paprika, salt and coriander broth along with the potatoes put on medium fire. In oil, fry the onion until it is clear. Add it to the boiling broth and cook under the lid until the potatoes are boiled. Stir the soup to a homogeneous consistency, add dill, nutmeg, black pepper. At the very end of the cooking, pour in the milk and boil the soup for 5-10 minutes.
Chili with chicken with white beans
Ingredients: 500 g of chicken; 2 table. spoons of vegetable oil; 1 finely chopped onion; 1 chopped garlic clove; on 1/2 cay. spoons of crushed cumin (zira) and oregano; on 1/4 ches. spoons of red chili peppers and cinnamon; 1 can of canned white beans; 1/2 can of canned tomatoes in own juice; 1/2 cup chicken (vegetable) broth; 1 table. spoon of cilantro; salt to taste.
Preparation:
Divide the bird into 8 parts. Fry in oil on each side for about 6 minutes, transfer to another bowl, and on the remaining oil fry onions and garlic for 5-6 minutes. Season with spices, simmer for another 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, beans, broth and chicken. Put out for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with coriander before serving.
Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1.5 cups flour, 1 teaspoonful. a spoonful of vanilla sugar and a baking powder, 1/4 c. spoons of soda and salt, 1 cup of sliced bananas, candied fruits and nuts for decoration.
Preparation:
Mix margarine and sugar with a mixer, add eggs, vanilla sugar, whisk well. Combine the flour, baking powder, soda and salt, add together with bananas in the egg mixture. Put the finished dough in greased cake molds, filling it with no more than 2/3. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes at 200 ° C until golden brown. Serve with candied fruits and fried nuts.
Tips for a good hostess:
You will be able to extend the life of a bottle of vegetable oil 1.5 times, if you put a cover-dispenser on it. Instead of expensive cream in cream soups, use milk, diluted with potato starch.
Legumes - a useful and economical product, in the process of cooking, it increases in volume by 3 times. Dishes from beans or soybeans can be substituted for meat in the ration - the most expensive item of food expenditures. 0.5 kg of legumes contains 6 portions.
Homemade dressings for salads are not worse than store salads: mix 2 table, spoons of vegetable oil, a few drops of vinegar and any dry herbs to taste.
When buying fresh greens for weight, shake it properly to remove excess water (and, consequently, weight), which generously sprinkle the sellers.
The size of the trolley makes a difference: the bigger it is, the more temptation to hammer it to the top. Came to the store for two or three products? Take the basket.