Female Speaker: On average, Hispanic American spend about 17.5% of their income on food. That's a lot, so here are some helpful tips on how to lower your food bill. Plus, we will reveal some of the myths and realities about saving money on groceries. The first step is being prepared.
Dee Ann Chandler: Having a menu and a shopping list are two key ingredients to actually saving money, when you shop.
Female Speaker: Preparing a shopping list and a menu plan, before you go shopping, decreases impulse buying and can cut your spending by up to 50%.
Dee Ann Chandler: We find that if customers go without a list, they are more likely to indulge in impulse buying. So that almost always cost more money. They are more likely to buy packaged food which is more expensive than buying food that you would make from scratch at home and they are just more disorganized.
Female Speaker: One way to remain organized is to develop an evergreen shopping list of items that you need to buy on a weekly basis, meat, vegetables, milk and staples, like your favorite soups and cereals. When you are shopping, be careful about buying in bulk.
Dee Ann Chandler: Common myth about buying food in bulk is that many times the larger size is not actually cheaper than the smaller size. What we are trying to get consumers to do is read the labels on the grocery store shelves which always give you a price per ounce or per unit of measure of the item. It's very easy then to compare what's the best bargain. Also, if you have a small family, buying a large quantity of food maybe wasteful actually, rather than saving you the money because you end up throwing away food.
Female Speaker: Discount warehouses do offer great opportunities to reduce your food bill but if you are not careful, it could end up costing you more. These warehouses sell food in such large qualities that smaller families, they are sometimes unable to use all of the food.
Dee Ann Chandler: So if you are interested in shopping at a discount warehouse, the best thing to do is go with a friend or another family member and share the results of what you buy. If you want to buy meat, for example, in quantity you can give half to one family and half to another. That way everybody saves money but no food goes to waste.
Female Speaker: You should also avoid shopping at convenient stores. They are practical, if you need just one item, like milk or bread, or for emergencies.
Dee Ann Chandler: Truthfully, almost everything in convenient stores is packaged in smaller quantities and it costs more. So it doesn't really save consumers money to shop there on a regular basis.
Female Speaker: When it's time to go to the grocery store, try not to go when you are hungry.
Dee Ann Chandler: When people are hungry, they tend to buy things they don't need. They tend to think in terms of only, "Oh! I am hungry now, what do I want to eat?", rather than looking at that list and thinking, "What am I going to serve one Wednesday or Thursday and not today?"
Female Speaker: While canvasing the store for your shopping list items, instead of buying brand name, consider buying generic and store brand products.
Dee Ann Chandler: Generics can actually be considered a bit less expensive than the name brand. Especially, if they are on sale at the store, you can frequently get more than one at a discount price. Whereas, when the name brand item goes on sale, you are maybe getting 50 cents off or 50 cents off two cans of fruit, for example, but if those cans of fruit in the store brand are still cheaper than that, that's the way you want to go.
Female Speaker: Generally, packaged food is almost always more expensive to buy than making the meal from scratch. Don't you ever wonder why the meat and produce department are on the edges or in the back of the store, while packaged foods are in the middle?
Dee Ann Chandler: There is a whole, sort of, science as to how the grocery stores are set up and sometimes that's not always the best thing for the consumer. The more staple items and inexpensive items and fresher items tend to be on the edges of the store, the produce, the meat, the milk, the butter, things like that. The more high priced items and convenient items tend to be in the interior of the store. The idea is, a lot of times by putting point of purchase displays in and by directing consumers as they come in to the store, they will walk through those higher price aisles to get, for example, to the back of the store where the meat is.
Female Speaker: To prevent high price impulse buying down these middle aisles, organize your shopping list and shop at the edges of the stores first. For additional savings, be sure to sign up for any club or store card, even if it's at markets, usually don't frequent.
Dee Ann Chandler: A lot of grocery stores give discounts, if you have a card or club card; or they will do special package deal pricing for some items. It's just like other grocery shopping, however, you have to just be conscious of what the item costs. If you are not going to buy frozen pan cake on a regular basis and you don't need it, buying it just because it's on sale with a club card, isn't going to save you any money.
Female Speaker: Coupons are a wonderful way to save money. 20 minutes of coupon clipping can save 20% off your weekly grocery bill.
Dee Ann Chandler: The secret to couponing is not buy things that you don't need or want just because you have a coupon and to learn to compare the coupon item to the store brands. For example, if you are buying spaghetti sauce and the coupon says, "National brand is $1 off two" and you only need one jar of spaghetti sauce and that's cheaper than the cost of the two with a coupon, you are obviously not saving money.
Female Speaker: Finally, a pan checkout. Make sure the clerks are scanning or ringing up your items with the correct price.
Dee Ann Chandler: Just personally speaking, I have been grocery shopping for years and years and I have almost never seen a grocery store make a mistake, but don't be afraid to question them. If you think the item should have been on sale or not ringing up with the correct price, pay attention. Watch as the clerk scans those things and see what prices are coming up because it's a good double check. You saw the prices as you took it off the shelf and it's a good double check, is it ringing up with the right price and are they giving you the right discount, if it's on sale?.
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