These are great tips. The unit pricing is already here in Australia in some supermarket chains. Woolworths in W.A has it on nearly all product tickets in the store. About the only tickets it's not on are the multibuy ones and I think it's because you may buy more or less of that special. I think over the east coast of Australia safeways also have unit pricing. The sooner it's in all supermarket the better for consumers. It does make my shopping much quicker as I always work out the best buy in all products I buy.   

great tips

thanks for sharing xx

I don't buy anything packaged that I can get fresh, unless we are travelling somewhere and then I buy some packaged food to take as well as carrot & celery sticks, rather than buy food on the way.

I also agree with the people who've said the generic brands are sometimes just as good: I live near the Uncle Toby's factory and they make every brand of cheese & crispbread snacks (for example) you can buy in Australia: from Aldi to Uncle Toby's own brand. A friend who used to work for Dairy Farmers said they made the generic brands of milk as well as the label ones.

The other thing I've found useful, if you can spare the time, is to keep receipts and add up what you are spending on what. For eg, on a recent holiday I added up what we spent on alcohol and it was almost as much as what we spent on food. That's seriously bad for our health as well as our pocket, not to mention the bad example it set for the kids. You could pick on any particular item and do this though.

I also rotate 'treats': rather than buying everyone a special thing they like I ask different family members each week what they would like, eg hubby likes good ham but will settle for vegemite on his sandwiches. So one week he gets ham and another vegemite, same with my 12 year old who likes Milo: I try not to buy it all the time, but just make it an occasional purchase, the rest of the time he has tea, milk or water. My kids are only allowed a 'special' cereal in holiday time, the rest of the time they have to eat weetbix or porridge or whatever's both healthy and cheap. They can only have sweet drinks at weekends, too, and then only one per day. It's great for their health, my budget, and the special things become a real treat that they look forward to instead of expecting it as a matter of course. My own diet has also improved as I feel I should set an example, and, we have kept our grocery bill down.

 A list works better for us as we are serial (and occasionally cereal) impulse shoppers withouty one.

Another thing we started doing last year is to plant a few things in the garden.  If you don't have a garden pots can still sustain some good crops. We planted a few cherry tomato bushes which ended up providing us with kilos of tomatoes over a number of months and the kids had a great time harvesting them. It also the freshest produce you can get - and a bit of fun too.

Cheers,

Rob 

Angie, how great to have some input from you after all this time!  These are very sensible tips and if someone even takes one of them on, they will be able to save some of their hard earned cash.  We have this thing over here where the supermarket shows the price per 100g (or something like that).  It's great, saves you wondering whether to buy something that is $4.00 for a 500g packet or $4.60 for a 600g packet... The maths is already done ; )

Buying generic brands instead of brand names is worth trying... In many instances they are just as good as the more popular brands and on the occasions that they aren't, just make a mental note not to get that item in a generic brand again.

Look down... Often products on lower shelves are cheaper as wholesalers pay for prime shelf space.  There are often great lines that are marked down because they are being discontinued lurking down there too.

Stock up on basics like rice, pasta and rice noodles, fresh veges and only buy the meat to go with it when it is on sale... As long as you have a good store of basics, you can create a meal out of any meat that is on sale or seasonal veges.

As you said, use that freezer; I tend to shop after work and many of the fresh bread items are marked down to half price, I take the opportunity to get them at a decent price & keep a good stock of bread, rolls, wraps & muffins in the freezer.

Full price is for fools... I value my money & like to make it go that little bit further ; )

great advice.

Great advice. We never write a list as we find for some strange reason whenever we just throw in the trolley what we want, it turns out cheaper. This has happened pretty much every shop for the last 6 months. We also shop at night time as we know what time our local woolies do their mark downs.

We can get a 12 pack of fresh rolls for $1.20, a 6 pack of sultana scones 0.99 cents, Apricot finger buns - 6 pack for $1.19, fresh bread for $1.19 it's great as Brent has cheap lunches to take to work. We buy in bulk and keep it in the freezer. It's a habit of mine to check the receipts but it really is a good practice as if something scans for the wrong price on the shelf then I can get it for free etc It really does add up.

I laughed out loud about the "Is that a calculator in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" Luckily we don't need one of those, my fiance' is gifted when it comes to mathematics, he adds it up in his head. We love to go shopping with Raiden and include him in the shop, he is such a well-behaved kid. We give him things to put in the trolley and he loves it.

Would like to know where you got your statistics from though?

I always make a list and only ever buy a few items that are not on it and eating before you go really works go when you are hungry and you buy more.