THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501180019
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO FLAVOR
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
IN 1994, the average weekly grocery bill declined to $79 from its all-time high of $80 in 1993.
Those figures are from a survey of 2,018 shoppers by the Food Marketing Institute in Washington, D.C.
The institute also reports that:
One-person households had an average bill of $44 per week in 1994.
Two-person households spent $67.
Households of three and four averaged $91 a week.
Households of five or more spent $118.
Further, the institute designated 39 percent of consumers ``heavy economizers'' - those who practice five or more money-saving tactics to cut food costs.
These ``heavies'' are usually between 18 and 49 and married, residing in households of five or more with children, and with a single family income under $35,000.
The institute did not ask shoppers, ``How many of you would like to be heavy economizers?'' Maybe because the answer is obvious: All of us want to save money, as much as we can, at the supermarket.
To that cause, we offer here 25 ways to save.
While we may never reduce our weekly grocery bill to the $68 average of 10 years ago, we sure can try.
We gathered the following tips with help from Martin Sloane, author of ``Supermarket Shopper,'' the syndicated column that appears in Flavor; Melodie Moore, publisher of Skinflint, a newsletter of money-saving tips out of Palm Harbor, Fla; Nancy Wright, a home economist with the Norfolk office of Virginia Cooperative Extension; Edith Howard Hogan, a registered dietitian in Washington, D.C., and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association; and a booklet of tips from the Food Marketing Institute.
1. Don't shop when you are hungry, tired or in a hurry or when the supermarket is crowded.
2. Shop as infrequently as possible.
3. Leave the kids home. Not only do they nag Mom to buy, buy, buy - they might get hurt. Last year, 24,000 children were seriously injured in falls from shopping carts.
4. Plan menus, but be flexible when you're in the store.
5. Shop with a list, compiled after checking supermarket ads in the newspaper.
6. Resist impulse buying.
7. If you can't resist, place all impulse items in the seat. Re-evaluate these at the end of your trip through the store. When you look at the mountain of groceries you're about to pay for, you might be motivated to return that chocolate cake to the shelf.
8. Shop the outside aisles first. After you've piled lots of wholesome fruits and vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy items and whole-grain breads into your cart, venture cautiously to the inside aisles, where most of the processed foods are. Be strong as you pass the soft drinks but don't forget to stock up on the good stuff like pasta, beans and rice, which reside in those middle aisles, too.
9. Use coupons only when they are for products you'd buy anyway.
10. Look for unadvertised specials on store signs and in end-of-the-aisle displays. But study those displays carefully. Sometimes they include items not on special.
11. Look for special offers on the package. One of the best of '94 was the Kix cereal mail-in offer for three free pairs of kids' underwear.
12. Look behind the front item on the shelf. See if there's a can or package of the same product in the back with a special offer on it.
13. Look for bonus packs, the ones that promise ``25 percent more free.''
14. Search for the heaviest bag or bunch of produce. A ``3-pound'' bag of onions may actually weigh closer to 4 because the advertised weight is a minimum. If celery is priced by the bunch, choose the heaviest bunch.
15. Read unit pricing. Don't make a price comparison based on the size of an item. While two packs of coffee might appear to be equal in size, their weight may differ by several ounces.
16. Don't assume that the largest package will be the most economical. A check of the unit pricing might show another size, often the most popular size, to be the best buy.
17. Don't buy nonfood items, especially health and beauty products, in a supermarket. These are almost always overpriced, so the store can get back the money it gives away on coupons and specials.
18. Try store brands and generics at least once to see if they suit your taste.
19. Use rainchecks. When the store runs out of a special, a raincheck allows you to buy the same item at a later date at the bargain price.
20. Check expiration dates to get the product with the longest shelf life.
21. Prevent waste. Buy the economy size of a product only if you can use it before it spoils. Avoid overbuying perishables. Singles and small families might consider buying small amounts of cut-up fresh fruit and vegetables at the salad bar.
22. Bend and stretch, especially in the cereal aisle. Often the most expensive products are placed at eye level.
23. Compare the cost, quality and preparation time of convenience foods with those you make from scratch. While some might be bargains, others, such as frozen combination dishes, often cost more per serving than similar foods prepared at home. Plain frozen vegetables are often better buys than those with butter or sauce. Save money by adding the extras yourself.
24. Try to get the most nutrition for your money. Take a copy of the USDA Food Guide Pyramid to the store. Compare ingredient lists and nutrition labels on packaged foods. Remember that dry beans and peas, eggs and peanut butter are economical protein sources. And lean meat from a lower-cost cut is as nutritious as lean meat from a higher cost cut. For example, round steak is as nutritious as porterhouse when both are trimmed of fat.
25. Watch as your groceries are checked out. Since most mistakes are made on sale items, these should be grouped in one spot, maybe last, to make it easier for you to check prices. ILLUSTRATION: Color illustration by Ken Wright
by CNB